Page 52 of What A Croc
Robert smiled sardonically. “Running a daycare center in Sweet Alps, California?”
“Well, yeah.” There was nothing wrong with Sweet Alps. I actually was finding the combination of big citymeets small town enjoyable. And it was a great place to raise kids. But it was a far cry from Los Angeles, or Connecticut, or New York city.
“Do you want his version or mine?” Robert asked.
“Both?”
“He needed a change from teaching, and working on government funded projects. He started some kind of kinky dating app and made a boatload of money. Wanted to use his early childhood education degree, one of many, many degrees, and needed a change when he found out he was pregnant.”
“And your version?” I prodded.
Robert grimaced. “He wanted to get as far away from his mother and me to raise his child in peace. In an environment completely different from the one he had been raised in. Because as he reminded his mother and me, we didn’t raise him.Ididn’t raise him.” I didn’t miss the emphasis he put on the ‘I’ in that sentence. “What if I’m horrible at raising this baby, and I mess them up? What if they end up hating me like Wyatt did?” His voice rose inpitch with each word, nearing hysterics.
Whoa whoa whoa. Tucking his hands in between mine, I slowly rubbed his palms with my fingers. “Okay, well, Wyatt definitely doesn’t hate you, so I don’t think that’s something you need to worry about.”
“But he did!” Robert cried, and I could feel all his emotions rolling across our bond. “He did. I wasn’t a parent to him. Jane hired a nanny when he was two months old. And I didn’t produce any milk so I couldn’t even use chest feeding him as an excuse to keep him with me. I had two months with him, and then I was barely allowed to interact with him. Once his I.Q. was discovered, he was sent even further away from me to school. He started college at age twelve, Jackson! I can’t even imagine what that was like for him. We were virtual strangers until last year. He didn’t even tell us he had given birth to Julianna until days later. I just…what if it happens again with this baby.” He pulled his hands from mine to rest on his tummy protectively.
A part of me wanted to laugh, because I thought he was being ridiculous. But I knew better than to laugh at his very real feelings and fears. I was also back to wanting to physically hurt his ex. Despite being an apex predator shifter, I had never been what I would consider a fighter. But damn, I really wanted to take a chunk out of this bitch.
“Sweetheart, first of all, that isn’t going to happen.” Caressing his face, I cupped his jaw lightly with my hand. Happiness soared through me when he turned into the caress and nuzzled my palm. “For one, I’m here and I’m not ever going to take our child from you to be raised solely by a nanny. Honestly, if you want to stay home and be a stay-at-home dad, I’m happy with that. I’m happy if you want to keep working and take the baby to the daycare with you. I’m not Jane,” I put all the dislike I could for the woman in the way I said her name. Jane was officially onmy top ten list of names I hated. “I don’t know everything that happened in your marriage, but I know that you’ve been hurt. I will try my hardest to never treat you with disrespect, or make you feel less than, and that includes your ability to parent. Besides, I’ve seen you at the daycare with the kids. Robert, you are amazing with them. Patient, and kind, and you just have this way of talking to each of them, like you instantly understand all their little personalities. That first day with Aiden at the daycare was the first day I felt like I had made the right decision to move here, and that we were going to be okay. Because I trusted you with my child.”
Putting my hand on his stomach, I leaned closer and placed a soft, fleeting kiss on his lips. “I trust you with our child. You are going to be an amazing father. You are an amazing father. I see you with Wyatt. I see the admiration he has for you. I don’t know what your relationship was like before you moved here, but I know what it is now, and it’s good. And I see what an amazing grandfather you are.”
His eyes grew big. “Oh my goddess, I’m a grandfather. And now I’m having a baby! This is so embarrassing! What is Wyatt even going to say when he finds out? What are people going to think when they see me?”
Shrugging, I offered, “Wyatt will probably say congratulations. And for other people, who cares? If they aren’t in our lives, and they don’t know us, their opinion doesn’t matter.”
To be honest, I hadn’t even thought about what anyone would think about the situation, but it was clearly a worry for Robert.
“We’ll tell Wyatt together,” I declared, finally having to stand because my thigh muscles were screaming. “Whenever you’re ready, we’ll tell him together.”
Robert nibbled on his lip again, and this time I did gently pull the abused skin from his teeth, running my thumb lightly over his red skin.
“Maybe we should wait. Just a couple of weeks.” His hands flexed over his stomach. “Just in case something happens.”
I knew he worried about his age, and his ability to carry this baby, and I didn’t know how to ease his fears. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Robert
Scooting the bouquet of flowers on the table a little to the right, I frowned down at them, and pushed them back to their original position.
“Stop messing, sweetheart,” Jackson urged from the kitchen, where he was pulling the pot roast out of the oven. The house smelled amazing, and my stomach grumbled in anticipation of the meal. “The table looks perfect. And very fancy.”
“It’s not fancy,” I muttered, straightening a fork at the setting in front of me. “But I want it to look nice.”
Strong arms encircled me from behind, and I leaned into Jackson’s solid bulk. His hands caressed over my slightly rounder tummy. “You need to relax.”
I nodded, nibbling on my lip in concentration. “Oh! We don’t have a high chair for Julianna. What are we–”
Jackson spun me in his arms, his hands splaying over my ass, and he kissed me soundly as the doorbell rang. “It will be fine. I’m sure we can improvise something. Relax, please. It’s not good for the baby for you to be this tense.”
Running footsteps pounded down the hallway from the living room, where Aiden had been watching a movie. “They’re here!”
“Ah, you know better than to open that door,” Jackson chided, striding over to the door that Aiden was determinedly trying to unlock.
He huffed, “But, we know it’s not stangers. It’s Mr. Wyatt and Sheriff Becks.”
