Page 32 of The Homewrecker's Fate

Chapter 15

June

“Where are we going?”

I rolled my eyes at Brax. “It’s a surprise.”

He huffed playfully and then squeezed my thigh. “Sweetheart, I’m kind of driving us there, so I need to at least know if I’m going left, right, or straight.”

“Shit!” I blew out the word with a laugh. “I forgot about that.” He cocked up an eyebrow at that, but was a smart enough man not to say anything. I fiddled with my phone until the voice from the GPS offered his next directions. We took a left, then drove down the block and took another left. Before long we were directed to take another left and I couldn’t hold back the giggles at Braxton’s confused expression when the GPS brought us back around the block to my condo.

“What the hell, Avi?” He chuckled. “Did you forget something?”

I ignored that last bit. “Nope. It’s not a date if you don’t pick me up and take me to the destination, right?”

Brax continued to chuckle as he parked in front of my place and got out to come around and help me from his car.

“We could have just pretended,” he suggested.

“No, then it wouldn’t have been authentic.” We both had silly grins plastered to our face by the time we got into my condo. “Surprise!” I squealed and threw my hands out to show off the transformation I had worked so hard to accomplish. The living room was one giant blanket fort.

“What is this?” He asked.

“A few nights ago, when we were talking on the phone, you mentioned that you never got to make a blanket fort as a kid because your dad made it impossible,” I stated as if that answered everything.

“So, you made me a blanket fort for our date?”

I nodded my head enthusiastically. “This is an adult-level blanket fort, but I thought you should have some experience before-” I cut myself off. Holy crap! I’d been about to say, before our baby comes and you have to learn to make one with her.

“Before Janine gets here and we have to help her make them?” He supplied.

“Yeah,” I whispered back as Brax pulled me into his embrace.

“You don’t have to be afraid to talk about our future together, Avi. It’s what I want. You and Janine are a package deal and I’m all in on that. Biologically, she might not be mine, but that’s the only distinction.” He turned and moved us toward the opening of the fort. “I wish you hadn’t done all this.”

I turned my face up to Brax in question. “You don’t like it?”

“I fucking love it. I just hate that you did all this by yourself. How about next time we work together, so you don’t wear yourself out?”

“Okay, I can do that.”

Brax helped get me comfortable on the heavily padded floor and then worked to make himself just as comfortable after he tossed our shoes out. Then, he dropped the sheet that was folded back as our doorway, and we were ensconced in our own little bubble. I had a snack tray with veggies, dips, crackers, and cheese on it inside the fort with us.

“Wow, you really went all out on this date.” Brax picked up a bottle of water, unscrewed the top, and handed it to me.

“I wanted to do something special but didn’t feel totally up to going out.”

“This is way better than going anywhere. You’re checking off a missed childhood experience for me, you have good food in here, and the best company a man could ask for. Best surprise date you could have planned, sweetheart.”

The things Brax said left me absolutely twitterpated. It was a beautiful feeling that unfortunately came with the mixed emotion of not knowing if I could trust it. The man wasn’t the problem. My heart – the one Rich had stomped all over – remembered feeling enamored of him early on, too. The difficulty was in letting go of the way Rich abused my trust. Not the easiest goal to accomplish considering I was carrying the child we made together.

“What’s going on in that beautiful brain of yours?” When I didn’t answer right away, he nodded knowingly, as if in answer to the words I couldn’t say. “Still having trouble trusting me?”

“No. I’m having trouble trusting myself to know my own feelings.”

“I can help with that.”

“How is that possible?”

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