Chapter 39
Tate
Dolly beeps the horn as she drives past me, giving me a thumb’s up that makes me smile.
Could she be any more obvious?
But I can’t think about her right now.
I have to work on winning my wife back.
“Hey, baby.” I stop about a foot away from her,
She stares at me, something inscrutable in her eyes.
“I stole your hoodie,” she blurts, starting to wiggle out of it.
“Leave the damn hoodie on,” I grunt. “You’re cold.”
She stops trying to take it off and shivers slightly.
“Why are you here?” she asks, her gaze locked on mine. “I treated you so awful and—”
“Why do you think I’m here?” I ask quietly.
“I don’t…know.”
I sigh because she’s as stubborn as she is beautiful. “Do you think you could do something for me?”
“I…if I can.”
“I need you to tell me the truth.”
“About what?”
“Everything. Why you freaked out that day at the palace. I know you were worried about your mom, but why did you turn away from me when I know damn well you needed me. What have I ever done, aside from the day you first told me you were pregnant, to make you think you couldn’t trust me?”
She looks away, sadness in her eyes. “It’s not easy to…explain.”
“Can you try? Please?” I reach out a hand. “Because I love you, and I thought you had feelings for me too. Then you called me—this thing between us—a mistake. And it fucking hurt.”
She stares, blinking rapidly, as she bites her lip. There are tears shimmering in her eyes, and before I realize what’s happening, she vaults herself into my arms. Head against my chest, fingers digging into my jacket, holding on like she’s never going to let go.
“I didn’t mean we were a mistake. I was talking about me going to Europe and spending so much time away.”
“I don’t believe that. I think you meant it exactly the way it came out. And I want to know why.”
“Because…” She hesitates, like she can’t quite get the words out.
“Because?” I prompt.
“Because…I love you too,” she says in a tiny voice, and relief floods my system.
“Look at me, baby.”
She slowly lifts her head.
“Tell me why that’s a mistake.”
Her golden eyes turn molten. “Because I love you so much I’m scared.”
Fuck, but I love hearing those words.
But we have to dig deep on this so it doesn’t keep happening.
“Of what?”
She hesitates again, but only for a moment, like she’s shoring up the courage to tell me the truth. “That you’re… going to leave me. That a baby isn’t a good enough reason to stay. That you have this amazing life and career, and we’re going to hold you back.”
I shake my head slowly. “Baby…no one held a gun to my head. I’m here because I can’t imagine being anywhere else.
Because you’ve become my everything. I’m really excited to become a dad and to build a life together.
It won’t always be easy, but I hope I can love you enough to make it worthwhile. You’re worth it to me.”
I’m not sure which part of what I just said finally strikes a nerve but it’s like the fight, the anxiety, everything she’s been holding in, drains right out of her. And she just looks up at me, regret etched into her pretty features.
“God, I’m an idiot. I’m so sorry for leaving you like that.” She reaches up, putting her hands on either side of my face. “You know I love you, right? That I’m just scared and gun-shy and hormonal?”
I smile. “You think I’d be here if I didn’t know that?”
“Can you forgive me?”
“Always. As long as you talk to me. You can’t bottle things up, babe. Especially not when I’m on tour, when I can’t just get home at the drop of a hat.”
“I know. I have to be better.” She dips her head again. “The band must hate me.”
“Nah, they understand. The girls wanted to reach out but I asked them not to—I needed to look in your eyes, see for myself what you’re feeling before anyone else got involved.”
“I probably wouldn’t have answered,” she admits. “I was too embarrassed. I didn’t even say goodbye to anyone.”
“Everyone knows you were worried about your mom.”
“I was—I’m still—scared about a lot of things. But now that I’ve admitted it to you, it feels lighter. Like you’re carrying my burden for me. And I’m not sure that’s fair.”
“That’s what love is supposed to be, right? Where we carry part of the other person’s load…so we share both the good and the bad.”
“You’re such a good guy. The best guy I’ve ever known. I love you so much, Tate.”
I really like hearing that.
And it makes what we’re going through a worthwhile sacrifice.
I lower my mouth to hers, and our lips and tongues smash together greedily, bodies flush as we kiss. And kiss. And kiss. Until someone lays on the horn, sharp and loud, startling us apart.
“I’m going to kill her,” Summer whispers against my mouth.
I turn my head to see Dolly parked on the street, giving me another thumb’s up before she guns the engine and disappears out of sight.
“You realize that’s going to be your life now, right?” she asks.
I already know that, but it’s okay. As long as I have Summer, everything else will work itself out. “You’re going to be my life now.”
“Let’s go back to the house to drop off the Mustang. Then you can tell me everything I’ve missed on the way to the doctor.”
“Okay.” She leans up and presses her lips to mine again. Softly. Gently. But this kiss is even more vulnerable than the others—because she’s showing me her soul.
* * *
“The nursing home is basically kicking Mom out,” she says on the way to the doctor’s office. “There’s a memory care center in Albany, but I don’t know how I’ll get there in the winter. Especially driving the Mustang. I think I have to sell it.”
“Whoa, slow down. You can’t sell the Mustang.”
“I have to. I can’t haul a baby around in the back of a convertible with rear-wheel drive with ice and snow on the ground.”
“No, but we could put the Mustang in the garage in the winter and buy some kind of van or SUV with all-wheel drive.”
“I don’t have—” She cuts herself off. “This is what I’m talking about, Tate. I don’t know how we’re going to do this. You buying me a car to have here while you don’t have one in Minneapolis means—”
“Look, if living in New York is a dealbreaker for you, then we’ll figure it out,” I interrupt. “All I care about is making you happy.”
“But that’s not fair. I have to make you happy too.”
“You do.” I stop at a red light and turn to look at her. “There does have to be some compromise.”
“I know.” She meets my gaze worriedly.
“Angus and I found a memory care center in Minneapolis,” I say slowly. “They’ll take your mom’s insurance and depending on how much her monthly pension is, there may be an opening early next year.”
She doesn’t say anything for a beat, watching me carefully.
“Every place I’ve looked into is out of our budget.”
“With the place I found, we can subsidize, and it’ll only be about a grand a month.
And we can do that, honey. I have fifty grand in the bank and I’m about to get another really big deposit.
Like, six figures. We’ll put fifteen thousand aside for your mom, so we’re covered for fifteen months or so, and that’ll give you time to get your pie business up and running in Minneapolis. If that’s what you want.”
She’s quiet again, but the look on her face is thoughtful. Like she’s actually considering this.
“And we could live nearby? So I can see her often?”
“Absolutely.”
“We could rent out my house,” she says after a moment. “Or make it an Air BnB or whatever. So it brings in enough to pay the taxes but I don’t have to sell it.”
“Whatever you want.”
“I want…to be with you,” she says at last. “And I want to give birth here in New York. But then once I’m recovered, we can move to Minneapolis. Is that a fair compromise?”
Relief shoots through me.
“Very fair.” I squeeze her hand as I pull into the parking lot of the medical complex.
“There are a lot of details for us to think about.”
“And we will. Tonight. Or tomorrow. Right now, I just want to verify that we’re having a boy.”
She smirks. “You mean a girl.”
I wink. “Whatever you say, babe.”
“I love you, Tate.”
“I love you too, baby. Now let’s go find out what we’re having.”
“It’s a girl,” she stage whispers.
“Boy.” I nudge her with my hip, but we’re both chuckling.
And everything feels right in my world.