Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
PATIENCE
It was time.
We had made it through the last couple of days of the trip and were headed home. Days where I’d thrown up every morning, and my husband helped me through it, but didn’t push me to admit why I’d been sick.
I hadn’t even considered getting a pregnancy test. Something had been holding me back, but I also found my anxiety spiking by not confirming my suspicions. As we drove, Jett’s hand resting on my thigh—he was always touching me, something I loved—I admitted to myself why I’d been stalling.
Fear.
I was scared he wouldn't want this anymore, even though he had told Dusty at one point he did. Another part of me was nervous that I’d get excited and then find out that I wasn’t really pregnant. But I’d been through this with Griffin, and it felt exactly the same.
Stop stalling.
Knowing how hard it was going to be for him, I’d kept telling myself that my husband needed to get through the trip first. I just hadn’t realized how difficult it would be for me too.
Seeing Jett fall apart while he talked to his friends, witnessing his tears, and hearing more of the details crushed me. He’d tried to take their place, to take the focus off his buddies and turn the torture onto himself.
I didn’t know whether to be proud, cry, or hit him. He could have died. But he was so strong, brave, and the best friend anyone could have.
He’d been my best friend, and I couldn’t imagine living without him.
Nerves churned in my stomach, but I ignored them.
As I opened my mouth, finally grasping the courage to have the long-overdue conversation, my phone rang.
Looking down at where it was tucked into the cup holder beside me, I saw Landon’s name flashing across the screen.
A new set of jitters took hold, and my stomach twisted uncomfortably.
“Sweetheart, are you going to answer?” Jett asked.
Everyone had been fairly quiet while we were gone, except for those at Gramps’s since they had Griffin. Had they made a court date? Taking a deep breath, I let go of my husband’s hand and picked up my phone, bringing it to my ear.
“Hello?” I said tentatively.
As I listened to Landon on the other end of the line, my heart raced. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He gave me the bullet points of why he was calling and said we would follow up officially when we got back.
After thanking him and saying goodbye, I dropped my phone back in the cup holder and sat in stunned silence.
“Baby, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?” Jett tapped his hand on my thigh. “Talk to me.”
Suddenly, the car veered right, and my husband was pulling off the highway into a rest area. He parked, took off his seatbelt, and twisted in his seat. Next thing I knew, he had my belt off too and was pulling me across the console.
My legs cradled his muscular thighs, our cores pressed together, and our faces were mere inches apart as he held my gaze, his eyes alight with concern.
“Please. Tell me what’s wrong.”
I’d probably scared the heck out of him; I was so thrown by the news that I couldn’t find my voice.
“Nothing,” I whispered.
His brow pinched together. “What do you mean, nothing?”
That was when it sunk in and finally hit me.
“I mean nothing is wrong because they walked away.” Relief and happiness washed over me. “They withdrew the custody suit.”
“They what?” He looked as stunned as I had felt moments ago. “What exactly does this mean?”
My body was practically vibrating from the news. I felt like I might burst right out of my skin. I bounced up and down on Jett’s legs, unable to stay still as the tension I’d been holding onto since the whole mess started, began to seep from my body.
“Landon said that he’d go over it more, but after the mediation, they decided they would drop it if I agreed to never come after Chaz for a single penny and if I signed something saying that I would not go public about him being the father.”
I was talking faster and faster, all ramped up.
“Landon and I had already talked about that stuff. He knew I’d do anything I had to in order to make them go away and not have them spend a single second in my son’s presence.” I took a couple of deep breaths. “Chaz is signing away any parental rights.”
Looking at the man of my dreams, I searched his expression before saying, “He’s ours.”
Biting my lip, I waited for his response. I knew he loved Griffin and me, but would he ever want to make it official with my son like he had me?
Jett pulled me to his chest and hugged me tight against him. “He always has been,” he said. Then, pushing softly on my arms so there was space between us again, he cupped my face in his palms. “I want to adopt him, Roo. Champ has always been mine in my heart. And that’s all that matters.”
I knew I sounded like a broken record, but the day I walked out of that pizza place at seventeen, and Jett walked into my life, was the best thing that could have happened to me. Jett was everything I could have ever hoped for.
He was my savior.
“I want that. To Griffin, you have always been his dad.”
Tears swam in his eyes just like they did in mine, but these were tears of happiness.
“I’m so fucking happy, baby,” he told me, mirroring exactly how I was feeling.
Jett crushed his lips against mine, pouring all that happiness into the kiss.
When we broke apart, he brushed the pad of his thumb back and forth across my bottom lip, a serious expression entering his gaze.
“Can we talk about our baby now, sweetheart?”
My belly fluttered at his words, and my heart kicked into overdrive.
There was no holding back now.