Page 64 of Bully's Second Chance
She giggled a little heftier this time. “He’ll come around. The thing about my husband is that once he sorts through his feelings, he always comes around. And something tells me you understand that, too.”
I sighed. “Unfortunately.”
She stood to her feet. “My stomach is growling, so I’m going to make a run to the house and get some things. You want anything?”
I peeked up at her. “You know the cafeteria is open all the time here, right?”
She blinked. “We need something more than cafeteria food to keep our strength up. Are you a fan of tamales?”
“Can’t say I’ve ever had one.”
She glared at me. “That changes tonight. You can’t be part of this family and not know what a tamale tastes like.”
I snickered. “I’d be honored to try one, then.”
She bent down and kissed the top of my head. “Give me an hour. I’m going to pack a picnic basket. Are you a fan of hot tea?”
“Mmmm, yes, ma’am.”
“I’ll bring some with me, then. I’ll see you in a bit.”
I stood to my feet. “Do you want me to walk you down to your car?”
She picked up her purse from the floor. “I wouldn’t mind that one bit.”
I set down my coffee and walked over to Lily before I pressed a long, warm kiss to her forehead. I wanted her to know that I was there, even if I were about to slip out of the room. I bent toward her ear and whispered that I’d be right back, that I was simply escorting Guadalupe down to her car.
Then, I offered the woman my arm, and I made sure she got going back toward her house safely. As I watched her car be swallowed up by night, I thought about what she and her husband had done for Lily. They had given her a family when she had no family to speak of. They had given her the kind of family I wished I had grown up with instead of the spiteful nonsense that crafted the foundation of my entire childhood. My father had done the best he could, but sometimes his best was pawning me off onto a nanny so he could work nights and weekends to get his company to the heights he had always dreamed of.
And as I turned back toward the hospital, I whispered a vow that carried itself away on the coattails of the wind that kicked up around me. “I will never put work first. Not when it comes to my family. You two have my word.”
I made my way back into the hospital, but I took the long way back up to the room. I gave myself room to think, and breathe, and recuperate before I stepped back into the hellscape that the hospital room had become. And with every step I took, it gave me time to digest the reality staring me in the face.
I was going to be a father.
It wasn’t ever something I saw for my life, mostly because I never saw myself settling down with anyone. I mean, I saw what had happened between my parents. The fighting and the bickering. The yelling and the throwing of things before they shattered against the wall. I didn’t want to put myself through it again, nor did I want to drag a child of my own through that bullshit. But, with Lily, things were different.
With Lily, things were always different.
The idea of having a child with her made me smile. The idea of her body swelling with life made my cock jump with joy. My heart surged with delight at the mere idea of Lily being the bearer of my children, and it made me wonder if she’d want to be more someday.
It made me wonder if she’d want to be my wife when the time was right.
“Man, how things change,” I murmured to myself.
Had someone told me two years ago that I’d be having a child with the girl I had bullied relentlessly in order to forget about my own issues at home, I would have laughed in their face. I would have laughed, thrown back a shot, and then found the hottest woman to go home with without a care in the fucking world. Two years ago, I would not have been the kind of man to stick around with this kind of shit going down. I would have offered to pay for the abortion, or—and it makes me sick to say this—I would have signed over my parental rights. Anything to keep that child out of the hellish version of my own existence.
But, I wasn’t the same man that I was two years ago.
As cliché as it sounds, Lily had saved me. She gave me a second chance to be the person she saw. The person she admired. The person she believed me to be when I couldn’t even see it myself. The thought alone spread a smile across my face as I finally made my way back to Lily’s hospital room.
And when I walked inside, I saw Yuslan perched on the edge of her bed, holding her hand against his chest.
“Would you like some alone time?” I asked.
He shook his head, but he didn’t look at me. “Come in. I know she’d want you here.”
I slipped inside and closed the door behind me. “Sir?”
