I may have been able to relate to her a little, but I could never imagine what she’d gone through that day she was taken from the club. I wasn’t sure why she was confiding in me, but I was glad for it. “I can understand how you feel. Just wanting to be left alone.”
Her lips twitched, but the frown won out. “Why do you think I’m even talking to you?” She glanced over her shoulder at her mom and twin. She saw herself as the black sheep. I was one, too. “Why haven’t you told your family?” she asked out of nowhere.
It almost made me snarl. But she’d shared with me. I could reciprocate. A little. “They don’t deserve to know” was all I could say in a pretty firm tone without cussing more than was necessary.
Eyebrows raised, she glanced sideways at me. “That bad, huh?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m glad you have Kai. And that he has you. He needs someone keeping him on his toes.”
She had no idea how much I was keeping from them.
I didn’t deserve Kai. Not really. Though I didn’t say as much. She may have been in a sharing mood, but there was no way I was going to tell her everything about me.
With that, she went back to the living room, and I followed behind her. They didn’t stay much longer, but Mia seemed to enjoy herself a bit more, especially when Kai and their dad came back.
I also enjoyed myself more then. He knew all the right things to say when I didn’t have a clue.
When they were leaving, I promised to keep them updated, even when Kai had to go to Ohio. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when he was gone—in only two more weeks—and I didn’t like thinking about it much. I’d figure it out later.
13
Kai
After my family left, something in me was terrified she was going to freak out. Especially since there was a giant pile of baby stuff in her living room. To be honest, I was the one freaking out—there was a giant pile of baby stuff in her living room. Cribs and blankets and clothes galore. All the things I hadn’t even thought to get for the babies yet.
Even though I’d read most of that book she got me, I didn’t think of the things we needed to get. Their birth seemed so far away. But it wasn’t. Not really. She was about twenty-four weeks. A lot of women didn’t make it very far with twins. My mom only made it thirty-two weeks with the girls, and that was stretching it.
The anxiety had me rushing outside to have a cigarette while she was in the bathroom. I’d been doing pretty good that week, still rationing only two a day. This was likely going to be a bad day.
I leaned against her car, smoking away, thinking about shit I couldn’t control. Like the fact that I had reenlisted. The fact that I had to leave in two weeks. The fact that this girl I was falling for was carrying my babies. The fact that she wasn’t even considering moving to Ohio until after she finished her degree, which would be well after our babies were born.
The fact that my dad had talked to me about marrying her over breakfast because it was “the right thing to do.” How he had no fucking clue this woman would flip the fuck out if I showed her the ring he’d given me to give to her—an heirloom from my great-grandmother who I’d only met a few times as a kid. It was old-fashioned and seemed perfectly made for Kate. But that wouldn’t change how not thrilled she would be that marriage was the topic my dad wanted to talk about over breakfast.
It was one of her stipulations when she agreed to try this relationship out. “I won’t marry you.” That was what she told me. And now I had a ring burning a fucking hole in my pocket that would never be worn by the woman carrying my babies, because the thought of getting married made her vomit the one time it was mentioned.
I was on my third cigarette by the time she moseyed outside to check on me. I was also in full fucking freak-out mode. She glared at the cigarette in my hand that I was currently taking a drag of, and I kind of wanted to say. “Fuck it.” But I was nothing if not stubborn. I had made the commitment to see this through, and I would. Whether or not she wanted to marry me, we would be together while we raised those twins.
Her cute waddle stopped a few feet from me. I blew a puff of smoke in the opposite direction of her, hoping the smell wouldn’t make her nauseous. Something I never had to worry about before. Now I was having twins with a girl I hardly knew, who I’d only slept with twice. Though the two times were better than any other time with any other person I’d ever been with.
I took another drag while she stared me down with her fists planted on her hips. I blew it out, muttering, “What’s up?”
She scowled, those perfect lips becoming a thin line. “I was gonna see if you’d help me put everything in the spare bedroom.” Her eyes twitched in the direction of the cigarette. I rolled my eyes. “But I see you’re busy, so don’t worry about it.”
“I’ll be in in a bit” was all I said before she spun a little ungracefully and stomped back to the apartment.
There was a lot of shit I needed to figure out real quick. I’d been putting off going to Ohio to find a place to live.
