She's Mine [COMPLETE]

She's Mine: Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The tip of her fingers brushed back and forth over her lips with apprehension. In her other hand was her phone, and on the screen was an open email from Peter.

She stole another shy glance at Troy sitting on the couch with tired Lulu falling asleep in his lap. Eliza wasn't taken aback this time by her moments of happiness being interrupted so soon. Eventually, she was going to have to face her brother again.

"Liza, you look worried," Troy grumbled, staring at the device in her hand.

She closed her eyes and forced the truth from her mouth, "It's my brother. He wants me to visit with Lulu."

"That's good, right?" Troy asked with lifted brows.

Eliza sighed and shook her head, "Not really. It's been awhile since he had surprise visited me and found out I had a baby. His choice of words didn't create fond memories."

Troy squinted with caution, "Maybe he wants to apologize?"

"He couldn't call?"

"Would you have answered?"

"I always pick up the phone for my brother. I'm always there when he needs me. The only exception being the time I was pregnant..." she faded out.

Troy nodded with a smile, understanding before she could.

Eliza gripped her phone tighter and confessed with glassy eyes, "You've seen and held Lulu more than my brother has."

Sternly, Troy demanded, "Don't do it, Liza."

"But it's true," she whispered.

"Because you've allowed me to," he reminded her.

"He's got a point," Emmy quietly added after appearing from the nursery.

Eliza was confused, "So, is this... my fault?"

"Absolutely not. But he is your baby brother, Eliza," Emmy hinted with raised brows.

Eliza surveyed the ground, while Emmy took Lulu to her nursery for a peaceful nap. Troy stood up and slung a soft lamb-patterned blanket over his shoulder. He stepped into her view and Eliza looked up to find a glint in his eye.

"I hate that you two can figure it out before I can. I'm still not sure I understand," she sighed.

"You will, if you go to him, darlin'," Troy crooned.

She couldn't help but twist her face in blushing delight.

"Do you like that nickname?" He asked closer to her ear?

Eliza shyly nodded, and he stroked her cheek with his thumb. Wrapping her arms tight around him, she didn't have to say that she was scared. She needed to savor his comfort, and Troy had been the only man since Lulu's birth that she had let give her any.

She couldn't believe that she was afraid of seeing her baby brother that she had taken care of since they were small. This was another type of fear she didn't expect to ever know.

And it had to be faced head-on as Eliza and Lulu's cab drove up to the upper middle class home. The familiar picket fence was freshly painted, and the smell of light green grass was in the air as soon as the cab door opened.

"Okay... here we go," Eliza nervously sighed to her baby girl that was more than ready to escape her carrier.

Before she touched the doorbell, Eliza grew even more nervous at the sounds of children shrilling and stampeding around from the inside.