Lovely Pink, Raine Miller [highly recommended books txt] 📗

She gave me some very good advice to consider during the time it would take her to travel to me. I listened to my mother, because she knew a thing or two about being single and pregnant with an American presidential legacy, now didn’t she?

“I know you are terrified and emotional, sweetheart, but now you have to consider the welfare of your child over what you might want for yourself. From now on, whatever’s best for your baby, is what is best for you as well.”

“You’re right, Mama, of course, but the things I said to Gray were cruel—”

“Gray is a grown man, and he will get over it—as will you. If there is one thing I am sure of, Reese darling, is that Gray loves you and he has for years. He just doesn’t know exactly how to say the words, but I think that’s about to change.”

“No, he told me he’d never been in love, and it was a waste of emotion that destroyed lives.”

“Oh really, well, I am quite certain that our dear Mr. Lash is about to be served an entire meal of crow on that particular matter, which he will happily eat down to the very last morsel.”

“No, Mama, I don’t think so,” I said sadly.

“I want you to think about what you would want if this situation were reversed. Would you want to be told about the baby?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Don’t you think Gray should hear the news from you first?”

“Yes,” I admitted weakly.

“Don’t sign any contracts until I’m there and we have lawyers present, but you can at least tell the father of your child he has a baby on the way.”

My heart pounded in my chest so hard I could feel my whole body vibrate with every thudding beat. I could see my fingers shaking as I tapped out a text to Gray on my phone.

Reese: I need to see you in person. I have something very important to tell you. Are you still in town?

Gray: I stayed over at Lance’s place last night. I have something important to say, too. Where are you now?

Reese: On the metro. I am coming to you.

Gray: CAPITOL SOUTH Station?

Reese: Yes

Chapter Ten GRAY

I am coming to you.

Reese was coming to me. The ache I’d felt since she’d asked me to leave her place last night lifted immediately, as if the elephant who’d been sitting on my chest had just up and moved his fat ass to sit somewhere else. Thank God.

I bolted out of Oakley’s front door and headed up New Jersey Avenue to the metro station where I would meet my woman. My lovely Pink was coming to me, and I would be there waiting for her when she arrived. I knew exactly what to say to her this time. I had all the words that needed to be said, ready on the tip of my tongue. What had seemed so terrifying to me just a day ago, did not scare me anymore.

Not waking up to her beside me every morning, scared me. Never introducing her as my wife, scared me. Never being inside her again when she was coming, scared me. I had a lot of fuckin’ fears where my Pink was concerned, but not one of those fears hinged upon saying three very important words, I would happily shout down to her from the rooftop of the Library of Congress at CAPITOL SOUTH station for all to hear. Hopefully, that shit would be Facebook Live’d by someone, and on the seven o’clock news.

I ran as fast as my legs would take me.

We saw each other at the same time. She was walking fast, when she spotted me. Her steps slowed, but she kept closing the distance between us. Closer to where I stood waiting. Reese had said she would come to me, and so that was what we were doing here.

Keeping our promise.

I could see she’d been crying. I wanted to kiss and lick away every trace of her tears, and I would later—after we got this important business out of the way.

She brought a hand to her heart and held it there as she took more steps toward me, her long blond hair blowing back gently in the autumn breeze. I noticed she had on the pink sweater she’d worn last night. The pale color had always suited her.

My Pink looked lovely in pink.

I held out my arms, because I just couldn’t wait another second before holding her against me.

She understood and accepted my gesture by running the last bit of the way. And then she was in my arms, and I was spinning her in a circle. I kissed her as if my life depended upon her lips to survive the next minutes. I’m sure my life did require her kisses for survival, but eventually she pulled back to meet me eye to eye.

“Gray, I have to tell you something,” she said with her palm to the side of my cheek. “It’s very important.”

“Please let me say mine first. It’s very important too.”

She nodded and looked up, giving me her full attention. I held up three fingers and said, “Three words. I love you.”

“You do?”

“Yes, I love you. I learned that loving you is not a thing I can choose to do, or not do. Love is something I finally understand after all these years. And I only understand it in the context of you. I love you, Reese Amelia Pinkarver, and to prove it, I won’t ask you to marry me again.”

“You won’t marry me?”

“That’s not exactly what I said. There is more to add to the sentence. I won’t ask you to marry me again, at any time before your birthday comes. So, you go on ahead and turn twenty-five, baby. I can wait for you as long as you need me to wait. I also don’t need your grandfather’s billion-dollar legacy. Let him donate