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His lips kissed my hand softly, his green eyes piercing into mine and making my skin heat up instantly.

“You’ll have many more birthdays. I’ll take you and our baby around the world if that’s what you want,” his hands fell to my stomach, caressing it softly.

I didn’t think I could have felt more love for him than I did right then, and I threw my arms around him.

“Shall we get you home?”

He opened the car door and gazed at me as I climbed in gingerly, suddenly aware I was carrying a tiny human in my womb. He shut the door carefully before making his way to the driver’s side, climbing in beside me and grinning inanely at me.

“I’m so fuckinghappy, Raven. I want to go and buy a whole new nursery for the little bean.”

“Bean?” I laughed as he drove, his hand on my thigh lovingly.

“Yeah, it’s like, the size of a kidney bean. I looked it up last night whilst you were sleeping,” he looked over at me and blushed as I laughed.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, you said you had missed two periods, so I guessed you were about two months pregnant. Either that or a whole host of other terrifying things that could be wrong with you,” his jaw clenched as I watched him drive, his thumb now running circles on my thigh.

“Is our house big enough for a baby? Is it in the right area?”

I suddenly panicked at the thought of being a mother in New York. I had visions of me hauling a screaming baby onto the subway whilst sweating buckets, everyone sneering at how bad a mother I was.

A smile played at his lips as he glanced at me, before focusing back on the road.

“Listen to me, Gretchen. You and this baby will want fornothing.Anything you want, or need, you’ve got it. Just tell me.”

“What if it means no more mafia stuff?” I blurted out, biting my lip as his eyes hardened, his posture deflating as he let out a sigh.

He pushed his hair back in irritation before answering me.

“Whatever is right for us. As a family.”

Relief coursed through me as we sat in traffic, my eyes darting around the streets surrounding us looking for babies and mothers. Cal would be as good as his word, that I knew. I just also knew that there was a side to him that I was either going to have to accept that I didn’t know it, or decide if he needed to change it.

If that was even possible.

Part Two: Chapter Twenty- Seven

CAL

I’m going to be a daddy.

I had always known I’d want a family at some point, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. I couldn’t be happier though, the most incredible woman in the world was going to have my child.

I watched her sleep, her full lips parted slightly as she breathed, her chest rising and falling with a steady rhythm. She was so pale though, and it was killing me seeing her suffer through something that was supposed to be natural. She didn’t want anyone to know until the scan proved that everything was okay, which meant she didn’t have any other women to talk to.

I wanted her to tell her mother at least, but she was stubborn. My eyes trailed down her chest to her exposed stomach, my chest aching with love and adoration for what was growing in there. I stood and quietly walked to the window, staring out at the city.

I don’t want our child growing up here.

I didn’t want our child to be a target from all of those that had issues with me—and there were many.

The only reason I was here was because of Gretchen and her studies, but she could study somewhere else if she wanted to. I glanced back over at her, the moonlight from the window falling on her in the darkness, illuminating her like an angel.

Too much had happened to her already.

If it was up to me, she would be on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy. She’d addressed my line of work a few weeks ago and at the time I was filled with shame. This woman deserved an honest man, who worked his fingers to the bone to put food on the table, not someone who pulled the trigger on a gun when someone needed to pay a debt.