Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
And I came to a decision, knowing it was the right one.
I’d try until I no longer had breath in my body.
Because not only was Apple the father of my baby…the little life inside of me that gave me so much love even when she wasn’t even born yet. But also because Apple deserved it. And my baby did, too.
***
“And what did he say when you told him about going to Dallas with another man?” Ridley asked with a roll of his eyes.
“That I should make sure he drives the speed limit,” I snorted, really cutting into my steak now.
Well, more like massacring it.
I wasn’t in a good mood.
Why, you ask?
Three words.
Apple fucking Drew.
“Told you that would backfire,” Ridley mumbled helpfully.
“Then why’d you let me do it?” I hissed.
In truth, I did it, just like I did it every week, in hopes to garner some sort of reaction other than boredom out of Apple.
It was as if he was just existing.
He’d go to my appointments, then leave in a matter of moments once they were done.
He’d see me home, then he’d be gone.
Although he didn’t actually leave.
That I realized pretty early on.
He wasn’t sneaky about making it obvious that he was watching me.
Any time I actually acknowledged that he was out there, though, he would leave.
Which meant I didn’t engage him in conversation in any way.
When he wasn’t at work, doing something for the club, or asleep, he was watching over me.
I would say it was sweet if it wasn’t so fucking annoying.
The man was a stubborn, pigheaded fool.
And I didn’t understand him a goddamn bit.
I’d been able to finally rip the story from Ridley after getting him drunk, and I couldn’t see a goddamn thing wrong with what he did.
Don’t get me wrong, I never condone violence.
However, I also don’t feel like a man should pay penance for something that likely wasn’t his doing in the first place.
Apple was taken advantage of by his friend. A friend who’d never looked past his own grief to see what his death would do to Apple.
Needless to say, I was more than willing to make the first move, but every time I got close, Apple would retreat.
So as to not destroy what little I was able to build, I gave him that space.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try to entice Apple into giving me what I wanted, which was him.
“It worked,” I said. “He came to talk to me.”
“No,” Ridley countered. “He came to yell at you.”
I snorted and turned back to the dinner that I was eating.
It’d been eleven weeks since the gender reveal, and I was officially in the third trimester of my pregnancy.
And I looked like it, too.
My body was really starting to show, and everything that used to fit didn’t anymore.
“Whatever,” I grumbled.
“He also held you for about four hours after your episode, although he doesn’t realize I know that,” Ridley snickered.
My face flushed.
I didn’t want to think about that.
Except the idea of what Apple had had to do today was gut-wrenching.
“Kitt…” Ridley said, recognizing the color on my face for the embarrassment that it was. “You need to get over it. Hopefully this is only for a short time longer, and then you’ll kick these seizures.”
I shrugged, knowing he was likely telling the truth.
Hell, my own doctor had even said that once I had the baby and I could go back on my regular meds, and when the hormones that were throwing my system out of balance finally evened out, that I’d likely not have another seizure.
That didn’t make it any easier to deal with in the now, though.
“What do you mean you saw him hold me for four hours?” I startled. “Weren’t you at work all day?”
He smiled sheepishly at me.
“What’d you do?” I asked warily.
“Nothing that you wouldn’t do if the positions weren’t reversed,” he said. “How do you think I got Apple here while he was working?”
I hadn’t thought about that.
I’d noticed he’d been in his work clothes earlier, but I hadn’t thought to ask him how he was able to be here with me and not get in trouble.
“He follows me constantly,” I told him. “Why else would he have been here?”
“No,” he shook his head. “I have the house wired for sounds and video.”
I blinked, surprised by what he’d just said.
“You what?” I repeated, still not comprehending the magnitude of what he’d just told me.
“Come on,” he said, pulling my hand, and consequently me, to the living room.
He pushed me down onto the couch and turned to stare at me, his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
“I only did it for your own good, remember that,” he ordered, handing me a TV changer.
I took it, then looked up to find him changing the input on the television.
And suddenly I was looking at about five different views of everywhere in the house.