Page 195 of Need You To Choose Me

He rubs the back of his neck but does as asked. “I guess?”

“And what do you smell?”

His nose crinkles as if he’s trying extra hard to think. “A tree?”

“Christmas!” I press my hand against my forehead and let out an exasperated sigh. Seriously, these kids will be the death of me. “It smells like Christmas. And no fake-ass tree will ever be able to replace that, so no, we’ll not have a fake tree in our home.”

A strong jab of pain spreads through my middle. Letting my hand drop, I rub at the side of my belly.

“No fake trees.” Blake’s hand slides to the small of my back as he looks at me. “You’re frowning.”

“I’m forty weeks pregnant, I’m big and uncomfortable, and I’ve been dealing with Braxton Hicks for the past two weeks. Your baby can’t decide if it’d rather kick my ribs or bladder, so it’s kicking both, and at this point, I think I’ll never see my toes again. If that’s not a reason to frown, I don’t know what is. And, on top of that, Daniel just said we should get a fake Christmas tree.”

All the words come out in a rush, and I can feel my lower lip wobble as I try to regain my composure.

What I thought were the first signs of labor a couple of weeks ago turned out to be a false alarm. Something that apparently happens more often than not and based on the words of Dr. Gonzales, is simply my body just preparing for the real thing. As if this wasn’t the real thing. The constant pain felt very real to me.

Blake turns me to face him, his hands cupping my face. “Blondie…”

“I’m sorry, I’m just one big mess.” I shake my head. “The last few weeks have been a lot.”

After everything that played out with my mother—who was now gone, hopefully, for good—and with my due dateapproaching, Blake insisted we should sit the boys down as soon as possible and talk to them about this new change.

They took the idea of living under one roof way better than I hoped, and within a week, they were moved into my place, and Blake put his house on the market.

I won’t lie, the shift wasn’t the easiest, but I didn’t expect it to be. We’re all still adjusting to our new normal, but I hoped with time, things would get easier.

“Let’s just decorate the tree, and then we can watch movies and drink hot chocolate. Or, well, you guys can drink it, and I’ll just inhale the sweet scent.”

“A little while longer,” Blake whispers, leaning down and pressing his mouth against mine in a soft kiss. “Where are the lights?”

I hand him the box before grabbing one with the ornaments I pulled from the attic. “You boys wanna help me?”

Levi blinks, a confused expression crossing his face and matching his brother’s.

What in the ever lo?—

“We can help?” I watch as a smile flashes on Levi’s face, “You mean it? Really?”

For a moment, I just stare at him, speechless.

“Of course! I can’t do it all by myself, can I?”

“Mom usually brought people to decorate our tree, and we couldn’t touch anything so we wouldn’t break it,” Levi says quietly, his smile falling.

I press my mouth in a tight line.

I should have known. The Walker boys didn’t talk a lot about Blake’s ex, but any time a little detail like this came out, I disliked the woman more and more. Who paid for professional decorators and told their kids they couldn’t touch the Christmas tree?

Blake’s ex, apparently.

A dark expression passes over Daniel’s face before he looks away, almost like he’s embarrassed, and I instantly feel bad for saying anything.

“I’m going to grab something to drink.”

Dammit.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out, and even if they did, he was already gone.

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