Dedicated Ink by Ranae Rose Read Free Book Online Page A

couldn’t avoid the way they intensified his present feelings. Of course he wanted to be there.
    “Okay.” She pulled out her phone, brought up the calendar and gave him the date and time so he could program it into his. “Do you have work that day?”
    “I’ll be on night shifts – making it there during the day won’t be a problem.”
    “It’s kind of early in the morning. You’ll only have slept a couple hours by then if you’re working nights.”
    “Don’t worry about that. Do you want me to pick you up? I’ll be driving there anyway, so don’t think that it’ll be any extra trouble.”
    “Well, when you put it that way…” She smiled a little smile that reminded him of a look she’d given him that night at the bar. “Sure.”
    It was good to see that she could still smile like that, that she didn’t hate him for getting her pregnant. She hadn’t said so, but it was obvious the pregnancy had her stressed – no surprise there. When she’d told him about it, her hands had been shaking.
    He’d been shaken too, on the inside. Still, he’d longed to reach out and take her hands, to offer comfort as they’d sat at opposite sides of the table in her apartment.
    Caution bred in the fertile grounds of familiar insecurities had choked his ambition, had made him wonder if touching her at such a tense moment would be going too far. Had his reserve been as ridiculous as it seemed when he thought about it now?
    After all, she was carrying his babies. He’d gotten her pregnant. They were close, even if circumstance had been what had forced them together.
    “I’ll pick you up at a half hour ‘till.”
    “Thanks.”
    “It’s the least I can do.”
    “It’s more than I expected.”
    In a way, that was almost insulting. Still, he couldn’t blame her, given the way they’d met. There’d been nothing about their encounter to suggest that he’d be around if she was stuck holding a positive pregnancy test weeks later. “I meant it when I said one night stands aren’t my thing. I was never able to write what we did off as a one-time deal, even if I meant to in the first place.”
    “Are you saying that you want to keep seeing each other outside of doctor appointments and things like that?”
    Her pink, perfect lips were still, but her eyes revealed plenty as she waited for an answer. It hadn’t been a casual question.
    His feelings on the matter weren’t casual, either. “Yeah. I don’t want our babies to have just a mom and a dad; I want them to have a family.”
     
* * * * *
 
    Abby answered the door when Sam knocked, making a deliberate effort not to catch sight of her reflection in a nearby decorative mirror. This was only the second time all day she’d gotten out of bed – earlier that morning she hadn’t even made it to her daily shower before she’d crawled back beneath the covers, knowing she’d be useless that day. Now, she greeted Sam in her pajama shorts and cami, sporting a case of bedhead she tried not to think about as she let her gaze sweep over his perfect body, all muscle beneath jeans and a flatteringly-snug t-shirt.
    “Isn’t this like the middle of the night to you?” she asked. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
    Ironically, he looked ready for the day – perfect – while she was the one standing in her pajamas.
    “I have off tomorrow; I can afford to catch up on my sleep later.” He raised the plastic shopping bag he held in one hand. “Brought some things I thought might help you out.”
    “Thanks. You didn’t have to.” He’d finished working night shift just a couple hours ago, and she knew he hadn’t had any sleep.
    She, on the other hand, had woken up so sick to her stomach that she’d called Hot Ink and asked Mina to cancel all of her appointments for the day, then retreated back to bed.
    “Picked this stuff up after work,” he explained. “Figured I’d bring it to you this evening, but I didn’t want to wait when I found out you were home