Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(48)
Author: A.L. Jackson

And I wanted.

Needed.

Craved.

Her mouth moved softly at my ear, a promise, a call I never believed I could heed.

“I am yours,” came out from her on a ragged breath.

And I took.

I took what was mine.

TWELVE

Jared

The next morning, I stepped out the front door. The sun had just begun to rise, the sky a dusty gray. Took about all I had to drag myself out of bed and leave Aly sleeping there. I just wanted to curl back in her comfort, but workdays always began early.

I trudged down the walkway from our door and headed straight for where I had my bike parked in front of the garage.

I stumbled a little when I caught sight of the car parked up close to the curb in front of the house, came to a full stop when I noticed the window rolled down and Dave Moore sitting there, staring at me.

As soon as he caught my eye, he climbed from the car, never looking away as he shut his door behind him. Hostility vibrated from him, sending nerves tumbling through me. Mostly resentment. Asshole hadn’t been over here once since we moved in, and it just pissed me off. I knew he hated me. Blamed me. I accepted that. But that didn’t excuse him for treating his daughter like shit, acting like he didn’t care what was going on in his daughter’s life. Really I knew it wasn’t that he didn’t care. He just didn’t want to know.

The air felt loaded, charged as he glared at me where I stood ten feet from him on the walkway.

“You’re unbelievable,” he finally said, his face twisting up in contempt. “Karen told me you up and moved Aly out of her and Christopher’s apartment.” It was an accusation.

I lifted my chin. “Yeah. With the baby, we’re going to need a bigger place.”

He flinched with the mention of the pregnancy.

Was I being an ass**le? Doing it on purpose, rubbing it in, knowing that open wound would sting? Maybe. But shit, I refused to tiptoe around him after the way he’d been treating Aly.

He laughed, but it totally lacked humor. He cut his eye up to me, presumptuous, like he had me pegged. “You really think this changes things? You buy my daughter a house and all of a sudden you’re worthy of her? Nothing could possibly make up for what you’ve done. Her life was all worked out before you showed up. She had it made . . . she had a good future, being a nurse.”

Uncertainty poked me right in the center of my chest, and that voice howled through all my senses, asserting maybe he was right. I shoved it down and listened to what he really said. Because I was pretty sure he didn’t know Aly at all.

“Her life was all worked out? Listen to yourself.” It came out like pity. I realized that was really what I was feeling for him. “Your daughter told you flat out she never wanted to be a nurse. And here you are acting like she just gave up her lifelong goal.”

He sneered. “And what, this is better? Aly quitting nursing school? All of this ridiculous bullshit about her going to art school? You should be ashamed of yourself, filling her head with fantasies, deluding her into believing there’s any kind of future in that.” He shook his head, whispered sharply out ahead, “What a waste.”

What a waste? Anger twisted through my heart. For once this wasn’t about me feeling unworthy. Didn’t matter if I was or not. This was about Aly. About what she was capable of. “Did you come here to try to make me feel bad for encouraging Aly to go after her dreams? You want me to apologize for wanting her to be happy and believing she should chase after the things that make her that way?”

He blanched.

“Because I won’t. I believe in her. She has an incredible talent and ignoring that is what would be a waste. The only thing I’m sorry for is you being too blind to see it.”

I shook my head and headed toward my bike, just leaving him there because I couldn’t stand to continue being in his presence. I paused and looked back at him. “I know you hate the idea of me being with your daughter. But I love her. And do you know what? I’m not ashamed of wanting to see her happy. That’s all I want.” My own disappointment poured from me. “I’d think you’d want the same thing, too.”

Swinging my leg over my bike, I kicked it over. It rumbled below me. I rolled it back out onto the street, teasing at the throttle as I pulled up alongside him.

In shock, Dave Moore stared blankly ahead, like maybe he’d just been gutted by the realization of how amazing his daughter really was.

God, I hoped so.

Because I always hated being that wedge, separating Aly from her family. But this was more than just about me. Even if I’d never come back to Phoenix in the first place and my coming had never changed the direction of Aly’s life, I hoped she would have at least found this.

Because a world without Aly pouring out the beauty locked up inside her was nothing but a shame.

THIRTEEN

Aleena

Our breaths came short and hitched. Anticipation sucked the air from the tiny, dimly lit room.

Jared squeezed my hand, shifting in his chair.

“This is going to be cold,” the woman said as she squeezed the gel over my stomach.

I jumped when it hit my skin.

Jared ran his thumb over the back of my hand, trying to calm me and provide me reassurance. But I felt him shake, his own nerves wringing him tight, like we were feeding off each other, the band of tension stretched taut between us a live wire, the connection that made us one.

A soft smile pulled at my mouth when I looked at him.

He raked his free hand down his face and bounced his knee.

The beautiful exterior of the man evidenced all of his anxiety. Jaw clenched tight. Rigid muscles flexing in his arms. It was obvious how difficult it was for him to sit still in the confines of this room with the walls close and the ceiling low.

But everything changed when our eyes met, as if maybe he found peace in what he saw in mine. Wistfulness touched his mouth and he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.

“Okay, are you two ready to see what we have here?” the ultrasound technician asked, her voice soft with encouragement. She was young, her dark hair tied back in a tight ponytail, her expression easy. She had to be used to couples like us, two people completely on edge as they caught the first glimpse of their future, as they were given a taste of the mysterious, something that seemed such an impossibility.

New life.

The logic of it was incomprehensible.

I could see it as nothing less than a miracle.

“Yes,” I rasped over the rough knot in my throat. Nerves trembled my bones.

God, waiting for this day to come had been nearly unbearable. Sleep had eluded me all of last night. I’d tossed and turned while Jared held me the entire time. He’d run gentle fingers through my hair, chasing away those bits of insecurity that tried to force their way in. The quiet, nagging worries, tangled thoughts that I would be told that this baby was not okay.