Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 154728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
While I digested her words, Kane was grinning, quite obviously on board with the idea despite his overall protectiveness of Mabel. He almost jumped on strangers for staring at her too long, yet he was okay with the Jupiter tribe, it seemed.
“I’m breastfeeding,” I said lamely. “She needs a bottle.”
“Well, pump one,” Calliope flicked her fingers to the breast pump on the coffee table. I couldn’t remember how long it had been there.
She made it all seem so simple, so I struggled to find any other reason why we couldn’t leave our baby with an almost stranger.
“Go,” she ordered, settling on the couch close to Mabel.
And although her sister-in-law had been much quieter and gentler with her orders, it’d had the same effect. I heeded them.
Twenty-Seven
“We should go back inside,” I said the second that I got on the back of Kane’s bike. He’d suggested we take it, and I’d jumped at the chance. Initially, I’d jumped at the chance. The thought of being pressed against Kane, the fall air biting at us as we tore down the road… It promised an exhilaration I had loved in the past.
But now I was dressed, in jeans—no elastic waist to be found—and in a simple, long-sleeved top, makeup on and hair haphazardly curled. I was wearing shoes. Low heeled boots. Real people, adult clothes.
I’d longed for such things. Just like I’d longed for time with Kane, a ride on the bike. But straddling the bike, my body was frozen as I stared into the windows of our house. The curtains were drawn, so I could see light filtering out, and I swore I could hear a baby calling out for her mother.
Never mind that she couldn’t even form words yet.
“We are not going back inside,” Kane stated, putting a helmet on my head.
I scowled at him. “We don’t know her.” I pointed to the house again.
“We know Rowan, we know everyone else she is family with, and I know she has great taste in automobiles.” Kane motioned to the sleek car parked in our driveway. I couldn’t say much about it other than it was red.
I put my hand on my hip. “Seriously, we’re trusting our daughter with someone because they drive a nice car?”
Kane gripped my hips. “We’re trusting our daughter with someone because we know she’s good people. We’re trusting our daughter with someone because in order to get through this, we need to start trusting people, letting them in, letting them help. I promise you, Chef, it’s just as fuckin’ painful for me to leave Mae, and I miss her like goddamn crazy already. But we need this.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. He wasn’t wrong. I knew he wasn’t. Even though my mother and Maisie were only a three-hour drive away and promised to make the trip as often as possible, they had their own lives. We did need to find some semblance of a support system here in Jupiter if we intended on it being home. As much as I loved Mabel with all of my being, I also understood that being a better mother meant sometimes taking time for myself.
I stared at him, then the bike.
“We don’t have a will,” I realized, horror buzzing beneath my skin. I’d had a list of things to get organized once the baby was born—life insurance, a will, a college fund. None of that had been done. “Or life insurance.”
“Unless you’re planning on taking me to a secondary location and murdering me, I think we’re okay,” Kane replied.
“We’re parents.” I smacked his shoulder. “We get into a crash on this thing and leave Mabel an orphan, there needs to be a plan in place for her care. I’m going to go back in and write a will.”
I climbed off the bike to do just that, but Kane caught my wrist, pulling me back to him.
“Chef, you’re not going to write a will tonight, and we’re not going to crash.”
“You can’t know that,” I argued, panic well and truly seizing my lungs at that point.
He arched a brow. “I’ve got more than a few medals to communicate how I can know that.”
“I’ll remind you, I’ve seen you crash,” I told him. It was a low blow, but I was frantic.
Kane didn’t seem bothered, merely grinning. “An anomaly. One never to be repeated.” He put his hands on either side of the helmet. “Get that you want to take care of our girl, and I also get that your brain is your worst enemy right now. So how about we give it a break with a ride, me fuckin’ you either in the bathrooms of a dive bar or over this very bike on a beach somewhere. We get a drink, come back then write wills.”
My mouth filled with saliva at the thought of sex, public sex with Kane. Since the first time, we’d caught moments to ourselves when we could—in the kitchen while Mabel napped, in the living room, pretty much in various rooms of our house while the baby slept. Each time we were quiet, rushed, mindful that she could wake at any moment.