In a panic, I shoved Rocco off me and walked out of the room. Not knowing what else to do, I went into my old room and slammed the door, pulling out my phone to call Reese.
“Hello?”
“I need you over here. Now,” I said, my voice a flurry of panic.
“Why?”
“Don’t ask questions. Just get your little, white ass over here!”
I hung up and paced the room, jumping when there was a knock at the door. “What?” I snapped.
Rocco opened the door, a strange look on his face. “Is everything okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked, feeling like I was going to crawl out of my skin.
“Because you ran out of the room and slammed the door.” He stepped in and shut the door behind him. “Look, I get that Evie isn’t your favorite person, but she was just having some fun. You didn’t have to flip out.”
I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t know what to say. Apparently, my silence was enough to piss him off.
“You just can’t stand to have fun with a little kid, can you? Is there any part of you that isn’t an unfeeling bitch?”
He turned and stormed out of the room angrily. I stared after him for a moment and then realized that he took everything that happened completely wrong. I wanted to go after him, but then the door opened and Reese walked in.
“What is going on? Rocco looks like he’s about to murder someone.”
“I think I fucked up.”
“Okay, what did you do?”
“I…I think I like Evie.”
She stared at me for a moment and then pulled me down onto the bed with her. “Okay, this isn’t the worst thing in the world. We can work through this.”
She was talking like a therapist, and maybe that was what I needed right now. I was pretty sure I was delusional, freaking out over having feelings for a little kid.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened.”
“He was tickling her, and then he was tickling me. And then she joined in and he nodded for me to pretend like it was funny. So, I laughed along with her, and when I saw how it was making her happy, something really weird happened.”
“Okay…”
I looked up at her. “I felt something close to…gushiness in my chest when I looked at her.”
She nodded, and I could tell that she was trying really hard not to laugh. I slapped her on the arm.
“Stop it. I don’t know what to do with this. I never pictured myself liking a kid before.”
“You know, liking her isn’t the end of the world.”
“I know,” I said irritatedly. “And it’s not that it’s a bad thing, but I’ve made it very clear to Rocco that I don’t want kids. And now his kid is actually making me like her. I don’t know what this means for Rocco and me.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure hiding out in the bedroom isn’t helping things.”
I sighed heavily. “He thinks that I was irritated with her. He called me an unfeeling bitch.”
“Well, you probably had that coming.”
“Hey!”
“Well, if you didn’t keep reminding him that you didn’t want kids, he probably wouldn’t have reacted like that. He doesn’t need it constantly shoved in his face that you don’t like someone that is the biggest part of him.”
“Okay, when you put it like that, I sound like a royal bitch.”
“That’s all I’m saying.”
“So, what do I do?”
“Come on,” she said, holding out her hand. I stood and followed her out of the bedroom, into the living room where Rocco was playing on the ground again with Evie. He looked up at me, but the look on his face was anything but friendly.
“Rocco,” Reese said placatingly. “Brooke has something she wants to tell you.”
She looked to me, but I couldn’t say it. I didn’t know how or what to say. When Reese nudged me, all that came out of my mouth was a squeak. She sighed and pulled me over to the couch to sit down.
“It seems that Brooke has a bit of a problem.”
“I’m all too aware of her problem,” he bit out.
“You have it all wrong,” I said in a rush.
“Really? So, you don’t have any issues with my kid? You didn’t just run from the room because you couldn’t stand to be around her?”
I shook my head, but nothing came out.
“It would seem that Brooke has just discovered what the smile of a child can do to someone,” Reese informed him.
“Say what?”
“She freaked out because Evie made her heart go all goopy.”
He looked at me warily, but all I could do was give a weak smile.
“So, you didn’t run away because you didn’t want to be around her,” he said hesitantly.
“Look, I’m not saying that I’m like…ready for…” I waved my hands around, trying to come up with something to say. “I just…she’s cute and it freaked me out.”
“It freaked you out that she’s cute.”
“Well, she’s…and it…I just…” I looked off toward the bedroom and wished that I could put a sentence together. Nothing seemed to be working right at the moment.
“So, you’re saying you’re starting to come around to kids,” he filled in.
“No,” I said firmly. “To your kid. I’m not saying that I like other people’s kids, but I…Evie’s okay.”
He raised an eyebrow at me.
“What? If I said that I was madly in love with her, you’d send me to the doctor to have my head checked out.”
“Okay, you’ve got me there.”
“It’s a step, right?”
His eyes twinkled slightly. “It’s a step.”
“Well, you’d better start making bigger steps, because you’re going to be an auntie.”
“A what?” I asked, my head swiveling around to Reese.
“Craig finally got his wish and knocked me up, so you’d better get on board with liking kids real fast.”
“Whoa,” I said, steading myself as I fumbled with that news. “Don’t push me. Discovering I like Evie is all I can take for one day.”
“Well, you have about seven months to prepare for the next baby, so I suggest you get really familiar with Evie and prepare yourself.”
She stood and walked out of the room. The front door closed behind her and I just sat there, staring off into space like I had lost my mind.
“Brooke,” Rocco said, taking my hand in his. He was kneeling in front of me now, and my gaze locked on his. “I think it’s time we talk about our future.”
“Our future,” I said slowly.
He nodded. “About you taking a more permanent role in Evie’s life.”
My eyes rolled back in my head just as everything went dark.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Rocco
“What the fuck did you do?” Hunter asked as he walked into the house.
“I was just fucking with her. You know, for fucking with me in the jail cell.”
I ran my hand over my face and stared down at Brooke passed out on the sofa.
“Is she dead?”
I glared at him. “Of course not. She just passed out, but it’s been a while.”
“So, why did you call me? You’re a medic.”
“Because…” I ran my hand down my face and then scrubbed it up and down to wipe the stupid off. “Because I just want you to make sure that she’s okay, alright?”
He rolled his eyes at me and then grabbed her wrist to check her pulse. He watched the second hand on his watch while I waited impatiently. I knew that he was just doing what he was supposed to. Hell, it was the same thing I had done, but right now, I was so fucking worried. Logically, I knew that she was okay, but between being gassed and…shit, I hadn’t even mentioned that.
“Uh, she was shot with tear gas today.”
He grunted. “I was wondering what the red spots on her face were from.” He pulled out his flashlight and shined it in both of her eyes, an
d still she didn’t wake up. He checked both her ears and then started feeling along her stomach. His gaze slowly shifted to mine and something dropped out in my stomach.
“What? Whatever it is, just tell me. I can fucking take it.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Just how often have you been fucking her without a condom?”
Time stopped and my head grew fuzzy. “No,” I said quietly. “It couldn’t be…”
I felt dizzy and started swaying on my feet.
“Calm the fuck down,” Hunter growled, shoving me into a chair. “Just answer the fucking question.”
“Uh…Well, there was the first time, and then the second…” I swallowed hard and barely looked him in the eye. “And pretty much every time after.”
He sighed and got up, walking over to the kitchen, snatching a bottle of water. He shoved it in my face and went back to examining Brooke. “You could have fucking told me that. I can’t believe you’re that fucking stupid. The man with the rulebook that never fucks a woman without a condom, forgot to wear a condom every single time he fucked the one woman he can’t have.”
“It might not be that bad,” I said hopefully. “She…she told me today that she likes Evie.”
“How much?”
I shrugged. “Enough that she freaked out about it.”
“Well, she’d better get used to having kids around real fast.”
“Oh, shit. So, it’s true? I knocked her up?” I stood and started pacing around. I watched Evie playing on the floor and tried to imagine another one of her running around, but it was just too much. “She can’t be. I can’t have another kid right now.”
“Well, I think you should have thought about that first.”
“But…we’re not married. I can’t just…not after Evie. I need a wife, not just a baby mama.”
He stood and slapped me on the shoulder, “Look, it’s not the end of the world. So, you have another kid. It’s not the worst thing in the world. Just make sure she doesn’t name this one Cholera.”
I slumped down in a chair and wrapped my head in my hands. This was so fucking bad. And then Brooke started to stir on the couch and I freaked the fuck out. I got down on my knees and took her hand in mine.
“Brooke, it’s gonna be okay. I swear, you’re gonna be fine and you’re gonna love this kid.”
“What?” she asked groggily. I helped her into a sitting position and she swiped at her eyes. I was sweating like I had just run a marathon, but I needed to reassure Brooke right now, even if I wasn’t so sure myself.
“I swear, it’s all gonna be okay. We’ll do this together. I mean, I’m not too crazy about having another kid at the moment, especially when I’m not married, but it can’t be that bad, right?”
She reached forward and pinched me. When I just stared at her, she looked at me like I was crazy. “What are you talking about?”
“The baby?”
“There’s another baby?” she shrieked.
“I mean, the one you’re carrying.”
“The one…I’m not pregnant.”
“Hunter said you are.”
“Well, he’s wrong. I just had my period. Remember? You bought the boxes of tampons.”
I calculated in my head, and sure enough, that was only a few days ago. There’s no way she could be pregnant. But then why did Hunter tell me that she was? I looked up at him in confusion, but he was fucking smirking at me.
“You son of a bitch,” I said, flying to my feet and tackling him to the ground.
“You should have seen your face,” he laughed. “You’re a fucking medic, and you didn’t even question that I told you she was pregnant without a fucking test.”
I punched him twice in the face, but he kept laughing at me. “Why the fuck would you do that to me?”
“Why the fuck would you do that to her, asshole?”
He flung me off and I crashed into the table next to Evie. I immediately snatched her up to keep her away from the wreckage. Hunter stood with a cocky grin on his face, while Brooke stared at us with a bored expression, like this was just another Tuesday.
“You’re too easy, man. Of course, I’m fucking with you.”
“Why?” I glared accusingly at him.
“Because I was in the middle of a very fucktastic day with Lucy for once, and you interrupted me with this!” He chuckled and shook his head. “I was gonna just check her over and move on, but you’re too fucking easy.”
I shot him my best death glare, but even I had to admit that he really had me going. I was so lost in what he was saying that I hadn’t stopped to consider that what he was saying wasn’t actually logical.
“Now,” Hunter said, grabbing his medical bag, “if you’ll excuse me, I have a woman to get back to.”
I nodded and looked back at Brooke. “Sorry.”
“You deserved that,” she said with a laugh.
I couldn’t help the incredulous look I shot her. She was laughing, after I just poured my heart out about making shit work with her over a false pregnancy. She wasn’t pissed or anything. She was just sitting there laughing about it. Again, this woman fucking surprised me.
“So, you’re not pissed.”
“That your friend used me to get back at you?” She shook her head lightly. “I have to admit, I was really confused at first, but when I saw him laughing, it didn’t take much to put two and two together.”
Chuckling, I sat down next to her and adjusted Evie on my lap. She started playing with my cheeks, trying to deflate them whenever I puffed them up.
“So, you weren’t serious about me being a major part of Evie’s life, right?”
And shit just got serious. As much as I didn’t want to have this conversation in front of Evie, I wasn’t going to put her in her room either. If Brooke wanted to be with me, it had to be with all of me.
“Look, I know that this is all moving in a direction that neither of us really wanted, but…shit, that’s not true.” I sighed and looked at Brooke, deciding to take Hunter’s advice and just lay it all on the table. Either I was all in or I was out. I wanted to be all in. “The truth is that I’ve always wanted someone to spend my life with. I just wanted to be sure it was the right person. And I knew that when she came along, I would just know. So, imagine my surprise when she comes along, but she doesn’t want kids.”
Her jaw dropped and her gaze flicked to Evie.
“There’s something about you, Brooke. I mean, I knew from the start that we had something really good going for us, but the more time I spent with you, the more I knew that you were going to be it.”
“Wow, so no getting to know each other. Just jump right in and start saying the heavy shit,” she chuckled, standing up and walking away.
“I’m trying to just be honest. I mean, let’s face it, we’re not teenagers, or even in our twenties. I don’t have time to dick around and pretend that we’re just going through the motions.”
“But isn’t that what you’ve been doing? I mean, you have that stupid rule book-”
“That I only use for women that I know mean nothing to me.”
“But you used it with me.”
I nodded. “To keep you at a distance.” I shrugged slightly. “You were adamant you didn’t want kids. I didn’t want my heart broken, and the more time I spent with you, the more I knew that you were worming your way in no matter how hard I tried to keep you out.”
“I didn’t mean to confuse things,” she said almost to herself. “I just thought I was fucking with you for giving me that stupid rule book. I didn’t realize that it was…”
“The thing is…I want you in my bed. And I want your shit hanging in my closet and taking up space in my bathroom. I like coming home to you, and I like how you pretend not to watch me as I read to Evie every night.”
She snorted. “Yeah, those aren’t exactly children’s books.”
“Technically not books at all, but she likes my stories. And I like knowing that you’re standing outside the door an
d watching. Every night, I could feel you in the hall, and I was praying that you were coming around.”
“But…I’m the last person that anyone should want around their kids. I’m a terrible influence. I do my own thing, and I don’t let anyone stop me. Hence, me living with you under house arrest.”
“And you think that you’re a bad role model for my kid? A strong woman who doesn’t take shit from anyone? Okay, maybe getting arrested isn’t something I want Evie to learn from, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything valuable to teach her.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and stared me down. “Like what?”
“How about how cool you are over the little shit? You don’t lose your shit when it counts.”
“Name one time,” she said, not believing me.
“Like when I bought all those tampons for you. I can guarantee that any other woman would have been pissed that I didn’t pick up what she wanted. Or when Hunter was just here, pulling his shit just to piss me off. You were the one he was using, and you just brushed it off like it was nothing.” I sighed, trying to think of how to phrase it to her so she would understand. “I don’t want Evie turning into a brat that gets upset when people don’t do things exactly the way she wants them done. I want her to learn not to sweat the small stuff. You have this natural calm about you. I mean, shit, you’re fucking crazy, I’ll give you that. But under all that crazy, you have a solid head on your shoulders, and the kind of person I want in my life, to help me show shit to Evie.”
I was very careful not to say ‘mother figure’ or ‘someone to help raise Evie’. She’d probably flip out about that.
“The point is, I like you. No, I don’t fucking like you. I’m pretty damn sure that I love you. And I don’t want to waste any more time pretending that I don’t. I want you as more than just the woman that’s staying with me. I want you to be in my life and not just for fucking.”
Rocco Page 18