Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
The sight made my belly tighten, and my face flushed profusely.
What had I done?
The answer wasn’t forthcoming.
Mainly because I wasn’t sure what I’d done. I wouldn’t change it even if I could, though. Last night had been scary, and then amazing. A lot of things had happened, and I’d been emotional.
Emotional Tally equaled adventurous Tally.
One didn’t come without the other one showing.
It was how I’d gotten pregnant with Tallulah.
Pregnant.
Yeah, I wasn’t doing that again.
Not anytime soon, anyway.
But if the opportunity ever arose to be with Tommy again, I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to resist him.
I’d have to get on birth control…just in case.
This time I walked in to find both man and baby awake.
Tallulah was on the bed, stretched out with her arms up high over her head, as she stared sleepily at the man who was talking to her while playing with her wild strands of curls.
Tommy was leaned over Tallulah, speaking to her like she was an adult who understood every single word that came out of his mouth.
Something about what they were going to make for breakfast.
“She’s not going to eat actual food until she gets her milk,” I told him. “She’s stubborn.”
And was likely going to be on the tit until she was twelve if she had anything to say about it.
I’d not been lying to Russell the other day.
Tallulah wasn’t ready to be off breast milk, and I wasn’t sure that she’d be willing to stay overnight without me at this point in her short life.
“Well, I wouldn’t eat anything else until I got those, either,” he told her, causing a small smile to light up her chubby face.
I snorted and sat on the bed, pulling the t-shirt up over my booty so I didn’t sit on it.
The moment the bed depressed, Tallulah rolled, done with Tommy and reaching for me.
I grinned at my baby and settled her in my lap, gathering pillows to prop her up into a comfortable position to hold her, and immediately lifted my shirt.
This time was no different than last night.
Tommy watched us the entire time as she latched on, and I tried not to blush.
I’d done the whole breastfeeding thing hundreds of times.
In school during registration. At the doctor’s office. During a graduation ceremony. At the grocery store. During dinner in the middle of a busy restaurant. In front of Russell.
Seriously, out of the hundreds of times, with dozens of eyes on me, I’d never felt as vulnerable as I did right then.
It wasn’t a bad feeling, either.
It was a good one.
One where I wanted him to watch me do this for the rest of our lives, through multiple children.
It was a crazy dream, though. Something that would never happen between us.
So I licked my lips and asked him a stupid question.
“What’s on the agenda for today?”
He grinned, obviously realizing that I was uncomfortable with his intense scrutiny.
He rolled over to his back, and then did an ab curl that made my mouth go dry.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I was supposed to be on shift at the clinic, but I have a physician’s assistant covering for me for the day. So, unless you have to be somewhere, I don’t have much of anything planned other than chilling here and watching the water level.”
I nodded my head.
“Maybe you should flip on the news,” I murmured, leaning back into the headboard to get more comfortable.
He did, grabbing a remote from the bedside table at the same time he got to his feet.
“I watched a little bit this morning when I woke up at dawn,” he admitted. “Which I think, in turn, woke Tallulah. I picked her up and she went right back to sleep, though.”
“We do that a lot,” I told him, watching as he pointed the remote at the TV and changed it to a local news station.
“Do what?” he asked, turning his beautiful gaze back on me.
I licked my lips.
“Take morning naps,” I said. “We doze a lot before I have to go to school. So it’s not surprising that she’d do it with you. I think she likes you.”
“She won’t do it for anyone else but you?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Nope,” I confirmed. “My mom and dad try it because she gets up so early, but she doesn’t let them sleep in. If they wake up, and she’s up, she’s awake for the rest of the morning until it’s time to take a nap around lunch time. Drives my dad crazy.”
Tommy grinned.
“Can’t say that breaks my heart,” he admitted. “She’s a good baby.”
She was.
Despite the difficulties of the multiple illnesses that she’d had throughout her life, she was the best baby I could’ve ever asked for.
She slept through the night from the day she turned three weeks old. She ate well, had no problem switching between the breast and bottles. She smiled often, even when she was sick. Took her medicines like a champ and was genuinely a happy kid.