Bringing me closer and closer to her.
To my child.
To my family.
I raced down the hallway the second the doors opened. I knocked rapidly on her door, hoping to heaven she was there on a Sunday morning. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at the time. Shit. It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet. There was a good chance she wasn’t even awake.
“Olivia! I need you to open up!” I exclaimed.
My fist came down multiple times onto the door. And then, the doorknob finally twisted. It eased open, revealing Olivia wrapped up in a robe and standing there in bare feet. Her curly brown hair was mussed from sleep, frizzy and poofy in a way I knew she hated. She had one eye open, one of those beautiful deep-sea eyes looking back at me. Her skin was a little pale. Probably from being so sick all the damn time.
“What do you want?” she asked sleepily.
“Let me come in,” I said.
She quirked an eyebrow as her head tilted to the side.
“Please?” I asked.
She drew in a deep breath before stepping aside. I strode into her apartment, listening as she closed the door behind me. She flipped the lock before turning around, her other eye finally open and alert to the world. She ran her fingers through her hair several times, trying to tame the mane before wrapping her arms over her chest.
“What are you doing here so early?” Olivia asked.
“I love you, Olive.”
Her eyes widened and her jaw fell open in shock.
“I know it sounds insane, especially after how I’ve acted. But it’s true. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about us as a family ever since you quit.”
“Not since I told you I was pregnant?” she fired back.
Ah. Well, at least she was awake.
“I fucked up royally and tremendously in Europe. There’s no excuse for it.”
“You could at least provide one,” she said.
“The picture, for starters. For a little while there, I was convinced the other man in the photo was the father of the child.”
“You what?”
“It was idiotic, and a notion I threw out the window while on that trip. I know the woman in the picture isn’t you. I know someone is trying to come between us. I don’t know why and I don’t know what they want, but I do know I don’t want them to succeed. They succeeded in college. Mason. Katie. My sister. All of them. They tore us apart, interjecting their opinions while we listened, taking pointless and meaningless pictures.”
I watched Olivia’s hands slowly fall from her chest. She was opening herself up to me, even if she didn’t speak.
“I have a second chance with the woman that got away from me. I have a second chance with the woman I royally fucked things up with. And I don’t want to screw that up. Not when she’s carrying my child. Not when I have a chance at a family, a family I’ve always wanted to have. You know this about me, Olive. You know I’ve always wanted children.”
“Which was why it shocked me when you reacted the way you did,” she said.
“I never should have come at you like that. Never. It was wrong, and I was wrong. And I’ll spend my entire fucking life making up for it if I have to. I don’t care how many people don’t want us together. I don’t care about their opinions or their pictures or their threats. I became selfish, Olive, when you needed me the most. I was too focused on how all of this made me feel and not focused enough on how it made you feel. How you were feeling regarding your pregnancy.”
“At least you admit it,” she said breathlessly.
I walked over to her, taking her hands within mine. I brought them to my lips and kissed every knuckle. I nuzzled my nose against every inch of skin on top of her hand. I slid my hands up her arms and cupped her cheeks, locking my eyes with hers, gazing into those beautiful blue orbs, and losing myself in the way her small, cheeky grin tugged at her cheeks.
“I love you, Olivia Masters. And I want to have a family with you,” I said.
“I love you, too, Brett. I don’t think I ever stopped,” she whispered.
I brought her lips to mine and felt her melt into me. Her legs gave way, and her body trembled as her arms fell around my neck. I cloaked her back. I slid my tongue across her warm morning lips. She parted them effortlessly for me, allowing me a taste of her when I knew I didn’t deserve it. I walked her back into the wall. I hoisted her tired body up, gripping her thighs as she wrapped her legs around me. I felt her bare pussy resting against my sweatpants, the only barrier that sat between my cock and her warm, wet entrance.