Page 135 of Time to Bounce

“Good,” she grimaced. “I don’t like that you’re going back to work Monday.”

I grinned. “Gotta work to pay for our honeymoon.”

She sighed. “I know. I’m just scared.”

I caught her by the belt loop and pulled her toward me.

When she was in my arms, I said, “I promise to always be as safe as I can.”

She twirled a stray lock of my hair around her finger before saying, “I don’t want to be left alone on this Earth, Gable Carter.”

I smoothed my hand from the back of her knee to her ass and down again. “Then how about we give you someone to always have with you, just in case?”

“You mean like a baby?” she asked.

“I mean like a baby,” I confirmed.

She frowned. “But we’re both so busy.”

She was right.

We were.

Her with her work as a part-time 911 dispatcher, then the app she created, neighborhood watch meetings, paired with her other hobbies—i.e., her classes that she took for fun.

She had less time than me.

But I truly didn’t want her to be alone.

If I gave her a baby, she’d never be alone again.

She’d always have someone.

Even if, by some horrible stroke of bad luck, I left this world without her.

I wanted her to have someone who would love her unconditionally, just like me.

“We’re busy, yes,” I pointed out. “But just sayin’, baby, you could drop the dispatcher position easily. You’ve barely been there these last few months anyway.”

“That’s true,” she scrunched up her nose. “They already replaced me. They said I would have a job when I came back but…”

“Then tell them you’re not coming back,” I stated. “And, just sayin’, but you don’t live on Eleventh Street anymore. You could totally drop yourself from the neighbored watch leader and just take over as the liaison for all of the watches.”

“True,” she said. “I could ask Nick. He’d love it.”

Nick was nosy as hell.

And a good guy, despite his poor female companionship decisions.

He’d be a great leader of that neighborhood watch.

“And,” I said, “you could switch to online classes instead of in person. If we had a baby.”

“And you?” she asked. “What are you going to do?”

I still didn’t know.

“Well, as you know, I don’t plan on doing anything undercover anymore,” I paused. “I was actually considering moving to Sunnyvale.”

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