Page 63 of King of Hearts

I turned, facing this man my heart had latched onto with such a ferocious grip. “Of course.”

We drove to the store, and I walked hand in hand with Juan to the baby section, where my friend was working.

Fatima was using a scanner gun on a few items when we found her, and as soon as her brown eyes landed on mine, a smile crept up her beautiful face.

“Hey.” I smiled awkwardly at her, feeling a little insecure about my fragile new friendship.

“Oh my gosh, hey…I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.” Fatima walked forward and hugged me with one arm.

Once we broke away, she looked down at my belly and pressed her hand against my side. My daughter kicked right away, causing another smile to light up my friend’s features.

“You’re getting so big, oh my goodness. You have to be almost ready to pop, right?”

I rubbed a hand down my belly. “A couple more weeks.”

Right around my birthday, when I was supposed to be sold off to Markos. That fate still felt like it could happen, as if it were lingering in the back of my life like a storm cloud.

“Well tell me everything—how did the appointment go?” Fatima’s eyes went big as she took in the man who stood behind me.

“It went fine. Hey, this is Juan. He’s the…” I started, unsure how to word the lie just right so she didn’t think I had been dishonest with her.

“I’m the dad.” Juan held out his hand, and she shook it, all while her eyes stayed wide, her arched brows dancing near her hairline.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. Sorry we didn’t wait for you when we registered…Taylor didn’t tell me.”

He waved her off. “No, it’s fine.”

Fatima eyed me again, silently begging me to explain, but I’d have to wait until I had her alone.

“Well, here…” She walked over to a pillar that seemed to have a small register built into it. “You can look up everything she registered for here, so you’re at least in the loop.”

A slow and steady smile worked its way across Juan’s mouth, and I nearly gripped his face and kissed him. “Thank you, this is great.”

“I have to head to the back for a bit, but Taylor, call me and we will catch up.” Fatima hugged me once more and gave me another silent look that told me I owed her a conversation.

“She’s nice,” Juan said, waiting for the sheets to print off.

“She’s the best…hey, you know we can just look it up online, right?” I pointed at the pages printing.God, how much stuff did I register for?

He smiled again, gathering the stack in his hands. “Yeah, but this is fun too.”

My stupid heart perked up at his excitement and decided to flipflop around in my chest as Juan walked with me, looking for each item like we were in some life-sized version of anI Spybook. He’d pick up each item, turn it over in his hands, and ask what it did. Currently, we were on a somewhat outdated nose aspirator with a bulbous end and long, narrowed nose.

“Stop laughing at me,” he whispered, setting the package back on the shelf.

I wheezed, halfway bent over, tears welling in my eyes. “You thought it went…” I couldn’t even say it.

“Why is it shaped like that then?” Juan argued, moving down the aisle to the nursing pillows.

“Because it goes up their nose!” I choked.

His eyes darted around, making sure no one heard. “Why would anyone need this much nipple shit—isn’t it pretty straightforward with all that?” He eyed my chest, and I couldn’t fight the smile erupting. I pushed his shoulder like we were flirting, and when the side of his mouth screwed up, I couldn’t help but relax into the sensation.

He’d been climbing my walls day by day, metaphorically of course, but it was getting so hard to keep him out, to keep it clear that he was supposed to stay safe on the other side and I was supposed to find a small crack to somehow crawl back to a different fate, one where my father couldn’t reach my daughter and I kept him safe.

“So, do you feel ready to have her?” We walked, still eyeing the different baby items, half of which I had no idea what they did, and even the nursing question I wasn’t sure about. I figured it would be straightforward, but what did I know?

My finger brushed across a bottle set. “I think so…”

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