She made it sound so simple, and maybe it was?
“So, we’ve taken the next step?” I asked, grazing my nails gently down the skin on her back, feeling her shudder with the sensation. “Does that mean we can buy a new bed?”
“Like I didn’t see them on the screen of your phone when you were looking at them earlier,” she mumbled drowsily. “If it’s that important, we’ll get a new one.”
It wasn’t that it was important, it was that it was vital. All night I’d be tense and doing my best not to move in case the bed made a noise and woke Nemi up. It wasn’t feasible to have that every time I stayed over.
Relaying this to her, I added, “And we’re getting the biggest one there is. You have a double, and there’s hardly any room.”
“Whatever you want, honey,” she sighed, and I felt her muscles relax as she nodded off in my arms.
Standing up from the rocking chair wasn’t easy with Heidi in my arms. Still, I managed to do it without dropping her or fucking it up and gently lay her down on the bed, managing to pull my t-shirt over her head. In case Nemi came through during the night, I put my boxers on and got in beside her.
What she didn’t realize yet was that I had everything I wanted under the roof of this house. The bed, Hooch the beast, and Bumper were part of that package, too, and I loved that Nemi had the two animals in her room with her, helping her have the best dreams a three-year-old birthday girl could have.
And, somehow, even with a screeching bed, I had the best night’s sleep myself that night.
When I woke up, it was to an excited little girl, bouncing on the mattress and making the bed scream with each movement.
“We’re making waffles!” she yelled, clapping her hands. “Come on, you guys.”
Glancing over at an amused Heidi, I raised my eyebrows. “Are we?”
“Apparently so,” she said dryly, then turned to her daughter. “Go and get your apron on and let Hooch out to go potty. We’ll join you in the kitchen.”
“Okay,” Nemi sang, almost giving me a heart attack as she bounced off the bed.
“And wash your hands,” Heidi yelled.
When it was just the two of us again, I asked, “Does she always do that?”
Smiling wryly at me, she shrugged a shoulder. “Welcome to the world of parenting.”
She had absolutely no idea what those words did to me. They were like a wrecking ball, breaking through me and settling deep inside.
I genuinely thought something like that would scare me. The prospect of parenting had always been terrifying for me, but now I felt like I could do it. It was a monumental shift in my life, and I loved it.
Sitting up, I smacked Heidi on the ass. “Hop to it. We’ve got waffles to make.”
They were the best I’d ever had—I swear it was impossible for Heidi to make a bad meal—and I loved every second of it. And the fact I ate them watching The Curse Of The Black Pearl, again, with Nemi under my arm, shoveling hers into her mouth at an alarming rate, added a little something to it all.
I didn’t even groan when she decided my nails needed a different color on them to the sparkly green she’d applied the day before.
Chapter Sixteen
Heidi
With Nemi at daycare, I had a rare day off today in between orders, so Bond suggested we spend it showing each other what we like to do. It was meant to be a bonding session—pun intended—but I was surrounded by my version of hell.
I was a mom. I ran around after a three-year-old in my free time and was super active with my job, even though people wouldn’t necessarily think that would be the case. But I ran around the kitchen and dining room constantly, lifting, bending, walking… I exercised just fine, damn it.
So, why did he think I’d want to go to the gym? On my day off.
When he’d handed me the bag and told me to change into what was inside it, I’d imagined sex lingerie and that he’d tell me he liked to do me. Instead, I was wearing a torture device on my poor abused tits, I had sports leggings that felt like they were cutting off my circulation, but I guess the top he’d bought me was comfortable, and it was a pretty shade of pink, so there was that.
“Okay, so I work out here every morning,” Bond told me, gesturing to the equipment scattered around the place.
He did? I knew he was in shape, but I stupidly hadn’t thought it happened at the gym. I figured with his face, the way all the Kleins looked, it was just down to his DNA.