“Really? I hadn’t thought of that. I would have guessed for sure you would want to go back to Michigan or possibly Canada to finish school.”
She sits straight up in bed, her eyes darting to mine in suspicion of my sarcasm. She adjusts the IV and the rubber cord to her catheter and faces me with a matter-of-fact look.
“Spill, Bexley,” she commands.
Her demanding nature is damn near a turn on. If she wasn’t still healing, I would turn her over my knee and spank her.
“Whatever do you mean?” I say innocently.
She tilts her head, shooting some wicked daggers at me with her eyes. The morning sun is now peeking through. Like I said, my woman is absolutely stunning, even with her hair halfway out of her ponytail and no makeup on. Life is coming back into her eyes. And here I lie hiding the one thing that will dull them.
Finish up this conversation and then tell her. Get it over with.
“I kind of took it upon myself to sort of move us here over the past week,” I admit.
She surprises me by bursting into laughter. It fills the entire room, her bright orbs glistening. Fuck me if I’m not about to crush her.
She abruptly stops laughing as quickly as she started.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” she whispers.
I nod and take a deep breath, preparing myself to tell her.
I reach for her hand, stroking it gently. I can’t look at her, not yet. The doctors said the best way to tell her was to just say it, but the words are lodged in my throat. When I finally do speak, I don’t even recognize my own voice.
“You were pregnant, Calla.”
“I... was?” she asks faintly.
I find the courage to look at her.
“You miscarried, babe.”
“Oh, my God. They didn’t manage to kill me, so instead they killed our unborn child. A baby we never even knew we were going to have.”
She stares at our joined hands, placing them both across her stomach.
“I’m sorry, Cain.”
“Calla, no!”
I sit all the way up, cradling her face in my hands.
“No. It’s not our fault. Losing a baby is a tragedy. Neither one of us knew. We both have to grieve, both together and separately in our own ways. Never think this is your fault or mine. It’s not.”
It damn near kills me to see the pain in her eyes. The silently falling tears.
“I just… I guess I need time to deal with it.”
“Take all the time you need. We’ll get through it together, I promise,” I tell her, resting my forehead against hers.
Her eyes close. The two of stay this way for several minutes, grieving for our loss. She pulls away first, a sorrowful smile on her lips.
“We’re going to be fine,” I whisper.
“Yeah, I know,” she whispers back. “I love you, Cain. I’ve loved you all along. We were apart for so long, both of us changing in so many ways, yet here we are a month later, grieving the loss of a child we will never meet.”
Calla’s eyes conquer mine once again. Hers filled with heat, mine filled with want. Hers dart to my mouth at the same time mine flit to hers. We meet in the middle, our mouths opening up to one another’s.
A lot of information is pouring out of this kiss. I’m telling her that this is the beginning of our new lives together. She’s telling me she trusts me in taking care of our future. Both of us letting the other know how much we have desperately missed each other. This is nothing like the raw kiss we first shared a month ago after seeing each other the first time. This kiss is telling each other that we only have one life and we want to share it. Life is too damn short to not share it with the one you love.
I hold her face gently in my hands as my tongue intertwines with hers. I could kiss her forever. It’s short lived, though, when we are interrupted by the sound of three throats clearing. We break away, Calla’s face beet red.
“Well. I was on my way in here to check on my baby girl since I haven’t had the opportunity to really have a conversation with her yet, but I can see that she seems to be perfectly fine.”
Calla’s brows rise, her spirit lifting slightly when she sees her mom.