Didn't Expect You (Against All Odds #2) - Claudia Burgoa Page 0,97

to tell her to listen to my heart. To listen to the many ways I love her.

“This fight is mine too, Nyx. He’s not going to take her away from us,” I say it out loud. “I understand how your mind works. You like to do things alone, but you’re with me. If there’s something I do well, it is protecting those I love.”

Placing a hand on her belly, I say, “I need you to trust me. To let me back inside because being just a spectator doesn’t help either one of us. We’re in this together, right?”

She chuckles, and then I hear her sob.

“Nyx, talk to me,” I beg.

“What can I say? Today I was thinking maybe I should just go back to Colorado, buy a house and leave this little fantasy. You’d be better suited with a woman like Persy. Just think about it. She’s fun, carefree, and doesn’t have baggage.”

“Don’t you think it’s time to blow out the candles on the cake for your pity party and end it?” I ask and smile when I feel the blueberry demon kick against my hand. “See, she wants you to stop too.”

“I’m happy. Your baggage is precious, and I can’t wait to meet her. I don’t need a carefree person who does stuff without thinking. I have enough of that with myself. I need someone who grounds me. You have flaws and I embrace them because they are part of who you are,” I assure her.

She lifts her gaze and looks at me. “How could you say that?”

“You’re the careful to my reckless. Those times when I want to be impulsive, you stop me because you’re a sensible person. This is why things work so well between us,” I explain, kissing her neck. I nibble on her earlobe, making her shiver. “You’re a planner. I like to do things on the go. If it was up to me, we’d be in Vegas, eloping.”

She laughs. “Really, in front of Elvis?”

“Wherever you want to do it,” I say, planting tender kisses all over her beautiful face. “You’ve been in your own little world for so long. Today I feel like you shut the window you had open just for me. What happened?”

She shakes her head.

“Nyx, please,” I mumble against the base of her sternum and run my lips all the way to her jaw. “What upset you?”

“I should be happy for my sister, but…envy overtook me. She’s always been in some sort of relationship. I never cared about it, but after all the wrongs she found… she found him. The perfect guy who does everything for her and adores her. They are getting married, and because I was too busy planning my future, I’m alone and terrified that I might lose my baby and…what if you and I never happen?”

She’s not saying this because she wants someone like my brother. What she wants is the security of having a steady relationship and a guy to hold her all the time. Maybe it’s not just her who retreated during these past four weeks. I might have distanced myself. Between her need to have some space, my trip to Boston, and the few issues we had with production, I’ve been neglecting her.

This stops today.

“So, you’re complaining because you get the shitty Chadwick?”

“What?” she squeaks and snort laughs. “No. I wish things between us could work, but in reality, at the end of this, I don’t get any Chadwick. I…you. We can’t.”

“Let’s make a deal,” I offer. “Starting tomorrow we forget about everything we can’t fix. You let me focus on swooning you for the next five months. We concentrate our energy on this little one who needs a name, a nursery, and love.”

“Just like that?” she asks, skeptical.

“It’s pretty simple,” I conclude, brushing my thumb along her bottom lip. “Choose being happy. I’ll take care of everything. It’s not easy to let go, but let me carry your worries and take care of my girls. Can you please trust me?”

She nods. “How do you make everything less daunting, or is it more manageable?”

“It’s a gift,” I tell her, kissing her eyelids. “Let’s get some sleep. We’re spending the weekend with your family. It’s going to be hectic.”

“Thank you,” she whispers.

I wait until she falls asleep before I mumble, “I love you, more than you can ever imagine.”

Forty

Nyx

November wasn’t a pity-fest, as Persy likes to call that period. It wasn’t nesting either, like Mom likes to believe. I was in a place where I