Chapter 14
EVERLY
“Up, up, up, da, da!” Sampson shouts, waking me, and I blink my eyes open, finding the room lit with early-morning light. I start to sit up before a warm, heavy weight lands on my stomach, stopping me before I can.
“I got him.” Blake looms over me, and his fingers touch my chin as his eyes search mine, and he smiles. Gah, I love his smile. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” I whisper, feeling a little off kilter waking up with him, and his smile turns into a grin before he leans in and places a soft kiss on my lips, causing a tingle to spread down my spine.
“You okay?”
I bite my lip as I think about his question. Honestly, last night was amazing, completely unexpected, but so completely right. I knew us sharing what we did would change things between us. I just had no idea how connected I would feel to him now.
Instead of saying all that and maybe looking crazy, I nod. “Yeah.”
“Good.” He kisses my forehead, and my heart feels funny in my chest as I watch him get up and put on a T-shirt that was hanging over the bottom edge of the bed before going to where Sam is standing with his arms above his head. When he picks him up and kisses his cheek, he whispers something I can’t hear, and my nose stings.
What might be a throwaway moment to most is so fricking huge to me, and as much as I love it, I’m honestly scared to death I’m going to get used to this and it’s going to be taken away. So I’m stuck in this strange place where I want to put everything on the line, while at the same time I want to protect myself and my son from getting hurt.
“Mama,” Sam says, and I focus on my boy as Blake sets him down on the end of the bed, and he stumbles his way to me.
“Morning, baby.” I wrap my arms around him and kiss his cheek as I rock him back and forth. “Are you hungry?”
“Baba.”
“No bottle.” I tickle him when he pops out his bottom lip. “But you can have some milk in a cup.”
“Mwilk,” he repeats, then looks at Blake. “Mwilk, banna.”
“I think we can make that happen.” Blake picks him up, and I toss back the blanket, then dig through my suitcase for a bra and maneuver it on under my tank, then grab a sweatshirt and pull it on.
“I need to use the restroom and brush my teeth.”
“Go first, then I’ll go after you,” he says, carrying Sam over to the balcony door so he can look outside.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” He sends me a soft look right before I head out of the bedroom and across the hall. I quickly go through my morning routine, then trade places with him. When he comes back, we head toward the kitchen hand in hand. The closer we get, the more it becomes clear that someone has been busy. It smells like the best kind of breakfast—bacon and pancakes.
“Good morning,” Dave greets us, his eyes dropping to our hands. “How’d you two sleep?”
“Great.” I feel my cheeks get warm, even though I’m pretty sure no one could hear us last night, with our rooms on the opposite side of the house from everyone else’s. But you never know.
“I hope you guys are hungry.” Janet comes out of the pantry, holding up a container of syrup, before she turns to face the stove, and I wonder if it’s just me or if she looks like she was crying. “I got a little carried away.” She keeps her head slightly down as Blake walks over to kiss her cheek.
“Sam and I are hungry,” Blake tells her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and keeping Sam on his hip while I take a seat on the stool next to Dave. “You okay, Mom?”
“I just didn’t sleep great.” She tips her head back to look up at him and pats his cheek. “My hip was just annoying me last night.”
“You need to finally talk to your doctor about it,” Dave tells her, and she looks at him, something about her expression putting me on edge.
“Do I?” she asks him sarcastically.
“It would be smart; you don’t want it to get worse.”
“No, I guess we don’t want that now, do we?” Her smile is off, and Blake’s brows drag together while Dave seems to stiffen ever so slightly.
“Good morning, family,” Margret sings, cutting through the weird vibe in the room as she follows Taylor into the kitchen with a smile on her face. “How did everyone sleep?” She kisses her dad’s cheek while Taylor goes over to her grandma for her to pick her up.
I meet Blake’s gaze when I feel him looking at me and shrug when he gives me a what the fuck look, because I don’t know what’s going on or what happened.