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"I don't." He pulls back to look at me. "When I make a promise, I keep it. And I promise you, Everly—it's going to be good between us. All of it. The sex, the baby, the life we're building. It's going to be good."

Tears prick my eyes. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because you deserve good things," he says simply. "And I'm going to make sure you get them."

We shift finally, him disposing of the condom, I didn't even notice him put on—even in the heat of the moment, he was protecting me.

He pulls me against his chest, my head over his heart, his fingers tracing patterns on my spine.

"Still think you could fall in love with me?" he asks quietly.

I press a kiss to his chest, right over his heart. "If you're not careful."

"Told you," he murmurs, pulling me closer. "Careful's overrated."

"Good," I whisper. "Because I think I'm already falling."

His arms tighten around me. "I'll catch you."

And lying there in his simple room, in his strong arms, with our complicated future stretched out before us, I actually believe him.

For the first time in months, I'm not afraid.

Not of Dylan, not of the future, not of the feelings growing between us.

Because Regnor's here.

And he'll catch me.

We'll catch each other.

"Regnor?" I say softly, already half-asleep.

"Yeah, Goldilocks?"

"Thank you for keeping our secret. For claiming us even though..."

He's quiet for so long, I think he won't answer.

"Doesn't matter whose DNA that baby has. Mine now. Both of you."

"How can you be so sure? So willing to raise another man's child?"

"Because," he says, pressing a kiss to my hair, "family isn't about blood. It's about choice. And I choose you. Every day, I'll keep choosing you."

And that—more than the sex, more than the promises, more than anything—makes me believe we might actually make this work.

A secret wrapped in a lie wrapped in a truth.

A broken woman learning to heal.

A baby who'll be loved regardless of who knows what.

A future that started in desperation but might just end in something beautiful.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Everly