Page 24 of Need You To Choose Me

With a promise to talk soon, I slide in my car and suck in a long breath before grabbing my water bottle and taking a long pull. Only when I feel slightly calmer, do I start my car.

The drive to my grandmother’s place is short. It was one of the plus sides when I originally rented it. Grams was getting up in age, and I wanted to be close by so I could get to her quickly if she needed me. Not that she appreciated it. That woman was stubborn as hell.

The corner of my mouth tips upward, and a jab of pain pierces through my chest. It was bittersweet thinking about her. Grams was the woman who raised me. My only family. It felt like there was a gaping hole inside my chest the day she died, and nothing could fill it.

That was the reason why I hadn’t stepped foot into her house since she died. It just hurt too much.

But now I don’t have a choice.

Bluebonnet Creek was a small town, and the housing market was even smaller. Besides, I didn’t have money to spare. Not with the baby on the way.

My fingers tighten around the steering wheel, and I suck in a sharp breath, my old silver Volvo slowly coming to a stop.

“You can do this, Sav,” I say to myself as I kill the engine. Willing my fingers to open the door, I place one foot in front of the other as I get out of the car and look at the house.

The two-story craftsman style house that’s been my home for the better part of my life has definitely seen better days. I’m not sure if it was money, or the fact that Grams was set in her ways, probably a little bit of both, but even to an untrained eye, I could see all the things that needed fixing.

The paint was worn off, and the shutters were rusty. The flowers my grandmother loved so much have all dried out, and I was pretty sure the whole front porch would need replacing.

Just thinking about all of the expenses made me sweat.

This was so not in my budget.

But I didn’t have a choice, did I?

It was either this or sleeping in the car.

There is a soft flutter in my belly. I drop my hand against my stomach, rubbing at the place where I could feel that flutter. Not a kick, not yet, but the pregnancy book I was reading said that it could be the baby moving. Or gas.

“I’ll make this right, Munchkin,” I whisper to the baby. “I mean if all these people on the internet can renovate a house on their own, why couldn’t we? Youwillhave a home to go to once you’re here. I promise.” Taking a step toward the house, I say with more conviction, “I promise.”

And it was a promise I meant to keep no matter what.

I knew all too well what it was like not to have a place to call home.

For the first eight years of my life, I moved around more times than some people moved in their whole life. Mom would uproot and move us every few months, the change usually went hand in hand with whoever her boyfriend was at a time.

But I wasn’t my mother.

I refused to be like her.

Not now, not ever.

“Miss Parker!”

The hairs at my nape prickle at attention at the sound of the familiar voice. Slowly, I turn around to find Levi Walker rushing toward me, and behind him is none other than his father.

My baby’s father.

And if it’s to be judged by the look he’s shooting my way, he wants to murder me.

CHAPTER FIVE

BLAKE

It really is her.

I stare over the roof of my truck at the woman standing across the street, too dumbfounded to move.

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