Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(16)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Even Fiona jumped in on the laid-back banter, laughing as she did her best to keep up with the man who seemed completely wrong for her. She was just so quiet and shy, while Cash couldn’t keep his mouth shut for longer than three seconds, the guy larger than life while she seemed content to fade into the shadows.

I glanced down at Aly. She tipped her head up to look at me. Affection shined bright in her eyes. I kissed her forehead.

Guess I had no place making judgment calls like that. I sure as hell didn’t have the first clue about who should be with who, because never in a million years would I have thought that someone as amazing as Aly could be for me.

Our food was served and we ordered another round of drinks.

Aly dove into her burger. She planted her elbows on the table and leaned over her plate, shoving the huge burger into her mouth. She slanted an eye over at me and hummed.

God, she was cute.

Soft amusement pulled at my mouth, and I massaged my fingers into the thick mass of her hair at the base of her neck while she dug into her food.

“Starving,” she mumbled around her burger as an explanation, and I just laughed and dug into mine.

God, maybe it was stupid, but I had the sudden sense that I belonged. Like maybe there was a place for me in this world after all.

I finished my food, pushed my plate away, and tossed my napkin onto it. Lifting my bottle high, I polished off my third beer.

Satisfied.

Cash lifted his beer, downed half of it, and pointed the neck in Aly’s direction. “Are you always going to let your ass**le brother talk you into being DD, Aly?”

In the middle of another bite, Aly froze. Then her head snapped up, like she’d been caught in a lie. But she wasn’t looking at Cash. She was looking at me. All kinds of worried questions played out on her sweet face. Like maybe she was asking for some kind of permission, some guidance on how to proceed.

Are you ready for this?

I shrugged because there were few things I worried less about than what some guy like Cash thought about me. What mattered was how she felt about announcing this to world. Especially before we even got to tell her parents.

Now, telling her parents? That I f**king cared about. I was doing just about everything I could not to think about tomorrow. Going back to the old neighborhood, walking through their front door, sitting down at their table. I didn’t know how I was going to handle it. Or if I even could. The rock sitting heavily in the pit of my stomach assured me I wasn’t ready for all that. But Aly had asked me to be there for her and I was sick of letting her down. So since this afternoon, I’d shoved the thought of it down, buried it, refusing to listen to that voice warning me going back would be straight-up disaster. No doubt, dwelling on it would send me into a tailspin, a nosedive that there’d be no recovering from. So I just filed that shit.

Tomorrow was just another f**king day.

Aly swallowed hard and straightened in the booth. She focused on Cash. “Well, truth is, he didn’t have to plead with me all that much. Looks like I’m going to be shoo-in for DD for the next six months or so.” Aly tipped her head to the side, the words sharp with the implication.

With his beer halfway to his mouth, Cash stopped dead. Then his attention volleyed between Christopher and me, waiting for some kind of reaction from the two of us. Like he was prepping himself to jump across the table to stop the brawl that was about to break out. No question, he knew if this was news to Christopher, dude was not gonna be happy.

What Cash didn’t know was that shit had already gone down months ago. Punches weren’t necessary. They’d already been thrown.

Christopher exhaled, his brow lifting to his hairline like one huge shrug. He had nothing more to say about it.

Cash looked back at Aly. “No shit, baby girl,” he muttered below his breath. “That is . . . crazy,” he seemed to settle on. I got the distinct impression Cash cared more than he’d ever let on, and he was feeling a wave of protectiveness rise up in him over my girl. “You okay with all this? This seems kind of sudden.”

He cast me a furtive glance packed with speculation.

As if I wasn’t going to notice.

Couldn’t blame him, though. I mean, f**k, I left her. For three months. Showed up on her doorstep last night, ready to grovel, to beg her to take me back. When she did, I’d pretty much just held her for all of the night because the thought of letting her go left me physically ill. Truth was, I really hadn’t even talked with her about how she felt about the pregnancy. How she really felt about it. If she was happy or scared or f**king mad.

But something inside me knew I didn’t need her to vocalize it. She’d already spoken it all in her eyes. In the awe that had shimmered, in the anticipation that had burned so bright.

There was no mistaking the affection caught in the soft sigh that had parted her lips when I’d kissed her there, right below her belly button, over the place that harbored the thing that terrified me most.

Aly reached for me. Her short nails dug into the back of my hand as she squeezed, searching for reassurance. Or maybe she was giving it to me. Then she turned back to Cash.

“Honestly? I’ve had a rough couple of months.” Helpless, she shrugged, like the right words were impossible to find. She grimaced as she worked through her thoughts. “I was shocked. Scared. Sad,” she admitted quietly. “I didn’t expect this . . . at all.”

She glanced over at me. One side of her mouth curved with a small, genuine smile. It was something that should be so insignificant. Still, it twisted me all up inside.

She angled that smile on Cash, her voice soft with the same devotion I witnessed in her last night. “But I can’t imagine a greater honor than being a mother . . . bringing a life into this world.” She paused, blinked as she settled a tentative hand on her stomach. “I just want to be worthy of it. To love and raise this baby the way it deserves.”

Aly knocked the breath from my lungs.

Unworthy?

It was me who was unworthy.

My fingers found the back of her neck, and I nudged her to face me. I dropped my forehead to hers and cupped her cheek. A surprised breath rushed all over my face, her nose touching mine. I didn’t give a second’s f**k that three sets of prying eyes burned into the side of my face.

The words came out harsh, low, desperate. “Don’t you dare think for a second you could be unworthy of this, Aly. There’s no chance you’re not going to be a good mother. Not one. Do you understand me?”

Aly pulled back a fraction, and my free hand went to the other side of her face. I sat there holding her. Aly’s cheeks flamed under my palms, searing where they burned into my skin.