CHAPTER52
NOVA
The next day,we’re sitting in the sound room of Mom’s house watching a movie, but neither of us is paying any attention to it. My parents have been locked in the conference room, and for once in my life, I’m completely fine being left out of it. I want all of this behind me. Someday, I’ll ask Dru about it. But right now, all I care about is Zeke. About the baby and our future.
That’s what Lisa was trying to take from me. A future with my family that she didn’t get. The future that I almost lost.
There’s no way I’m ready to unpack that. Not until I know my family is safe.
Zeke moans, and I turn my attention to him. “Hey, careful. Don’t move.”
I adjust the blankets around him, and he coughs, then swears loudly.
“I feel like I just got shot.” He struggles to get comfortable, and I purse my lips at his terrible joke.
“Zeke, when you’re better, I’m going to smack you. What were you thinking, doing that?”
“She was trying to shoot your mom, Nova. I didn’t think. I just did it.”
“Well, I suppose I’m the least of your worries. My mom now thinks you’re her hero, so good luck with that.” I smirk as he catches on to how irritating it can be to have my mother’s love and adoration. Her job is to make people fall in love with an image of a person, and there’s no way Zeke’s coming out of this anonymous, not when Ronnie Forrester is behind it. “But I did have to call your brother,” I add, and he groans.
“Please tell me they aren’t coming here,” he pleads. “I just want all this to be over.”
“It is over, Zeke. Lisa was arrested. Dru has been talking with the police for hours. Mom and Dad are making a plan for how to manage this. It’s going to get out that Lisa tried to shoot her. That you ended up—”
Zeke cuts me off, pulling me forward by my shirt. “Shut up and kiss me, Forrester. I don’t give a shit about any of it but you.”
I press my lips to his, and it clears my head. When I pull back, he has this dreamy painkiller-induced haze to his eyes. The barriers are down. The risk is over. The threat was real, and I know he’s thinking the same thing as me by the gentle way he takes me in.
He said he wanted forever with me, and his forever could have been a lot shorter than mine. I chew on my lip at the thought of losing him, and the depth of his brown eyes studying me roots me to this moment.
He runs his thumb over my lip, pulling it from between my teeth. “I just want to have a baby with you,” he whispers, pushing his fingers into my hair and kissing me again.