Hattie pulls her phone out of her scrubs and smiles for about two seconds before Charlie comes into the room. She wipes the grin away before he looks at her, a bit too long, honestly. There is something weird with these two. If I didn’t know Charlie better, I’d say they were dating. Hell, maybe he’s destined to fall for a Parker girl, too. They are a force of nature few men can withstand. I can’t believe I ever tried to resist.
“How about her daddy’s godfather? He’s not blood related, but he is connected to the family, and as far as I know, he is not married to a former in-law. Would that suit your morals, Ms. Palmer?” Hattie blinks, putting the cherry on top of her sarcasm sundae.
“I, that is, uhm,” she tries to respond.
Fucking Charlie Storm. He smiles, his dimples come out, and he does this thing with his eyes that makes them go gooey. I don’t understand it. He’s got regular, dark brown eyes. Notsure what about them makes women go batshit crazy. I heard someone call them bedroom eyes before, but no woman ever sees Charlie’s bedroom. He does not bring them to his house.
Apparently, Ms. Palmer has missed the memo that Charlie is Harriston’s own Casanova. It’s also obvious that she isn’t as high and mighty as she lets on. I’d say it’s a safe bet that she’d cross the tracks if Charlie were waiting on the other side.
“I’m great with babies, and if it makes you feel better, I bet I can convince this pretty nurse to come over and help me sometimes.” He winks at Hattie. I am going to have to talk to him about not going after my wife’s aunt. She’s not one of his casual fuck buddies.
Ms. Palmer doesn’t have the same reservations, though. He might as well have told her he was the second coming and patron saint of babies all in one, because she signs off on his guardianship with glee.
I’ve never seen someone get off on filling out a form, but Ms. Palmer is a special kind of freak. One I hope never to see again. Since temporary custody of my grandchild just went to my best friend, maybe I won’t have to.
Hattie starts the process of getting Natalie discharged while Charlie pulls me aside alone. “Hattie called me and told me you needed help. I didn’t know how much until I got here and figured out that you were prepared to bring her home with you.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” I don’t even know why I asked that dumbass question.
Going by the look on Charlie’s face, he doesn’t buy it either. “Natalie is innocent, but she’s also living proof of Liam’s cheating. I’m not saying Wren won’t move past it, but you have to give her time to do that, and not when she’s supposed to be getting ready for her first child. Don’t taint this time for her.”
He looks over his shoulder, and I can’t figure out why he looks so concerned and sad about Wren. “You’ll never get thattime back. You can have more kids together, but you’ll never have this first experience again. I will take good care of Natalie. You know I will. We will work together to kick Liam’s ass until he gets his shit together. Lean on me. You can absolutely have everything, just not alone.”
I nod, because what is there to say? He’s right, and I appreciate that he’s never let me be alone from when Liam was little, and even now.
I reach my hand out for Wren, and she’s a bit slower to take it than she has been. I worry that I might have already dimmed the shine of becoming a mother for the first time.
Chapter Five
Griffin - Past
Outside of the hospital,Wren yanks her hand free from mine. Her arms cross, and she walks much faster than I thought she was capable of through the parking lot. I’m forced to follow behind her because only she knows where she parked the truck. When we get to my old, blue Chevy, she slaps the keys into my hand and walks off.
“Where the hell are you going?” I shout after her.
At a different time, it would probably be funny seeing my very pregnant wife waddling down the sidewalk, but right now it’s just pissing me off. This isn’t us. We don’t run from our problems, at least not anymore. She promised me after I dragged her ass back from Florida. This isn’t a good sign for the future of our marriage if she runs away every time Liam’s stupid decisions land on my shoulders.
Part of being a parent is lifting up your kid when they are down, and I don’t think you can be lower than my son is right now. I can’t constantly be expected to choose between them. I already put cracks in my relationship with him when I touched her the first time. I was selfish, and I justified it because he hurt us both. Together, we repaired what he broke in both of us, but now I have to try and help him fix what he broke in himself. I don’t know if I can be truly happy knowing he’s miserable.
I need her to understand this. Part of caring for him is making sure he doesn’t fuck up any more than he already has. If he loses his daughter because of his disease, I’ll never get him back. Wren is all I need to wake up and fight for happiness every day, but for whatever reason, she wasn’t enough for him. I don’t understand it, but I’m grateful for it. I’m praying that his daughter is enough motivation for him to fight. If she’s not, I’m not sure it’s possible to save him. The thought of that is depressing.
Wren is getting pretty far for a woman entering her eighth month of pregnancy. Still not so far that it’s hard for me to catch up. It’s easier for me because I don’t waddle when I walk. But having to chase her down doesn’t help lower my blood pressure.
I have to pull back when I catch up to her, because I want to wrap my hand around her throat, guide her into the alley, and fuck her hard until she forgets her name, let alone why she’s pissed off at me right now. I miss the days when I could fuck her back into a good mood. Now I’m afraid that if I let myself off the leash, I could hurt her or the baby. Wren even asked the doctor, and even though she said we didn’t need to alter our sex life, apparently I’m not the biggest freak out there, but I just haven’t felt comfortable.
That’s when I’m thinking rationally, though, which I’ve been able to do for the last six and a half months. Reason and I partways when my very pregnant wife thinks she’s going to literally walk away from me.
The town is going to live off this gossip for the foreseeable future, when I race after her to cover the ground she’s managed to put between us. She squeaks when I scoop her up into my arms.
Wren slaps me on the arm. “Oh my God! You’re such a caveman. Put me down before you hurt your back.”
“I’m not actually old, you know,” I say through clenched teeth. First, she tries to walk away from me, and now this. She’s really begging to be spanked when we make it home.
She rolls her green eyes and pushes me a little bit more past reason. “I know you’re not old, but I’m also very huge.”
The tone in her voice is negative, and I don’t like hearing her refer to herself that way. There’s an alley between two brick buildings. I don’t really know this part of Pine Bluff well, but I don’t see any people or cameras, so I turn down between them and set her down in the shadow of the building. We’re alone, even if we’re not guaranteed privacy. Not that we’ve always needed it.
I set her on her feet and wrap my hand around her throat. I feel as if I don’t maintain some kind of hold on her, she’s going to try and leave again. My thumb strokes the column of her throat over and over. The skin there is softer than velvet. Each swipe of my thumb makes her pulse race just a little faster.
