Chapter Nineteen - Mindy
Mindy’s insides felt torn apart at the idea that Devon might reject their child. What if he didn’t even believe her? What if he was worried she wanted something from him? What if, what if, what if. It was all she could think about.
“You should at least meet her, Devon. Even if you don’t want me, you should see her. She’s beautiful, smart… perfect. She’s my perfect little angel.” She took a faltering step closer.
The door opened behind her. It was her mom. She was chattering away at Katy and the stroller wheels squeaked on the hardwood floor. Mindy whirled around to face them. She couldn’t keep looking at Devon, his face slack with shock.
She wondered as she had a hundred times before, at her choice to keep this a secret from him. She hadn’t wanted to saddle him with responsibility he wasn’t ready for, hadn’t asked for. Katy was precious to her, but having this baby had been her choice.
“Devon?” Her mom stopped in her tracks and looked at Mindy, her lips pursed.
Mindy undid the latches and picked the baby up from the stroller. “Mom, can you excuse us?”
Her mom gave her a long, questioning look then nodded. “I suppose so.” She started to turn, then stopped. “Devon, I’ve known you a very long time. I treated you like one of my own.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Devon said.
“Think very, very carefully about the next words you say. They’ll define who you are to this child. And to Mindy.” Her mom turned at that and walked into the kitchen. She was right. If Devon couldn’t find a way to love them both, then they could never be together.
“I understand.” Devon took a step closer to Mindy, his eyes bulging from their sockets. “Can I hold her?”
She held Katy close, inhaling her scent for a moment. She smelled so clean and new, still. Her child… their child. “Yes.”
He crossed the room and held his arms out. She slid the baby into them, helping him adjust to Katy’s small size. “She was two weeks early. It made me think of you. She was so excited to take center stage, she couldn’t wait.”
“And she’s healthy?”
“Absolutely perfect. Has been since day one and she’s in the ninetieth percentile for her development.”
“Is that a good thing?” He looked into his daughter’s clear, blue eyes, Mindy’s eyes. She saw it on his face, the moment everything clicked into being real for him. He hugged the baby close. “You’ve got a head start on me. I don’t know what any of that means.”
“It means she’s smart and developing well physically.” Mindy sat down on the couch because her knees were wobbly. She wanted to ask him what this meant for their future. Did the three of them have a future? But that seemed selfish considering he’d only just found out he was a dad.
“Is this why you left me? Because you didn’t think I’d want her? Because I already love her. She smells like nothing else, and she looks so much like you.”
“She got your blond hair, though.” Mindy couldn’t help but smiling when she talked about Katy. But her stomach fluttered with nerves.
“Sure she does. She’s got to have a little bit of her old man. As long as she looks like her beautiful Mommy.” He sat down beside her and laid Katy down on his thighs. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yeah, this is why I left. I knew Bret would try to make you marry me, I knew the label would try to make you marry me, and that was the last thing I wanted. If you want us, I want it to be because it’s what you want.”
“Are you kidding me?”
She couldn’t meet his gaze, staring hard at a spot on the old hardwood.
“Min, look at me.” When she lifted her face and looked at him, he touched her cheek, keeping one hand firmly on the squirming baby’s belly. “Of course I want you both. I love you. Hell, I’ve known her for less than five minutes and I’d cut off an arm for her. I love both of you.”
Relief rushed through her like standing under a waterfall. “So, you’re not mad?”
“Oh, I’m going to kill your brother. If he’d only told me what was going on…” He shook his head, his mouth a hard line.
“I made him promise me he wouldn’t. Here.” She scooped the baby up, spread a blanket on the floor and laid her down there. “If you don’t kiss me in the next five seconds, I might die.”
Devon stood and was by her side in a flash. He wrapped his arms around her and looked down at the baby and then into her eyes. His lips took hers, gentle and sweet, and then more. Demanding and hot, everything at once.
When they parted, he held her close. “We’re a family. We’ll always be a family. I love you, Min.”
“I love you, too, Devon. So much.”
Today, they would start their lives together. She didn’t care if they ever married, though she’d remind him he’d sort of proposed to her. She just wanted to raise their daughter together, as one. For the first time since she had left him, she was truly happy again.
*****
THE END