Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
“It’s over. It’s done.”
His fingers left her shoulder to comb through the hair that had fallen alongside her face, brushing it back behind her ear. “What’s over—done?”
Pressing her lips together to suppress a smile, she failed miserably. “The fighting.”
“Why?”
“You’re insufferable.”
“No, just making sure you didn’t wake up with a different opinion than the one we settled on last night.”
“That’s unfair.”
“It’s not. You can change your mind. Hell, you already did.”
“So much for not fighting,” she muttered, instantly sitting up.
The soft cream duvet fell down her naked body just long enough for Nico to yank her right back to him. Now, she splayed on her stomach across his, those tired green eyes of his burning brighter than ever as they nailed into hers.
“We’re not fighting,” he told her, “we’re talking.”
“Feels like it.”
“No, you’re just scared that we can’t talk about things we disagree on without a fight starting.”
She tried to move again, but he grabbed her arms and pulled her closer until he could hold onto her face and kiss her still and silent. As if she needed another reason to stay there in bed with him when she wanted to be mad.
Except she couldn’t be mad. He wasn’t mad at her, after all.
Lips trembling against his, he asked her, “So, why aren’t we fighting anymore?”
“Bad for the baby.”
Nico nodded. “And what else did we say?”
A tear dared to escape the corner of her eye, but his thumb swept it away fast.
“None of that,” he told her.
“I’m sorry.”
“Come on, Frankie, this is important. I know you’re sorry, babe, but I need to know that the you who woke up this morning is the same one I fucked to sleep last night. Please.”
She was so ashamed. She couldn’t believe the things she’d said to him in that study, never mind the way she treated him. She bet the way it hurt her to even think about it couldn’t compare in the slightest to the way it felt for him.
“No more being purposely mean,” she said.
“What else?”
“No more lying or hiding things.”
“At all,” he said pointedly. “Ever. For anything, about nothing.”
Frankie nodded jerkily. “Yeah, I know. But I just didn’t know how to tell you. I knew you were going to be so pissed off, and you’d want me to abort.”
“You assumed. You never asked once it was reality. You didn’t give me the chance to say or think anything.”
“You said it last night while we fought for like two hours. My father said it to you in his office. My life? The future everyone wants for me? Over, right? Done. I’m lucky there’s one week left at the training camp, because I can’t continue at the level I’m at. I can’t be six-months pregnant scrimmaging and getting knocked around the turf. It’s literally in the fucking contract I have to sign to attend. I have to piss in a cup to prove a negative pregnancy test, if you can believe that. Oh, and NYU?”
She laughed scornfully.
“That’s a joke now, too,” she said, all bitter and a little mad. Just at herself. “Let’s not forget how I probably won’t be able to keep up with classes, soccer, and a baby. Trust me, I know exactly what you would’ve told me to do, and what my father probably wants me to do even if he won’t tell me to, and I can’t do that, Nico.”
“Hey—”
“No,” she said firmly, putting a hand up between them. “I won’t do that.”
Nico’s eyes rolled upward, but not in annoyance. Just...resignation. He let her slide off to the side so she could snuggle in alongside him. There, tucked against him, face to face, he pulled the duvet up to her hips. All she smelled was him, and their sex lingering in the sheets. The rest of the world disappeared.
Her fears? Gone. The anxiety was chilled. Her? Happy.
He rolled slightly to the side, readjusting them so he had better access to drag his palm from the curve in her waist down to the swell of her hip. Using his bent arm against the pillow as a place to rest his head, he just kept stroking her in that tender way until she finally lifted her stare to find his.
“Why are you like this with me?” she asked him.
Nico shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean. How do you want me to be with you? I love you.”
“Yeah, when I’m fucking terrible and awful to you.”
“I’ll have my moments, too. I always do.” Her chin trembled as his fingers found her cheek to stroke, but she kept more tears at bay. “I love you,” he repeated, making sure she heard every word that time.
“I love you, too.”
“Let it go, Frankie. I did.”
Then, his hand dropped to her stomach. He didn’t rub the same way, but for the slow sweep of his thumb against a barely-there swell that had started to show itself over the last week. She tried to keep it hidden with baggy hoodies and keeping his shirts on in bed. He liked that, anyway, so he barely even made a comment on it. Practice at the training camp had been a little more worrisome when the uniforms were skin-tight and her morning sickness made itself known a couple of times a day.