Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
So, after I locked the door behind me, I dropped my clutch on the table in the front hall and headed up the stairs without taking off my shoes, even if my feet were killing me.
The light in my room was on.
And when I hit the door, I saw Darius, still in his suit trousers, but his jacket and tie were gone. He was sitting at the side of the bed.
I went right to him.
He opened his legs, and I stopped between them.
He put his hands to my hips and stared at my stomach.
Then he face planted there.
I put my hands on his head.
“Baby,” I whispered.
“Fucked up.” His voice was muffled by material. “Again.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to stay away either,” I said.
He tipped his head back, and my breath stopped at the expression on his face.
“You did so good,” he said softly. “I’m so proud of you. You did so good, baby. He’s perfect. Perfect.”
I gave him a soft smile. “You had a hand in that.”
He shook his head.
I caught it in my hands. “Stop it. You did.”
“I need to get out of your life.”
No.
Nonononono.
I tried to push him back so I could climb on.
He resisted, and this time he meant it, I knew, because he didn’t budge.
“This was a mistake. You’re better off without me,” he declared.
“Let me be the judge of that.”
“You don’t get it.”
“Then tell me.”
“I’m not a good guy.”
“I think I should be the judge of that too.”
“I’m no father.”
“How do you know? You haven’t tried. But just to say, we want for nothing. You don’t forget birthdays. You don’t—”
“That’s all bullshit,” he clipped. “He took that seriously today.”
I was confused.
“What?”
“Liam. It was important, what he did today. You know why?”
“Because he’s a smart kid, and he soaks things up, and because of that, he understood how important today was to his Aunt Toni.”
“No. Because the only man in his life is his Uncle Tony and he wanted to stand up for him.”
Oh boy.
“Darius—”
“You can’t deny it. It’s true.”
“He’s not the only man in his life. Dad is in his life.” I tried to take the heavy out of our conversation and quipped, “Lena’s revolving door of boyfriends are in his life.”
“Your father is a good man. I looked into him, and Tony’s a good guy.”
Interesting.
I tipped my head to the side. “You looked into him?”
“He’s in your life, Liam’s, so yeah. I looked into him.”
“So he’s not a secret agent?”
Darius’s brows drew together. “What?”
I flipped out a hand. “Toni. She freaked out before the ceremony, worried she was getting into a True Lies situation.”
“Was heading into the church, saw her Julia Roberts impression,” he murmured. “Wondered what that was about.”
“That’s what it was about.”
“She’s a sneaky one, baby. She’s crazier than you. Crazier than even Lena. She just knows how to hide it.”
I started laughing, because I already knew this. He hadn’t seen her version of incognito at his aunt’s bar.
His fingers still at my hips dug in. “This is fucked up, what we’re doing.”
“But it works,” I asserted.
He stared up at me.
“It might not be normal, but it’s what you need,” I stated.
That did it.
He couldn’t have me doing that for him.
I should have known.
He made a move to stand.
I shifted my hands to his shoulders and put all my weight into keeping him where he was.
He gave up pushing, I knew, because he knew I didn’t want him to.
“I’m not asking for that from you,” he growled.
“You don’t have to ask.”
“You’re wasting your life on me.”
“We disagree on that, so much, I’m not discussing it. I know what I’m doing.”
“Malia—”
“Darius, you were right.”
His expression turned guarded. “About what?”
“I didn’t try hard enough to tell you I was pregnant.”
He shook his head. Firmly.
“Don’t buy my shit, babe. I was full of it, lashing out.”
“You were correct in everything you said. I was young and flipped out and feeling a lot of feelings, about me, for you, what happened with your dad.”
He flinched.
Oh yes.
As suspected, he hadn’t worked through the pain of losing his dad.
That was not for now.
I kept at him about what was for now.
“I made the wrong decision. If I couldn’t get to you, I should have told Miss Dorothea. She would have gotten to you.”
“What I made of myself isn’t about what you didn’t tell me.”
“I’m not taking on what you made of yourself, even though I don’t know what that is. I just know you. And I messed up. It’s a mistake I’m not going to make again.”
“We’re never going to be a happy family.”
We’ll see, I did not say.
He saw it anyway, which was why he said, “I’m wrong. Toni isn’t crazier than you. You are definitely the craziest of that crew.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
Suddenly, he jerked my skirt up and I quelled a smile because I thought I was getting somewhere, especially when he yanked me to straddling his lap.