Page 149 of Treason's Temptation
“You being worried scares me more.”
“Why is that?”
“This is your job. You’re not supposed to be worried or scared.”
“I’m human, Rayven, and it’s different when it’s somebody you love.”
“Sloane says you can’t be trusted. Vie is usually my discernment. They speak the same language, so she can tell when Sloane is talking out of her neck, but Vie isn’t here.”
“I think you andVieare a lot more alike than you think. She’s just better at hiding it. You don’t pretend to be something you’re not.”
“Vie made sure I never had to. She’s never had that. Being the oldest seems like a shitty job. Do you have siblings?”
“Only child.”
She winced like she’d been punched, “That sucks more than being the oldest. I couldn’t imagine surviving Sloane on my own.”
“I’m blessed. I didn’t have a Sloane,” but I did have a coward for a sperm donor that snatched my lady for a victory.
Rayven nodded, examining my degrees on the wall.
“You went to school for a long time.”
“You’ll have me beat in the end,Doc. You ready for that?”
“Not if I don’t get some grants or scholarships. Med school is expensive and now that Vie’s not working-.”
I chuckled at her wide eyes staring at me in regret.
“Relax, I know all about Blue’swork. You didn’t tell me shit I don’t already know.”
Her brows pinched, eager to quench her thirst for knowledge but far too nervous to ask, so she pivoted.
“Anyway, Vie told me not to worry about it, but it’s hard not to worry about her.”
“You worry about school. I got Vie.”
“Is she keeping the baby?” Rayven asked, rattling off more questions, likely because she was in a strange place with a man she barely knew, without her security blanket.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you want her too?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“Then why didn’t you use a condom and don’t tell me it broke,” Rayven pressed.
“I don’t have an answer for that either.” I could’ve used the failed birth control explanation, but I didn’t even find that out until after.
Blue lived up to the name. My calm in the chaos, the eye of the storm, I didn’t even know I needed. I didn’t forget things, not important stuff like questions about birth control. That was part of her superpower. She made the world feel simpler, which is why I was considering breaking my own rules. Blue’s power made me look forward to sleepless nights with a newborn as long as she was on the other side of me.
“Whatdoyou know?” Rayven sassed.
“That I love Navie, and whatever she decides to do or not do, I’ve got her.”
Rayven’s smile was contagious, taking up her whole face. “She always said she didn’t want kids because they’re so much work. I think she’s scared she’ll be like Sloane. That’s like her greatest fear in life, so if you really love her, don’t make her raise this kid on her own. Even if you two don’t work out.”
“Much like you, Navie doesn’t give herself enough credit. She’s not Sloane.”
