The Gift: A Short Story in the Unrestrained Series by Lund S. E

Author:Lund, S. E. [Lund, S. E.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2014-12-23T16:00:00+00:00

In the middle of the night, Drake turned on the bedside light and snuggled closer to me.

“Kate?” he whispered, kissing my shoulder. “Are you awake?”

I yawned and rolled over to face him. “I am now. What’s the matter? Can’t sleep?”

He pulled me into his arms, his chin resting on the top of my head. “Something like that. I woke up and can’t stop my mind from working.”

Usually, that meant he wanted to make love, but I felt no erection pressing into my belly. I ran my hand up his back. Maybe he was still upset about Liam and wanted to vent. We’d had a very enjoyable meal at our favorite restaurant and opened a bottle of wine when we got home, talking in quiet voices about Drake’s childhood before Louise left. He had some happy memories but they were few for it was obvious that she couldn’t adjust to the loss of her first son.

Drake had been in a very thoughtful mood that night and I thought he’d want to make love but he hadn’t.

Now, he couldn’t sleep. “Too much alcohol?” I said, wondering if he wasn’t feeling well from the wine.

“No,” he said and stroked my cheek with his thumb. “To many thoughts.”

“What’s on your mind?”

He sighed heavily. “Kate, I don’t want to wait to have a family. I want a child now.”

My eyes widened at that and I didn’t know what to say. We had talked about having children when we first discussed marriage, but that was a few years off when I was finished my thesis and we had done some more travelling. I pulled back and looked in his eyes.

“What made you change your mind?”

He shook his head, a sad expression in his eyes. “I realized when I saw Liam at the hospital and today when you were crying about him that life is too short to put off things that you want. I want to have children, Kate. I want a real family – like you had with Ethan and your mom and Heath.”

I didn’t say anything, wanting to give him the chance to speak and explain how he felt.

“I know you wanted to finish your thesis first,” he said carefully, softly, “and I wanted to go back to Africa first, but there are no guarantees that we will even be able to have children.”

“Go on.”

“Something could happen to either of us and that would be it – waiting would mean we’d never have had children or be parents. You can always finish your thesis, and I can always go to Africa but we can’t always have children. I realized that I’ve missed every milestone with Liam. I’ll miss every milestone to come. I don’t want that to happen to us.”

I pulled him more closely into my arms and kissed him, happy that he felt able to reveal his fears to me. He was so afraid of turning into his father, but I knew then that would never happen. He wanted to be like my father, the co-head of the household, involved and engaged in his children’s lives.

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