I'm in It (The Reed Brothers 10)

Mick freezes. “What?”

“That day on the bus, I didn’t take the pill. I flushed it. I tried to tell you, but you were mad at me.” I take a deep shaky breath. “That is why…why you were mad, isn’t it? You thought I took the pill.”

He shakes his head. “I wasn’t mad at you. I was hurt. I felt like someone had let me build this wonderful house and then smashed it to the ground.”

“I know about Nicky,” I say. “About what happened.”

“One thing I want to be very clear about is that I believe in a woman’s right to choose. It’s your body. It was her body. It’s just that I would have liked to be in the conversation. But I wasn’t involved, I wasn’t even invited to be involved, and at that point I knew Nicky and I would never succeed. If we couldn’t make a big decision like that together, we’d never get anywhere. That was a bitter pill to swallow.”

“I didn’t take the pill, Mick.”

He chuckles nervously. “I don’t know if that should scare me or make me happy.”

“A little bit of both, maybe.” I shrug. “Or at least that’s how I feel.”

“Why didn’t you take it?”

“Honestly? Because I wanted whatever was meant to be, as long as you were going to do it with me. I still do.”

“And if you’re not pregnant? What then?”

I take a step toward him. “Then I’m not. And I’ll be okay with that.”

“And if you are?”

“Then I’ll be okay with that, too.”

“Do you love me?” he asks. “Because I love the fuck out of you.”

Finally, he stands up and crosses the room to come to me. He looks down at me.

“I love the fuck out of you too,” I say.

“So, there’s a chance you could have gotten pregnant that day.”

I nod, and I step closer to him. “And there’s a chance I didn’t.”

He brushes my hair back from my forehead.

“I think I’m supposed to kiss you now,” I say.

He pulls his head back and looks down his nose at me. “Says who?”

“Says Henry. He told me that when life gives me lemons, I should pucker up and kiss somebody. My somebody is you. I plan on kissing you for the rest of my life, particularly when life gives me lemons.”

He touches his hand to his forehead. “It makes so much more sense now.”

“What does?”

“Henry called me a little while ago and said, ‘When life gives you lemons, pucker up and kiss someone.’ Am I your lemon? Or your someone?”

“My someone. Always. And the only person I want to share my lemons with.” And finally, I step up onto my tiptoes and press my lips to his. He holds me tight and close, his hand in my hair at the base of my head as he gives my hair a little tug. His tongue sweeps across mine. “You want to come home with me?” I ask.

He nods. “Ryan just finished my tattoo. Tell me how it looks.” He turns so I can see his shoulder, and that lyric written right there, and it’s perfect.

“I love it.”

“Let me get Ryan to finish me up, and then we can go.” He kisses me again, and this time, it’s a little hotter.