Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Millie was almost eleven months old. Her Ae’s were definitely an attempt to say Eilidh and best of all, a week ago she’d started calling me Dada. I doubt I could ever articulate how it felt to hear my child’s first word. Or for that word to be the word that described her attachment to me. The magnitude of it wasn’t lost on me. Though I was still scared shitless about somehow finding a way to mess up my kid, I felt a little more confident now that I could be a good father to Millie.
My daughter had settled into daycare with Regan’s team, and we’d found a routine together. Lewis’s aunt Eredine was happy to watch Millie and Harley twice a week in the evenings so I could return to instructing my tae kwon do classes that Lewis and Callie also attended.
Eilidh had returned to writing, but I knew she stopped by the daycare for hours to see Millie, which was probably why Millie had adjusted to the change so easily. Easing Eilidh into returning to my house was a process. We’d been meeting up at Callie and Lewis’s for dinner a few nights a week or catching up for a coffee in the village.
Last week, she agreed to have dinner at my place. Callie and Lewis were there with Harley to offer support. Eilidh had been tense, pale-faced, and I’d regretted suggesting it. However, she told me she didn’t want Peter to taint a place she’d grown to love.
I loved that she’d grown to love my home.
It kept my hope afloat that despite the lack of romantic progress between us, a future together still hovered on the horizon. I was taking it slow because she’d been through so much.
Yet looking at her now, her bruises all healed up, a smile curling her soft mouth, olive skin aglow with health as she helped me decorate my daughter’s nursery … well, it took everything within me to not order Callie and Lewis out of the room.
Eilidh’s dark curls were piled on top of her head, a few falling onto her cheeks as she moved. She wore a tank top beneath cotton dungarees. It shouldn’t be a sexy outfit, but the tank was short on her and I could see flashes of smooth tan skin. I could slip through the gaps on either side and cup her delicious arse in my hands.
I swallowed hard and returned my focus to the mural.
My need for Eilidh had grown into this hunger I’d never experienced before. I’d had time to think on why, and I assumed it was a mix of impatience to be with her now that I’d finally pulled my head out of my arse. But maybe also to quiet the guilt that had plagued me since Peter attacked her in the house I’d sworn she was safe in. Every time I thought about how close I’d come to losing her, I felt frozen to the bone. I was eager to claim her, not just so we could start our lives together with Millie, but to reassure myself she was alive, that she was mine, and that I’d be there to protect her going forward.
I just wasn’t sure if Eilidh was ready.
I’d been waiting for three weeks for her to make a move.
It was only last night and this morning that I’d started to notice her looking at me again. For instance, I’d been bending over to take the lids off the paint tin for Lewis and Callie and when I’d straightened, I’d caught Eilidh guiltily turning away from ogling me.
The truth was, I didn’t know how much willpower I had left.
“Lewis Adair, you brush any more of that paint on me, and I’ll knock you on your arse,” Callie warned behind us. “Such a child.”
I glanced over my shoulder from smoothing down the mural. Lewis chuckled like a wee boy as he returned to painting.
Eilidh followed my gaze. “If you stop messing about, we might actually finish the nursery so Millie can get into it tomorrow.”
“What about the paint fumes?” Callie asked. “Don’t you have to let it air out for a few days?”
“Aye,” I confirmed.
“Still, we’ve only got the weekend.” Eilidh narrowed her gaze suspiciously on her brother. “Why are you acting like a five-year-old hopped up on Haribo?”
I stepped down from the ladder, watching Lew. He had shown up in an awfully good mood this morning. I’d just assumed it meant he’d gotten some. Lucky bastard.
As Lew stared at his wife with a secret smile, and Callie’s cheeks flushed, I saw something else pass between them.
“Wait.” Eilidh stepped toward her brother and sister-in-law and they both reluctantly turned to her. “Are you … oh my god, are you pregnant?”
Callie’s lips parted. “How … how did you know that?”
“Oh my god, you are?”