Bittersweet Catastrophe (Second Chances #2.5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

blonde standing behind me, and I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling like I’d been caught stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar.
    “Forget something, Thompson?” She smirked, nodding toward the bottles now beaded with condensation.
    “Guess I got a little side-tracked. Sorry about that.” I passed her the bottle of beer and juice box and watched her eyes travel the window I had just been looking out. Her teasing smirk softened before turning back to me.
    “I can see that.” She bumped her hip into my side, and I let out a full-bodied laugh. “I was serious about what I said out there. Despite what I might’ve thought years ago, when…” She paused and shook away the thought. “Anyways…I really do think you’d make a great dad.”
    “Thanks, Maddie. That means a lot. I know it’ll happen when the time is right.” I shot her a wink, and she smiled. After everything she’d been through, it was nice to see her with a family of her own, and I couldn’t have been happier for her. “Have you and Hunter talked about having more kids?” I uncapped the water, taking a long sip from the bottle.
    “Not yet. We might wait until Iris is a little bit older and potty trained, so we aren’t changing twice the number of diapers,” she laughed, and I sputtered water as I pulled the bottle away from my lips, realizing in a few months that I’d be changing twice the number of diapers. Fuck me. I was not looking forward to that. “But I can’t say we haven’t enjoyed trying! Like you said, if the timing is right, it’ll happen.” She shrugged, heading back outside with a little extra bounce in her step.
    I watched her approach Liberty, and Iris crawled back into her lap, wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck and hugging her tight. Warmth spread throughout my entire being watching their embrace, and for a moment, I wondered what it would have been like had Maddie not gone through with the abortion six years ago. That could have been us. That could have been our child. But I knew in my heart that it wasn’t meant to be. We were young and naïve, and even if I had known she was pregnant at the time, I still would have turned my own child away. It hurt to think that I would do that to a life I’d helped create, but back then, I was a cocky, arrogant asshole. Plain and simple. Having a child at eighteen wasn’t in the stars for me, but Liberty…she was the whole damn night sky all wrapped up in one, and seeing a future with her, even after one chance encounter, was as easy as breathing. There was no questioning it, and who was I to fight what fate had brought together?

    Maddie left with Iris a few hours later, and after we had finished devouring another mouth-watering dinner – I wasn’t lying when I said my woman could cook! – we decided to take it easy and watch a movie before bed. Liberty began to clear the dishes off the table, but I took her hand in mine and pulled her between my legs. “Why don’t you let me finish up in here while you pick out a movie?” My hands slipped around her waist, drawing her closer and allowing me to kiss her stomach.
    “All right, baby.” She threaded her fingers through my hair and tipped my head back as she pressed her lips against my forehead and smiled. “I’m just gonna go change out of these clothes first.”
    “You know you don’t have to leave the kitchen to do that.”
    She slowly spun around and shot me a sultry look. “Don’t tempt me.”
    Oh, but I love tempting her.
    Once she’d left the kitchen, I heard the movie start up and knew right away that she’d chosen Tommy Boy . It was one of my all-time favorites, so I hurried and finished clearing off the table, rinsing the dishes and setting them in the dishwasher. Grabbing a throw blanket off of the back of the couch, I settled in and started watching the movie, while Liberty took her sweet old time probably trying to decide which pajamas to wear. Didn’t matter to me because they’d end up on