I hiccupped as I tried to get out my words.
“The baby though, Drew...” I could barely look up at him as I said the words. “I’m going to keep it.”
“Evie, I want you to,” Drew said, sounding urgent now. Emotion tightened his voice as he held my cheeks and forced me to meet his eyes as he spoke. “Look at me. I want this with you.”
“If you’re just saying that to – “
“I’m not saying just anything to win you back, Evie,” Drew interrupted me, fire in both his eyes and his voice. “I’m saying everything I know in my heart because I’m not hiding anything from you anymore. I’m done with that,” he said vehemently, his insistence far too strong for me to fight. “Believe me when I tell you that I want this with you. I want every step of this journey with you. I want to see that little bump of yours wearing a Drew Maddox jersey when I win a championship in October. I want to make your life as good as you’ve made mine.”
He was gently squeezing the backs of my calves now, and I was suddenly giggling delirously through my tears as he cracked a grin.
“I know you’re a little better than me in the massage department, but I swear I’ll fucking blow you away with my foot rubs. I’m going to make you the most pampered mom in the city,” Drew said, making it feel like my heart was swelling too big for my chest. “And the best part,” he laughed as he feathered kisses on my lips, “is that our kid’s going to be older than Emmett’s, which means he’s going to be automatically better.”
“Drew!” I smacked him though I was cracking up hard now, wiping happy tears from my eyes. I was suddenly thinking of Drew and me raising a child alongside Aly and Emmett, and it made me want to bawl with pure joy and disbelief. I imagined beach days with them in East Hampton, and bringing the kids to the restaurant to try their first lobster roll.
I was so over the moon I had to control myself, sniffling for a few seconds before tilting my head up curiously at Drew.
“You said ‘he.’ You think he’s going to a boy?”
“No, you do. I heard you about to say that when you thought it was just your mom in here,” Drew laughed, his thumbs skimming my cheekbones. “Speaking of your mom, she really let me have it when I first got here. She almost didn’t let me in.”
“She can be pretty tough to
her family members, let alone a non-related male. I’m surprised she even allowed you to sit in the kitchen,” I mused.
“Yeah, I groveled a bit on your porch,” Drew laughed at himself. “But we managed to have a nice talk before you came. And she said she can’t wait to be a grandma.”
I swallowed. I knew Mom couldn’t – she’d said it a million times to me before – but hearing the words from Drew’s mouth as he wore that quiet smile made my heart twist a hundred different ways.
“I want her to be in the baby’s life, Drew,” I said softly. “I just need to say that now. I don’t know how to make it work, but I want it.”
“If you want it then we’ll find a way,” he murmured, looking me in the eye. “That’s my promise to you. Do you believe me?”
“I believe you,” I whispered, letting him kiss me again before hearing my mom’s stirring in her room. “We have to stay a little longer to talk to my mom. But after, you’ll take me home?”
There was a smile of content as he nodded down at me, brushing the hair from my face.
“Baby, you know I will.”
38
DREW
I always woke up when she woke up now, because there was no ignoring the feeling or the sounds of her stirring on my chest, her cheek still pressed to my skin as she yawned and stretched.
It always put a smile on my lips before I so much as opened my eyes.
Usually, after that, she’d get up and giggle at how I groaned over the void she left on my chest. I felt it every damned morning and yet I still hated the feeling. Of course, I made up for it by waiting to hear the water run before following her into the bathroom and making her late to work.
Three weeks later and fucking Evie in the shower was still my preferred way to start the day. I was pretty sure I was growing dependent on starting my morning with kissing her as she washed her hair, and as I leisurely soaped up her tits. I was always rock-hard and jacking it by the time she stood with her eyes closed under the water, rinsing away the shampoo and all the suds from her body.
I could get used to this view, I thought the first morning it happened. And every day since, I’d been doing exactly that.
Though Evie and I changed it up slightly this morning.
“And here I thought you were trying to get me to work on time for once,” Evie giggled, setting the blow dryer down as I got out of the shower and started kissing the back of her neck.
There had been no sex in the shower – I really was trying to get her to work on time since I had another surprise queued up for the morning – but all it took was one glimpse at her standing in front of the mirror and my self-control was done for.