Page 88 of Claim Me

“No,” Deirdre says and hugs me. “You said we need to stay together.”

“Ididsay that.”

“You don’t want to sleep on the floor,” Sync tells the girls.

The twins look at their father with the big brown eyes inherited from him. With anyone else, he’d stick to his guns. Only his daughters have the power to rip away his common sense.

“I don’t like this,” he tells me.

“I’m too pregnant to care,” I reply.

Sync looks to Indigo who shrugs and mutters, “I’m high on drugs and can’t see out of one eye, so your complaints aren’t registering right now.”

“How about,” Mom says from the doorway, having spied on us like a good mom tends to do, “you all sleep in here tonight except for Sync since I don’t know where we’d put him?”

“In the closet, perhaps,” I suggest, snickering with Indigo.

“Then, tomorrow, the twins can sleep in their room.”

“No, thank you,” Kiera tells her grandmother. “I want to live in here forever.”

“Okay, so we’re just hitting all the extremes now,” Sync says and stands. “I give up. No one wants to sleep in a room with me.”

“Hello?I already said you could drape yourself across the end of the bed,” I explain while Indigo chuckles. “Or cuddle up in the closet. You’re the whiner who wants a real bed for himself.”

Mom grins at Sync before announcing, “Dinner is ready. The kids need to eat in the kitchen. Siobhan and Indigo can eat in bed.”

“I want to stay,” Kiera whines.

“I know, but your grandfather needs you to pay attention to him,” Mom says, offering me a sweet smile. “And I suspect your mom and Indigo need a few minutes of quiet.”

The four kids frown at my mom. She only smiles until they fold under the power of her good mood. Once Sync leads them out of the room, I finally enjoy Indigo to myself.

Rolling off my side and onto my knees, I reach for his face and offer him a tender kiss. He rests his hands on my belly. Our son is in a rowdy mood, kicking the shit out of me. Indigo breaks the kiss to laugh at how wild Lorcan is acting.

“I love you,” I say when his gaze leaves my belly.

All my fear from today rises in me. My tears burn hot, and I can barely find the words.

“You own a part of my heart that no one else can touch,” I say through tears. “I didn’t even know it existed until you made your claim on me. Today, I felt like that part of my heart was in danger. Like those fucking pigs would tear it out of me and destroy something I need to be happy. I can’t shake that feeling. I still think I’m losing you.”

As Indigo kisses me, he adjusts my body so I’m resting against his. “I won’t waste time promising I’ll be safe. You know how club life works. My promises would only be lies.”

Nuzzling his jaw, I know he’s right, but lies might be enough to soothe me.

“I know you think getting married is just legal stuff. But a piece of paper is more than Sync got,” he says, surprising me with his interest in a formal marriage.

“Is this because of Caveman?”

“Not really. He doesn’t care about having kids in wedlock or legal shit. But he knows what Lorrie’s life was like. My mom never had a real address as an adult. No man ever claimed her in a real way. She gave birth to Bubby and me in an off-the-grid clinic. I didn’t have a birth certificate until Caveman got involved in my life. Lorrie never had one at all. She has a death certificate but no record of her birth. In those legal ways, her life felt less meaningful.”

Cradling his battered face, I whisper, “I never knew that about your mom.”

“Lorrie grew up off the grid like many people in the hills. She never went to school. She had a fake driver’s license. I don’t know how she got the car she drove, but she had no insurance. When I became an adult, I wanted her to feel real. I barely had any pictures. As much as I hated how she died, at least, she got a death certificate. Otherwise, I’d barely be able to prove she ever existed.”

“That’s why you want a piece of paper proving we love each other.” When Indigo sighs, I shake my head. “I really wanted to have my thing be the out-of-wedlock baby deal, but I can’t tell you no.”

“You could say no.”

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