Worth the Risk (Carolina Rebels 5)

bsp; I whirl around at the sound of Elias’s voice and relax a little. Bree is in his arms and she reaches for me. “Can I?” I hold my hands up to take her and he lets me.

“What’s going on?” Elias asks. There’s an edge in his voice as he takes in my slightly panicked state, the mess on the table that Henry cleans up, and how I’d much rather focus on Bree right now.

“Nothing her employer needs to be concerned about,” Henry answers.

Elias narrows his eyes at him, his lips flattening in an instant. He looks kinda hot when he’s irritated. Henry throws our trash away and looks between us before settling his gaze on Elias.

“Can you give us a second?”

“No.”

Henry looks at me for help. “Rae,” he says with irritation.

“Didn’t she tell you not to call her that?” Elias reminds him. He grabs my purse, hands it to me, and rests a hand on my lower back.

Henry sighs heavily and decides to ignore him. “I was only asking in case they change their mind. There’s no reason to panic. If they ever did meet him, they would treat him like their grandson, and they would be nicer to you, too.” I snort, not believing that, and the sound makes Bree giggle and tug on my hair. “Just let me know when I can meet Jackson, okay?”

I nod and he turns to leave. The moment he’s gone, my body relaxes and leans into Elias.

“You’re okay, Raelynn.” His hand rubs my back for a moment. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.” When we’re in the car, he asks, “How did it go?”

“Overall, okay.” I rehash most of the conversation with him, needing to tell someone about it. “I freaked out because he brought up his parents possibly wanting to meet Jackson in the future. Maybe it’s crazy and irrational for me to think someone will take him from me, but it’s always been the two of us and he’s all I have. I didn’t have to worry about anyone else interfering with our lives, you know? And now, Henry’s here. And if anyone is going to screw us over, it’ll be his parents. They’d do it just to get me out of Henry’s life again.”

“Do you really think they would?”

I give him a look. “They made Henry choose between Jackson and his trust fund and his position within their company,” I tell him. “Yes, they’d do that. They also have way more money than I could ever dream of having. They could pull strings and snatch him from me in a heartbeat, I bet.”

Elias reaches over and takes my hand, interlocking our fingers together. “You’re his mother and the only family he knows. No one would hurt Jackson like that. And my gut tells me Henry wouldn’t let them either.” He glances over at me. “My gut is never wrong. Don’t worry about it, Raelynn.”

Stressed by this entire thing, I decide we need to change the topic, so I raise an eyebrow. “You listen to your gut?”

He grins. “All the time. That gut instinct is why you got this job. When I don’t listen to it, bad shit happens.”

He’s intrigued me now. “Like what?”

“One time, I woke up and had this feeling that I didn’t need to go to school that day. I went anyway and got into a wreck on the way there.”

Whoa. That’s kinda freaky. Elias arrives at the mall, gets Bree’s stroller out, and as we head inside, he asks, “So, what do you want for Christmas?”

I frown. “What?”

He smiles at me. “You see, Raelynn, on Christmas morning, people open gifts. Most people make a wishlist. I’m asking what would be on yours.”

“I don’t have a wishlist. I don’t need anything. Jackson is the only one who gets presents.” And he only gets a few because money has always been tight. “What are you getting Bree for her first Christmas?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. Something to kick off our Christmas traditions is all I know for sure. She doesn’t really need anything and at this point, she can unwrap an empty box and it’ll make her laugh. It seems a little crazy to buy a soon-to-be ten-month-old Christmas presents, right?” Elias glances down at me for confirmation.

“Well, I guess it depends. Her first Christmas is more for you than her, so if you buy her five presents, then you get to watch her open those presents and see what happens. I think it’s more about that experience than what you’re buying her.”

He nods. “Are you still going to visit your friend now that Henry is here? Or will you stay so he can see Jackson for Christmas?”

Crap. My plan is experiencing some issues already. Elias leads us into a children’s store. “I don’t know.” Considering we’re only going up the road to a hotel, Henry can still see Jackson. “We’ll have to see how things go between now and then. I need to decide how to introduce them.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

We walk around the mall, making small talk mostly while picking up some gifts. I buy Jackson’s Christmas. Elias gets things for his family and a few things for Bree after all. Spending time with him isn’t so bad. I keep smiling when I glance over and watch him push Bree’s stroller. If he catches me, he’ll raise his eyebrows at me, but I always find something particularly interesting in the store to look at.

I peek another glance at him. He’s almost a foot taller than me, probably. But what makes me smile is seeing this man in dark jeans and a hoodie that hides his tattoos pushing this stroller that looks so small in front of him. It’s freaking adorable and a little comical.