“Hey…”
He cleared his throat and said, “I heard a rumor that you might be pregnant with my child.”
Silence met his question, and I felt my heartbeat in my ears.
Finally, after ten agonizing seconds, she responded. “Um…no…”
I nearly collapsed with relief.
Brax’s expression was impossible to decipher. “You’re sure,” he said, his voice intense.
“Of course I’m sure,” she said, sounding defensive. “I mean, I would have told you. Jesus, Brax.”
“Alright, that’s all I wanted to know.”
“Um, okay…”
He ended the call and looked at me. “I’m not seeing anyone else. There are no secret babies. No skeletons in my closet that I’m trying to hide. I may not have the best reputation out there. I admit it. I just want you, Mandy. Just you.”
I took the step that separated us and went into his arms that wrapped around me tightly. Relief rushed through me. “I love you, Brax—and I want to be with you. I just need to learn to trust again. It might take some time. I just…”
He kissed me softly and smiled against my lips. “Say it again.”
“I love you and I want to be with you. And only you.”
His eyes searched mine, in that intense way that made me feel like he was peering into my soul. A thousand different emotions rushed through me, most of all an intense love for this man who wanted to fight for me. He made me feel cherished and special.
“I love you, Mandy.” He kissed me softly. “And I want to be with you. Only you.”
EPILOGUE
Amanda
I sat in the chair beside my bed, looking at the man who slept so peacefully. My heart squeezed with how much I loved him.
Long lashes cast shadows upon his well-defined cheekbones. His perfect lips were slightly open, his dark hair mussed from our recent round of lovemaking. His long body, all muscle and sinew under that gorgeous tanned skin, was gloriously displayed on crisp white bamboo sheets.
Every single time he walked into a room, my pulse skittered and I got a little weak at the knees. I had asked myself a million times in the past few months how I had been so lucky to have found someone as perfect as Brax Mitchell.
And all along he’d been right under my nose. Under my roof for a decade of my life. I smiled, thinking back at how odd life was sometimes.
People that knew him called him a heartbreaker, and maybe they always would. We had set tongues wagging, I know that much. But I didn’t care. I welcomed the stares and whispers because I had never been so happy in all my life.
Behind a beautiful exterior was a man with a heart of gold. Someone who would take the shirt off his back for anyone that needed it. Of course, he had his personal demons. We all did. I struggled with trust and I probably always would because of what I’d been through and because of the whispers that always seemed to be associated with Brax. I just hoped that one day I could trust wholeheartedly and not have my stomach drop to my toes every time Brax’s phone rang, or not feel insecure when he received a lingering glance from a waitress or some random chick walking past us.
Always, in those moments, he held me close and reassured me that I was the one he wanted to be with. That no one else interested him. That I was his, always and forever.
And I believed him. I didn’t doubt the emotion I saw in his eyes or the way he looked at me with so much love. You couldn’t fake that.
He wanted me. I wanted him. That’s all the mattered.
Kara had told me to screw the haters, and she was right. I didn’t care what anyone thought. They might make fun of the cradle robber, or so I had been called on so many social media sites, which made me laugh. I was less than five years older than Brax, but if that made me a cradle robber, then so be it. I owned the title. Plus, like she said—they were just jealous.
Although my mom had originally been nervous about me dating Brax, she had quickly come around once she realized the rumors were just that. When we’d gone to our first Sunday dinner together as a couple at my parents’ house, Mom had taken Brax aside and apologized to him for believing such vicious gossip. He told her he understood her concerns as a mother. After that discussion, Brax seemed really relieved, and to be honest, so was I. I wanted the people we loved most to be happy for us.