Always Enough

by Elliott, Kelly

  “Ty,” she said, moving closer to me. She was on her knees, her hands cupping my face. Our eyes met, and I nearly let my own tears flow.

  “That day in the kitchen at Brock’s house, when I was holding the pills and you walked in. I was so fucking ashamed that you knew what I had been thinking. Then when you kissed me and took the pills . . . I just couldn’t do that to you, Kaylee. I wouldn’t make you go through another relationship where you had to worry about someone. I couldn’t let you get involved with a man who would constantly wage this inner battle with his demons.”

  “That wasn’t your choice to make—it was mine, Ty.”

  I nodded. “I didn’t know it then, but I think I fell in love with you the moment you smiled at me when you climbed out of Lincoln’s car for the first time. Then, in Billings, I ended up sleeping with someone, thinking I could get over you that way, and hated myself for it. Hated that I had done that to you. I only added guilt on top of all the other feelings.”

  “We weren’t together, Ty.”

  I pulled her hands from my face. “The entire time I was with her, I pretended she was you. I’m pretty sure I said your name a few times, and she didn’t even care. That’s all kinds of messed up. You deserve someone—”

  She pressed her mouth to mine and pushed me down onto the bed.

  “I want you. All of you. The good, the bad, the ugly, the fucked up. The confused. I want it all, because I think every single part of you is beautiful. And I won’t ever stop fighting for us, and I expect you to do the same. Besides, I’ve never had so many orgasms in multiples of even numbers before, so if you think I’m letting you go, you’re crazy.”

  Laughing, I flipped her over so I was on top. “What about this whole thing with Katy? I saw it in your eyes this morning when you asked me about kids. Is that something you still want with me?”

  Her hand came up and gently stroked the side of my face. “Yes. Ty, nothing changes a single thing about how I feel about you, or the future I want with you. I think I love you even more, and I know I’ll keep falling in love with you. This is only the beginning. Our beginning.”

  My eyes searched her face, and I’d started to talk when she pressed her fingers to my lips.

  “Don’t say it because you think I need to hear it. I see it in your eyes, and I feel it when you make love to me. And as far as Olivia is concerned, like I said, let’s just worry about that when and if we need to.”

  This was the most amazing woman I’d ever met. She filled a void in me that I never thought could be filled. She made me feel whole. She made me feel alive. She made me want more.

  So much more.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  KAYLEE

  Ty’s hand went to my jeans, and my stomach jumped with excitement.

  Then someone knocked on the door and called out, “Room service.”

  With a groan, Ty dropped his head as I pushed him off me, and he rolled to the bed, a look of disappointment etched on his face.

  “We need food for energy. Once we get naked, I don’t plan on leaving this room until we have to. Plus, I’m starving!”

  “I like the sound of not leaving the room,” Ty said as I climbed off the bed and opened the door.

  “Hi! Can you set it all on the table, please?” I asked. I reached into my purse and pulled out a tip.

  Once the guy left, I felt Ty’s eyes on me, watching every move I made, and I loved how it made my body catch fire. We had been through a plethora of emotions the last few hours. There was no doubt about that.

  I opened both beers and handed Ty one and then grabbed the pizza box and sat on the bed again. Ty sat up, his face serious as he sipped the beer.

  “It’s your turn now. How are you handling this whole Katy and Olivia thing?”

  I took a bite of pizza and shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t want to let it bother me, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”

  He nodded. “Fair enough.”

  It was true. I really didn’t know how to feel. Letting the idea that Ty might already be a father bother me would be wasted energy. Especially if it turned out he wasn’t her father.

  “I think we need to see what happens with that. I don’t want to stress about it and cause tension between us. Did I want to bolt when I realized what was going on? Yes. I had the urge to run, but I didn’t because you mean so much to me, and I don’t want to walk away from this, from us. It feels too right.”

  “It does.”

  I smiled and bit my lower lip. The knowledge that Ty felt the same as me made my chest feel warm, and a little bubble of want moved in my lower stomach.

  “One thing we need to talk about is the fact that you and I seem to be flirting with danger.”

  “No condoms?” he asked with a wink.

  “Yes. We’re just getting started with our own relationship, and I won’t lie to you: a few weeks ago, when I thought that maybe all I was going to get from you was one night, I hoped I would be pregnant. I was actually upset when my period started.”

  He stared at me, something flashing across his face. Then he looked away, almost as if he was embarrassed.

  “Talk to me, Ty.”

  Looking back at me, he said the one thing I hadn’t expected him to say. “Then I can admit to you that I hoped you were as well.”

  My eyes nearly popped out of my head. “Really?”

  He shrugged. “If I couldn’t give you a commitment, I wanted you to have a piece of me.”

  My mouth hung open, and I slowly shook my head.

  He gave me another half shrug. “Yeah, Brock was ready to kick my ass when I admitted that little tidbit to him.”

  “You told Brock that?”

  “Well, he wanted to know what in the hell I was thinking, so I told him.”

  I covered my mouth and let out a chuckle. “We are going about this completely backward, you know that?”

  Laughing, he took a bite of pizza. “I like being inside you bare, but if you want me to wear a condom, I will.”

  I chewed nervously on my lip as I really thought about it. “I know the right response here is yes, I think you need to wear a condom. We’re just sorting through our own issues, and it would be foolish to bring in another player.”

  “But?”

  “But . . . I don’t want you to. I’m on the pill. I say I stay on the pill, and we—”

  “Keep having sex and working on us, and let fate decide our course?”

  My heart raced slightly at his response. “So irresponsible.”

  He winked. “Who gives a fuck?”

  “Apparently not us. Then let’s address one more thing, since we’re walking down this path. If Olivia turns out to be yours, do you want to be a part of her life?”

  “I wouldn’t mind, but I know she has a father, and from the sounds of it, they’re close. I don’t want to confuse her, but I would like to get to know her if she’s my daughter.”

  “That’s fair.”

  “What about you?”

  “I would want her to be part of our world. It’s not her fault this is happening to her. My heart actually breaks for the poor little thing.”

  “Yeah, mine does too.”

  “So, we’ll deal with that when and if we need to?”

  “Agreed.”

  We both took a bite of pizza.

  “Look at us being all responsible and shit!” I said with a giggle.

  “Brock and Lincoln would be so proud.”

  Dropping the crust of my pizza into the box, I stood and peeled my shirt off, then worked on my jeans. I was finished talking.

  Ty just looked at me, a half-eaten slice of pizza in his hand, as his eyes glazed over a bit.

  “Dinner’s over. It’s time for your dessert, Mr. Shaw.”

  “Your wish is my command, princess.” Ty took the pizza box and put it on the floor, then quickly stripped out of his clothes. He pulled me back onto the bed and started to shower my body with kisses. It felt like heaven, his touc
h. His kisses. Every worry, fear, and shred of doubt I’d had about everything slipped away with this man’s touch.

  When he buried his face between my legs, I nearly came on the spot. It only took Ty slipping his fingers inside of me and pumping quickly for me to come so hard I felt dizzy.

  Then his mouth was moving back up my body. Ty looked me in the eyes as he pushed inside me, slowly.

  He dropped kisses on my neck, then moved across my jaw until he kissed me deeply. The taste of my own desire still on his tongue. He placed his mouth by my ear as he moved in and out of me in a slow but delicious pace. “If this is wrong, I don’t think it would feel so right.”

  I wrapped my arms around him and slipped my fingers through his hair.

  “It feels more than right,” I whispered back as Ty continued to worship my body.

  After a few minutes of making sweet love, he picked up the pace and was soon kissing me deeply, passionately. Then he came. And, for a brief moment, I thought he might pull out, but he didn’t.

  Afterward, he walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Then he took my hand and led me to the steamy, hot water, where he brought me to another orgasm up against the tiled shower wall. Being with this man was mind blowing—that was the only way to describe it.

  I could get really used to this. Ty making love to me in the middle of the day.

  Everything seemed to be too perfect. And I knew this more than anyone: when something seemed too good to be true, it usually was.

  I picked up the little dress and smiled. “This one is cute.”

  Lincoln turned and looked at the pink-and-white dress in my hands. She smiled back. “It is cute. Are those matching bloomers?”

  “Yep!” I said, holding the dress up so she could see it.

  “Morgan would look adorable in that.”

  “She would,” I said, glancing down at Morgan, sound asleep in her stroller. Brock had taken Blayze out fishing this morning, so that gave us a chance to do a little shopping. A new children’s boutique had opened on Main Street, and Lincoln had been dying to go.

  “After this, I need to stop in at the office and give Karen these drawings I worked on.”

  I nodded. Karen was Lincoln’s boss at the design firm where she worked. “When are you planning on going back into the office?”

  Lincoln looked sad for a moment. “The plan was after three months of maternity leave, I’d go back.”

  I reached for her hand. “You don’t want to go back, do you?”

  Her eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t cry. “I love working, I do. But the thought of leaving Morgan makes me feel sick to my stomach.”

  “Have you thought about going back part time?”

  “Karen really needs someone full time. She’s been so understanding about the baby and all.”

  “Then work from home.”

  Lincoln looked at me for a few moments. “Work from home?”

  “Yeah. When you need to meet with clients, make arrangements for Morgan. Maybe you could even hire a nanny. She could tend to Morgan, and you could work from home and be there with her at least the majority of the time.”

  She chewed on the nail of her thumb as she thought about it. “That would probably work. And there’s a back room at the office that’s empty. I could ask Karen if I could make it into a little nursery on days when she needed me to come into the office. I’m sure she’d be on board.”

  “If she wants you badly enough, she’ll be on board with it.”

  Lincoln hugged me. “Thank you for suggesting that. I don’t honestly know why I hadn’t thought of it before.”

  “That’s what best friends are for.”

  After Lincoln had bought more clothes than Morgan needed, and a few outfits for Blayze, we made our way down the street.

  “I’m starving. You feel like eating?” Lincoln asked as I glanced down at my phone. Ty should have been hearing from Katy any day now. It had been three days since he’d given his DNA and they’d taken blood from him to test for a match for Olivia.

  “I’ll try to eat,” I said.

  Lincoln took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “Still no news?”

  I shook my head. “I’m really trying not to let this bother me, but I’m scared, Lincoln. I’m scared she’s his, and I don’t know how I’m really going to feel about that.”

  Ty and I had gone to Brock’s house when we got back from Billings and then filled Lincoln and Brock in on everything. How the two of us were now dating. Ty admitted to Brock about that day in his truck, after which Brock stood and hugged his brother. It was a touching moment.

  Ty didn’t want to tell his parents, though, and I wasn’t going to push him. Neither was Brock. He had originally said he was only going to tell his therapist, so his telling Brock had been a surprise. A good surprise. Then he told them about Katy and Olivia. Brock didn’t seem to be as surprised as Lincoln was. I guess, with Ty having slept around so much, it shouldn’t have been a shock.

  “Kaylee, stop beating yourself up about this. Everything is so new with you and Ty that simply being in a relationship, with all the baggage, is stressful. You’ve just had a huge wrench thrown in. Of course you’re going to be worried.”

  “Did it bother you that Brock had Blayze?”

  She shook her head. “I want to say no, but that was so completely different. I knew going in with Brock that he had a son. Still, knowing another woman gave him his first child did play around with my emotions. Not much, though, because Blayze was a part of Brock, and I loved him so much. You’re going into this new relationship with Ty, and you were blindsided. I’m honestly impressed with how well you’re handling it.”

  We walked into a little café on Main and found two empty seats. I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly chilled to the bone.

  “I don’t know how well I’m handling it, truth be told. I refuse to let Ty see the worry, but a part of me is so sad that I may not possibly be the woman giving him his first child.”

  Lincoln looked at me with sympathy in her eyes and a knowing smile on her face. Then her face grew serious, and she’d started to ask me something when the waitress walked up.

  “Afternoon. What can I get you to drink?”

  “Water for me,” I said.

  “I’ll have the same.”

  “Here are the menus; I’ll go get your drinks.”

  I opened the menu and started looking, but I quickly peeked over it to see Lincoln looking at me.

  “What?”

  “You really do want a baby, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. I mean, not right away—I think we need to be in a relationship for a bit before we mix in a kid. And it would be sort of nice for Ty to be able to tell me he loves me without it freaking him out.” I let out a half-hearted laugh.

  Lincoln took in a deep breath and let it out. “I am the last person to tell you to take it slow. I mean, look how fast I got knocked up.”

  Pointing to her, I nodded.

  “But I do hope you don’t rush things. I know the two of you have been wanting this for so long, and I’m so over the moon you both got your heads out of your asses, but slow is good, Kaylee.”

  I reached for her hand. “I know, Lincoln. I know.”

  The rest of lunch was much lighter in mood as we talked about the plans for the summer. Blayze had been begging Brock and Lincoln to go to Disney. The little dude was going to owe me big time, because during lunch, I successfully talked Lincoln into what a great idea it would be for all of us to go to Disney. Of course, both of us being from the South, we pretended like we didn’t remember how freaking hot it was there. And humid.

  “If we went at the end of July, Morgan would be almost five months old. She could sit in the pool, and it would be a little more fun.”

  Lincoln laughed. “She’s fun now!”

  We both turned and looked at her, still sleeping in the stroller.

  “Not to be a killjoy, Lincoln, but look at her. She’s all cute and ever
ything, but she’s sort of boring.”

  Lincoln’s eyes widened in shock as she looked at me and then down to her sleeping baby. “Spend a day with her—she is far from boring.”

  “All she does is sleep!”

  “Ha! You know nothing. She cries. Poops a lot, demands food, then cries again.”

  I looked at the peacefully sleeping baby. “Every time I see her, she’s sleeping.”

  “Ugh! You have no idea!”

  As if on cue, Morgan opened her eyes and let out a whale of a cry.

  “Holy shit, it’s like she’s doing it simply to prove me wrong! She’s her father’s daughter. Shaw blood is for sure pumping in those veins.”

  Quickly scooping up her baby, Lincoln moved like an expert and was soon feeding the once-sleeping princess, who had quickly morphed into a little monster.

  “Wow, she’s going to town on your boob,” I said.

  “She needs her diaper changed as well.”

  I crinkled my nose. “And why are you looking at me?”

  Before she had a chance to reply, my phone rang. I looked down to see it was Ty. I knew he was out in the fields today, plowing and planting hay.

  “Hey, how’s it going?”

  “Hey.”

  I instantly heard it in his voice. I sat up taller and forced my breathing to keep steady. “Everything okay?” I asked, attempting to sound casual.

  “Katy’s here.”

  The shocked look on my face made Lincoln take notice.

  “As in, there at the ranch?”

  “Yes.”

  I swallowed hard. “I didn’t know you’d told her where you lived.”

  “Um, yeah. It seemed like the right thing to do.”

  Nodding, I replied, “Sure, yes.”

  “Do you think you could come back to the ranch?”

  “Of course. I’m on my way right now. Lincoln and I just finished up lunch, so I’ll get there as soon as I can.”

  “Be careful, Kaylee.”

  “I will. Um . . . see you in a bit.”

  I had almost said “I love you,” but for some reason, I stopped myself.

  I hit end and stared at my phone until Lincoln’s voice pulled me out of my daze.