Author's Note: I can't believ I'm almost at 300 reads! Thank you so much!! I'm trying to update as quick as I can, so sorry this one isn't very long. I still hope you're enjoying it.

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The next few days seemed to melt together as one. I would wake up when Jimmy’s alarm went off, we would eat breakfast, and I’d clean and have dinner ready for them for when they came inside. Jimmy and I stopped going up to his room right after dinner. He would play cards with Tommy and I would watch. They tried to teach me once, but I was picking it up slowly and I could see Tommy getting frustrated. I told them to play without me and Jimmy promised to teach me later.

Every night before we would go to sleep, Jimmy would read to me. I was never big into reading because I had the hardest time trying to focus, but I enjoyed it when Jimmy read to me.

Once Jimmy had finished, he put the book down on the nightstand, turned off the lamp and lied down next to me. We were facing each other and only the scarred half of his face was showing. I couldn’t stop myself from reaching my hand out and putting my hand on his cheek. I traced my thumb along the deep indentation of his scarred flesh.

He leaned forward and kissed me. My body had slowly been healing itself, and the swelling quickly went down in my lip and kissing him wasn’t painful. My bruises had started to fade and I could already move my wrist, but I kept the bandage on just in case.

He slid his hand across my ribs and pulled me closer into him. The kiss deepened and I could feel my heart pound. We haven’t had sex since that stupid night where I tried to run away. My body may be healing, but I wasn’t ready for that yet. I quickly slid my hand off of his cheek and down to his chest to push him away.

“No,” I mumbled and he pulled away.

I started to get scared. Jimmy didn’t like it when I said no to him. This would get a punishment for sure.

Jimmy rolled over onto his back and pulled me over with him. I yelped in pain as I didn’t expect my sore body to move. He put my head on his chest and wrapped his arms around me.

“There’s something we need to talk about,” he told me. I felt his hand slide tighter around my waist, trying to curl me in closer. “I know you haven’t been here that long and I’m so proud of you for how you’re settling in here.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“But there’s something we haven’t really discussed before,” he continued. “You’re my girl, and you’re supposed to provide me with a family.”

“We are a family,” I told him, thinking about how kind they have been to accept me into their family.

“Yeah. Dad, Tommy and you are my family. But I was talking about our family. Like when you and I have children.”

I felt a lump grow in my throat. I never ever planned on having kids before in my life. I didn’t want them to end up having to live a life like mine, but I’m happier now. Still, the thought of children scared me. Being pregnant and doing all of my chores would be hard, especially as I got bigger. And the actual birthing part I couldn’t even stand to imagine.

“Don’t worry,” Jimmy told me quickly. He must have felt my body tense up. “We don’t have to try straight away. We can still wait a couple weeks. I just wanted you to be prepared. You’re supposed to be providing the family with more boys, and if you don’t that makes us both look a little bad.”

“Okay,” was all I managed to choke out.

“It’s going to be so nice,” Jimmy continued to tell me. By the way he was talking I could tell that he must have been thinking about this for a while. “The Fergusons down the street are getting older, and soon their house will go up for sale. We can move into their and I can still help out Dad with the farm and you can come over too to help with the house. And we’ll have a bunch of little boys who are running around and want to play all the time. You will be a great mother.”

I curled my fingers into Jimmy’s chest and I pushed my face into him. I didn’t want to think about this future right now. I wanted things to just stay like this for a while; I was enjoying this. Jimmy’s hand moved up and down as he rubbed my back to comfort me. He brought his lips down to kiss the top of my head.

“Julie,” he said my name softly. I nuzzled myself into his chest. “Julie, look at me.”

His voice was a bit harsh, so I looked up at him. He brought his hand up to my neck and kissed me deeply. I tried not to act like what he said shocked me. When he pulled away from me, he ran his finger along my jaw.

“I’m always going to protect you,” he told me. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” I breathed while nodding my head.

“Say it,” he said.

“You’ll always protect me,” I repeated.

“Good girl,” he said and then gave me another kiss. “I’ll always protect you and our family.”

“Thank you.”

We stayed cuddled up for a couple minutes in silence. I replayed what Jimmy had said to me over and over. I knew I wasn’t supposed to ask questions, but there was one that was burning on my tongue.

“Jimmy?” I tested to see if he was still awake.

“Yeah?” he asked back.

“How come when you talk about our children, you only talk about boys?” I asked.

“Because I only want sons.”

“Why? What if we had a daughter?”

“Julie,” he snapped at me. I flinched and he loosened up him grip on me. “I told you you’re not allowed to ask questions. Stop it now.”

Jimmy pulled his arm out from around me and rolled me off of him. The bed felt surprisingly cold without his heat enveloping me. I turned to look at Jimmy and I saw him rolling onto his side. I rolled over so that I wasn’t facing him. I knew I shouldn’t have been asking questions, he’s now angry at me.

“Go to sleep, Julie,” he said, he must have heard me rolling around in the bed. “In the morning you better have a better attitude.”

I was in and out of sleep all night thinking about that threat and knew I needed to act better.