Page 132 of Running Winter

"How could I not want children with you?"

He kissed me then, and I was grateful that my risk paid off earlier.

Because there was no way in the world I could be without Lucas Deacon.

UNCERTAINTY

R A V E N

My father slipped into the hospital room as silently as an assassin, and I refused to make eye contact with him.

Leigh was sleeping, heavily sedated from the pain relief the doctor had given him.

"Baby. I'm sorry."

Dad's anxious voice, usually calm and in a perpetual state of annoyance, was something somewhat foreign to me. It had a whisper of regret, slightly cracking when he apologized, which made me turn my head to look at him.

He seemed to have aged somewhat, or maybe I had. I'd not noticed the lines on his forehead or the dark circles under his electric green eyes. He gazed at me with such adoration that I felt my eyes fill with tears.

"I overreacted."

I didn't know what to say.

I knew I had Mom to thank for cracking the whip when I needed her the most, but it had made a part of me despise my father.

I loved Leigh with a passion I didn't realize existed.

I turned back to Leigh, staring down at my hand wrapped around his.

"I love him." I turned to see Dad flinch and his jaw clench.

"It would appear so," Dad said quietly, walking forward to put his hands on the bottom of Leigh's bed. He studied Leigh before rubbing his jaw and turning back to me.

"I gave him strict instructions not to touch you. I told him I'd make him swallow his dick if he did." Dad reminded me, raising his eyebrows. "Yet here we are."

"He tried to resist me. He respects you," I replied quietly, ready to argue if I needed to. "He has been through so much in his life—"

Dad's head snapped up then, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"He told you that stuff?"

I colored slightly before dragging my eyes back to Leigh. His chest rose and fell softly, and I gingerly lifted his hand to my lips as I kissed it softly.

"No. I read it in his file."

"Raven," Dad sighed, pinching his nose with exasperation. "That was for him to tell you."

"So? I don't care. It only made me love him more. How could anyone treat anyone that way?"

"Not all families are like us, kid."

I snorted then, and Dad grinned as I gave him a side look before answering him.

"You're not wrong. My dad shot my boyfriend—sounds like something you'd see on a cheap magazine."

"I fucked up, but both of you went against my wishes. How do you know this man is the one for you? You've barely met any others."

I turned my gaze back to Leigh, and I felt him squeeze my hand softly.

---