25
Nia
1 week later...
If I wasn’t so excited to see him again, I might be more upset about finally giving in.
I’d made it clear, that night when he’d first returned, that if he left again, it’d be for the last time.
Well, the stubborn lug must be about as deaf as he is handsome, because the past five days have been a non-stop barrage of him asking to see me again.
Maybe he just thought that I meant he could leave me then, but only if he promised to never leave again, once he returned?
I shake my head and try not to give the brute too much credit—though, I can give him a little. We both know that he’d have no trouble bursting in through Carlos’s front door and throwing me over his shoulder like a beast, but he hasn’t.
Instead, he’d stopped by Carlos’s place again the following night, looking like a man who’d been through hell and back, and respectfully asked for my number.
I’d slammed the door in his face.
Don’t get me wrong, he was being cute as fuck, but I couldn’t let him know that I was willing to be a push-over for him.
Sure enough, he showed up again the next night, dressed a little better and all washed up. He told me he’d meant everything he’d said to me before, and that he was in love with me even more now that the danger had passed.
Carlos was home this time, and I didn’t want to make a scene in front of my gracious host, so I finally gave my number to Ronan and told him he’d better not make me regret it.
He must have called twenty times that night alone. I only answered once, to tell him to stop—but the truth was it meant the world to me to know that he wanted to be with me so badly. I’d never had anyone pursue me like this before, and it didn’t hurt that he was the man who was also responsible for putting the little baby bump that was starting to form on my belly in me.
Ronan had called every other hour the day after that too. I answered twice, and both times he’d practically begged for me to let him take me out, if not on a date then at least just to check up on me and my bump. I’d told him to let me think about it—and I had, long and hard.
I dug deep into my soul and asked myself what I saw when I thought of Ronan. Did I see the danger and the violence and the seedy underworld stuff? Sure, but that was only a sliver of who he was in my mind’s eye. I also saw the softness in his eyes, the desire in his heart, the hope in his words. Not only did he want me, he also wanted a family.
I realized that we wanted the exact same thing: each other, and the promise of what being together could bring.
So, I let him set a time and a date, and I put on my best dress—well, my only dress—and did my make-up, with Carlos’s help.
“You look hot as fuck,” Carlos sings as I do a twirl for him in his living room.
I blush. “You don’t think the baby bump is too obvious?”
“Girl, you’re literally glowing. There’s nothing that can hold you back.”
A strong knock comes from the front door and I kiss my best friend on the cheek. “Thanks for everything,” I whisper.
“You just make sure to put in a good word for me, in case things don’t work out between the two of you,” he jokes.
I’m still laughing when I open up.
There he is. The man of the hour. As big and as beefy as ever in a tight black t-shirt and dark jeans.
Ronan’s cheeks glimmer under the hallways light as he greets me with a big, rugged smile. It’s funny seeing him look so happy—I’d never have guessed just how deeply those dimples could dig into his cheeks—but it fits him perfectly.
I can’t keep the flustered smile from overtaking my face.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Heyyy,” Carlos sings from back in the living room.