I open my arms, and she rushes forward, shoving Sean aside as she passes him. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“I’m more angry I didn’t figure it out. You’re pregnant and … with an Arrowood baby, no less. You should’ve told me, Syd. I would’ve helped you.”
“I know, and I was planning to. I just felt that Declan should be the next person to know.”
She looks at him and then back to me. “I get it. We all have our secrets I guess. Are you okay?”
“Of course she’s okay,” Sean breaks in. “She just had her tongue down Declan’s throat.”
Devney turns to Sean and huffs. “You’re an ass.”
“You love my ass.”
She rolls her eyes and turns back to me. “This is what I get for agreeing to pick him up and bring him to see you.”
One day, the two of them are going to realize just how perfect they are for each other, and then we are all going to be in trouble.
“I’m really sorry you both found out this way. I swear, it … it just all got away from me.”
Declan stands beside me, hand on my shoulder. “Nothing is going to get away from you now.”
Devney’s eyes twinkle, and her grin grows. “Does this mean you two have finally gotten your heads out of your asses and are back together?”
Are we? I know he loves me and wants a future, and it’s all I’ve wanted as well, but this is all … scary.
The man I thought abandoned me is at my side.
The baby I thought I might lose is safe.
And I’m not sure I’m really living in my current reality or if something insane has happened.
I open my mouth to say yes, but Dec speaks before I do. “It means that Syd and I have a lot to figure out, but I love her and she knows that. What we do from there is between us.”
Well, isn’t he just my knight in shining armor? I look up to him and grin. “That was very lawyerly of you.”
“What was?”
“The way you handled them.”
Declan chuckles. “I know how to manage people.”
Sean snorts. “This kid is doomed with the two of you.”
Maybe he is, but there’s no one else I would want to have a child with. I look at Declan, wondering if he feels the same way.
His eyes meet mine and then he leans down and gives me a kiss. “I think the three of us are going to find a way to make it work.”
“You do?”
He nods.
Sean throws his arm over Devney’s shoulders and chuckles. “You owe me fifty bucks.”
Both of us turn to look at him. “For what?”
“I bet Devney that he finally figured out how much he loved you and was willing to put the past where it belongs.” Sean walks to Declan with a grin. “It’s good to see it finally happened.”
Declan punches his brother in the shoulder playfully. “Yeah, I think it’s time we all face issues we’ve been pretending didn’t exist.”
I note the subtle jab at Sean’s denial and lie back against the pillow. I gained a lot during the week I was sleeping. I got back the family I missed.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Declan
“I’m staying until I know you can go down the stairs without breaking your neck,” I tell her as she tries, once again, to get me to leave.
This is her new favorite thing. Push me away, try to get me to go, and then cave when I refuse.
“I’m fine.”
She isn’t fine. She isn’t even close to fine, but reminding her of that only pisses her off more. “I know you are.”
Sydney’s eyes narrow. “You know I don’t believe you.”
I smirk. “I do.”
She left the hospital two days ago, but her balance is still a bit off and she tires very easily. I found her earlier this morning, as she tried to get to her room on the second level, sitting on the stairs panting and pale. That was the last straw. Ellie came over and sat with her while I packed my shit and brought it here.
It definitely is not the way I planned to get her to agree to us living together, but anything works for me at this point.
“You can’t just move in here, Dec,” Syd tries to reason with me again.
She’s nicely tucked into bed, and I have my laptop on my lap so I can do some work while I supervise her. “I’ll officially own the house in two days, so I sort of can.”
Her jaw drops. I guess she forgot about that one. “And where am I going once the transaction is complete?”
“Nowhere.”
If I have my way, neither of us will be going anywhere and this will be our permanent residence.
“Am I your hostage?”
“I’d prefer the title of wife.”
Sydney’s eyes widen and then she tosses a pillow at me. “You know, when you say shit like that, you make it really hard to remember I’m supposed to be upset with you!”
I hoped that would be her reaction, but I never know. I put the laptop aside and make my way over to the bed. “Does it help when I tell you how much I love you? Or how beautiful you are? Or how much I want to kiss you?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“What about if I were to do it now?”
“Do what?” Her voice is soft and there’s a slight tremble in it.
“Kiss you.”
Sydney’s gaze turns molten, and she smiles. “Is that what you want?”
If she only knew. “More than anything.”
I hesitate, not because I don’t want to kiss her—hell, I want nothing more—but because I want her to choose me. I want Sydney to see that, while I’m the same guy I was when I showed up here months ago, there’s something different inside me. Maybe it’s because I’ve found some way to let go of the past.
My father was a bastard, there’s nothing that will ever change that, but I don’t have to be him.
I can be my own
