The Foster Girls #1: Harper

Chapter 15: Yes, Dragon

When Dante had shown up on my doorstep, I still had a month to go on my housesitting job, and I told him I'd be staying there until it ended. He hadn't been happy about that, I could tell, but I didn't care because I was still angry with him.  

Seeing that I was resolved to stay, Dante settled in and brought me healthy and tempting meals every single day -- breakfast, lunch and dinner -- and when my still-constant nausea wasn't too bad, I ate what I could. He walked the dogs for me so I didn't have to, did my grocery shopping, ran other errands, and accompanied me to a doctor's appointment where -- no kidding -- he asked the doctor a hundred questions about what I should and should not be doing and what he could be doing to make the pregnancy easier on me, how best to help me with my nausea, things he should be watching for that could signal a problem -- the list went on. And on. The doctor looked amused at his barrage of questions, and she patiently answered each one, while he took notes in a little notebook he'd brought with him. 

He was trying, I knew that. He apologized every day, in different ways, and let me know how much he regretted what he'd done, but I still kicked him out of the house every evening when I went to bed. However, one night about two weeks after he'd arrived, one of the dogs had a tummy ache and needed to go out in the middle of the night. When I opened the door to the backyard and the dog ran past me into the yard, I discovered Dante on one of the chaise lounges.

Dante shot to his feet and came toward me, the dog ignoring him because he knew Dante well. In fact, it was probably Dante's fault that the poor dog had to go out -- Dante was forever sneaking him little treats and bits of food.

"Are you OK, Harper? Is everything OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. One of the dogs needed to go out. But...what are you doing here?"

He grinned at me. "Since you won't let me spend the night inside with you, I've been sleeping out here on the deck so I could be as close as possible in case you needed something."

"Dante, you don't need to --" I began, but he cut me off and pulled me into his arms. His arms were cool to the touch from being out in the night air, and they felt nice around my constantly-running-hot pregnant body, so I allowed the hug. It was definitely not because I was weakening toward the man and being in his arms felt so good. Nope. Not at all.

"You can't imagine how I felt when I saw you were pregnant and you'd been alone all those months because I'm a dumb fuck. And I'll be damned if I'll let you be on your own even one more minute. Sleeping out here is not a problem, Harper. I'd sleep on a bed of nails if it meant I could be near you to watch over you and our boy."

Once again, I opened my mouth to protest and he interrupted.

"The worst part about keeping something from you like I did, lying to you, is I can't take it back. I can't undo what I did, Princess. I can only show you that I regret being monumentally stupid and untruthful, and whether you believe me or not, I promise to never do that again. I've never been this frustrated in my entire life. I make things happen, Harper; I'm action-oriented. But now, the decision is yours, and all I can do is hope that someday you'll see my sincere regret and forgive me and let me back into your life so I can love you like I want to, the way you deserve to be loved."

I was melting. I knew that. I knew that I loved this man with every part of me, right down to my soul, but I wasn't ready to let what he'd done go just yet. I will admit that for the rest of that night and all the following nights, I let Dante spend the night inside.

On the couch.

When my housesitting job had ended, he'd packed up all of my clothes and driven me back to our hometown, stopping frequently to make sure the baby and I were doing fine and so I could stretch my legs. Dante and I had been back for a week now, and I'd been staying at Finland's apartment while she was still off in Europe. Today, Dante had called and asked me to come over to his house because he wanted me to see something. Curious, I'd driven over, and we were now standing outside the closed door to one of the six bedrooms in his house.