Page 59 of Now You're Mine

She half-smiles like she’s embarrassed by my confession. She reaches up to touch my chest again. “There were a couple of moments when I didn’t feel strong,” she says, her eyes softening.

I take her hand and bring it up to my lips. We’ve both been through so much, but losing the baby, in particular, hit us both pretty hard. And we’ve never really talked about it. Maybe because it’s just too raw still. But my therapist would tell me, we have to talk about the hard things.

I kiss her hand, then put it down, and brush my fingers over her flat stomach. She’s wearing a white bikini that conforms to her curves in a way that sets my blood on fire.

“How are you feeling?” I ask quietly.

Pushing out a heavy breath, she rolls back onto her back, looking up at the sky. “Physically? Fine. Like nothing happened.” She swallows, and blinks, a single tear rolling down her cheek. “Emotionally?” She turns her head to look at me. “I’m getting better. What about you?”

I feel a thread tug on my heart whenever I think about the baby we lost, which is wild because prior to meeting Lux, fatherhood wasn’t even a thought for me. And I know we’re young. We have so much life ahead of us. But I still grieve that tie to Lux—that tiny person that would have been both of us.

“When I found out you were pregnant…” I pause, searching for the right words to express the complex feelings swirling inside me. “I should have been scared, I guess, but I wasn’t. I felt…hopeful,I guess, that something beautiful might come out of so much darkness.”

She nods but doesn’t say anything.

The doctor told us pregnancy loss is pretty common, and that anything could have caused it. Lux was under a lot of stress, and I half-wonder if that played a role. But we’ll never really know.

I half-roll on top of her, pressing my body to hers, the pad of my thumb brushing away her tears. “Just promise me one thing,” I say, looking down at her.

Her throat moves as she swallows again. “What?”

“Promise me, years from now, when the time is right, we’ll create something beautiful again.”

She smiles up at me, and I swear to God, that look on her face makes my chest ache. This girl is everything. “I promise.”

We lay there for another few minutes, watching as the sun slowly sinks into the ocean. The wind starts picking up, and it’s getting cold, so we walk back to Lux’s tiny dorm room, where we’ve been holed up for the last few weeks.

On our way up to her room, we stop by her mailbox and inside there’s a thick manila envelope sticking out. Lux grabs it with a questioning look and reads the return label. “What’s this? It’s from a lawyer’s office here in Malibu.”

Oh, shit.

I shrug, and grab the rest of her mail, tucking it under my arm, then I grip her elbow and guide her to the elevator. Oncewe’re inside her room, she sits on the bed, crosses her legs, and tears the manila envelope open.

My mind scrambles for some excuse to leave. I really shouldn’t be here when she reads the documents inside that envelope.

She scans the cover letter quickly, her brows pinched. Then she pulls out the thick stack of papers, and holds it up, looking at me, confused. “What the hell is this?”

“Didn’t you read the letter?” I ask, leaning against the desk.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t make sense. This lawyer says you’re transferring Rush House intomyname.”

I nod. “Yup, that’s the gist of it.”

She shakes her head, tossing the packet and envelope aside. “I can’t accept this. Rush House is a multi-million dollar estate, and it’s been in your family forever.”

I shrug. “A century and some change.”

“Exactly.”

Taking a step forward, I pull her up onto her feet, so she’s standing toe-to-toe with me, a stern look on her face.

“Lux.” I thread my arms around her waist, relishing the warmth of her body. “Please. Let me give this to you. Think of it as areallyexpensive promise ring.”

She places her hand on my chest. “It’s your legacy, Roman. And one day, you can pass it down to our kid. How about that?” She gestures to the papers on the bed and shakes her head. “But this…you have to stop punishing yourself, and trying to atone for everything that’s happened.”

I rest my chin on top of her head and sway a little, just absorbing her. “I want to know you’re taken care of, no matter what,” I say.

Pressing her cheek to my chest, she inhales deeply. “Then just…promise you’ll never leave me.”

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