Always with You - Part One(6)

I glance down at the bundle I'm carrying. What if this really is my child?

"Let's just take this one step at a time. Starting with going inside. Olivia is part of my present … the biggest part of my present, so she will be involved. Maybe we can let the past be the past, but if there's any kind of future for us, she'll be with me."

"I totally understand that," Sophie says, nodding vigorously. "And I'm happy for you, Cash. Truly. I don't want to cause problems for you. For either of you."



       
         
       
        

"Good. Then don't."

"I won't, I won't. But … don't let her be mean to my little girl."

"Be mean to your little girl?" Fury sweeps through me. "Let me tell you something. Olivia is one of the kindest, most considerate people you could ever hope to meet. She would never, ever be mean to a kid, for God's sake. And I can tell you one thing for damn sure: If we had a daughter, she sure as shit wouldn't be found asleep in the backseat of car."

I stop myself before I get nasty. I need to at least keep some amount of peace, just in case this woman is the mother of my child.

Sophie has the good grace to blush and the good sense to keep her mouth shut. She nods once and releases my arm so that I can carry Isabella into the club where it's warm.

Looks like it's gonna be one helluva morning.





CHAPTER FIVE



Olivia



I hear Cash's low voice much sooner than I expected and my heart stutters. I raise my head from the pillow to hear him better. That's when I realize he's not speaking to me.

"Wait for us at the bar," he tells someone in a stilted tone. Likely Sophie, if I had to guess.

Wait for us.

Us.

That means she isn't gone. That means I won't be able to avoid this like I'd wanted to.

Some part of me, irrational though it is, was hoping that Cash would go outside, discover that this whole Isabella thing was a ruse, get angry and send them both packing. Minutes later, he'd come back to bed, to me, and we could resume the relatively drama-free life we've been enjoying and focus on trying to get me pregnant. That was the plan. And I liked that plan.

But that was wishful thinking on my part, no doubt.

Something tells me that Sophie won't be nearly that easy to get rid of. Not that I should want to, really. I mean, if she's the mother of Cash's child then I should get used to seeing her on occasion, right? I should want for them to get along for the sake of his daughter, right?

His daughter.

My heart breaks a little bit all over again. Some woman … some random woman from Cash's past, has waltzed right into our lives and given him the one thing that I can't. Without even trying. Just like that. So easy. Even if I am able to get pregnant eventually, this stranger will have stolen so much from us. She'll have given Cash so many firsts-his first child, his first daughter, the first person to call him "Daddy." Together, they'll share a year of firsts of all sorts-first New Year, first Easter, first Independence Day, first birthday, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas. Cash will be a father for the first time on all of those days. And the mother of his child won't be me. And the child won't be ours. I don't know how not to be devastated about that. It's the one thing that I wanted most to give him. To share with him. For us to do together. As husband and wife. Then as a mother and a father. 

Nausea flourishes in my stomach like blooms of algae on a pond's surface. I feel sickly green from the inside out.

I'm lying on my side with my face turned into the pillow when I hear Cash quietly open the door and step inside. Instantly, I feel his presence surround me. It's like he changes the way the air moves, the way the sounds travel. My entire universe shifts on its axis when he's near. It tilts in his direction, like he's my sun. Because he is. My world revolves around him. And his used to revolve around me. But now there are other planets in the rotation. Foreign bodies in our solar system. It's not just Cash and me anymore. And if this little girl really is his, it will never be just Cash and me ever again. And that breaks my heart, too.

He sighs as he slides onto the mattress beside me, his hand finding its way to my hip as though it's meant to be there, as though when he's near, he has to be touching me. I know what that feels like because I feel the same way around him.

"Is everything okay?" I ask hesitantly.

He scrubs his other hand over his face. It's something he does when he's agitated. And I know he must be. All this has to be weighing on him.

"I don't know. I don't know what the hell to think. I only know that whatever this is, however this unfolds, I need you by my side. We're in this together. Right?"