With the tension between us earlier, I didn’t notice the mountain of items smashed into the back of his SUV. “Tre?”
“Yeah, Gem?”
Gem.I melt inside, and it distracts me for a second. When I squeeze his hand, he sends me a smile. “What’s all this stuff in the back?”
“Uh, it’s my belongings.”
“So, you flew home last night, packed up your place, and drove all the way back here?”
“Yep. I need to be here. For you and the baby.”
“What about your lease? Your furniture?”
“I’ve been paying month-to-month for a while now.” He shrugs. “It’s all just stuff. Not important.”
“Did you even sleep?”
He chuckles. “Not really. I tapped into Coast Guard bootcamp sleep deprivation mode.”
“Are you safe to be driving right now?” I eye him skeptically, and he wiggles the steering wheel to mess with me.
“I’m good. And before you lecture me about taking a day off, I got approval to work remotely while I wait for the LA transfer to finalize. EdTechU requires a mandatory three days off to transition my workstation to the remote server. I’m all yours until Friday.”
“Good. You can entertain me while I’m stuck in bed,” I grumble.
He raises our hands to his lips and kisses my thumb. “I’d love to.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
TREVOR
“Straight to bed, Gem,” I say, nudging her down the hallway to her bedroom.
“Yeah, yeah. I got it.”
“Hey.” I press a kiss to Willa’s nose. She wrinkles it, but my heart skips a beat at the smile she sends me. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be right there.”
“You don’t have to…”
“But I want to tell you all my secrets.” I flicker my eyebrows suggestively and head back out the door. Unpacking my truck shouldn’t take long, but I need to do something more important first. Leaning against the back hatch, I pull out my phone and open up my therapist’s scheduling app. The first telehealth appointment available is tomorrow around lunchtime. I should have set this up before we left Nebraska. Hell, I should have set this up before wewentto Nebraska, but I was so hopeful I wouldn’t need a preventive appointment this year.Better late than never.
It only takes twenty minutes for me to get my things inside before I’m sliding in next to Willa. I pull her close immediately, hoping to erase the last two days. They happened—and I need to make up for it—but now that I know she wants me to touchher, I’m not stopping for anything. Forty-eight hours felt like a lifetime without her. She snuggles into me, and I light up inside. “How are you feeling?”
“Bored.”
I chuckle and nip at her ear. She’s going to be insufferable on bedrest. “I meant the bleeding.”
“Oh, it’s bored too.” She jumps when I tickle her side, and says with a sigh, “It’s less than it was. Still spotting.”
“Any cramping? Nausea?”
“No, Dr. Jones.”
“Don’t get sassy. I’m just checking.” Nibbling my lip while my hand trails up and down her spine, I need to tell her everything—wantto tell her everything. I’m just worried it’ll change how she sees me. “So…I made an appointment with my therapist for tomorrow while I was outside.” Our eyes meet, and she moves her hand to my chest, right over my pounding heart. “I should have called her days ago when I noticed I was spiraling. And I feel really bad about?—”
“Hey.” She palms my cheek. “You’re already forgiven. Do what you need to do, but I’m ready to move past it.”
I nod, settling into her gaze. “Maya’s had to fill me in on a lot of this stuff. I was three, so I don’t remember much about home life before we went into foster care. But I do remember my bio dad was always yelling and hitting Mom. Whenever he was madanddrunk, he’d home in on me, saying, ‘This is your fault.Everything was fine until you showed up.You’re the reason we’re fucked.’”
