Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
He kisses me. “You aren’t going to get pregnant.”
He lays down and pulls my back to his front. “You can’t be sure.”
He lays there a few seconds, something heavy in the air before he says, “I got fixed years ago.”
That hits me like a ton of bricks. He got fixed? I rotate in his arms to face him. “You—years ago?”
“Yes. I did.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want kids. If you want kids—”
“Gabe—”
“It is what it is, Abbie. I got fixed. There are good odds that it can be undone if I choose to get it undone. Right now, I don’t.” He turns me around again and pulls me to him, his big body hugging mine. I could be offended. I could feel shut down, but then he whispers, “I just need you, Abbie.”
He just needs me.
That confession, low and raspy, undoes me the way Gabe undoes me. There’s a story behind his extreme defiance of parenthood. One he clearly doesn’t want to talk about. I don’t push him. I’m self-aware enough to understand that we do things to protect ourselves and Gabe is a man who protects himself to extremes. He understands the way I need to protect myself and he’s tried to help me escape. God, how I want to help him escape, too.
He’s letting me inside his world, he’s giving me that chance. I want to be here despite all the reasons I should walk away. I won’t ever hurt Gabe, but the world I live in might. That worries me. I can’t ask this man to let down walls, to support me and protect me, only to have a piece of me cut him. Maybe even bleed him dry. He nuzzles my neck and he smells good, all woodsy and wonderful and for right now, for this night, I just want to be with him.
My lashes lower and I don’t let myself think of anything but how good he feels.
gabe
I wake at the dawn’s light peeking through the curtains and lay there a good half hour, holding Abbie, replaying last night. A luxury I have now because I took Dexter out about two hours ago when Abbie murmured something incoherent and fell back to sleep. Now, lying in the dimly lit room, I focus on one thing. I told her I got fixed. I’ve never told anyone. I wear a condom for safety. I wear a condom to avoid questions. Abbie is the only woman with whom I’ve ever gone without a condom. Well, the only one for a long damn time. Maybe she wants kids. I didn’t ask her. I don’t want to know. Not now. Not fucking now. I don’t want to find out there’s anything to divide us.
I nuzzle her neck and she snuggles deeper into the bed. She’s sound asleep, peaceful. Comfortable in a way I want her to stay here with me.
I ease out of the bed and quietly head to the bathroom. A few minutes later, my teeth are brushed, and I’m in sweats and a T-shirt when I start a pot of coffee and then feed Dexter. While the coffee brews, I take the pooch for a walk, and the damn dog’s happiness is infectious. He lightens my mood, calms my soul.
A half hour later, he’s at my feet in the kitchen while I drink coffee, and I’m convinced he’s safe to have the full run of the house. He deserves the freedom. I open my MacBook to dig into a strategy to deal with Abbie’s situation when my cellphone rings. It’s my brother. “What’s happening?” Reid asks.
“Our father served a lawsuit on Abbie that has our company’s name on it.”
“That little bitch,” he says. “He was trying to make her think you were playing her.”
“Exactly.”
“What are you going to do?”
“File a cease and desist order on him. I’m concerned that him using our name this easily is a sign that he’s doing it elsewhere. We don’t need that connection. We know what he’s capable of.”
“We do,” he says. “But, Gabe, man, Jean Claude is a bad dude. He’ll do what he needs to do to win. He’ll get bloody. If Abbie’s ex is on his team, he’s no better. What do we know about the reason they want that property?”
Bloody. Not a word I want associated with Abbie. “We don’t. I’m working on it.”
“I need to just call Jean Claude and let him know I’m in this. I’m in this all the way because he knows I know ways to hurt him.”
Which is exactly why I was thinking about Reid during my walk with Dexter. “And now you have a way for him to hurt you. Your wife. Step back from this.”
“You’re my brother. I’m in this by default, but if you thought I’d step back when you needed me, we have some brother shit to talk through.”