“Do you have any Sprite? My stomach is still a little bit queasy.”
“I don’t have any Sprite, but I do have ginger ale. Will that work?”
“That would be perfect.” She says with a smile.
“All right baby I can do that.” I grab her drink from the fridge and her plate from the counter and bring it to her then I go back and grab my plate and sit on the chair right next to hers.
“What was it you wanted to tell me, baby?”
She looks down and starts pushing her food around her plate.
“Well um… this is really hard for me to talk about and the only other person who knows about this is Candy. My mom left when I was five. She told me it was my fault she was leaving because I wasn’t the daughter she wanted me to be. She said that I ruined her entire life.”
I can't contain the growl that leaves my throat at the thought of anyone hurting my woman like that. What the actual fuck kind of mother says that to her child? I would never hit a woman, but I'm not above sending Lorelei or Teagan over there to kick that woman's ass. At my growl, she looks up at me, and I see tears in her eyes. It breaks my heart to see her cry. “Oh, baby come here.”
She doesn’t even hesitate to crawl into my lap. I gather her close and kiss the top of her head. She sniffles a little and continues.
“I guess I’ve never really gotten over the feeling of not being enough. There's always that part of me that feels like if I let people in they’ll eventually leave. I think that's why I pushed you away. I already had strong feelings for you, and I can’t imagine letting you in and then having you walk away. I know it would break me. I was afraid that you would never love me the way that I loved you. It was so quick and crazy as that sounds, I can only do all in. So, are you?”
“Am I what?” I ask. I know what she means, but I need her to say it again.
“Are you all in with me?” She says, but she has unshed tears in eyes. Again. This girl's tears are going to be the death of me. Grabbing her face in my hands, I wipe away the few tears that have escaped with my thumb, but her eyes are still down cast.
“Baby look at me,” I say in a soft but firm tone. When she is looking at me with her big blue eyes full of hope I lean down and kiss her softly. “Kristy Kane, you are the love of my life. I plan on spending the rest of our days proving I am worthy of your love. I am going to marry you one day, and you are going to have more of my children. I promise I will never leave you. Baby, you are my everything and if it takes a week, a month, or twenty years for me to prove that, I will. You are mine just as much as I am yours. I love you so much, and I am so relieved that we finally get to start our lives together.”
“I have never had a boyfriend before, what if I screw it up?”
“Babe, I have never had any real relationships with other women. We are both bound to fuck this up, but that's what makes it perfect. There are no set guidelines for any relationship. We get to find out what works for us. I know we may fight on some things, but the great part about that is the makeup sex.” I say with a wink. It does just what I intended it to do, and she gives me one of her heart stopping smiles and starts to giggle. Kissing her nose, I place her back in her chair but scoot it close to me until our thighs are touching.
“Sammy, this food looks like shit, you know that right?”
“Oh hush, don't knock it before you try it. Trust me it is amazing.”
“Fuck it, I'm most likely not going to be able to hold it down anyways.” she starts to dig in, and when her eyes go big I'm expecting her to upchuck everywhere, but instead she turns to me with a mouthful and says, “This is sooo good.”
I release a sigh of relief I start to dig into my food. While we are eating we talk about each other's childhoods and exchange War Stories of our most awkward moments. I'm in the middle of telling her about how me and Evan used to play pranks on each other and how we would always have full-blown Prank Wars when I glance over at the clock on the stove, it reads 10:32 pm.
Damn, where did the time go? It has been a busy afternoon for us. After waking up at four this morning to head to work, finding out I'm going to be a father and finally having the woman of my dreams in the house I built for us, I'm wiped. I look over at Kristy, who is practically asleep on her barstool. She has eaten most of her food.
“Come on baby let's get you to bed.” I say as I am already scooping her up into my arms. She immediately wraps her arms around my shoulders and nuzzles her face into my neck as I make my way upstairs.
Chapter Eight
Kristy
I have my eyes closed as he takes the stairs two at a time. I am mentally and physically exhausted from the day. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be in the arms of the man I love and have him love me as much as I love him. There's a part of me that just wants to pinch myself to make sure this isn't a dream.
When we reach the top floor, he walks straight down the hall and turns to the left and walks a little bit more before I feel myself being placed on what feels like a soft cotton cloud. It's so comfortable I can't help but open my eyes to look around our bedroom. There is a king size canopy bed, just in the middle of the room. The headboard is like a long bookcase, so there are no end tables. It is fit for a queen. There is some art around the room, but it looks like stock art. As soon as I make myself at home, those will be the first things to go. The blankets on the bed are black and pink, which are my favorite colors. My eyebrows lift as I think about this. I am almost certain that this is for me, but there is still that niggling suspicion that it was for someone else. I tilt my head to the side to look at his handsome face.
“What's with these sheets? They are kinda girly.”
Clearing his throat, he shuffles from foot to foot and if I'm not mistaken has a little red on his cheeks. Rubbing the back of his head, he mumbles. “I… ah… may have planned on coming to get you before you came to the farm. I decided that enough was enough and that you were my woman and I was going to bring you home with me. I was full blown going to cave man that shit.”
I'm trying to hold my laugh, but I just can't help it. I fall into a fit of laughter.
“So, what were you planning on doing? Throwing me over your shoulder?” I ask, barely able to breathe.
“I hadn't thought that far ahead baby. I just knew that I needed you here with me. I have never been so consumed with a single thought as I have been with you. Call it fate, instinct, or pure fucking magic; there is just something about you, about us, that calls to me on a primal level. I couldn't let you slip through my fingers. You are so fucking beautiful; it was only a matter of time before some other man snatched you up. Make no mistake Kristy. You are mine.”