She still hadn’t quite wrapped her mind around that fact, but it was nice talking like this—like they might both be together by the time the little boy or girl had grown into a hell-raising teenager. “I’d be more worried if the baby is a boy. You four were the ones who got into more trouble than I could dream up.”
A cloud passed over his face, but he made a visible effort to smile. “They did call us the Four Horsemen.”
She’d forgotten about that. She shifted. “It’s all happened so fast. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact I’m pregnant at all, let alone that there will be a baby in May.” A baby. She laced her fingers through Daniel’s. Would the baby have his crooked grin? Her eyes? A mass of dark hair like all the Rodriguez cousins seemed to?
It doesn’t matter. I’ll love him or her the same.
The fierce feeling nearly took her breath away. Hope hadn’t put much thought into being a mother after she and Daniel went their separate ways. It had just hurt too much to contemplate, and though she’d dated a bit over the years, she hadn’t met anyone who’d really made her consider it seriously again. She’d gotten to the point where she was more or less resigned to being childless, though she was only thirty-one. But in this quiet moment, the rightness of it settled into her chest.
“I was thinking about looking for another place.”
She frowned. “Why? This house is perfectly adequate.” It wasn’t the house they’d always dreamed of, but that didn’t mean there was anything wrong with it, other than it being the obvious residence of a guy who lived alone with his dog.
“Not big enough.” His voice gained a rough quality that was almost embarrassment. “Not really kid friendly, either. They start moving pretty quick from what I understand. Hard to close off any of the rooms, and the kitchen is just asking for trouble.”
Not with as little as you have in it. She didn’t say it, though. It wouldn’t change anything, and it might damage what they had going on right now. Instead, she swallowed hard. “That’s a big change.”
“Seems like the time for it.” He hesitated, and that was all the warning she got. “Your leg—what can I do to help?”
“I’ve gotten by just fine without help this whole time.” The words were out and sharp enough to cut before she could think better of it.
He wasn’t fazed. “There’s nothing wrong with leaning on someone, darling. I know this is new enough that I don’t have your trust yet, but I’m going to do my damnedest to earn it back again—and this time I won’t betray it.”
She wanted that. Oh, God, she wanted that future he was painting so incredibly much. She wanted her and Daniel against the world like it used to be. She wanted the low-key nights and the long days and every second they could possibly spend together.
She wanted it so much it terrified her.
So Hope just kissed him. “One day at a time, okay? I’m here. You’re here. Things are working.” For now.
But she had to make a decision in a day or two that could potentially ruin this thing between them before it got started. She was between an impossible rock and an equally impossible hard place. She could drive back to Dallas like she’d been planning—back to her life, to the job she loved, to her little apartment that she’d never found lacking until now, thinking about how empty it would be with only her in it. Or she could stay and risk everything she’d worked so damn hard for to have a second chance with a man who had dumped her like yesterday’s trash when she needed him the most.
She’d forgiven him—it still hurt, but she’d worked hard to understand why he’d made the choice he had—but that didn’t mean she could charge blissfully into the life he promised without a single reservation.
He heard the words she didn’t speak. Daniel framed her face with one hand. “It’s going to be okay—better than okay. It’s going to be fucking perfect. Just you wait.”
Chapter Fourteen
Daniel tipped his head back and smiled against the wind. Leaving Hope in his bed this morning hadn’t been easy, but knowing she’d be there when he got home made it all worthwhile. Last night had been…perfect—more than worth the sleep deprivation caused by their staying up for hours talking and then making love again. This morning, the future stretched before him, full to the brim with possibilities he hadn’t dared consider even a month ago.
It was almost too good to be true.
Or it would be, once Hope finally agreed to stay in Devil’s Falls for good.
Hoofbeats coming up on his right had him turning his head to see Adam. His friend had only been back in Devil’s Falls a little over a year, but he’d taken to ranching like he’d never left. Seeing him here, on the back of his horse, with his hat pulled low over his eyes, made Daniel happy.
Or maybe he was just being a fucking sap because the woman he’d never really gotten over was his again.
He slowed Rita to a trot, nodding at Adam as he did the same. “I thought you were in the south fields today.”
“Quinn and I switched.” Adam shrugged. “Thought you might want to talk after how things went down last night.”
It took him a full ten seconds to get his friend’s meaning. Adam wasn’t talking about his being with Hope—he was talking about her parents’ shitty-ass reaction to the news. His hands tightened on the reins before he forced them to relax. “I didn’t expect them to welcome me back into the family with open arms.” The horror on their face when they realized he was the father had been hard to stomach, though. It felt like they were reaffirming everything he’d ever suspected—that they held him to blame.
That they wished he’d been the one to die instead of John.
“John’s passing fucked us all up, but them most of all, I imagine. Doesn’t make it okay, but it’s understandable. Losing John was enough to send me into a tailspin back then, and losing my mom this year…” Adam shook himself. “If I didn’t have Jules, who the fuck knows what I would have done—probably taken off again, though this time I wouldn’t have come back. I can’t imagine what losing a kid would be like. I hope to hell none of us ever has to go through it.”
His gut twisted in on itself at the thought of something happening to the baby growing bigger inside Hope’s stomach every day. He fought to keep his voice even. “I thought you weren’t all that supportive of this.”
“That’s not what I meant when we talked before, and you damn well know it. You and Hope—back then you were as constant as the sun rising and setting each day. Seeing you looking at each other like you used to is good. My issue is if you’re going through with this out of some twisted form of penance for the car crash. That wou
ld be fucked beyond belief.”
“I love her. Always have.” He didn’t tell Adam that he saw this as a way to balance out some of his karmic debt, because that would just confirm his friend’s worst fear. That wasn’t what things with him and Hope were about—not totally. But he’d be lying if he said the thought hadn’t occurred to him. A baby did not equal a brother, but at least he’d be doing something other than bringing pain and loss into her life.
“Then I’m happy for you.” Adam barely waited a beat. “What are you going to do about her parents?”
That was the question, wasn’t it?
It probably wasn’t realistic to expect to get their blessing, but a part of him wanted it all the same. He rubbed his chin. “I guess I’m going to have to take a trip down to San Antonio at some point.”
Adam’s face was unreadable. “If you think that’s wise.” It couldn’t be clearer that his friend thought the exact opposite.
“They’re her parents. I’m not going to put her in a position where she feels like she has to choose one of us over the other.” There was more to it than that, but he didn’t think Adam would appreciate the truth. Adam’s mother had always loved the hell out of him, and the entire Rodriguez family had been thrilled beyond belief when he’d married Daniel’s cousin. He’d never had to deal with that push and pull that came when the parents of the woman he loved hated him.
Daniel guided Rita to the north. “It’ll work out. You’ll see.” He sent Rita into a canter, and Adam’s reply was lost in the wind of his passing. Out here, with the unending sky overhead and his horse’s hooves pounding the dirt, nothing seemed impossible. All he had to do was talk to the Moores and they’d see reason. They might have every right to hate him, but no one could deny he loved Hope more than life itself.
You did thirteen years ago, and you had a hell of a way showing it back then.
He shoved the thought to the back of his mind and tipped his head back. “It’ll work out.”