Takeoff (Open Skies #5) - Becca Jameson Page 0,72
face fell, his eyes closing slowly. “Okay. Right. I understand. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“What happened?” she asked as he ended the call. “Work?”
“No. Teddy threw up. I have to go get them.” He spun around, putting his hands on his head.
She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. “It’s gonna be okay.”
“How? How am I going to take care of two kids? It’s day one and I already have to go pick them up.”
“No, you don’t.” She squeezed him tighter from behind. “I’ll get them.”
He turned around in her arms and stared at her. “I can’t let you do that.”
She frowned at him. “Why the hell not?”
“Because they’re my responsibility. I don’t want to—”
She shot him a glare and stepped back to cross her arms. “You don’t want to what? You don’t trust me to take care of them?” She was needling him. She knew it. But she couldn’t stop herself. They needed to have this conversation. Suddenly, it was important.
His eyes shot wide. “That’s not it. God, Rae. I’d trust you with anything. Of course, I trust you.”
“Then what’s stopping you?”
He swallowed. “Rae…”
She lifted her brows, waiting for him to say what she needed him to say. It was so important all of the sudden. They were standing outside a rental car storefront in the middle of the day, almost in fight or flight stance, and now she wanted to force him to speak the words he’d never yet spoken, mostly because she’d never given him a chance. Now? Here?
“Because I’m fighting so hard to convince you to stay with me. With us. Because I don’t want you to feel burdened and decide it’s too tough. Because I walk on eggshells all the time, praying, hoping, wanting so badly for you to be mine. Because I’m so damn in love with you that it hurts and the thought of you leaving me, leaving us, makes me want to scream. I’m scared and everything is happening so fast. And I just want you to trust that I love you enough that I don’t care about any weird baggage you have. I don’t care, Rae.”
She closed the distance, grabbed the front of his shirt, and tugged his head toward hers until she could kiss him.
He looked stunned when she pulled back. “Okay. So, we’re good? You take my rental. I’ll take your SUV because the car seats are in it. Call the daycare and put me on your approved list so I can pick them up. We’ll see you at home later. Hamburger is thawing in the sink. I’ll make spaghetti.” She dangled her keys in front of him and snagged his from his hand.
He was still staring at her like she’d grown a second head when she rose onto her tiptoes and kissed him again. “Go. You have work to do.” She pointed at the rental.
He grabbed her as she tried to walk away. “Rae? What the hell just happened?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll figure it out later. Right now, we have shit to do.”
He gave her a slow smile and another kiss before letting her go.
She jogged to his SUV, climbed in, adjusted the seat so she could reach the pedals, and waved at him as she pulled out of the spot. She felt a very strange sense of satisfaction as she left him standing there, shocked. She did notice he pulled his phone out though. At least he had the sense to call the daycare.
Chapter 25
Nervous didn’t begin to describe how Deacon felt when he stepped into the kitchen five hours later. His breath caught in his lungs at the sight before him. Rae was at the stove stirring something. The house smelled like Italian sauce. Teddy was in a bouncy seat she’d somehow managed to attach to the door frame. And Katia was coloring at the kitchen table.
The little munchkin jumped down from her seat and ran toward him though, throwing herself at him before he’d taken a second step into the room. She wrapped her arms around his legs and held on tight. “Unca Dea. Teddy got sick at school and Rain had to come get us and we came home without you and Teddy isn’t sick anymore and I colored you another picture and Rain made pasghetties and she said if I’m good I can watch cartoons after we eat and then she’s gonna give me a baff and then read me a stowy. She promised. Cinderella.”
Deacon swooped her