Page 62 of Forbidden Cowboy
I was pleased to see that while her bump was still prominent, my clothes still fit her.
“Where are we going?” She asked, as I collected our clothes from the floor and slipped into my jeans.
“We’re going upstairs, to get cleaned up and then sleep. I have a feeling we’re going to have a lot of long conversations tomorrow, and we both need rest for that.”
She nodded.
“Yeah, okay.”
I helped her clean herself with a washcloth, and when she was all clean, she placed a steady kiss to my mouth, left the bathroom, and turned left down the hall.
“Where are you going?” I whispered, following after her.
“My room,” she said, like it should have been obvious.
“No, no,” I said, grabbing her arm. “Please, stay with me tonight.”
I heard the kind of vulnerability in my voice that should have scared me, but if I was honest, I wanted her to hear it. I wanted her to know just how much she meant to me, and how much I wanted to wake up with her by my side.
“Yes,” she said like it had been a question and not a request. “Of course.”
I pulled her close to my chest in bed, and we fell asleep with my arm wrapped around her, and my face pressed to the back of her neck. Her steady breathing soothed the heartbreak I’d been walking around with, and even though I knew things might be about to get more complicated, I couldn’t help but feel content, even just for that moment.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sierra
Beau was being a stubborn jackass, and I’d had more than enough stress in the last forty-eight hours.
“Goddammit, you S-O-B,” I hissed, stomping into his room two days after his readmittance to hospital. “If you’re not going to answer my calls, then you’re damn well going to look me in the eyes and tell me why, once again, you’re trying to ruin my life!”
Beau, unsurprisingly, refused to meet my gaze, his face petulant and pouting like he was a kid again. Fine, I could play it like that. The nurse taking his pulse stepped away, eyes wide when I marched forward, huge belly and all, and got right up in his face, forcing his eyes to mine even as he tried to look down and away.
Some things never change with siblings.
“Ugh,” he groaned. “Fine.”
He finally met my eyes, and I saw a lot of emotions I hadn’t expected from those cerulean depths. I didn’t see the fury and anger of a man that had been betrayed, I saw fear. I saw some sort of loathing—of himself? I saw, above all, hurt.
“Beau,” I said, my voice still stern, “talk to me.”
The nurse made her exit, muttering something about how she’d be back in half an hour.
“I’m not trying to ruin your life, Squish.”
The nickname had tears welling up unexpectedly in my eyes, and I had to take a seat in the same vinyl chair I had lived in when I first arrived back in Gunnison. There was some sort of metaphor in there, I was sure.
“Then what are you trying to do?” I sobbed, tears falling faster.
“Well why are you crying?!” He asked, alarmed.
He tried to reach out, but I pulled myself out of his reach. I knew he couldn’t get out of bed—the doctors had told me he was too weak for that.
“I’m crying because I’m stupidly pregnant with three fucking babies, and you tried to kill their father!”
“Don’t think I coulda killed him if I really tried,” Beau sighed. “Didn’t even hit him and I was out for the count.”
“Were you really so unhappy with me being pregnant that you had to hurt yourself?”