Over the next few days,I watched her.
And Seamus watched me watch her.
I didn’t know if the kid had some kind of radar, but I thought he knew that something had changed between the pair of us.
Was that good or bad?
I guessed it depended on whether he liked me or not. But either way, I had no intention of us not being a family. Hell, we were still young. Maybe we’d have more kids in a couple years’ time.
You read that right—that was my thinking.
I was in the future. Flying forward. Thinking shit I didn’t have a right to think yet considering Aela was a prickly pain in the ass who had my cock aching like a SOB.
Everything about her got to me.
Every-fucking-thing.
Watching her cook, make coffee for us. Watching her paint, hearing her on the phone. Watching her sigh, following the strokes of her pencil over a notepad.
She was beautiful.
I was a man destined to appreciate the arts, but never fated to have the talents that would let me be a part of that world. To me, she was a masterpiece. A living, breathing one.
For fourteen days, my family left us alone.
Two whole weeks of blissful radio silence unless a Pointer came by with a wad of documents for me to peruse.
With each passing day, I grew stronger. With each passing day, I got reacquainted with Aela’s body.
Every night, she’d sneak into my bedroom, and every night, she’d bitch when she had to roll off my futon and scamper back to her own so that it didn’t upset Seamus.
Because he was protective, I let him be. I was proud that he was looking after his ma’s best interest. Wasn’t that what a son should do? But I was waiting for a sign to take things up a notch. Either that, or I was just waiting on the all clear.
My life had changed.
Before, I’d have flipped any doctor the bird if they told me I had to wait to have sex. If I wanted it, I’d have it. But now, I had a son. I had Aela.
I had a future.
I wanted to matter to them. I wanted to be important to them. And I couldn’t do that if I was a corpse.
Patience, never my strong suit, was something I was having to learn. Because ever since Seamus had sensed me and his ma were getting closer, he’d pulled back.
It was why Aela had made the suggestion to sneak into my room. She didn’t want anything to get in the way of us growing closer, and I appreciated that as much as I appreciated that pussy of hers that was always wet around me, as much as I appreciated her adoration of the artwork on my wall, her understanding of the past. Her acceptance of it.
Because, crazy though it might be, she did accept it.
Maybe she registered I was telling her the truth, because I was.
One hundred percent.
There was no need to lie to her, not now. Not with so much time having passed.
I had a lot of regrets. So did she. That was the biggest win. She’d felt no guilt before, but I could tell she did now when she saw how hard I was trying.
I didn’t want her to feel shitty, but that she did meant her opinion of me had changed.
Of course, that would come to an end soon. The second I went back to work. Every day that I grew stronger, healthier, was a day that put me closer to the front line.