Page 78 of Mending Scars

Please, please, please.

I heard typing through the phone followed by the clicking of a mouse. “Do you remember the address or listing number?”

“9603 Briarwood Lane.” I didn’t think I’d ever forget that address.

More typing and clicking followed my response. “Here it is—looks like it’s still on the market.”

“Really?” There was no doubting the hope in my question.

“Yes. Just let me double-check something real quick…” After a few seconds of silence, her voice sounded back into the phone. “Yep, it’s still available. Did you want to see it again?”

I couldn’t stop the excitement that came over me. I sat up in my chair. “Can we just skip that and get to the paperwork?”

Tanya laughed. “I have to give your offer to the seller first. I’ll do that as soon as we get off the phone.”

“That would be great. Please keep me posted.”

I could hear Tanya’s smile in her voice. “I’ll be in touch soon. You make sure that you stay well-rested for that baby.”

“I will. Thanks again.”

I text Ryker as soon as I hung up the phone to let him know the good news. Things were finally taking a turn for the better, and I wondered if they were too good to be true.

“Where should I put this, babe?” I grunted as I hefted some chair that Kaiya had called a chaise through the doorway to our new house. It had taken about a month to get through the whole mortgage process, including extensive credit checks and employment verification, before we were finally able to move in.

Kaiya whipped around to face me, causing her ponytail to swing back and forth from the movement. “Um.” She pursed her lips and walked toward me. “Right here should be fine.”

I set the chair down where Kaiya indicated as she walked upstairs with a laundry basket full of baby clothes. I followed her with the box containing Hayden’s crib, then put it down just inside his door.

I leaned against the door-frame and smiled as I watched Kaiya lay clothes on her enormous belly before folding them and setting them in the drawers of the dresser I had set up earlier.

I still had about two months left on my lease, so we were slowly moving stuff from both of our apartments into the house. We had also painted Hayden’s room the week before, and Kaiya wanted to set everything up and have it ready before we moved in.

“Where do you want the crib?” I asked as I walked over to the cardboard. Gripping the edge, I started pulling at the top to open the box.

“Against that wall,” Kaiya replied as she turned around and pointed across the room opposite of where she stood. “I want to put the rocking chair by the window.”

I began to take the pieces out and arrange them on the floor so I could find them easily when I read the directions. After looking over the instructions a couple of times, I went downstairs to grab my toolbox out of my truck and get the tools I needed to assemble the crib.

Kaiya made several trips in and out of the room as I worked, bringing in the gifts we’d received at the baby shower and arranging them around the nursery. Everything was so surreal—moving into this house, becoming a father in just a month; basically settling down. If someone would have told me that this would be my life a year ago, I would’ve laughed in their faces.

Once I finished, I stepped back to survey my work. The crib looked just like the picture on the box. I gripped the edges of the crib and shook it a little to make sure it was sturdy.

“Finished?” Kaiya asked.

I looked over the crib again. “I think so.” Bending down, I inspected the underside, then grabbed the legs and tested their stability. “Everything seems stable.”

Kaiya came next to me as I stood and eyed the crib. “It looks good.” She wrapped an arm around my waist and looked up at me with a loving smile. “Great job, Daddy.”

I smiled from her words—I loved when she called me that. “Thanks, Momma.”

Kaiya’s mouth spread wider as she tiptoed up to kiss me. My hand automatically went to her stomach as our lips met; I loved feeling her belly and knowing that my son was inside her.

Or so you think.

My suspicious thoughts made me break the kiss and step back. “We have a lot to do. Stop distracting me,” I deflected, hoping she wouldn’t notice that something was bothering me.

She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and smiled. “You’re right. We don’t have time to get carried away like usual.”

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