LOGINTHEA°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:・Only then did I turn.I shifted slowly in his arms until I was facing him, our noses inches apart. “You… you want that?” I kept my hand pressed to his chest, feeling the steady thump of his heart under my palm. “Even though it won’t be… ours? Not from me?”Gage’s arm tightened around my waist, pulling me impossibly closer until our bodies were flush, my forehead resting against his. His free hand came up to cradle the back of my neck, thumb stroking slowly along my jaw in that commanding-yet-gentle way only he could manage.“Baby,” he murmured. “Look at me.”I did. Those steel-gray eyes held mine without flinching.“Any child we bring into this family will be ours. Blood or not, it doesn’t matter to me. Not one damn bit.” He pressed a slow kiss to my forehead, then another to the tip of my nose, his breath warm against my skin. “I’ve watched you survive things that would’ve broken anyone else. If we adopt, that kid gets the strongest, bravest, most loving mother on the
For a second I could only stare at him, caught off guard by the sheer, uncomplicated joy in his grin. I lowered the window a few inches, the cool evening air slipping inside along with the faint scent of wet pavement and lilies from the shop next door. “Where are your parents, little man?” I asked, keeping my voice gentle. The boy giggled, rocking back on his heels like this was the best game he had ever played, and in that moment a woman hurried around the corner of the building, coat flapping open, followed closely by a man who looked just as flustered. She scooped the child up in one smooth motion, settling him on her hip with the practiced ease of someone who had done it a number of times before. The boy laughed louder, wrapping his arms around her neck as if he had not just tried to climb into a stranger’s car. “I’m so sorry,” the woman said, breathless, her eyes meeting mine through the open window. “He got away from us for two seconds while we were grabbing flowers for
❁✿❀ We left the hospital two days later, the discharge papers signed in silence while the nurse offered us the same practiced smile everyone had been giving us since the fall. Thea didn’t say much on the ride home. She stared out the window at the gray stretch of highway, one hand resting lightly on her stomach out of habit, the other limp in her lap. I kept glancing over at her, waiting for something—anything—but she only nodded when I asked if the seat heater was too warm. The first week back was the worst kind of quiet I had ever known. Thea moved through the house like a ghost in her own life. She would drift from room to room in the soft robes she favored, hair loose and unbrushed, eyes distant in a way that made my chest hurt every time I caught her staring at nothing. Mrs. Harlan tried to keep things normal, fresh flowers on the dining table, meals left warming under silver domes, but Thea barely touched any of it. She would sit at the long table with a plate in f
GAGE ASHFORD°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:・I must be the most god-awful person in the whole world.The thought settled over me like the damp chill that clung to the hospital room. My hands stayed deep in my pockets, though there was no one left to notice if they trembled. The relief had come unbidden earlier that afternoon in the exam room, when the ultrasound screen had gone quiet and the technician’s face had tightened in that professional way, and for one brief, unforgivable instant my shoulders had eased and the constant knot in my chest had loosened. One less life I could ruin. One less child who would eventually look at me the way Noah already had.The shame that followed had been immediate and vicious, but it hadn’t erased the feeling entirely, and now, sitting here in the aftermath, I hated myself for the way it still lingered at the edges of my mind. Eight weeks. It was eight goddamn weeks.Long enough for us to have whispered possible names in the dark, long enough for me to have bought th
°❀⋆ ❁✿❀ ࿔*:・The world came back in pieces and the first sound I heard was the beeping of monitors, then the smell of antiseptic in the air, and a deep, bone-heavy ache that radiated from my lower back all the way down my legs.My eyelids felt glued shut. When I finally forced them open, the overhead lights blurred into soft halos. I was in a hospital room with an IV line tugging at the back of my hand.“Uuughhhh…” I groaned, and the second I stirred, Gage's head snapped up and his eyes locked on mine.“Thea…”“Gage…” My voice cracked as I spoke, my throat dry as sand as the word left my mouth. The pain in my stomach flared again, and memory slammed back. My hand immediately flew to my belly on instinct, pressing hard like I could still feel that tiny spark of life there. “My baby? Is the baby okay?”Gage’s hand, already holding mine, tightened. His fingers squeezed almost too hard, knuckles whitening, but he didn’t speak. Not a word. His jaw clenched so tight I saw the muscle j
THEA°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:・The rest of the day after Mia and Paul’s visit went by in a soft, golden blur. Gage made it home just after they left, walking through the front door and scooped me up without a word, carrying me straight to bed. Mrs. Harlan fussed over all of us with a fresh pot of tea and a tray of plain biscuits, while Mia texted me heart emojis from the car and promised to come back tomorrow with more “pregnancy survival kits.” Gage stayed glued to my side the whole afternoon, one big hand resting protectively over my stomach, murmuring low praises and future plans between kisses to my temple. By evening I was actually keeping down broth, and the mansion felt warmer than it had any right to be.The next few days settled into something almost normal. Mornings were still rough, coming with waves of sickness that had me bolting for the bathroom but Gage worked from home as much as he could, canceling what he couldn’t. We spent quiet hours in the study with his laptop open and my he
THEA‧₊˚🖇️✩ ₊˚🎧⊹♡I woke to the soft brush of lips on my forehead.It was gentle, almost reverent, a clear contrast to the way those same lips had been demanding and filthy hours earlier. My eyes fluttered open, heavy with the kind of deep, sated sleep I hadn’t had in weeks. The room was still d
I waited.The clock on my phone ticked past midnight, then one, then two. The house stayed stubbornly silent—no crunch of tires on the driveway, no soft click of the front door, no footsteps on the stairs. Not a single sound.I’d turned off the lamp an hour ago, but sleep was impossible so I just
Ellis nodded like that explained everything. “Ah. The classic Noah limbo. Women hate that shit, bro. They want labels, clarity, whatever. Me? I stay single for a reason. Girls are complicated as hell. One minute they’re cool with casual, next minute they’re crying because you didn’t text back fast
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, the tension in my shoulders easing as his words sank in. “Okay,” I whispered, squeezing his hand back. “I believe you.” The waiter appeared then with dessert menus. Gage released my hand only long enough to take one, then passed it to me with







