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“And I want you to know before you start jumping to assumptions, I didn’t want to be with you just because you got pregnant. Yes, it’s the commendable thing to do, but it was more than that.Youwere more than that.”
Her mouth snapped shut. I knew her well. Better than she probably knew.
“You are as determined and strong as you are beautiful. Your kindness is too pure to believe sometimes. I’ve never met someone whose true passion was to help others when it didn’t lend them any advantages. You put me in my place when I need it, and you don’t tiptoe around my feelings. You also don’t tiptoe around yours. You tell me how it is and your needs. You’re stubborn as hell, which is annoyingly endearing.”
I could see her holding her breath as she took in my words, and I only hoped that she was really absorbing them. Believing them. It seemed like no one had told her just how incredible she was, and that was a cruel revelation to me.
“While I know you can raise this baby on your own, and you’d fight tooth and nail to give it the best life you could all while being a loving mother, I don’t want you to do it alone.”
She looked down at her stomach that she couldn’t even see her feet over, and the look in her eyes showed the love she had for the baby. I could see right then and there the kind of mother she would be. The baby was so loved already, and that’s what mattered. It didn’t matter the kind of crib the baby slept in or what clothes it wore or what stroller it rolled around in. What mattered is that it had loving parents.
I took a chance and gently placed my hand over hers. We stood like that for several minutes, just embracing the silence and this moment that felt all too fleeting. I felt a tear fall on my hand and drip off my knuckles. I looked up and saw that Heart was silently crying. Her eyes found mine and then she did something that made my heart feel like it was being put together.
She slid her hands from under mine and my palms were then pressed against her firm stomach. She placed her hands over mine and pushed against them slightly. That was when I felt it. A kick. The most incredible feeling in the entire world. I felt my eyes burn as tears began to form behind my eyes. Then there was another kick. And another. As if the baby was saying hello. As if the baby knew who I was.
I leaned down and whispered, “Hello.”
After a few moments, the baby became still again, and I stood slowly as if in a trance-like state. How could someone I had never met have me wrapped so tightly around their finger? I had never loved someone so fiercely, except maybe for the women who stood before me silently weeping.
I slowly raised my hand and brushed her tears away with my thumbs. She nestled her cheek into the palm of my hand and looked at me with a soft smile. I could see she was scared. I was too. We could be scared together, just as long as we were together.
“Heart. I love you,” I said. “Fiercely, loyally, and passionately.”
She sucked in a shaky breath.
“It would be an honor to raise our baby together. If you’ll let me.”
Chapter 55
Addison
I stood in the doorway of my apartment and let Daniel’s words soak into me as if I was stepping into a warm bubble bath. They surrounded me with warmth and a comfort that I didn’t know how badly I needed until this moment.
I felt like I was in a movie or one of Monica’s romance novels. It felt so surreal to be delivered a speech like that. One you only saw on the screen or read in books. But the words were for me. I had a quick, satisfactory feeling thinking about how Monica’s book just might have that happy ending after all.
Daniel’s eyes were looking at me expectantly. The icy blue of them had somehow danced into a deeper shade, and I found myself lost in them. Lost in this moment. I knew he was waiting for me to say something. It took everything I had not to start sobbing and try to formulate a sentence. My gaze fell to the floor.
At my feet was the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. I had never seen anything like that. The hues of blues and pinks and soft whites kissed in a soft array of pastel colors. Roses. Orchids. Hyacinths. And next to it, a white paper cup of herbal tea that was probably lukewarm by now.
I laughed softly at the gesture. The memory. Of a time when things seemed so simple and new. Even then, he was trying to be a part of my life by showing up to Brooklyn each morning and driving me into Manhattan. A commute back and forth that not many would want to take first thing in the morning.
He really had been trying all along. And maybe he didn’t get it right sometimes. I sure as hell hadn’t. But he was here at my door and he was fighting for me once again.
I took a deep breath.
“When I first met you, I thought I had you pegged. I knew your type. A rich, spoiled playboy. I told you as much, until I realized who you were. I’m still mortified by that,” I said.
Daniel laughed softly.
“But even through having my preconceived notions of you, I felt something on that terrace. It’s like you actuallysawme. Someone most people look over. I couldn’t shake the way you looked at me or the way you made me feel out on that terrace. It’s like you somehow crept into my mind without me knowing, and you stayed there.”
“And you’ve stayed in mine,” said Daniel.
“I had a hard time believing that someone like me would be of any interest to you. I let everything I had read about you and everything I had seen about you tell me I wasn’t enough.”
“Youareenough,” he started, but I put my hand up.
I had to get this out. He nodded and put his hands gently down at his sides, signaling he was listening.