Chapter 11

"You can't be serious, Luke." She stumbled back from the words he'd just thrown out.

"Why not?" Luke followed her.

"You don't want this. This isn't your life, and I won't be the reason you resent us. We can make this work some other way, but I don't think we need to get married." Paisley's voice trembled as she spoke.

Luke ran a hand through his hair in frustration, tempted to yank on it. "So you know what I want now? Did it ever occur to you that my wants changed?"

"For how long?" She sighed and stared back at him. "I swear I'm not trying to be mean or anything. It's just, what if when this mess with your father is over, you decide you don't want this kind of life?"

"Apparently, I need to do more to show you that this is what I want."

Luke didn't trust himself to stay with her, instead walking away and into the office downstairs. He wanted to slam the door but resisted, not wanting to scare anyone just because he was frustrated.

She had every right not to trust him but it still hurt. It was nothing but his own fault that she didn't believe him. Luke had partied and gone through women like they were disposable for years, and that included Paisley herself. Now he was suffering the consequences of his own stupid actions.

He wanted this, though. He wanted a family with Paisley and Garrett and any other kids they might have. Proving it to Paisley was going to be his biggest challenge yet. Hopefully, she wouldn't turn away from him now that he'd tried and failed to marry her.

As he sat there lost in his own world, he remembered that Paisley was supposed to be getting some work done today. She'd acted like it was no big deal more than once, but he knew that she was stressed about it.

Her freelance work was on her own terms, that much he understood, but she'd still have deadlines to meet, he assumed. Hell, he didn't even fully know what kind of work she did, which only proved Paisley's point.

Standing, he took a deep breath and pushed his emotions away. He left the office and hoped that she would eventually learn to trust him again and that it wasn't gone forever.

"I'll take him," he told Paisley, holding his arms out for Garrett. "Go get some work done."

Tears stained her face as she looked back at him, confused.

"You can use the office. Just move anything out of your way." He wanted her to share the space with him.

Paisley stood quietly and didn't move to hand him Garrett.

"Go, Paisley. I know you need to get some stuff done. Let me take care of our son, and you go do what you need to do."

Luke took Garrett from her hands without issue.

"Are you sure?" she wondered out loud.

He ran his thumb over her cheek as he stood there. "Married or not, we are both his parents. I will make sure that you get time to do what you need to just like you take care of him when I can't be here or with you."

"About earlier," she started.

"No. Nothing more to say right now. We can talk about it later if you really want to, but we are good, okay? I'm not upset with you, and I hope that you aren't with me?" He wanted her to tell him that she wasn't going to push him away again over the proposal.

"You're not mad? I didn't mean anything bad. I just worry."

Luke chuckled, unable to stop it from slipping out. "Baby, you worry enough for a dozen people. Let me share some of that load, okay?"

Being there for them was only the first step in showing her that he wasn't going to change his mind. He'd have to come up with more, but he wanted to take some of her worry away, especially after her panic attack.

"Thanks. I won't be long." Paisley turned to walk away.

"Take as long as you need. It's just us here. No one is keeping track of your time doing anything."

She gave him a curious smile, clearly still confused about him taking Garrett so she could work. That was his fault for leaving her before, but he'd erase that if it was the last thing he did. If only his father's mess wasn't looming, threatening to really destroy them before they got started.

"What do you think, little man? Let's go find Mommy a new desk and give her some space," he baby-talked to Garrett.

He carried Garrett back to his room and set him down on his play mat. He would want to eat soon, but since he wasn't fussing yet, Luke decided to let him play.

Keeping an eye on Garrett and playing with him, he also looked through a furniture site for a new desk for Paisley. He didn't want her to work in one of the beds. She needed a proper place. That meant a chair, too.

Satisfied with everything he'd put in his cart, he checked out and scheduled the delivery for tomorrow. Hopefully, she'd like it. It also gave him an excuse to stay home.

Garrett started to get cranky so he picked him up and carried him downstairs for his bottle. He was getting quicker at making them and was now able to do it one-handed, a far cry better than he had been just a week ago.

"Do you need a hand?" Paisley appeared at their side.

"I've got it, I swear," he assured her.

She took a step back. "I'm done now."

He looked at the clock. It had only been an hour. "That was fast."

Paisley nodded, following him into the living room. "I need to schedule a meeting with my client and I wanted to see if maybe I could do it when you would be able to take care of him? I can do it when he naps, but then he doesn't nap and then it's a whole thing."

"Of course I will. When were you thinking?"

"Day after tomorrow?"

"Done. I suppose now would be a good time to tell you that I ordered you a desk and chair and all the stuff to share the office space. I scheduled it to be delivered tomorrow." He studied her face, gauging her reaction.

"You didn't have to do all that. I can work from the table. It's not like I have meetings often or anything."

"Stop shorting yourself." Garrett finished his bottle and Luke shifted him to his shoulder. "You deserve a place to work just like I do."

She didn't say anything else about the office furniture.

"Anyway, tomorrow midmorning it will be here, so we should make room for it and decide how we want the office to look." Hoping it would give her a reason to hang out with him still, he gently bounced Garrett and waited for her to answer.

"Okay," she agreed.

It was a small win but he'd take it. "Let's go."

He held onto Garrett while she studied the pieces he'd bought. He could tell she wanted to say something about the price but held back. In hindsight, he should have sent her screenshots without the prices to get her over that feeling of not being worth the money.

The next hour was spent reorganizing the office, moving the existing furniture to make way for her to share the space. He let her lead with where she thought everything would go best, not worried in the least about how it came out. If they had to rearrange every day, he'd gladly do it for her.

"Thank you, Luke." She reached down and grabbed his hand with her free one.

"You don't have to thank me for doing something for you. I don't do it for your thanks or to make you feel indebted to me. I just did what I thought was right. You need a place to work and to put out all your little pens and things."

Paisley blushed. "I can't believe you remember that."

"I remember everything when it comes to you," he told her. It was true.

Even when he'd pushed her away and blocked her, he'd wondered what she was up to. It was like she had crawled into his heart and settled there and there was no getting rid of her. The best part of that was she hadn't tried.

Neither of them had made any promises in those early weeks of being together. He had made it clear that they would be casual, and then he'd found ways and reasons to spend more and more time with her.

Then he'd dropped her and completely cut her out of his life. Only then did he realize that he didn't know what his life was anymore without her. He didn't want to return to the partying and sleeping around. He wanted her.

Now to make her see it, too.