I laughed. “That’s not why I brought you here. I brought you here so you’d know that this isn’t three years ago. When I need to work something out I won’t run from you. But if I come here I need you to know that it’s just a place I like to come for peace and quiet. I’m not shutting you out of it. I want to share it with you.”
He bent his head to speak quietly against my mouth. “This is your place. You don’t need to share it with me. Just as long as you share what’s going on with you, I’m happy.”
“I can definitely do that.”
Smiling, Braden ducked his head as he opened his coat and pulled a small package out of the inside pocket. It was a weird shape and very badly gift-wrapped. “For you.”
Bemused, I took the present. “What is it?”
He shrugged, still smiling. “Just something to remind you of who you are and what a great mum you’re going to be.”
Grateful that he thought so, I quickly unwrapped the gift, my heart flipping over in my chest when I recognized it. It was a silver baby’s rattle and if I turned it I’d find my name engraved on one side and my little sister Beth’s engraved on the other. It had been my rattle and when Beth came along I had my mom get Beth’s name engraved on the other side so I could give it to my little sister. My mom had kept it in a silk-lined box, in the hopes that we’d started a new tradition of passing it down through the family. It wasn’t a story I’d told Braden, even when I’d rescued it from the storage facility in Virginia when we’d gone there to clear out my family’s belongings.
Even without knowing the story, he’d known it meant a lot to me.
“I got it out of the box with all the things you’ve kept from your family, had it polished up.” He turned it in my hand so Beth’s name was facing upward. “I was thinking if we have a wee girl, we could name her Beth.”
Swallowing past the lump of emotion clogging my throat, I nodded. “I’d like that. Thank you.” I threw my arms around his neck, the rattle clenched tight in my fist, as I kissed him.
We kissed, sweet brushes of our lips that grew quickly heated. My breathing was heavy as I pulled back, my forehead pressing against his. “Do you think we’ve finally made it through?”
“Made it through?”
“All the crap.” I grinned cheekily. “Do you think we finally get everything about each other?”
Braden shook his head, pressing another kiss to my lips as I clung to him. “No, babe. We’re going to spend every day growing up. We’ll learn new things about ourselves, never mind each other.”
I pulled back. “Did anyone ever tell you that when your fear doesn’t get in the way of your perceptiveness, you are an incredibly wise man, Mr. Carmichael?”
He rolled his eyes. “Am I ever going to live this down?”
I snorted, threading my arm through his as we started to stroll back down the castle hill. “When I f**ked up you joked about it inappropriately for months and then pulled it out every now and then when you wanted to make a point.”
He grunted. “I’ll allow you to emotionally manipulate me with it for a week.”
“A year.”
“A month.”
“A year.”
“Six months.”
I thought about it. That was a fairly lengthy period of torture and it probably fit in better with our pregnancy time frame. “Okay, six months. But I should warn you that it’ll include more than emotional manipulation.”
“Elaborate.”
I smiled up at him. “I’m pregnant. My requests, cravings, they may get a little outrageous.”
His body shook with laughter. “You’re carrying my child. I’d probably take the blame if you murdered someone.”
“You’d probably do that anyway, pregnant or not.”
Braden smiled softly down at me. “No probably about it.”
Chuckling, I held on tighter. “I’m going to make you come shopping with me for maternity clothes.”
“I can handle it. In fact, I’m rather looking forward to you having a bump.” He smoothed a hand across my stomach, something he’d taken to doing a lot.