Chapter Thirty-Two

~McKenna~

“McKenna? Are you alright?”

I couldn’t answer yet again, my throat squeezing too painfully to speak. The sobs just forced themselves out one right after the other.

“McKenna, I’m coming in, alright?”

I didn’t stop him, and I heard the door creak open, then he knelt down in front of me. As gentle as he could be, he pulled the test from my hands and looked at it himself.

“It’s positive,” he murmured, voice quiet.

“Yeah,” I gasped, holding my head. “What do I do? I’m not ready for this! I’m not mother material!”

Suddenly I was pulled into a hug, my frame pressed against a strong, warm chest. “Take a breath for me. Nice and slow. Just one after the other.”

I did as he asked, and I felt my sobs start to still. He didn’t seem to be angry or accusing me of trying to trap him. Could… could we still have a chance at happiness? Had I not ruined everything for myself like I always did?

“This test doesn’t mean you have to do anything. Whatever you want to do, I will respect it. But know that I will love and take care of this child for their entire life, no matter what happened between us.”

“W-what?” I looked up at his face, trying to process his words but my brain felt like mush. Just like that, he would accept us? No paternity tests or contracts or custody agreements? That… that wasn’t possible, right? He couldn’t just trust me out of nowhere.

“Look, I love you. And I don’t mean it in the light, flippant way you tell your friends, or even in the ways you tell your parents. I mean that I love you with every part of my heart, that I would happily go to one end of the Earth to the other for you. I love you, and if your happiness means having this beautiful child together, then that’s what I want to do. And if you are absolutely not ready… then that’s fine too. I only want whatever is best for you.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. After everything we had gone through, after all of the literal hell I had put him through and all of the stress I had brought into his life, he was welcoming me in further.

“But now, more than ever, I hope that you’ll move in with us. If we’re going to raise a child, I don’t want to miss a moment of the time that we could spend together.”

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, crushing him to me with shaking arms. “Are you sure?” I asked, voice barely a whisper.

“Absolutely. Every word of it.”

Tears were starting up again, but they were happy ones, ones that filled me with an untampered sort of joy. I clung to him, holding on with all of my might, until my arms ached, and my body began to overheat.

Rafael pulled away just slightly and we looked at each other, eyes saying so many things that our mouths couldn’t. Then, after our expressions said all that we could, his lips crashed to mine and we were kissing with completely unhinged passion.

All of the stress and pain of the day melted away, leaving only the raw, undiluted desire between us. In all my years, I had never met someone who would do so much for me and act like it was such a matter of fact. I had never met someone who would protect me with everything they had and forgive me when I messed up so terribly.

I wanted to make it up to him. I wanted to show him that my love for him didn’t depend on his money and what he could do for me. And although it was going to take me plenty of time to figure out just how to do that, our lips against each other could suffice for now.

But, as much as I intensely wanted to show him how I felt, the bathroom didn’t really seem like the best place to do it.

“Come on,” I said, standing and taking Rafael’s hand. He rose as well and allowed me to pull him into my living room/bedroom. I took him over to my mattress sitting on the floor and flopped down, pulling him with me.

He was far too strong to yank him down with me, but he still laughed and dropped to his knees, his legs landing on either side of mine. He bent down, and his lips captured mine once again, stoking the fire of my desire.

It was only then, with our mouths moving urgently against each other, that I realized that all of the things I was worried about were now moot. Bradley had been taken away, I wasn’t going to have to go to this pregnancy alone, in fact, I wasn’t ever going to have to do anything alone ever again.

“I love you, Rafael,” I breathed, barely believing I could speak the words. “I’ve never loved anyone like I have you.”

He pulled away, looking down on me with that bone-melting expression that made my entire body lite on fire. It was in that moment that I knew that we had a long, winding road together, one that I was sure would be full of twists, turns and all sorts of surprises, both good and bad.

There would be the long, drawn out trial I would have to go through with my ex, now there was a whole pregnancy, and there was no telling how his ex would deal with all of this. I was sure that she would try to make the situation all about her. She seemed like the type.

But despite all that, I could envision so much happiness. Late nights with Dom, watching some cheesy monster movie that was debuting on a sci-fi channel, to brunches at his favorite Greek place. I could see picnics in the summer and sledding in the winter. I saw laughs and joy and so many smiles.

And I couldn’t wait.