“I know you don’t believe me, Teddy, but I really am so damn sorry for running out the way I did. I shouldn’t have, but my emotions w
ere all over the place after dealing with those fucking cops.” He smacked the steering wheel and I knew it was frustration at the memory — not me. “My head was all fucked up and you were part of that.”
“Gee, thanks,” I muttered but kept listening. Mildly intrigued.
“Sorry, but you were. In that police station, fierce as hell as you defended me. Got lawyers and told them what they needed to know to get me out of there. I appreciated that and it made me...hell, I don’t know, crazy.”
“I get it, Tate. You were tired of being my personal bodyguard. No harm in that. You have a right to your own life.”
“Then you clearly don’t fucking get it, Teddy. That night brought too much shit to the surface, shit I didn’t want to deal with, like my time in prison, my anger.” He let out a sigh. “And my feelings for you.”
“And you realized you hated me and didn’t give a damn if the stalker got to me?” I was trying for levity but I failed.
“That’s not fucking funny,” he said, as we pulled into the medical building parking lot. “I wasn’t absolutely certain but I suspected it and it freaked me out, so I left. It was just supposed to be a ride to clear my head, but I rode and rode until my body ached. When I stopped I was just a few miles from Reno.”
“That’s a lot of riding and thinking.” Apparently he really did have a lot to think about.
He laughed but there was no amusement in it. “I did. I spent a couple days just walking around and trying to process everything. I should have called and made arrangements for your protection and I’m sorry for that, but I’m not sorry.”
“Thanks, Tate,” I snorted and slid from the car a second before I remembered I had a bum leg, a broken arm and a sprained wrist. “Shit!”
“I’ve got you, Teddy. Always.”
I hated the way my body reacted at his closeness. But I missed him, dammit. At least my hormones had me convinced I did. “Thank you but I’m fine.” I leaned against the car and waited for him to grab the wheelchair, and dropped into it with a loud sigh. “Let’s get moving.”
“We have ten minutes,” he said gruffly, turning the chair around so we were face to face. “I’m not sorry because that time away gave me a chance to sort through my feelings. To realize that what I felt for you was more than I bargained for. Hell, I didn’t even understand it. But I do now. Teddy, I’m in love with you.”
I sucked in a breath at his words, unable to believe them. Unable to process them. “What do you mean you’re in love with me? That’s not possible!”
I didn’t know much about love but I knew you didn’t walk away. You didn’t abandon the other person the moment things got hard. I knew all about that. It had happened to me plenty growing up. And if that was love, I wanted no part of it.
“It damn well is possible! It’s true. I haven’t given you a reason to believe me or to believe in me, but believe this. I love you and I’m going to find a way to earn your forgiveness for leaving you vulnerable.”
I looked away. I didn’t do vulnerable or weak. That was how you got hurt. But somehow, this man made me vulnerable. Made me open my heart to the possibility of more. To him. “I don’t know, Tate. How can you be sure?”
“Because I nearly died when you were in that accident. Driving up and down the streets of Mayhem looking for your car in a goddamn ditch, it tore me up, Teddy. I cried. Fucking cried when the last time I shed a tear was when my mom died. That’s when I knew without a doubt that I loved you. That you own my heart and soul. My body.” His voice dropped an octave, so serious it scared me. “I am more than sure, Teddy and I’m not a patient man. You will be mine.”
I shivered at his possessive tone. Men had always wanted to possess me, but not in this primal way shining in his eyes. “This is about the baby.”
“It’s not about the damn baby! I mean, I want the baby and I’ll step up and be the best dad I can be even though I don’t even know what a good father looks like. But this is about us. You and me. Tell me you love me or tell me to fuck off, Teddy. But tell me something.”
I opened my mouth, not sure what would come out. Not sure what I even wanted to say but I couldn’t say anything. My mouth was suddenly dry with black dots swimming around the edge of my vision. “I...uhm...Tate,” and then everything went dark.
Chapter 23
Tate
Seeing Teddy faint, even from the safety of her wheelchair had shaved at least ten years off my life. One minute we were talking and I was holding my breath, waiting for her to let me down gently or declare her love for me, in her sassy, brash way, and the next I was carrying her in my arms through the ER doors, demanding they help her. To their credit, the nurses and the doctor moved as fast as any emergency room ever did, taking her vitals and pumping her full of fluids.
“Do you hear that?” The doctor wore a bright smile as a low glug-glug sound pulsed through the air.
I heard it and it sounded damn weird. It was fast and I knew it had something to do with the baby because of the big plastic wand rolling over her belly. “What is it?”
“It’s the baby’s heartbeat,” Teddy said in a teary whisper.
“That’s right, Mom. Your baby has a good, strong heartbeat.”
Our baby’s heartbeat. That left me stunned. I could hear my kid’s little heart beating. “Is that too fast?”