Page 33 of Scarlett's Mountain Man
“I don’t want you to get into trouble. I don’t want you going after him and getting thrown in jail. What am I going to do if you go to prison?” she asks.
“The people here will take care of you. They know that you are mine. They will treat you with respect and make sure you have everything you need if I ever go to prison,” I explain. “But I’m not going anywhere.”
“But you said you are going to go after them.” She turns her head to look at me.
“I never said I would go after them. You said that. I’ve got friends who are powerful and can help me out. It won’t come back to me.”
Mafia friends are what I wanted to tell her, but I don’t. She doesn’t need to know that right now. As much as Miles and his boss, Rogan, are good friends of mine, I don’t want her meeting them. They would never hurt her, but I don’t want her mixed up in their world.
“Like dangerous friends?” she whispers, her eyes wide.
I nod in agreement. “Really dangerous friends.”
“I don’t know if I should tell you then. I don’t want them getting in trouble for me.”
I cup her face with my right hand and kiss her nose. “You are too kind,” I tell her quietly.
“There’s nothing wrong with being kind,” she grumbles.
I smile. “There isn’t, not when it comes to you, but I am going to protect you.”
“Protect me from being too kind?” She looks at me, confused.
“Yes. I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want people to take advantage of you.”
“Oh, I guess I didn’t think about that,” she whispers after several seconds.
I move my hand from her cheek and run it through her hair several times.
“That’s okay that you didn’t. I’m just letting you know so you aren’t blindsided when I do something,” I gently inform her.
“Like what?”
“Telling you no if you want to do something,” I throw out there. “Shielding you from what people say. Stopping people if I know their true intentions are to hurt you and take advantage of you.”
She relaxes into my embrace, and I continue to run my hand through her hair. It’s an awkward angle, but she sighs and closes her eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Anytime, Little One.”
“I love it when you call me that. And when you call me love,” she confesses.
“I’ll make sure to call you those all the time then.” I kiss the side of her head.
We sit in silence for several minutes, just enjoying being with each other and watching Juniper. She is so precious holding with Scarlett’s fingers. I look over at the clock and huff.
“We need to go into town for your appointment,” I whisper.
She whines. “Why can’t Aiden look at me and we’ll call it a day? I don’t really want him to, since I know we are going to be friends and I’ll be seeing a lot more of him, but I don’t want to go to some random doctor.”
“You need to. Aiden can’t do everything. He doesn’t specialize in post-partum women. He knows the basics of what he is looking at and for, but I want to get the OB/Gyn’s opinion,” I explain. “Aiden already told me he’s going to be doing research and talking to other doctors, so if you ever get pregnant again, he can take care of you. He’s already looking into buying an ultrasound scanner.”
She stares at me in shock, and I can’t help but smile. Aiden wants to be prepared. He didn’t like it when he wasn’t fully prepared for Scarlett and Juniper.
“That’s so sweet,” she whispers.
“It is. Now, let’s go get dressed so we aren’t late to the appointment.” I tap her nose.
She whines once again. “I don’t want to go.”
“No buts. We’re going.” I give no room for discussion.
