My gaze hooked with hers. “So, with those words you just said, understand that I’m not abandoning you. You aren’t fired. You aren’t kicked out. None of the things you think might happen are actually going to happen. You’ve been part of this family from day one, and it’s going to stay that way. All right?”
She sniffled. “You promise?”
I chuckled. “That, I can promise above everything else.”
She stood from her chair and rounded around the table, so I pushed out my chair. She sat in my lap and placed her head on my shoulder before she started crying again, and the sound broke my heart. I wrapped her up tightly and pressed mindless kisses against her arm. I rocked her side to side as her tears wet my shirt, and I wished for nothing more than to take her sadness away.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whispered, “and I’m not going anywhere. I swear.”
As I held the woman I loved in my arms, I thought about what it might be like to have a boy. I thought about all the things I wanted to teach him about being a man. About how to really romance a woman. About how to treat people with respect, which many men seemed to be lacking these days. But then, my mind turned to the idea of another little girl.
And I felt my protective instincts fill my gut.
The idea of having a house full of girls made me feel strong. Powerful. Protective, like a lion at the head of his pride. There weren’t very many men in this world blessed with a family full of girls. If Eva were growing a sweet little girl inside of that body of hers, I knew I’d be the happiest man on the face of this planet. The idea that I could be so blessed to be seen as the kind of man that the cosmos deemed fit enough to protect a house full of women made me smile.
And as Eva’s sobs started winding down, my hand gravitated toward her stomach, and my fingers splayed against her clothed skin.
“I’ll protect both of you until the day I die,” I whispered.
We didn’t finish our food. In fact, I had our waiter pack things up in to-go boxes so we could take it with us. And after scooping Eva into my arms, I carried her back out to the car. I slid her into the backseat before I scooted in beside her, allowing her to lay her head in my lap as I played with her hair. The smell of Mexican food filled the space around us as Lucas silently drove us back to my place. We quickly interchanged with Jorge, who had been kind enough to watch Asia and put her to bed. I told him that I’d call later to fill him in, then I carried Eva upstairs to her new bedroom while Lucas put our leftovers in the fridge.
The knee-jerk part of me wanted to slip Eva into bed with me. But, I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about that. I carried her into a room filled with nothing but boxes and almost used that as an excuse to take her back to my room. But, the bed was made up with pristine sheets, and everything else was ready to go. So, I settled her onto the mattress and tucked her in.
“So tired,” Eva mumbled.
I kissed her splotchy forehead. “Get some rest. Don’t worry about getting up with Asia. When you get up, we’ll be downstairs.”
She yawned. “No more coffee, okay?”
I chuckled. “Yes, no more coffee for you. I’ll make sure there’s some decaf made up.”
She yawned again. “Night, night.”
I kissed her one last time. “Night, night.”
She snuggled down into the sheets, and I figured that was it. I thought she was dead asleep, and that meant she needed privacy. I took one last second to study her before I crept over toward the light switch, readying myself for a night alone to stew with my thoughts.
Then, I heard Eva mumble something in her sleep that stopped me in my tracks.
“Love you.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I froze in the doorway, watching her like a hawk. Waiting for her to turn over and smile at me or yell, “gotcha!” or any number of things that could have ruined this spectacular moment.
But, none of those things happened. All she did was slip into an effortless slumber with her shoulders rising and falling with her breathing.
“I love you, too, Eva,” I whispered.
With a flick of my wrist, the light was off, and I blazed a trail toward my home office. I had a lot of phone calls to make and even more arrangements to toggle in the coming months. There was no way in hell I could jettison off and film some movie and leave Eva here with Asia. I mean, I’d miss the entire first and half of her second trimester! Not happening one single fucking bit. And as I slipped into my office chair, my hand reaching for my desk phone, I felt a sense of calm and peace wash over me.
This was the path I was destined for.
This was the path my life needed me to take.
And dammit, I sure as hell wasn’t going to screw it up with some bullshit.
24
Eva
