Chapter Thirteen
Amy
I couldn’t believe I was doing this.
Rox and I stood on her front porch, waiting for Eric to arrive, and I felt like a teenager who had just lied to her parents about where she was going.
“Are you sure you are safe with this guy?” Rox asked, a glass of wine in her hand.
She had laughed initially when I told her what I needed from her tonight, nearly hanging up on me until I told her that I wasn’t lying. I needed coverage for a few hours, and though she had grumbled, Rox had agreed after I told her that Sydney would probably do it without hesitation.
Now I had successfully driven myself to her and Neil’s house, pleading with my father to allow me some girl time without a guard standing over me. He had relented only when I had promised to strap my own gun on and call him at the first sight of anything going wrong. I wasn’t planning on having to do either.
“I’m sure,” I answered, the sound of a bike gunning down the road filling the air. “Thanks for doing this. I will be back around midnight.”
Rox sighed.
“You just better be glad Neil is off on a mission, or I don’t know if he would let you leave, Amy. Someone tried to kill you by setting your house on fire, remember?”
I looked over at her as Eric pulled into the drive.
“I promise I’m safe with him. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
Rox’s eyes slid over to Eric, who was sitting on the bike, too dark to make out any of his features. His hair was covered with a ball cap that was sitting on his head backwards, and I felt my heart skip a beat at the sight. He was too good looking for his own good sometimes, and I couldn’t believe that he was mine.
“Midnight, or I will call the troops in.”
“Midnight,” I breathed, hurrying down the stairs and toward Eric.
He grinned as I slung my leg over the bike, grabbing his waist.
“Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” he replied, gunning the bike and shifting to give me more room on the seat. “Ready?”
I replied by squeezing his waist, and he took off, the wind tearing through my hair.
I closed my eyes and laid my head on his back, allowing the cool wind and the feel of his body against mine to melt my concerns away. There had been many nights like this, before things had gotten complicated. Life had been so much better back then, and I wasn’t talking about my pregnancy. Right now, the pregnancy was the easy part of my life.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take us long to get to Eric’s place, and he pulled the bike up close to the small house, shutting off the engine. I climbed off first, smoothing my hair down as he did the same, walking to the front door to open it.
“Come on in,” he said with a wink.
I stepped inside, the smell of something delicious in the air, causing my stomach to growl.
“What is that smell?”
“Pot roast,” he said, shutting the door behind him. “In the crockpot.”
I looked at him, arching a brow.
“You own a crockpot?”
He colored, sliding his hat off his head.
“Yeah, I do.”
I grinned as I set my bag on the couch, mainly because he looked so cute when he said it.
“Well then, I hope it tastes as good as it smells.”
He motioned for me to follow him into the kitchen, and I gasped as I saw the flowers that were in a vase on the table. I wasn’t a big frou-frou type girl, but I did like to get flowers every once and while.
Eric had been the only man to ever buy me flowers.
“They are lovely. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he answered, walking to the fridge. “I have water.”
“No beer?” I teased as he opened the door.
“Not for you,” he grinned, pulling out a bottle of each. “Sorry.”
“A girl can only wish,” I sighed, accepting the bottle.
“Maybe in about eight months or so,” Eric replied, popping the top on his beer and taking a swig. “Are you hungry, or do you want to hang out?”
I looked over at the food he had prepared, touched that he had gone to all this trouble for me. He was trying so hard, and I was desperately trying not to think too much into it, but he was making it very hard not to.
“Let’s eat.”
“Alright then,” he said, grabbing a plate and holding it out to me. “Ladies first.”’
***
About thirty minutes later, I pushed back my plate and patted my full belly.
“That was amazing. You should take up cooking.”
Eric wiped his mouth with the napkin before throwing it on his empty plate. “Trust me. My cooking skills are limited. My mom didn’t know that many recipes.”
I sat back, looking at him.
“You’ve never mentioned your mom before.”
He gave a little shrug.
“Not much to say. I’m a one-night stand product. She worked nights, so most of my meals came out of a crockpot when she remembered to fix it.”
Sounded like his life hadn’t been the best, and I instantly felt sorry for him. Reaching across the table, I took his hand in mine.
“My mom died when I was five.”
His hand closed over mine, his thumb stroking the sensitive skin.
“I didn’t know.”
I gave a little shrug this time. I wanted to believe she would have been ecstatic about this child, her first grandchild. It was a bittersweet thought.
“It’s okay. She died in a car accident. Tessa, my step-mom, is pretty awesome.”
Eric chuckled.
“I gotta be honest. I can’t imagine anyone married to Grant Travis.”
I smirked. That wasn’t the first time I had heard that statement.
“He’s not so bad. He just expects some things to be his way and his way only.”
Eric looked at me, his eyes straying to my distended stomach.
“What do you think he will say about you being knocked up?”
“I honestly don’t know,” I sighed, not really wanting to think about it. “I hope that he won’t be disappointed in me.”
I tried so hard to impress him in everything I did, everything I said, so that one day he would see me as the right person to carry on after he decided to step down. But me being pregnant put a kink in my plans and also what my father would see me as.
“Babe,” Eric said, his eyes growing soft. “There’s nothing for him to be disappointed in you about. You are a fucking amazing woman.”
My eyes watered at his fierce words.
“You are just saying that because I’m knocked up with your kid.”
He gave me a soft smile, squeezing my hand.
“There’s no one else that I would want to be having my kid.”
I sniffed as Eric stood, tugging on my hand until I was standing and he was wrapping his arms around my body.
“Don’t cry,” he said, his hand rubbing my back. “I can’t stand it when you cry.”
“Hormones,” I answered, pressing my face into his shoulder and taking a deep breath.
Eric was being too sweet to me lately.
“Just hold me.”
“Always,” he murmured, pressing a kiss against my neck.
I sighed as his warmth seeped into my bones, filling me with something I had been missing those last few days without him around. Maybe I should go ahead and break the news to my father, introduce him to the man before me, and just see where it went from there.
But if I did that, then I was putting Eric in danger as well. He would then be targeted by whoever was targeting the Horsemen, whether it was the Brotherhood or Grayson Barnes himself, and I didn’t want him in that position.
I didn’t want him hurt.
“What are you thinking?” he asked after a moment, pulling back to cup my cheek with his warm hand, his eyes searching mine. “I can feel the tension in your body.”
I drew in a shaky breath, leaning into his touch.
“I’m just worried about everything, about this baby, about the threats on my family, everything.”
His jaw clenched.
“I wish you would come stay here.”
“Like my father would agree to that,” I laughed. “I mean, I had to sneak out of the house tonight and lie to my father in order to be here.”
Eric blew out a breath, frustration on his face.
“Maybe… hell, maybe I should go talk to him.”
“Do you think that’s the right thing to do right now?” I asked, surprised he was willing to do so.
He chuckled.
“Hell, no. I think he would shoot me on the spot, especially if he knew I had knocked you up, but I am willing to if you want me to do it. I want you happy, Amy.”
I was happy, well sort of.
He was right though. I didn’t know, one, how my father would take the news of me dating someone that was not in the Horsemen and, two, how he would take the information of him being a grandfather.
“I-I don’t think it’s a good idea right now.”
“Are you sure?” Eric asked softly.
I nodded.
“Let’s not make this more complicated than it already is right now, okay?”
“Okay,” he replied. “But I won’t wait the entire eight months, Amy. Sooner or later, we are going to have to tell him and everyone else.”
“Okay.”
He made me feel like I was the most important person in the world right now, and I hoped and prayed that this didn’t end between us. Eric, despite his mysterious ways, was the man that I had always pictured I would find, and unless he was silently leading these attacks against me and my family, I wasn’t planning on getting rid of him.
I wanted to keep him forever.
But, unfortunately, I was currently Cinderella coming up on my stroke of midnight.
“Stay with me,” he whispered, kissing my jawline. “Stay with me tonight Amy. Let me love you.”
“I wish I could,” I sighed, stepping out of the circle of his arms. “I have to get back. Rox is putting her neck out for me, and I can’t allow her to take any fall for me.”
Eric blew out a breath.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
I stepped toward him, placing my hand on his cheek. “I’m sorry. This will all be over as soon as my father can capture Grayson Barnes, I’m sure of it.”
Eric’s expression hardened briefly before he took my hand on his cheek and pressed a kiss to the palm of it.
“It will all end soon.”
“I hope so,” I said quietly.
I was so ready for it to be over with and for my life to turn into somewhat a normal one.
There was once upon a time when I thought I didn’t deserve to be happy, but now I craved it. I had a kid on the way and a guy who was willing to face my father in order to be with me.
Something had to give soon.
“Come on,” Eric finally said after a moment. “Let’s get you and peanut home.”
It took a moment for me to understand what he was saying, a tender smile coming to my lips as I watched his eyes travel down to my stomach, the tenderness in his own eyes nearly blowing me away.
This had not been a mistake between us.
This had been a blessing.