“If you think you can make the time,” she said with a nod. “I don’t want to spread you too thin.”
“Shut up, okay?” I nudged her leg with my foot under the table. “Do you want me to call Annabelle, or do you want to talk to her?”
“I can do it.”
“All right, then.” I nudged her again, just so I could touch her. “If we’re staying, maybe it would be a good idea to turn the guest room across from the master into a nursery.”
Since that first night, we’d been sleeping in the same bed. It was sweet torture because all I did was hold her until we fell asleep. My cock was constantly hard, but I wasn’t about to fuck things up by trying anything she wasn’t ready for. So, I just lay beside her with her body wrapped around mine, enjoying being with her, feeling her, smelling her until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Krush slept at the foot of the bed, and I didn’t even care that I had to share my bed with a dog.
“I have a nursery set up back at the Santa Monica house,” she said with a shrug.
“Yeah, but where is Love Bug going to sleep when we’re here?” I rubbed my foot up her leg, torturing myself but loving the feel of her skin touching mine. “Let’s go into Nashville tomorrow and pick out everything. Whatever you want, we’ll get. But if it needs to be put together, we’ll have to get someone to do it for us because I’m not good at assembling shit.”
An amused snort left her, making me laugh at the cute sound. “Yeah, if we want it put together right, we’ll have to get a crew in here to assemble all the baby stuff.”
“They can babyproof the entire house while they’re at it.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “I was teasing. Jenner helped me put together a lot of the stuff at home.”
“I wasn’t. This place needs to be taken care of before she gets here. I don’t want my little princess getting hurt on anything.” Her soft gasp went straight to my cock, so I grabbed her empty plate and my own and carried them into the kitchen.
We spent two days finding everything for the nursery and then spent another week on finding the right company to come in and babyproof the entire house. Annabelle set up Violet with her daughter’s doctor, who was a friend of Mieke’s husband’s from med school.
The appointment was the same day as the first day of training camp, but there was no way I was missing it. My coach tried to be a dick about it, but I called the owner and reminded him that Violet was Remington’s wife, and the guy assured me I could leave practices anytime I needed to for anything involving Vi or the baby.
I didn’t have time to go home to get her for the appointment, so Jenner drove her into Nashville and I met them at the doctor’s office. As soon as I walked into the waiting room, Jenner gave me a chin lift and told me he’d wait at the car. I barely had time to sit down beside Violet before her name was called.
After her appointment, I could hear her stomach growling. “What would you like for lunch?” I asked as we walked toward the parking lot. Since I’d known she was coming into the city, I’d left the keys to my SUV with Jenner that morning and taken my car. I was taking the rest of the afternoon off, so I was going to take the SUV and have Jenner drive the car home while I took my girl out.
“Don’t you have to get back?” she asked as we neared the vehicles.
“Nope. I’m all yours for the rest of the day.” Jenner stepped out of the SUV where he’d been waiting, and I told him what was going to happen. When I didn’t get an argument, Violet frowned at the two of us before heading for the car.
“Where are you going?” I called after her and opened the passenger door to the SUV.
“You said we were staying, and you brought the car,” she reminded me.
“Yeah, I did. But I’m not driving you and the love bug in anything less protected than a tank.” She glowered at me, but I didn’t even blink at her. “Get your hot ass in the vehicle, Vi.”
“You know, Remi never let me go anywhere without Jenner,” she snipped as she got in. “Not even when he went with me.”
I leaned in and fastened the seat belt around her, making sure the bottom strap went across her thighs and not her belly. Before I pulled back, I brushed a kiss over her forehead. “I’m not Remi.”
“Believe me, I know,” she muttered, giving me a side-eye. “He loved me so much that he worried about me every second of the day.”
My fingers clenched on the door as I stood there staring down at her. She wanted to argue; I could see it in those pretty eyes of hers. But I didn’t want to ruin even a second of the time we got to spend together, even if what she’d just said cut me to the quick.
“Are you saying I don’t?” I asked in a quiet voice that hid all the emotions swirling around in my chest. “That just because I want to be alone with you for a meal, I don’t love you enough?”
“Do you love me?” She lifted her brows in surprise, but I just stood there, staring her down, and that pissed her off even more. “No, I’m curious, Luca. Do you? Or is all of this because you made a promise to Remington?”
I stepped back, ready to close the door but waiting on her to answer. “Italian or Mexican?”
“What?”
“For lunch. Do you want Italian or Mexican?”
She grabbed my shirt and pulled me into her space. “I want you to answer the damn question.”