Chapter 19
Runs In The Family
? Before I Fall Apart - Elle Coves
Angelina
“You two didn’t waste any time,” Wilder says, eyeing Griffin.
He slides his hands into his pockets and nods once. “Never been one to hold back when I know what I want.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to correct them, but I can’t bring myself to tell the truth. Not when everyone is celebrating.
“When are you due?” Olivia asks Callie.
“January Twenty-Third. You?”
“December Thirtieth.”
My eyes lose focus as I brace for the inevitable. This is it. This is where everyone finds out this baby doesn’t belong to Griffin.
I don’t fit here.
Nausea suffuses me, bile rising from the pit of my stomach. Before anybody can say a word, I dash into the house, making it to the guest bathroom on the main floor just in time to empty my stomach.
Footsteps follow after me, and the door creaks open. Griffin kneels at my side, rubbing my back. “You okay?”
“Nothing like some well-timed morning sickness to get me out of an awkward situation.”
He tilts his head to the side, assessing me. “What do you mean?”
“When they find out I’m eleven weeks pregnant, they’ll be able to do the math and figure out that it’s not yours.”
His nostrils flare. “Say that shit again, and I’ll turn that ass red.”
The coarse threat wrenches me back in time to traffic lights and filthy words whispered in my tiny Denver apartment. Desire flares low in my belly, a momentary distraction from my current predicament. No matter how much I still want him, it doesn’t change our circumstances.
“It’s the truth, and we shouldn’t pretend it isn’t. Help me up.” I take his hands and let him haul me to my feet. “They aren’t stupid. What happens when they work it out for themselves?”
I wash my hands and dip my mouth under the faucet to rinse away the disgusting taste. Griffin reaches into the medicine cabinet and hands me a small bottle of mouthwash.
“Doesn’t fucking matter,” he says. “Let them think we had an affair for all I care.”
After rinsing my mouth one last time for good measure, I meet his gaze in the mirror, then I turn to face him, leaning back against the vanity. “No. I won’t take the blame for Tyler’s choices.”
He pulls out a peppermint from his pocket and holds it between us. I pop it into my mouth as my thoughts trail back to the awkward conversation to come.
“Ok. So, what do you want to do?”
I sigh. “Is it too late for that honeymoon?”
“I’d run away with you any day, Angel.” His knuckles brush the underside of my jaw, and his expression softens.
“But if there’s one thing you should know about this family, it’s that once you’re in it, it’s a lifetime appointment.
They don’t care who that baby belongs to any more than I do.
The second I slid that ring onto your finger, you became a Hayes. ”
He pauses, smiling down at me. His palms run down my upper arms in a soothing motion. “Truth be told, you were part of this family the second Jess married into it. That didn’t change when we lost her.”
My eyes sting at his fervent declaration and the reminder of my best friend. I feel her absence more intensely now than I have in a long time. I wish she could be here to see our babies grow up together. I’d like to think she’s watching from a different view.
Griffin’s thumb captures a single tear, and his brown eyes meet mine.
Time seems to slow as his warm amber scent envelopes me.
I’ve spent weeks trying to resist the pull.
I can’t do it anymore. Not when he’s doing everything to make me believe he’s in this for the long haul.
Maybe I’m not quite there yet, but I can’t walk away this time.
My heart beats erratically as I flatten my palm on his cheek and close the distance between us.
It’s a chaste kiss, little more than our lips meeting, until Griffin pulls me in for more.
The bristles of his beard slide against my palm.
He groans into my mouth, deepening the kiss as his hands splay across my lower back.
The peppermint clicks against my teeth as his tongue slides over mine, slow and sensual, just a hint of pressure like he wants to devour me, but he’s holding back. It’s dizzying and all-consuming.
All too soon, he pulls away, pressing his forehead to mine. “Mm. If we don’t stop, I’m gonna fuck you right here in my mama’s bathroom.”
I bite down on my bottom lip, half tempted to drop to my knees. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
He reaches down, adjusting the erection tenting his jeans. “You have to stop looking at me like that, Angel.”
He palms my shoulders and spins me toward the door. “Go. I need a minute.”
I walk back out to the family gathering as Jaxon and Wilder are setting the table. I almost forgot the whole reason we’re here is to eat, too busy worrying about what they might think of me.
Evelyn envelopes me in a warm hug. “Morning sickness?”
“More like all-day sickness.”
“Been there,” Olivia says. “It gets better over time. Have you tried peppermints?”
I grin with the mint pinched between my teeth.
She smiles. “Griff?”
I nod, retaking my seat at the table.
Seconds later, Griffin slides onto the bench next to me and rests his hand on my thigh. “You good?”
“Yeah.”
Dishes are passed around, and we fill everyone in on the shotgun wedding. They ooh and ahh like we didn’t get wasted and do something incredibly impulsive. Then again, Olivia and Wilder didn’t exactly do things the conventional way. Maybe the impulsiveness runs in the family.
“So, we’re all due pretty close together.” Callie breaks off a piece of her roll. “We should have a big joint baby shower here. I don’t have a lot of family, just my sister and Lexi.”
“And all of us.” Olivia squeezes Callie’s hand. “I think that’s a great idea. We won’t need much since we still have everything from when Gracie was born, but I’m always up for a party.”
It’s all so overwhelming to think about.
I only just found out I’m pregnant, now I have all these people surrounding me, asking questions I don’t have the answers to, wanting to be a part of my baby’s life even though there’s no real connection between us.
I don’t truly feel like I belong here, but if not here, then where?
As though he’s sensed my distress, Griffin’s hand slides up my spine in soothing strokes. “What do you say, Angel?”
The touch brings me back onto solid ground, quelling any looming doubts.
“I’m in. My parents live in Italy, so they probably won’t be able to make it, but I’d love to invite Shawn and Caroline.”
Jess’s parents have been like surrogates to me since the first time Jess brought me home. I love them like they’re my own.
“They’re part of our family, too,” Wilder says. “We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Olivia pulls out her phone and starts scrolling. “Since our due dates are—” She pauses, looking up at me. “Wait, when are you due?”
My pulse thunders in my ears. I swallow down the discomfort and say the thing I’ve been dreading. “February 14th.”
“Aww. Valentine’s day, baby!” Evelyn says. “Just like Wilder.”
I cling to Griffin’s hand and brace for impact, but the blow never comes. Nobody so much as bats an eye.
“Looks like I’m getting a niece or nephew for my birthday,” Wilder says.
The rest of the meal passes in a blur of good food and even better company. Olivia takes on the brunt of planning the baby shower, but that’s just who she is. Event planning is her bread and butter. We have months ahead of us, but she already has a full vision board going.
Everyone stays well into the evening, until the last light of the sun dips below the horizon and the stars shine overhead.
Griffin takes my hand in his and guides me down the gravel drive to his truck. Stopping outside the passenger door, he cages me against it. His palm slides under my shirt to rest on my belly. “How’s my baby mama feeling?”
“I’m okay. Be ready to pull over just in case.”
His fingers brush the underside of my jaw in a gentle caress before his lips descend on mine for a brief but achingly sweet kiss. “I wasn’t talking about the nausea,”
I release a heavy sigh. “I’m good. Relieved.”
He brushes an errant strand of hair away from my forehead and replaces it with his lips. The abundance of tender kisses is a new development, and I like it way too much. “Let’s get you home.”
If only there were some kind of ripple effect through time and space so every version of me could feel such ardent devotion.
Maybe then I wouldn’t have been so quick to say yes to Tyler, knowing this has been waiting for me all along.
Still, I can’t help the doubts niggling at the back of my mind—a symptom of the wreckage Tyler left behind, I suppose. I can only hope it’ll heal with time.
Griffin
After dropping Angie off at home, I stop by the big barn to close up for the night. Jaxon and Wilder are already there, talking between the stalls.
Wilder stops mid-sentence, eyeing me critically. I already know what’s coming.
“Eleven weeks,” he says. “It’s not your baby.”
I lean my shoulder against the doorway and cross one foot over the other. “Doesn’t matter.”
“What about Tyler?”
I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Far as I can tell, he doesn’t want shit to do with it. Even if he did, it wouldn’t change a damn thing. I’m right where I want to be. Angel. The baby. They’re my family now.”
Jaxon grins. “You tell her you love her yet?”
“She’s not ready.”
“Are you?”
“Been ready for five fuckin’ years.”
At first, I chalked it up to primal attraction. As time went on, thoughts of her never strayed far from my mind. With each interaction, I fell deeper and deeper, until all I could feel was this insatiable hunger.
It wasn’t just her external beauty. It was her brilliant mind and her compassionate heart. Even when she was with Tyler, I could feel myself slipping, so I tried to keep my distance, but it was damn near impossible. She was everywhere all the time, and I was fucked.
Wilder frowns and glances up at the ceiling like he’s trying to do the math. “Since Colorado?”
“Pretty sure I was done for the second I laid eyes on her.”
“Runs in the family. Pops would say the same thing about Mama.”
“You’re goddamn right I would,” Pops says, materializing at the opposite end of the barn as he leads Copper into his stall.
“You know it don’t matter one bit whether that baby’s got your DNA or not.
You love ‘em right, and everything else’ll come out in the wash.
Now, if y’all would stop jibber jabbering, I could use some help.
” He takes off his hat and runs his hand through his grey hair. “I’m too old for this shit.”