Page 39 of Baby Daddy
“Do you usually not sleep?” he asked.
Dani shook her head slowly. “Usually, I get a few hours, and then give up. My anxiety is so bad sometimes that I can’t sleep.
“So, you had no anxiety last night?” he asked.
“Nope,” she said, smiling up at him triumphantly. Emotion flickered through his expression so fast it stole her breath, like that mattered deeply to him, and maybe it shouldn’t have surprised her anymore, but it still did.
“You make me feel calm,” she admitted quietly.
Jonnas brushed his nose lightly against hers. “You have any idea how badly I want to keep doing that for you?” Her chest tightened painfully because, yes, she was starting to realize that, and it terrified her how much she wanted to let him.
Dani swallowed hard. “This feels too good to be real.”
Jonnas’s expression softened immediately. “Baby girl,” he murmured, “you really think you don’t deserve good things, don’t you?” The question hit harder than she expected, because she didn’t have an answer, at least not one that didn’t sound sad, and Jonnas saw her hesitation instantly.
His thumb brushed slowly across her cheek. “That changes now, too.”
Emotion climbed thickly into her throat. “How?” she whispered.
He looked at her like the answer was simple. “By letting somebody love you long enough that you start believing it’s real.” She wasn’t sure that was even a possibility, but when Jonnas said things like that to her, she wanted to believe him. She wanted everything he was offering her, and so much more that it hurt her heart to think about it.
Jonnas
Jonnas had spent most of his life believing love was supposed to arrive slowly and carefully. He imagined it to be a calculated progression of trust, time, and commitment. Then Dani Hart showed up pregnant, emotional, stubborn as hell, and curled herself into his life like she’d always belonged there. Now he was lying in bed staring at the woman sleeping against his chest while wondering how the hell he’d gotten attached this fast. Not attached, but gone—completely gone.
Dani stirred softly beside him before blinking awake again, sleepy eyes immediately finding his. “Hey there, sleepy head,” he murmured. A tiny smile tugged at her lips automatically. He was sure that her smile alone could ruin him.
“You’re staring again,” she whispered.
“I like looking at you,” he admitted. The simple honesty of it made her cheeks pink instantly. She was wrapped in his shirt with messy hair and sleepy eyes while trying not to look too affected by him. Unfortunately for her, Jonnas noticed everything about her.
“You still overwhelmed?” he asked quietly. Checking in on her was his new favorite thing to do now.
“A little.” She admitted.
“Good, overwhelmed or bad overwhelmed?”
Dani thought about it seriously before answering. “Good.” Her eyes softened slightly. “Mostly scared because it’s good.” That answer settled heavily in his chest because he understood exactly what she meant now. When you spent your whole life surviving disappointment, happiness started to feel suspicious.
Jonnas brushed his fingers slowly through her hair. “You know what I think?” She shook her head. “I think you’ve spent so long waiting for people to leave that you don’t know what to do when someone stays.” From the look in her eyes, he was sure that he had hit a bullseye. Dani looked away quickly, and Jonnas immediately tipped her chin back toward him gently.
“No hiding,” he reminded.
“You keep seeing through me,” she muttered weakly.
“Occupational hazard.” That earned him a sleepy laugh. He looked her over, and all he could think about was that she was his girl now. That thought didn’t feel foreign to him anymore. He wanted a future with her—the kind built on trust instead of control.
Jonnas traced his thumb slowly along her jaw while studying her carefully. “You hungry?”
“Maybe,” she said.
“You nauseous?” he asked.
“A little,” she admitted. His expression tightened immediately, and Dani seemed to notice.
“See?” she said softly. “You do that.”
“What do I do?”
