Page 121 of Duke
I’m not hungry, though.
I’m not sure I can keep all this inside anymore.
I pull into one of the angled parking spots on Main Street. It’s Saturday night, and with the new restaurant opening, there’s lots of people downtown. Couples stroll along the sidewalk hand in hand. People sit outside the Caffeinated Cowgirl at its little bistro tables, sipping coffee, enjoying dessert. I can smell something delicious wafting through the restaurant’s open windows a few doors up the street.
Turning off the engine, I reach across the bench and put a hand on Wheeler’s thigh. Funny how a week ago, touching her like this would be weird.
Now, it feels like the most natural thing in the world.
She turns her head to look at me. For the hundredth time tonight, I’m struck dumb by how beautiful she is. Pouty lips, tan skin. Bare shoulders and lush breasts.
It’s her expression, though, that has my pulse tripping to a stop. She looks…serious. Earnest.
She looks like she’s bursting with something she wants to say too.
“Duke?”
“Yeah?”
“I…”
Swallowing, I press my thumb into her leg. “Whatever it is you wanna say, I hope you know you can say it. I’m not goin’ anywhere.”
She nods. Blinks. Her chin wobbles when she says, “I want to keep the baby.”
I startle at the warm explosion inside my chest. I put my free hand there, just to make sure this woman didn’t just blow a hole through my center with her achingly vulnerable confession.
“Blue,” I sputter.
She’s crying now. “I’m sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear, but I just—I had to tell you, Duke. I know I said that I wasn’t sure. I know this makes things super complicated—”
“I don’t care. I’m so glad, sweetheart.” I reach up and thumb away her tears. “So glad you want that, because it’s what I want too.”
Her brows pop up, her wet eyelashes glistening in the thin, late light. “Wait, are you saying—”
“I want to keep the baby. Yes.”
She lets out a bark of laughter. “Seriously?”
“Of fuckingcourseI wanna have a baby with you, sweetheart.”
Without warning, Wheeler launches herself into my arms. Her hands find my neck. Mine find her belly. She pulls me in for a teary, salty kiss—we’re both crying now, tears leaking out of my eyes left and right—and we hold each other like that for one heartbeat. Then another and another and another.
We’re having a baby.
Holy shit, we’re having a fucking baby!
Because she’s apparently turned me into a fucking animal, I’m hard by the time she breaks the kiss.
“What helped you make up your mind?” She whisks away the tears on my face with the flat of her hand.
“In a nutshell?” I tuck her hair behind her ear. “You.” I tilt my head. “Them. My family. Our friends.”
She nods, rolling her lips between her teeth. “Me too. I didn’t realize—you and me, we’re friends. You’re agoodfriend. We’re more than that too, but we were friends first, right?”
“I’d like to think we’ll always be friends, Blue.” I run my hand up her side. “I like you too much not to want you around all the time.”
That makes her smile. “I like having you around too.”
