Free Courageous: Afterlife Book Four by Willow Rose Page A

when it was moving and when I asked him about it, he didn't want to talk to me. He just said he couldn't deal with it right now. He even said it wasn't appropriate. It made me feel really lousy."
    "But he didn't say that he didn't want the baby, did he? That's just your conclusion, right?" Abhik asked.
    "Well, he said that he couldn't deal with it right now, that it all became too real when it moved and so on."
    Abhik chuckled. Then he put his arm around my shoulder. "Listen to me Meghan. I'm sure Mick is just a little afraid right now. Afraid of what it will mean for your relationship to have a baby. Like many men before him, he is scared of how it will be like afterwards. When the baby has arrived. That doesn't mean he doesn't want the baby."
    "You don't think?"
    "No, of course not. Mick is excited about having a baby, you know that. He has been dying to have a family for so many years. Remember he was engaged fifty years ago? He thought she was going to give him everything he dreamed of, but it ended badly. Now he has finally gotten everything and he is going to be so excited. I know he will. Right now he just needs a little space. He'll come around soon enough."
    I sniffled. Abhik handed me a tissue. I wiped my tears away. "You always make me feel better," I said. "Say why didn't you come and visit me in the hospital?" I pushed him amicably.
    "I wanted to, I really did, but Mick told me that you needed rest and that they wouldn't let anyone else in there but him. So I figured I'd wait till you were back in the castle."
    "But I've been here for days, why didn't you come here?"
    "I didn't know you were out. Yesterday I saw Mick in the Hall talking to everybody while they were applauding him on lunch. I asked him how you were doing. He said you were out but you were too ill to have any visitors. He basically told me to stay away. I didn't care much for that, so today when I saw him in the Hall again I thought I'd sneak up here and see how you were. You don't look that sick to me."
    "I'm not. The doctor told me to rest for a few days, that's all. My leg is healing fine and hardly hurts anymore."
    "Hmmm."
    "What?"
    "Well, it's just that Mick kind of gave me the impression that you were barely conscious and that you couldn't speak and slept most of the time."
    "That's weird," I said.
    "Why would he lie?" Abhik asked.
    I shrugged. "He's been slightly overprotective of me lately. I can't seem to figure him out. One moment he is so afraid of hurting me and will hardly touch me and won't let anything happen to me, won't take his eyes of me. The next he is hurting me himself by saying these things like he did about the baby, and then he abandons me. I don't understand him and I never know where I have him. When he walks through the door I never know what he will be like."
    Abhik nodded. "Sounds like he is going through some stuff as well," he said. "Maybe you should talk to him about it."
    "I guess," I said.
    "Maybe it would help to get your mind on something else," Abhik said.
    "What do you mean?"
    "Right before you left on you disastrous honeymoon you asked me to stay and help you with some stuff, remember?"
    "I do remember. Of course I do." I smiled at the thought of doing something completely different, something that could take my mind entirely off my problems and concerns.
    "So what is it? What did you want me to help you with?"
    "Sit down and I'll explain," I said.
    Abhik sat on the bed and I floated to my cupboard. I pulled out a drawer and took my folder. I brought it to him and placed it in his lap.
    "This," I said.
    "It's your file? But that's personal, Meghan. Are you sure you want me to read in it?"
    "I want you to read through all of the last year of my life."
    Abhik looked at me suspiciously. "You do know that it would allow me to know everything about you, right? All your thoughts and dreams at that moment? It could be quite intimidating for the both of us."
    "I know," I said. "I put in a bookmark on the pages I want