Page 146 of The Moments You Were Mine

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In the quiet of my kitchen, I slowly pulled out the ingredients for the churro waffles that were one of Parker’s favorite morning dishes. I was sore. Bruised and cut and tired. We both were, but our wounds would heal. We were alive, and the baby was okay. Those were the only things that mattered.

When we’d gone to the ER, and I’d told the doctor I’d been punched in the stomach, I thought Parker was going to lose his shit all over again. But the doctor had performed an ultrasound and said the baby appeared to be just fine. When we’d heard the heartbeat, the look Parker got on his face—the complete and indescribable love—had me falling for him all over again. He was madly in love with not only me but a baby that might not be his by DNA, and who he’d already claimed as his.

She was ours and no one else’s.

While the ultrasound hadn’t been able to reveal the gender of the baby, for some reason, we’d both taken to calling the babyher. It had to mean something, didn’t it? Some kind of universal parent intuition? Regardless of its gender, the baby would be accepted and cherished. It wouldn’t be an obligation to raise her. It would be an honor.

After finally unburying the waffle maker from the far recesses of the cabinet, I stood up too fast and banged my head on a cabinet I’d left open.

I swore silently just as the machine was ripped from my hands and tossed onto the counter beside me.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Rest! You need rest, goddamnit. For at least a week. No more bangs to the head or cuts or kidnappings. You will do nothing but lay around and heal. You’ll take care of yourself and that little one inside you, or I’ll tie you to the bed myself.”

I rubbed my head and glared. “I wanted to make myhusbandbreakfast.”

His eyes flared. That word, that single word, got him every time, and my heart leaped with joy. I was going to like using it on him for the rest of our lives.

I fisted his T-shirt, rose on my toes, and kissed him before murmuring against his lips, “But I kind of like the idea of being tied up in bed as long as you’re in it with me.”

He snorted out a laugh. “That wouldn’t be rest.”

“How about if I promise not to move even an inch. Not even a finger. You can do all the work.”

Stormy eyes met mine. “We might be able to arrange something like that, Wife.”

My heart tripped at the matching word he was going to enjoy using on me just as much as I’d enjoy usinghusbandon him.

I raised a brow. “Yeah? Then, when the doctor clears me, I’ll tie you to the bed and return the favor.”

“Fuck. Our parents are ten minutes from here, and I’m hard as a rock.”

“Our parents?!” I scrambled to put distance between us. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why are they coming?”

He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Ducky, our plane crashed, and you were kidnapped. I think our parents want to see that we’re all okay with their own eyes.”

“Is Theo coming with your parents?”

He nodded, and that soft look returned to his face. Love.

No remainder of the furious Navy SEAL I’d witnessed yesterday was on his face today. But I knew it existed inside him. I’d seen it in action firsthand in a way I never wanted to see again. It was a piece of him he’d honed and developed and that he was giving up to be here with Theo, me, and the baby.

“Stop,” he said.

“I want to hate when you do that.”

“What?”

“Read my thoughts. But I can’t find it in me to actually hate it, because it means you know me better than anyone. It means you love me.”

Even as I said it, I knew it for the truth it was. He really did love me exactly as I’d always dreamed he would.

“You’re right, Wife. I do.”

He kissed me slowly and thoroughly in a way that made me hope our families would be a bit longer than ten minutes. But just as my knees went weak, a clatter of footsteps on the porch hadhim pushing me behind him.

At some point in my life, I might have been frustrated by those protective instincts, but instead, it filled my chest with warmth. I’d never be alone. I’d never be without protection, because I had someone who would always put me and our children first.