Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4) (25 page)

Our relationship was still so new, but there was a part of me that felt excited about the thought of having kids with Brett. Unfortunately, for all the excitement, there was still that niggling doubt that things might not work out. My fears that Brett would pull the same Jekyll and Hyde routine that Lance and my father had wasn’t really something I worried about anymore. I
knew
, soul deep, that Brett was a good man. He could never be the kinds of monsters they were. But what if he grew tired of my hang-ups? What if he decided a ready-made family wasn’t for him? That he wanted to start fresh, have a clean slate with a woman who didn’t carry more baggage than a 747?

“I haven’t really thought about it. It wasn’t something I ever considered after the twins were born,” I answered, turning to stare out the windshield. I didn’t want to see his face if my answer disappointed him.

“That’s cool.” He answered so calmly that my eyes shot back to his, wide in shock.

“Really? Do you not want kids?”

He looked thoughtful for several seconds before answering. “To be honest, I do want kids. It’s just always something I’ve seen happening in my life, you know? Get married, start a family. That’s always been the direction I knew my life would take.”

I wasn’t sure I was following him. Was he trying to tell me our relationship was over if I didn’t want more children?

“But then I met you and the twins, and in the blink of an eye, I had everything I could ever want.”

My head quickly turned on a surprised gasp. “But what about kids of your own?”

He looked over at me for a second, his expression fierce before turning back to the road. “Those kids might not be mine by blood, Kenz, but as far as I’m concerned, they’re
mine.
I love them like they’re my own. I’d do anything for them. From everything you’ve told me, that ex of yours is a piece of shit. He never did right by them and, if I have to, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to give them all the happiness that he never did. The three of you are my world, baby. Don’t you get that by now? I don’t have a life if y’all aren’t in it. You and those kids are all I’ll ever need to be happy. You’re my family.”

Oh, God, it felt like my heart couldn’t physically contain everything I was feeling at that very moment. Tears rushed down my cheeks as I stared at the man who’d shown me the true meaning of happiness.

“I love you.” My voice came out raspy as I continued to cry.

“I love you, too, beauty. More than fuckin’ life itself. And I know you still have your doubts, but I’m just giving you a heads up. One day, I’m going to ask you to marry me. You’re going to say yes, and we’ll spend the rest of our lives being happy. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna piss you off on the regular, because I’m a guy and that’s just the shit we do, but for every time I piss you off, I’ll bust my ass to make it up to you ten-fold. You’ve got my word on that.”

“Do you have any idea how happy you make me?”

“If it’s anywhere close to how happy you make me, then you are a lucky, lucky woman, baby,” he joked, pulling a heartfelt laugh from my chest.

“I’m not opposed to having more kids,” I whispered happily. “You know, just giving you a heads up on that.”

His face broke out into a bright smile as he kept his focus on the road ahead.

“Good to know, beauty.”

Brett: Need you to go in the closet and find your hottest dress and heels. I got plans for you tonight, beauty.

Me: I’m not wearing heels and a dress to make you dinner. I don’t give a shit if it is a fantasy of yours. Not. Happening.

Brett: You’re not makin’ dinner tonight, baby. We’re having a date night.

Date night, a concept single mothers world-wide were unfamiliar with. I looked up at the clock to see if I had enough time to find a sitter when my phone pinged again.

Brett: And wear some sexy as fuck underwear, too. You got a thong? You should totally wear a thong!

Me: It’s 3:00! I don’t have time to find a sitter. Have you forgotten those 2 little people who live under the same roof as us? The ones who can’t feed or wash themselves?

Brett: Already got that taken care of. Lizzy and Trevor are on kid duty tonight. Be sure to pack them an overnight bag.

“Lizzy!” I yelled from my station at the salon. “You volunteered to keep Cameron and Callie overnight? Have you lost your damn mind? You already have Trevor at home; you really want to add to that headache?”

Lizzy’s laughter rang out through the salon as she walked over to me. “He promised to behave if I ordered pizza for dinner. Hope you don’t mind the rugrats eating junk tonight.”

If it meant that Brett and I got an entire night to ourselves, she could feed them whatever the hell she wanted…you know, as long as it wasn’t poisonous.

“That’s all you had to bribe him with?” I asked skeptically. That just sounded too easy. I’d gotten to know Trevor pretty well, and I was fairly certain that pizza wasn’t a sufficient enough bribe for that man.

“Well…pizza and I might have promised to act out one of his role play fantasies.”

“Ooh, that could be fun.”

She narrowed her eyes in and gave me a
you’ve lost your damn mind
look. “Yeah, then
you
dress up like Maggie from
The Walking Dead
and tell me how much fun it is.”

I couldn’t control the hysterical laughter that escaped me as I pictured Lizzy in torn up, dirty clothes and a brown wig. I was talking full-on, snort inducing laughter.

“Seriously, Kenz! Who in their right damn mind gets turned on pretending to fight in a friggin’ zombie apocalypse?! He even wrote a script. A
script
!”

“So he’s gonna dress up as Glenn?” I giggled.

“No,” she sulked. “He’s Merle. That asshole’s had a sick obsession with that man since we made the mistake of introducing him to the show. He even found that stupid metal thingy to put on his hand so it looks like it’s missing.”

“Stop…stop,” I choked, tears running down my face. “I can’t breathe.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome, bitch,” she grumbled before going back to work. I tried desperately to control myself, but every time I pictured them in full TWD regalia, another fit of laughter started up.

Me: Trevor tell you what he conned Lizzy into doing to agree to babysitting?

Brett: Yes. And don’t remind me. I just got that fuckin' visual out of my head.

Me: What’s wrong with your friend?

Brett: So damn much. Don’t forget the thong!

Woohoo! I couldn’t wait for date night!

For the love of Christ. This date night was the worst date night in the history of the world! I needed a motherfuckin’ redo like nobody’s business. I’d spent countless hours putting the damn night together, and it’d been one epic screw up after another right out of the friggin’ gate.

I had stopped at the florist’s to buy the most expensive bouquet of flowers I could find, thinking, surely
every
woman loved flowers.

Yeah, not so much.

When I walked through the door, flowers held behind my back, I was stunned speechless and semi-erect the moment I laid eyes on my girl. The little black dress she was wearing hugged her curves so well my mouth watered. From head to toe, she looked like perfection.

“Sweet Lord, baby. You look fantastic.”

“Thanks,” she smiled then proceeded to have a little sneezing fit.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m good. I’m good.” She stepped up to give me a kiss, but as soon as she stood in front of me, she sneezed in my mouth. “Shit! I’m so sorry. God, that was so gross. I’m so sorry, honey.”

“It’s okay,” I soothed, wiping the back of my hand across my face. “Here, I got you these.” I pulled the flowers from behind my back with a shit-eating grin, so damn sure they were gonna get me laid. To say her reaction was a bad one would have been an understatement.

Covering her nose and mouth with both hands, I heard a mumbled, “Oh, God,” as she took two giant steps away from me. “Are those stargazer lilies?”

I looked down at the bundle in my hand and shrugged. “I dunno. What the hell is a stargazer lily?”

“Shit.”
Sneeze
. “I can’t be…”
sneeze
… “around stargazer…”
sneeze
… “lilies. They make my…”
sneeze
… “allergies act up…” s
neeze.

Son of a bitch
. “Beauty, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

Her eyes began to water, making black shit run down her face. “It’s okay…”
sneeze
. “Can you just…”
sneeze
… “take them…”
sneeze
… “out of here?”
sneeze
.

“Shit. Yeah,” I rushed out, heading for the backdoor. I threw it open and hurled the bouquet into the backyard like a football without a second thought. What a waste. I’d spent two hundred bucks on fuckin’ flowers that almost made my girlfriend sneeze herself to death.

“I’b jus gonna…” she started, beginning to sound like she had toilet paper shoved up her nose. “…take an antihistamine and fix my makeub.”

Fuck me sideways. The night was already going down the shitter and the date hadn’t even officially started yet.

The evening only got worse from there. I’d made reservations at a fancy restaurant about thirty minutes outside of town. It was the most expensive Italian place I could find within a fifty-mile radius of Cloverleaf, and everyone on Yelp said it was the shit. I was certain the place was a winner.

“You sure you don’t want to just go home?” It was the third time I’d asked her that since leaving the house. We’d just been seated at our table. The lighting in the restaurant was dim, the glow of the candles on the tables made everything seem more romantic. But I was still able to make out her red nose and puffy, watery eyes perfectly. She looked miserable.

“I told you. I’b fine,” she mumbled, trying her best to give me a sincere smile, which couldn’t have been easy considering she had to breathe through her mouth. “Let’s just order and enjoy ourselves. This place is so nice. Look,” she said, pointing to the menu excitedly. “Eberythings in Italian.”

I loved seeing her face light up like that, even if it was still slightly swollen.

The waiter came over with our drinks and took our order. We spent the time waiting on our meals talking quietly about where we saw our relationship heading. It was amazing. If I’d have been asked to draw up the perfect woman for myself, I never would have come close to all that was Kenzie. It was as if she had been born just for me.

Our food arrived and we both immediately dug in. The next minute or so was filled with nothing but moans over how fantastic everything tasted.

Yeah, Yelp knew its shit. The restaurant was phenomenal.

“Oh, baby,” I groaned as I took another bite. “You have to taste this. It’s so damn good.” Spearing a piece with my fork, I lifted it to her mouth for her to try.

“Mmm, that is good,” she said around the bite. “What is that?” she asked once she finished chewing, having savored the bite for as long as she could before swallowing.

“Lobster ravioli. Excellent, right?”

I’d already taken another bite before I noticed her face had turned an unhealthy pale color and a weird wheezing sound was emitting from her chest.

“Lobster?” she croaked. She started trying to suck in deep breaths, but seemed to be having trouble.