Page 50 of In Her Shadow

“Wait till you find out what Mr Dark and Dangerous has planned.Afternegotiations, of course.” I wrap my arm around her hip.

“Oh… that reminds me, can you ask Mary to do dinner a little later tonight? I want to stop by the apartment and pick up more clothes. Katelyn is already asking if she can loan half of them when they stop fitting. I thought I could go through some of them for her and drop them off on the way home.

“Sure.” I smile. Not liking the idea of her going back to her apartment, I’ve been back a few times to grab her more things, but only by myself. The place feels tainted now, and although the cameras are still working and there's been no sign of the intruder since, I’m still on my guard.

“Thanks again, Mr. Ashcroft.” She kisses me again before walking out the door, looking a little sheepish.

“I can’t believe they still haven’t fixed the elevator.” Eloise moans when we eventually make it up to her floor, and I open up the door. “I’m gonna open the window to air this place out.” She marches over to it and lifts it up, while I flick through her mail to check for any bills.

“Katelyn texted and asked if I wanted to go see a show on Broadway with her this weekend,” she tells me cheerfully.

“Let me know which show and I’ll get you tickets,” I tell her, not really paying much attention. I’m still trying to get my head around what that guy was looking for. I’ve looked around the place myself when I stopped by to get her more clothes and found nothing. I considered maybe it was just a robbery, but a thief wouldn’t have left without her laptop and iPad.

“You wanna help? This is gonna be the pile of clothes I’m bringing, and this is what we can drop off at Katelyn’s. She drops a pair of jeans in the Katelyn pile.

“Hey, I like that pair.” I pick them back up.

“Ren, in a few weeks, I’m gonna have no hope of my waist fitting in these.” She snatches them back off me and shows how tiny it is, “I barely fitted in them before I got pregnant. I’m just lending them to her; they can be my target jeans for after the baby comes.”

“Target jeans?”

“Yeah, my target will be to get back into them.” She chucks them back on the pile before getting back to her wardrobe.

“I don’t think you're gonna make that target.” I move up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist.

“Thanks for the words of encouragement.” She jabs her elbow hard into my ribs.

“Well, supposing I decide I wanna knock you up again?” I put the idea to her, wondering what her reaction will be.

“Um…don’t you think we should worry about havingthisbaby before we plan anymore?” She laughs nervously.

“We’ll see.” I shrug, letting her get back to it. I know damn well Eloise will be pregnant again before our first child starts to walk.

“I might as well give her these, too.” Eloise crouches down and picks up a pair of very high heels. “Mary-Ann’s alwaystelling everyone her pregnancy horror stories, apparently her feet blew up like elephants.” She sighs heavily, and I take the shoes from her and laugh.

“These are definitely going in the Katelyn pile.” I toss them over my shoulder, “And not because your feet are gonna swell like elephants, because they’re a tripping hazard,” I assure her. “You shouldn’t be bending around like that, sit on the bed. I’ll pull out the boxes and you decide if they stay or go.” I gesture with my head for her to move out of my way, and she rolls her eyes as she sets herself down on the mattress.

“These are practical, they can stay.” I slide a box of sneakers over to her, then, when I pull out a pair of PVC knee-high boots that I don’t recall ever seeing her in, I look at her judgingly.

“Everyone goes through phases; they never made it out of the wardrobe.” She smiles as I toss them over to the Katelyn pile.

I spend at least twenty minutes going through boxes of shoes, and when I see a trunk pushed right to the back of her wardrobe, I drag it forward. “What about this, you wanna bring this to the house?” I check.

“No, that can stay here for now.” She kneels down beside me and forces it back where it was.

“You okay? You’ve gone pale.” I touch my hand to her forehead, and she quickly stands back up. “It was my father's, it’s probably full of old photographs and crap. I can’t throw it away in case there's some memories of my mom in there,” she admits, looking disturbed

“Okay.” I stand up and straighten out, wrapping my arms around her because it feels as if she needs it.

“I’m fine, honestly.” She smiles up at me. “We should get going.” She starts stuffing all the clothes she’s bringing with us into a bag.

“You know, if I’m not going to be living here anymore, I should probably let my landlord know. There aren’t manyapartments with rent as cheap as this in the city; there's probably someone who could really make use of this place.” She smiles at me as she bags up the clothes for Katelyn, too.

“Your landlord already knows,” I inform her, taking both bags off her when she attempts to start walking toward the door.

“Ren, don’t tell me you contacted my landlord?” She sighs again.

“Baby, Iamyour landlord.” I kiss her cheek and head out the door, leaving her to let that settle in her head.

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