Hostile Resolve - BK3 TPBS 1st Draft Complete

-28-

Not edited. Thank you for all your support pricelings. Not the longest of updates but I'm still not feeling great and I wanted to give you something xxx

Josie woke to the smells of lingering cooking and a dark silent house. She'd slept right into the night.

Nicholas!

Getting up from her bed she quickly made her way into his room and to his crib. Her heart melted at the peaceful serene look on his face as he slept. The shadowy hues from the night light added accents to his little puffy cheeks and the bottom lip that was sucked in at the middle... just as his father did when he was asleep.

He was her world, her moon, her sun and her universe. He'd been the reason she forced herself to live a real existence when she left Grayson. Just as he depended on her for all his needs, she depended on him to give her a reason to breathe.

A soft snore had her looking over to the single bed that was also in the room and as her eyes fell on the man who still till this day owned her heart. A soft smile reached her eyes as she saw the sucked in bottom lip.

This was the Grayson that she loved the most. The vulnerable little boy. The boy with dreams of a place to call home with a family that he could call his own.

A family.

She wanted that. She missed the real him with everything in her. Could he ever be like that all the time? The damage he felt by his fathers betrayal was evident every time he spoke of him. Would his father haunt him forever? She could only hope that he wouldn't. She'd be right by Grayson's side to help him if he let her... as long as things didn't go back to the way they were.

His eyes started to flutter open as even in his sleep he could feel the eyes if someone staring at him. His eyes squinted for a moment as they tried to focus in the dim light.

Then he saw her and a soft smile came upon his face. She had the obvious appearance of having been asleep, clothes wrinkled and her hair, well he couldn't stop the chuckle at the new fashion style her hair was in but he knew that it just made her even more beautiful and real to him. This woman was his life.

"Sleep well?" his voice low and slightly hoarse from sleep.

"I did" she answered softly "how'd things go with Nicholas?"

Grayson pushed himself up and made to get out of bed before he realised he was virtually naked and he didn't want to scare her away. He sat back for a moment and looked at her again.

"Everything went great. Go wash up and I'll meet you in the kitchen and explain what I got."

Josie smiled as she nodded "Ok. Won't be long... and Grayson?"

"Yep?"

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

Grayson quickly dressed before heading to the kitchen. His mind was racing a million miles an hour as he got the meals he'd left in the fridge and started to heat them in the microwave.

She looked so much better than when he'd first arrived. He felt guilty that it was his son that made her cry like that. Obviously she had no one that she could call on close by but would she agree with what he wanted to propose?

His breath hitched and he pushed aside his own fears as he considered how she was feeling herself. It forced him to think of the way things had been before when he'd told her how to live. That was a pain that he felt with every ounce of his shame and to question the very last of his resolve to be who he was.

She lived in this town and obviously she had friends so why didn't she call on them? Where were they over the past few days? On the phone she'd put up a brave face but that came crumbling down as soon as he'd arrived. She needed help but did that give him the right, would he, should he... could he talk her into coming home?