Page 36 of Timeless

It sounded like she was making sure she wouldn’t be repeating our ‘toxic’ relationship. “We were good, Amber. Shit just got in the way.”

“You shouldn’t have taken the blame. I could have done three years.” She was still firm on that. Even after all these years.

“I think I made the right decision. Even more now, knowing you were pregnant.” I wouldn’t take back what I did. And I wouldn’t let her think she should have been the one to do the time. “It was my gun deal. My problem.”

She slapped my arm. “No. It wasmygun deal! And it wasmyproblem!”

“You really want to have this fight? Because I’m telling you now, you didn’t win six years ago and you aren’t winning today.” If she knew what was good for her, she would drop it and not challenge me on it. Fuck, she had been pregnant! How could she even think that going to prison for a deal I organized was the right thing to happen!

Her lips pursed but I saw the look in her eyes. She still thought I had done the wrong thing.

A phone ringing echoed through the house and she frowned.

“No one ever calls the house line.” She walked off, and I didn’t know if I should follow or stay. I ended up following her down the hall. She flicked on the lights to what I assumed was her room.

“I bet it is that husband of yours,” I said as she went to pick up a cordless phone next to her bed.

“Not my husband,” she made a point of saying before answering the phone.

I knew who it would be. Will. So, I was more interested in the photos that decorated her wall. They were all framed. Pictures of Amber and Jack. I literally watched as Jack grew up through the pictures.

He looked like me. There was no other way to describe him. If you put a photo of me next to him at that age, we would be identical.

My eyes froze on a picture of Amber. She was standing in front of a bay window. She wasn’t even looking at the camera. But her hands were over her stomach. She was pregnant. She was beautiful. Seeing her pregnant and knowing I had done it stirred something inside me. She was pregnant with my son.

“Tae took that when I wasn’t watching.”

I turned and straightened, realizing she was off the phone. “Can I get a copy?”

“You want one?” She looked alarmed, as if I couldn’t possible want a picture of her.

“Yeah, sweetheart, I do.”

“You want a picture of me fat?” She arched an eyebrow at me, as if I had a motivation to want one. Like I was going to blackmail her with it.

I smiled. Yeah, Amber would think I would use it against her. “You aren’t even fully pregnant. So how can you say that?”

She frowned. “I was eight months when that was taken.”

I looked back at it. “Nah, no way, you are too small.” Her stomach wasn’t big or full. No way she was that far pregnant.

“I wasn’t well while I was pregnant.” She moved around me, taking the photo frame off. “In fact, if you knew the details, you would kill me.” She pulled the photo out of the frame and handed it to me. “If you ever blackmail me with this photo, I’ll come out of retirement to kill you.”

She gave me a firm look like she would.

I grinned, taking it from her. “Trust me, sweetheart, the only one who will be staring at this is me.”

There was noise downstairs.

“That must be the boys. With my stir fry. If I knew it would take them nearly three hours to get it, I would have gone myself.”

“Well, that was my fault.”

“Really, I had no idea.” She turned off the bedroom light and we walked out. “You just so happened to appear within ten minutes of them leaving.”

“It was a fluke; glad you understand.”

She laughed, walking in front of me down the stairs. “You are lucky my stomach hasn’t eaten itself.”

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