Page 100 of Together

“Nothing,” Nik says quickly. “It’s not for today, anyway. Today’s for family.”

“I need to see them.”

He kisses the back of my hand. “Later.”

After I agree to waiting to see whatever pictures are out there of the accident, we introduce everyone and then the girls take me inside and demand I go online to start registering. “Nik will want to have a say in what we’re registering for,” I tell them.

Josie waves me off. “He’ll get over it.”

I don’t tell them that after they leave, I’ll go through the registry with Nik and we can change things up together. For now, I’m just happy because our families are gathered in one place, we’re all relatively happy, the air is cleared, and there’s not one, but two babies on the way.

We have a lot of reasons to count our blessings.

“Oh my gosh! You need this!” Grace shouts and Josie replies with, “What in the ever-loving hell is she going to do with that? It’s a twelve-hundred-dollar stroller! Who’s going to buy that?”

“Umm, I would! Look at it!”

“No,” Josie replies, pushing Grace away from Nik’s laptop I found in his office.

Nik walks into the living room to see Grace and Josie fighting over their place in front of the computer. He raises an eyebrow, shakes his head, and then goes to the kitchen. When he comes back, he’s carrying a six-pack of beer and a bottle of water that he hands to me.

“Feeling okay?” he asks quietly.

I nod. “Better than okay.”

“Good.” He kisses my lips. “By the way, I told the guys that you’re mine and I’m yours so unless you want these women to find out from the guys, you better let them know as well.”

With that, he walks out the back patio door and when I turn back to the ladies, they’re all smiling at me, having heard everything he just said.

Chapter Twenty-One

Nikolas - EIGHT AND A HALF MONTHS

She hasno idea how I see her. She thinks that I look at her as the mother to my unborn child. Admittedly, that’s how I did see her in the beginning. But now? Now I see her as everything that I’ve ever wanted in a woman.

My best friend.

The love of my life.

The mother to my son.

Ashley has had me turned inside out over her since the morning I woke up with her in my bed, our memories of the night before a little fuzzy.

I want her everything.

How can she not see it? How does she not realize that I’m completely and totally wrecked for her?

Together, we’re perfect. My mind is clearer, my smile is permanent, my days brighter.

Apart, though, I’m a mess.

I’m hanging on by a thread here, wanting her more and more each day. Falling in love with her deeper by the minute. But I’m terrified. I don’t know if she’s ready for the same. I’m not blind. I know how she sees me. She stares when she doesn’t think I can see her. Ashley doesn’t realize that she’s all I see. I’m attuned to her every move.

However, thankfully, I also know that her attraction to me goes deeper than the surface. The question is, is she ready to claim me as hers? Is she ready for me to claim her as mine? I know I am. Beyond ready. I just don’t know where her head is at and the thought of losing her in my life isn’t something I’m willing to allow to enter my mind.

I’ll chase her forever if I have to, because there’s no one else for me. She’s it. I’ve been a goner for so long now, I don’t remember a time before her.

That thought that I didn’t want to get married again because of how my first one turned out and the second time I proposed went to shit? Gone. Replaced with a vision of her walking toward me, ready to commit to a life together. Forever.

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