Page 138 of That Girl
“Yeah, baby. It was my decision. I’m okay with it. Do you think you’re up for our talk, or do you need some rest and some food?”
I flip my left hand over so I can link our fingers together. “I’m ready. We’ve put it off long enough. I just hope you can forgive me when I tell you what I did.”
“Sunshine, I know.”
“You do? How?”
“Prez.”
I open my mouth to ask how Prez found out when JD kisses me a third time to stop me from talking.
“Are you going to kiss me every time to shut me up?”
“Yeah. Are you complaining?”
“No. Kiss me again.” And he does, like he’s savoring me. “As soon as I’m out of this hospital bed, the first things I want are a shower and sex. Preferably sex in the shower and then more sex out of the shower.”
“As soon as the nurses change shifts tonight, I can guaran-damn-tee you that my fingers are going to be under that sexy-as-hell hospital gown finger-fucking you until you come at least twice.”
“God, Jackson.” I’m immobilized in a hospital bed and this man sets me on fire. Every, single time. “Now, stop trying to distract me. I want us to have our talk before the meds knock me out again.”
JD leans over the frame of the bed, my hand still clasped tightly in his. “Prez came over the other morning just after you left. He said he read some texts between you and Shelby and asked me if it was true. Apparently, when he confronted Shelby, she admitted that you had a DNA test done on me and Connor.”
Shame washes over me, and tears leak out of my left eye which isn’t as swollen as my right. “I was going to tell you. I am so, so very sorry for betraying your trust like that.”
“Did you get the results?”
I try to shake my head no, but it makes a slicing stab of pain shoot right through my brain. “Not yet. It can take up to two weeks.”
JD sighs. “Okay. We’ll look at them together when they do come in—you, me, Prez, and Dustin.”
“I don’t want you to lose your son. I never wanted that to happen.”
More tears. JD slides his thumb across my cheek, wiping them away.
“Aurora, I won’t lose my son. Prez, Dustin, and I had a good talk. It may be unconventional, but we’ve decided that if Connor is biologically Prez’s, which I’m pretty sure the test will show he is, then we’re going to co-parent. We’ll figure out a schedule and holidays. We’ll make it work. Connor will grow up calling both me and Prez, Dad, and both you and Candace, Mom. That is, if it’s alright with you?”
“I would love nothing more.” I want him and Connor, the house with the white picket fence, a gaggle of children, and a dog. I want it all with JD.
JD kisses me lightly on the forehead.
“Can you forgive me for what I did?” My hope and my heart infuse every word.
“Of course, I forgive you, sunshine. I love you.”
His crooked smile and dimple tell me everything I need to know. We are a unit. A team. Together we are stronger. Fallon and Trevor gave me a family, but JD is my home.
“I love you, Mr. Hallstead.”
I hold up our heart symbol, the one he would make during his football games to tell me he loved me. It’s half a heart since I can’t move the fingers on my right hand, but JD gets the message.
He matches my half heart with his own so that we make a complete heart shape together.
“Mine has always belonged to you, Aurora.”
A light tapping on the hospital door has JD and me looking over.
“Hey, you up for a couple more visitors?” Dustin asks with Prescott beside him.
