Page 182 of Need You To Choose Me

The question is followed by clinking and cursing coming from the nursery.Letting my hand drop, I follow the sounds. The door to the nursery is left ajar, just enough so I can see a tall figure hunched on the floor, muscles flexing as he works on tightening the screw.

“Seriously, I don’t know who the idiot is who wrote those damn instructions, but he should be fired,” Blake mutters as he gets up and dusts his hands on his sweatpants.

“You said a bad word, Dad,” Levi chimes in from somewhere in the background.

“Tell you what, when you’re older and you’re putting together furniture, you have my blessing to say as many bad words as you’d like. Deal?”

Levi’s giggles fill the room. “Deal.”

Blake pushes to his feet. “C’mon, help me get this up.”

Daniel joins him, and together, they lift whatever they’ve been working on off the ground.

Daniel hands him another piece that Blake puts inside it and tests the stability before he moves to the side, and I can finally see what they’ve been up to.

The crib.

I suck in a sharp breath and cover my mouth, but not quickly enough because Blake turns around, a weary expression on his face.

“Blondie, you’re home.”

“You put together the crib,” I whisper, my lip wobbling slightly as I look up just as Blake crosses the room, his tall frame filling the doorway of the nursery.

“You said the nursery wasn’t finished.” Blake shrugs.

As if that’s all it takes.

I shake my head. “You put together the crib.”

“Actually…” Blake’s eyes twinkle with excitement. “Promise you won’t freak out?”

“What—”

He pulls back and pushes the door so I can get a good look at the nursery.

“We wanted to surprise you, and if these damn instructions were correct, we would have finished by now…”

The dark gray nursing chair was sitting in the corner, next to the space where the crib would go. On the other side of the chair was a small bookshelf filled with books and a small light on top of it. They put in the new curtain rod and hung the striped—white and gray curtains. Grams’ old dresser, freshly repainted, was placed underneath the window. On the opposite side, there was another shelf filled with more toys and books.

“Blake, this is…” I shake my head, tears filling my eyes all over again as I turn to face them.

Levi’s smile falls, his face turning serious. “You’re sad again. Don’t you like it?”

The worry on his face makes my heart melt. This little boy will be my undoing.

Wiping at my cheeks, I smile at him. “I love it. This is perfect.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

I open my arms, and Levi runs to me, wrapping his hands around my middle. “I don’t like seeing you sad, Sav.”

“These are happy tears. Thank you for doing this for me.” I look over Levi’s head at the two older Walker boys. “All of you.”

“Of course.” Blake tips his chin at me. “What’s with the bags? Did Becky convince you to go rogue and shop?”

“No. I got all of this. Ladies from the book club organized a surprise baby shower for me.”

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