Unclaimed (22 page)

I wanted to hold her, take care
of her, love her and our baby.  I didn’t want to miss a thing.  I never wanted her to doubt me again.

But
I had to be patient.  I had done this to us.  I had to fix it.

So when my phone went off with that simple thank you text
I wanted to jump up and dance.  I was afraid that my gesture wouldn’t be received.  She could have sent it all back.   She could have gotten angry.  She could have cared-less.  What if it was too little too late?  There was also the small possibility that she would jump back into my arms.  Unlikely but possible.  That’s what I was hoping for.

I’d take thank you. 
Thank you meant she wasn’t saying no, wasn’t rejecting me.  It was a positive.  It was an opening and I was going to take it.  Progress was progress.  I was hoping that she’d call but I knew Pru better than to think she was going to make this easy on me.  A text was more than I expected.

So I couldn’t
help but smile while I worked.  For the first time in a long time, I had hope.

Chapter 19

Lincoln

I was between clients when my phone went off.  I tried not to get my hopes up to high.  It had been two days since I had received the thank you text and I hadn’t heard anything since.

I was going to go crazy
but I didn’t want to rush her.  It helped that I had Skyla keeping me updated even though she wouldn’t give me nearly as much information as I wanted.  I felt like a serious stalker but I needed to know she was okay and since she wasn’t ready to let me in I got my information where I could.

I grabbed my phone
and looked down at my screen.  Pru’s face was staring back up at me.

Holy Shit.

I wanted to jump up and dance.  She was actually calling me.  I took a deep breath before I answered and prayed that she wasn’t calling to yell at me.

“Hello,” I said into t
he phone trying to sound calm.  I didn’t.

“Hey,” she said quietly. 
Her voice was soft and slightly unsure.  I loved her voice when it was like that.  I bet if I could see her she’d be twisting the end of her hair around her finger moments away from blushing if she wasn’t already.

Damn, I was missing her beautiful cheeks growing warm and tu
rning pink.  I missed her blush.

“Hey my lovely fairy,” I said instantly falling back into my old habits
, hoping she didn’t freak out.  It came out before I could think about it.  “How are you?”

I smiled when she didn’t yell at me.

“Good, well, okay…” she took a deep breath as she stumbled over her words.  “Actually I need some help.”

“Anything,” I said
as I spun around on my stool impatiently.  I would do anything and I meant it.  I just hoped it was something I was able to do.

I could hear her sigh into the phone.

“Pru what’s up?”  She was killing me here.  The suspense was too much.

“I have a flat tire.” 
Before she could go on, I was up off my stool and headed for the door.

“Jonas,” I called out not even bothering to look back but
I heard him grunt in response.  “I gotta go.  Pru needs me.”  Pru needs me, finally.

“G
o,” was all I heard Jonas say.  He would take care of my appointments.  He understood.  He had been rooting for this all along.

“I’m coming Lovely,” I said to Pru and I hea
rd her sniffle into the phone.  “Pru?  Are you okay?”  Suddenly I was panicked and running to my car.  Was she hurt?  Was she in some sort of danger?  Where exactly did her car break down?  It was the middle of the day but that didn’t mean she was exactly safe.

“Yeah,” she said and her voice
broke.  She was clearly crying.  “I’m fine.”  She confirmed.

“Then why do you sound like you’re crying?” I asked as I started up my car.

“Because I am,” she said honestly.

“I don’t understand.” 
I didn’t.

She chuckled into the phone. 
“I know.”

“Pru?”

“I cry a lot these days.  It’s just these damn pregnancy hormones.  I’m slightly emotional,” she explained.  I planned to use those pregnancy hormones to my advantage.

“Oh,” was all I said. 
Skyla hadn’t told me she had been crying a lot.  Why?  “Where are you?” I asked.  I had started to drive but had no idea where I was going.

She gave me directions. 
What the hell was she doing all the way out in Elk Grove?  I wanted to asked but didn’t.  I didn’t want to push her.  She’d share with me when she was ready if she wanted.

“I’m on my way,” I said instead.

“Thank you,” she said quietly in her unsure voice.

“Anytime.” 
I was dying to keep her on the phone, keep her talking to me but didn’t get the chance.  She hung up.

I
drove like a bat out of hell.  My baby’s mamma needed me.  The love of my life was sitting on the side of the rode, stranded.  Every possible horrible situation ran through my head.  By the time I spotted her little silver car sitting on the side of the road in a nice suburban area I had worked myself into a frenzy.

I had been imagining rapist and lurking
drug dealers, rabid dogs, all sorts of unpleasant things.  But she was perfectly fine, perfectly safe, standing in front of her opened trunk looking amazing.  Her hair was pulled to the side in a messy, side braid with sunglasses over her big, brown eyes.  She was in a dress, of course, today it was a short, navy maxi-dress with matching heels.  Her little legs looked extra-long.  I wanted them around me while kissed every one of her freckles until her stress lines disappeared.

Oh, my Pru. 
I wanted to wrap my arms around her and kiss the side her neck.  Pull her tight against me so I was surrounded by her warm, soft smell that was fruity and floral all at the same time and uniquely her but I didn’t.  I pulled up behind her and ran my fingers through my hair for he zillionth time since she called.  I knew it was sticking up in a wild mess.

She turned when my car stopped and gr
eeted me with an unsure smile.  I’d get her to trust me again, believe in me, if it’s the last thing I did.  I smiled back like a fool.  I couldn’t help it.  Even her unsure smile made my heart pound because an unsure smile was more than I had gotten in months.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Hey,” I said as I walked over to her.  I didn’t reach out and touch her like I wanted to.  I made sure I kept my hands to myself and it was much harder then I imagined.

We just stood there for a
moment staring at each other.  I was taking her in.  She was glowing, literally glowing.  I had heard that pregnant woman glowed but never seen it.  I saw it with Pru.  She was glowing.

“So I have a full spare in the trunk but I can’t get it out,” she explained as she motioned with
one hand to her opened trunk.  Her other hand was resting of her belly.  “I just can’t get it out,” she chuckled under breath.  “All of the tire changey stuff is in there,” she blushed.  “I just can’t get the stupid tire out. I’m not really dressed to change it either.”  I resisted the urge to reach over and run my hand across her soft pink cheeks.

“
Changey stuff?” I asked as I stepped up next to her to look into her trunk.  She did have all the required tools.

“Yeah,” she turned with me, stirring up the air letting me get
a whiff of her perfect scent.  I held back my groan while we looked down into her trunk.  “I do know how to change a tire,” she teased as I pulled the spare out without any problems.

“I’m sure you do,” and I was.  Pru could do anything. 
I wanted to lean over and gently kiss her full lips but didn’t.  We weren’t there yet but damn I wanted to be.

I got to work.

“So what are you doing out here,” I asked while I worked.  She sat down on the curb to watch me.

She let out a deep breath. 
“I was looking at places,” she said refusing to look at me.

“
Places?” I suddenly panicked, not sure why.

“Yeah, to live.”

“Are Skyla and Maggie kicking you out?” I asked doing my best to remain calm but I knew she could hear the edge to my voice.  I’d kill them both.  I didn’t care if she was my sister.  I was going to kill her.

“No, they don’t even
know I’m looking.  I tried to tell them but they wouldn’t hear of it.  How am I supposed to live in that little apartment with two roommates and a baby.  I mean it barely fits the three of us.  I can barely fit all my crap into my room and it’s just me.  How am I supposed to share it with a baby?  Where will I put the baby’s crib?  In-between my boxes of shoes?  I mean I don’t even have room for the stuff you got.  The baby stuff is stacked along the walls in the hall.”  She laughed softly to herself.

She had a point.

“Plus Maggie and Skyla are still single, going to school, living that life.  They don’t need me and a baby hanging around the apartment cramping their style.”  She tried to laugh it off but I could tell the idea hurt her.  My heart clenched.  They were all she had.  She had me too but she didn’t trust it yet.  I’d prove to her that she could.

“Maggie and Skyla would never think of it like that,” I told
her. I truly believed that.  If they did I’d kill them.

“They’d never say it but I’m a sing
le mother now.  I have more important things to worry about then my friend’s feelings.  I don’t want my baby to wake up and one of Maggie’s boy toys to be lingering about.  What kind of life is that for a baby?”  A tear slid down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away.

I did
n’t know if she realized what she just said.  Single mother.  The ache that lived in my chest just got worse.  She had come to terms with the fact that she was doing this alone.  I did this to her.

I sat up and scooted to her, right
next to her, facing her.  I pulled her into my arms and I felt her body shake slightly before a sob broke through.  She was crying.  I pulled her tighter into me.

“You are not
a single mother.  I am here.  Always will be.  I know I haven’t been and I’m sorry for that but I will from now on.  I screwed up and I’m sorry.  I love you, both of you.”  I shifted so one of my hands were resting on her little belly.  “We aren’t married,” yet.  I fully planned to get her down the aisle at some point but I kept that to myself, “but that doesn’t mean that you are doing this alone.”  She shook as she cried quietly and her arms finally wrapped around me.

I gave in and kissed the t
op of her head as I held her.  I’d hold her as long as she’d let me.

“Sorry,” she finally mumbled as sh
e pushed herself away from me.  I didn’t want to let her go but did.  “I do this a lot.”  She mumbled as she motioned to her face.  “I cry when I’m happy, or sad, or worried, or stressed, or see a damn puppy.  And please don’t let anyone turn on
Meerkat Manor
.  I just fall apart,” she joked as she wiped her eyes but I knew she was serious.  I grabbed the bottom of my t-shirt, it was all I had that could work as a tissue, and pulled it up so I could wipe her tears away.  She smiled sadly at me.  “Apparently every single one of my emotions is directly connected to my tear ducks these days,” she explained. I kissed the top of her head again and turned back to the tire.

“Good times,” I teased and she laughed.

“You have no idea.”  But, oh, I wanted one.

“Why
don’t you come live with me?”  I suggested and I meant it.  I wanted her to live with me, like a family, but I would take a roommate.  I had been thinking about it for a while now.  I thought about it before we broke up and now that I knew she was pregnant I was determined to get her back.  It was what I wanted.  Once my initial anger at Maggie and Skyla calmed and I learned they weren’t kicking her out I knew I had a solution to both our problems.

“What?” she blurted out.

“Yeah, I got a house, with a yard.  The yard even has a fence.  I have plenty of space,” I tried to sell her.  I wanted her to live with me.  I wanted our baby to be there.  I could see her every day.  I could see the baby every day.  She wouldn’t have to ever feel alone.  It would be easier to build up some trust between us, to make her see I really loved her, for her to realize she still loved me.  I knew she did no matter what she said.

“And three roommates,” she added.

“Say the word and they are gone.”  I was dead serious.  I had priorities and they were not it.  They would get it and if they didn’t, well, I didn’t really care.

“Seriously?” she asked. 
She was actually considering it.  I wanted to jump up and do a little dance.

“Seriously,” I confirmed as I pushed my sunglass down my
nose so she could see my eyes.  I didn’t want there to be any doubt about how serious I was.

She just shrugged. 
I didn’t really think she would jump at my offer but it was out there and I was hoping for the best.  The sooner I could get her into my house, the sooner I could get her back into my bed, and a ring around her finger but I let it drop.

“All good,” I said as I finished putting the on tire on.

“Thanks,” she said and we both stood up.

I had to touch her
again. I couldn’t take it any longer.  I grabbed her hand and pulled her into my arms.  She let me.  I wrapped my arms around her waist and she wrapped hers around my neck holding me tightly.  She needed this as much as I did.  I just needed to show her that.

Her little belly pressed against me and I
wanted to rest my hand on it.  Our baby was in there, a perfect little us.  I wanted to cry.

“Can I take you to dinner?” I asked as I buried my face into the side of her neck that was bare because her braid
was draped on the other side.  She smelled amazing.  I could stay here all day like this wrapped up in her arms, nuzzling her neck.  The only thing that would make it better is if we were naked and lying tangled in a bed.