“I want you to have your happily ever after, Story. Out of the shadows. You and our child.” It sounded like a love confession, but at this point, I knew better. I braced for the crushing blow to follow.
“I’ll get you out. I’ll get you away.”
?
?Away.” I choked on the word.
So he can live happily with Lottie.
“You said you would have to be tied down. You said you couldn’t ever let me go. Why is now different? Every time you try and let me go you fail.”
“For you, Snitch, I’d handcuff myself to the bed.”
“Grayson, I’m not joking.”
A small, sad smile. “I’ll never let you go, Snitch. I’ll always be there. You just won’t see me.”
I felt broken and dead.
I sighed a jagged, cutting sigh.
He thumbed the edge of my jaw. “Just give me one thing.”
My eyes found his.
“I get to be in the delivery room.”
I paled. “What? No. I…I don’t even know what I’m going to do yet. I might give the baby up.” The thought made me sick.
It just felt right to keep it.
But it was also wrong, right? Because what kind of life was it to bring a baby into this fucked-up family with no love and all the wrong kinds of affection. It was exactly what I’d grown up in. A mom who didn’t know how to say no to the men who always left her. A dad who wouldn’t recognize me as their child.
Grayson physically tensed.
His jaw.
His neck.
His shoulders.
But he just took a breath, and said, “You’ll still have to have the fucking baby, Story.”
And with those words, the elephant stomped into the room. I was going to show soon.
I got sweaty just thinking about it.
Grayson gripped my face tight. “Fuck, let me be there, please. No games, no contract, no bullshit. Be my friend.”
All the air in my lungs left. Vanished. I can’t breathe.
My eyes met his.
“Friend,” I repeated, skepticism pricking my tongue, but I whispered, “Okay.”
No sooner had I rasped my acceptance, than his eyes darkened, the lids drooped. His grip on my jaw tightened as his eyes dropped to my lips. Grayson pressed his forehead so tight to mine I thought it might bruise.
“Just friends,” he rasped.