Chapter 75 SIX MONTHS AGREEMENT (2)
WILLA'S POV
I laughed, picking up the pillow nearest to me and hitting Gallahan’s leg with it. “You’re just a bit funny. I mean, why can’t you just speak literally and straightforwardly?”
“Hey, I will not be shamed for being literate.”
“I am not shaming you for being literate. By all means, be smart. It’s an attractive trait. But I hope you know you don’t have to go all metaphorical and poetic with me.”
“So you think I am attractive?”
“Now you’re just putting words in my mouth.”
Then, with a playfully salacious smirk, Gallahan replied, “Is there anything else you want me to put in your mouth?”
Unbidden, the memory of me getting rejected while kneeling before Gallahan and holding his stiff prick flashed in my mind, and a hot wave of embarrassment smack me in the face, leaving my cheeks burning.
I tried to play it cool, hitting Gallahan’s leg with a pillow again and saying, “Shut up.”
“Sorry. That was out of bounds, wasn’t it? Totally inappropriate.”
I shrugged, unwilling to comment further about the subject.
“Anyway…” Gallahan cleared his throat awkwardly. “The point is… Our truce is fragile, and you and I know it. We hadn’t really hashed out all our issues with each other yet. So you may have your concerns and reservations about me being in our pups lives. But I want to be here for them Willa.”
Something in his gaze was imploring and earnest, and I couldn’t help but soften for him.
“I have already missed five years of their lives. I would hate to miss more. So let me be here for them, and I promise to be the great father they need and want.”
“I just…” I tried to reply, but I couldn’t quite string my thoughts and emotions into coherent sentences.
Heck, I didn’t even know what my final decision should be.
Could Gallahan be a good father to them? Perhaps. He was undeniably tender to the twins, and he didn’t shy away from being so openly affectionate to them in words and actions.
But what if Gallahan would teach them to be prejudiced against humans? That one was a point of concern.
“Willa? Say something,” Gallahan prodded, snapping me out of my train of thoughts. “Talk to me.”
“I don’t even know what to say yet, Han. I just…” I wet my lower lip with my tongue, and I had to pretend that I didn’t notice how Gallahan closely followed the small action with such intense attention. “There are a lot of things I am concerned about. What would we even tell the twins if they asked why you hadn’t been in the picture until now?”
Gallahan, for his part, seemed to have anticipated the question because he immediately answered, “We’ll tell them the truth. We'll tell them that we had irreconcilable differences before. That you had thought you were better off without me. But now… But now I can stay.”
I let the last bit of his remark slip, refusing to overthink what the word ‘stay’ truly entailed.
So I carried on with our conversation, throwing Gallahan another question as if he was a felon getting interrogated.
“Can you really commit to being a father until the end? What if you suddenly decide that fatherhood is just not for you? What if one day you’ll find yourself wanting to leave?”
Oddly enough, Gallahan seemed to go lax after hearing my questions. His hold on the twins loosened just a tad bit, and his entire expression softened.
It almost made my eyes water seeing so much affection lining the details of Gallahan’s face.
“I’ve never been so sure of anything else in my life, Willa. I truly want to stay. Calisto and Gillian are important to me as they are to you. Only death can part me from them at this point.”
Feeling myself caving in at his earnest pleas, I harshly ran a hand over my face while suppressing the groan I wanted to let out.
“Alright. Fine.” I huffed, straightening my back into a proper posture. “Here’s my offer. I will grant you weekly visitation rights for the first six months.”
Gallahan looked like he was ready to protest, his brows knitted in indignation. But I lifted a hand, halting him before he could make a single sound.
“But if you prove yourself to be trustworthy around the twins and capable of actually taking care of them, only then will I allow you to come more frequently and to even bring them out somewhere else to spend time together. Do we have a deal?”