Grayson promised with Lottie’s announcement we would be left alone, and I wondered if this really was happily ever after.
Being left alone to just…be.
It felt like there was still an elephant between us. Four coin-shaped elephants.
Behind Grayson, the sky smudged iron as the sun rose into the sky. I would never get tired of this, never get used to it.
“But it could be a boy,” he said, absently thumbing my shoulder.
“We’d know if you let me check the sex—oh.”
“Dickinson…” he wondered, then shook his head. “Everyone at boarding school will have a fucking field day with that.”
“Grayson,” I said.
“Keats… Keats Crowne,” he mused, rubbing my shoulder up and down.
“Grayson.”
“Whitman?” he wondered aloud, lost in his fantasy.
“Grayson!” I yelled.
“What?” His eyes focused on me.
“My water just broke.”
Our eyes locked, and I saw the gears in his head stop working. All at once he jumped out of bed.
In the corner of the room, we’d prepared a leather bag for this occasion. He tossed it to the center of the room while I hobbled out of bed. There were no guards to call, no car to call, because we still didn’t trust anyone.
So I watched Grayson pace one side of the room, stop abruptly, then pace the other as if suddenly remembering a more important thought. While he did that, I went and grabbed everything else we needed.
As if suddenly remembering I existed, Grayson jerked his head to me. He rushed back to me, gripping my face between his hands, then crushed his lips to mine.
His kiss was consuming, breath stealing, thumbs digging into my skull.
I forgot where I was.
Forgot I was having a fucking baby.
Foreheads pressed, Grayson whispered, “We’re having a baby, Snitch.”
I smiled. “We’re having a baby.”
GRAY
“I’m going to change—”
“No time,” I cut her off.
“I’m not going to the hospital in a wet nightgown, Grayson. There’s time.”
I rubbed my forehead, nostrils flared. “I’ll get it, you sit down.”
With a hand on her lower back, she made her way back to my bed.
/> I went to the walk-in, but paused at the sound of guttural screaming, flowing over the railing. It sounded like it was coming from Lottie’s part of my wing.