by Taryn Quinn
Ally sighed too. “So sweet. Seth sent me daisies in the hospital and when we brought Alex home and then, of course, there was this.” She tugged off her mitten and the pink heart diamond ring on her pinky winked in the last rays of remaining light. “Can’t wait until I’m not so swollen and can wear it on the finger it was intended for.”
“One hell of a push present. Those Hamilton men do know what they’re about when it comes to fancy romantic gestures. Even Oliver is getting there.” Again, I touched my bow necklace. My other hand was still on the dragon. And inside me was our child, just waiting until tomorrow morning to cause me to get sick again.
Oliver was everywhere with me, even when he wasn’t.
“I’m going to go out with him and then we’ll just see—”
It was the last thing I managed to say before the SUV skidded sideways and Ally’s scream filled my head.
Twenty-Two
Oliver
“Why are they taking so long? I thought you told them to hurry up.” I finished my letter E and went on to the U.
Yes, just U. I was reverting to text speak for my romantic message. But the snow was not cooperating. If anything, it was coming down even harder and the remaining daylight could be measured in minutes.
Still no Ally and Sage.
I didn’t want to be that guy who just worried for no reason. It was shitty weather out, and yes, I’d lost traction on the road a couple of hours ago and it had grown much worse since then. Even so, Ally had a big, safe SUV and she was an extremely careful driver.
Then I glanced toward Seth and realized he wasn’t where he’d been standing a minute ago. I turned around, reorienting myself in the nearly horizontal slashing snowflakes, and swiped a hand over my face. Seth was already on the way back to the house, the bright blue of Alexander’s carrier flashing in the twilight. Laurie was on his other side, stomping through the snowdrifts.
Okay. Guess they were done. Or Seth was going to call Ally again? Hell if I knew.
I hurried up and finished the U—a bit sloppily, but whatever—and double-timed it toward the house. I crossed the back porch and stepped into the kitchen. All the lights were on now, and though I hadn’t heard a truck pull into the drive, my palms tingled at the possibility Sage was there. Finally. Message aside, I didn’t want her and the baby and Ally on the roads in this weather. Hell, if they hadn’t finished all their shopping, I would drive them to the mall tomorrow.
Seth stepped into the kitchen with Laurie shadowing him, her little hand wrapped securely in his. “She’s not answering her phone.”
At once, my skin slicked with ice. I’d thought I was cold outside? That couldn’t compare with the absolute gut-churning cold that invaded me now. “Try her again.”
“I tried her multiple times. I tried Sage. Neither answered—”
I was already on my way out the door I’d just walked in.
“Where are you going?” Seth demanded.
“To find them.” I didn’t have time to discuss it, and I also had no intention of slowing down.
He followed me onto the porch. “Who’s going to stay with the kids?”
“You. Because I’m going.” I was already halfway down the steps.
“She’s my wife, goddammit! Sage is just your—”
I spun around and held up a hand. “She’s my everything. And she’s having my baby. If you think I’m going to stay here, you’re wrong.”
“I can w-watch my brother.” Laurie’s tiny voice made me focus on her. She hadn’t even said it as “bwother” this time.
My gut twisted anew at the puddles of tears in her big blue eyes. She never heard her father and I yell at each other, and she had to understand Ally and Sage could be in trouble.
And here we were, making everything worse.
Seth and I both dropped down to her level. “Aw, sweetie, you don’t have to do that.” Seth shot me a look. “We’ll just bring—”
“No.” I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again. Hopefully, everything would be fine, and the delay was just a minor one. Nothing serious. But if, God forbid, something had happened, the last thing in the world I wanted was for my niece to be with Seth. “I’ll stay here with you, Laur-Monster. How’s that? Daddy will go find your mom and Aunt Sage and bring them back to us.”
“Okay.” Laurie transferred her hold from her father’s hand to mine. “We can watch Trolls?”
How could I say no? “Sure thing.” I stood and swung her onto my hip, settling her there as Seth and I exchanged another look.
He mouthed “thank you” and we all went inside. Quickly, he checked on the baby, then he took off in his car.
All there was left for me to do was start Trolls for the ten-millionth time and wait.
Except I didn’t. I couldn’t.
I started the movie and then I tried Sage’s phone, knowing full well that if I got her voicemail, I was probably going to need a moment alone to rip some shit to pieces or tear some holes in the sheetrock with my fists.
Once my hands stopped shaking.
Helplessness was choking me. And guilt. I’d made them come back sooner than they would have, and for God’s sake, I’d told them to rush. Why? Just so they could see my big gesture. I was a goddamned moron. If she and the baby came back to me in one piece, I was going to spend the rest of my life spoiling them. Every fucking second.
I went into the nursery as the call connected to protect Laurie from seeing me lose it. Alexander was sleeping soundly in his crib and I stepped closer to him, gripping the railing while I waited through one ring, two rings, three.
“Oliver?” Her voice was so far away, snatched away by the wind and the shitty connection. But it was her. It was my Sage.
“Princess,” I rasped, leaning heavily against the crib. I tightened my hold on the railing and marveled that it didn’t snap from the force. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m okay. Accident. We slid off the road and into a ditch, but we’re okay. Oliver?”
“I’m here. Are you sure you’re all right?” I was trying to breathe and not shout at her, not demand she tell me every detail. “How’s Ally?”
“She’s fine. Well, a little banged up, but okay. She dropped her phone in the ditch and we can’t find it. It’s so dark and the snow—”
“Forget the goddamn phone. Get out of the ditch and away from the side of the road. It’s not safe. Sage, are you listening to me?”
I half expected her to yell back. “I am, and you being a jackass is probably the best sound I’ve ever heard.”
She was smiling. I could hear it in her voice. After a car accident. Had she hit her head? Christ, all I could imagine was some asshole hitting them in the storm and never even realizing it.
“Are you away from the road? Where are you? If there aren’t any houses right there, get back in the SUV if you can without injuring yourselves and wait. Seth is driving the route from the mall to the house.”
“We’re on Fairdale, just past the cemetery. We already called J&T’s Automotive and Dare’s on his way. He’s coming to help us personally.”
“Okay, good, that’s good.” I let up my grip a fraction on the crib. Didn’t want to turn the bed into a pile of broken sticks while the kid was sleeping. Snoring softly no less, even as I railed like a lunatic.
He was his father’s son, all right.
“Seth will be there soon.” I hoped. He would have to pass right by where they were if he took the usual route to the mall from here. I couldn’t stop talking to her yet to text him. Her soft, strong voice was everything. “Are you sure you’re all right? I can call the paramedics, have them meet you there just in case—”
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m fine,” she stressed. “Both of us are. I promise.”
Even knowing she couldn’t be certain, that small bit of reassurance was enough to have me letting out a sound that probably bordered on the inhuman. I simply couldn’t stop it.
“Oliver? Are you okay?”
> “No. No, I’m not fucking okay, and I won’t be until you’re here and I can check every inch of you myself to make sure you’re all right. And then I’m going to take you to the doctor’s—like a bag of flour over my shoulder if I have to—so they can run every check known to man on you and the baby. Understand me?”
“Oliver—”
“No, hear me out. Do you have any idea what went through my head when you and Ally weren’t answering your phones and we knew you were out in the storm? Any idea?” I didn’t wait for an answer. “No, I bet you don’t. I couldn’t fucking breathe. Could barely stand on my two feet. I almost ran out of here until Seth reminded me I don’t have any legal hold on you, that you aren’t my wife. He didn’t mean it that way, but it’s the fucking truth. I messed up. I didn’t even give you the chance to say yes or say no. I just decreed it. Well, consider this me asking you to marry me. I don’t have a ring. I don’t have a plan. All I have is that I love you so much I can’t imagine waking up another day without you in my bed and in my life. And I want more than anything to be a father to our child. If you’ll have me. If you’ll both have me.”
The only sound on the other end of the phone was the roar of the wind and voices, so many voices. Seth must be there, or Dare. While I was so very glad about that, if she hadn’t heard me—if I had to say all of that again…
I would do it. I would say it over and over again, as many times as I needed to until she believed me. Until she loved me back even half as much.
“Oliver, Dare’s here, and Seth’s pulling up too. I have to go.”
I nodded, unable to speak. She couldn’t see me, but I still couldn’t find my damn voice. It was as if I’d stripped away everything with that speech, including the power of my vocal cords.
“I heard you, Oliver.” She was whispering, had to be. Or else the wind was so strong that it was drowning out most of her reply. I still heard enough to bow my head to my fisted hand on the edge of my snoozing nephew’s crib. “Heard every word. I love you too. I’ll take you. God, will I ever. You won’t know what hit you, I’ll take you so damn much.”
Even without full usage of my voice, I could manage to laugh. And send up a silent prayer that despite my many, many—many—flubs, I might just be able to make this work.
She and our baby were okay, and somehow she loved me. Nothing else mattered.
I grinned. “You have yourself a deal.”
“I have to go now, but I’ll be home soon.”
“Seth’s home. There’s something here for you—” I stared blearily at the dark, snowy world beyond the nursery’s windows. “Ah, fuck it. It’s probably ruined. Probably a stupid idea anyway. I’m full of them. But I’m here for you too.”
“You’re all I want.” She paused to speak to someone else, and then she came back on the line, her voice seemingly so much closer. It poured into me like warm caramel, full of promise. “And Oliver?”
“Princess,” I replied gruffly.
“Yes.”
Twenty-Three
Sage
“You should let me drive you to the doctor’s.”
I shook my head from the backseat of Seth’s car. “I’m fine.”
“If you say that any more, you’re going to turn into one of those bobblehead dolls.”
I had to laugh at Ally. And that was a minor feat, because I still felt as if my vital organs were trembling under my skin. I kept hearing the squeal of the tires and the sound of the SUV crashing into the ditch, over and over.
But over all of that, the number one thing on repeat in my head was Oliver’s low, frantic voice telling me he loved me. Asking me to marry him. Laying himself on the line for me and the baby in a way I’d never imagined in my wildest dreams.
“You know Oliver is going to drag you right to urgent care the minute you step in the house,” Seth said, meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror before returning his attention to the road. It was still snowing just as bad as it had been when Ally had skidded.
“Yeah.” I rubbed my arms, desperately trying to chase away the chill. It was as if I would never be warm again. “I’m all right with it. It’s better if we know for sure. And I know he won’t rest until he has it in writing that the baby is okay.”
And God, wasn’t that the most wonderful thing in the world? Somehow when neither of us were looking, this pregnancy had become the most important part of our lives.
“Try in blood,” Seth said, shaking his head. “He was ready to run out to find you, and he didn’t give a shit that Ally was my wife. Nothing came before him finding you himself. He said—” Seth stopped and looked at Ally. “The guy is gone for you and the baby, Sage. In a way I never thought he could be for anyone.”
I reached for my necklace. My origami dragon was tucked safely in my purse—and yes, I had searched for it on the floor of the SUV, even when the vehicle was precariously balanced and even while Ally couldn’t find her cell phone. That dragon meant so much more to me than just paper and ink.
It was the man I loved showing me he cared without needing to utter a single word.
“What did he say to you? Tell me. I’ll keep your secret.” When Seth hesitated, I gripped my necklace and leaned forward. “Please.”
“I said Ally was my wife, and he said you were his everything. You and the baby.”
I slumped back into my seat. “Oh, is that all?”
Lordy, no big deal. The guy just said me and the baby were his everything while he was panicking he was going to lose us. You know, small fries.
Thank God I’d sprung for that lace cutout teddy with the little pink bows over the nipples. He was so getting laid tonight.
Ally sighed. “Who would’ve guessed Oliver had it in him?”
“Not me,” Seth said. “But after this afternoon, when he had us racing around doing the message in the backyard—” He broke off and glanced at the rearview mirror. “So…how about those Knicks?”
“What message?” I questioned.
“Open mouth, insert size twelves,” Ally said. “Though ‘what message’ is a very good question.”
“Yeah, what happened to your violent diarrhea?” I asked suddenly. In all the chaos, I’d forgotten it. But Seth certainly didn’t seem ill. “Did you chug Imodium or something?”
“Or something.”
“Seth Hamilton, did you lie to us to get us to come home?”
“Um, maybe?”
I laughed and buried my face in my hands. “Does Oliver know you used the excuse of diarrhea? Because I almost had Ally drive me back to the loft instead. I’ll pass on those kinds of germs right now, thanks.”
“He told me to get you guys back there fast. Then when you didn’t show, we were both losing our minds because of the snow. If it was my fault you rushed, Ally Cat, I won’t be able to forgive myself.”
“Shh. I wasn’t rushing. I wouldn’t in this weather.” She rubbed his arm. “Diarrhea isn’t fatal. Besides, I know you have a tendency to exaggerate.”
“Moi?” He cupped her hand on his arm and flexed his other hand around the wheel. “Sage, it would be good if you didn’t mention that to Oliver.”
“Oh, you mean that you told your wife you were desperately sick right before she got in her vehicle during a snowstorm?”
“The word desperately was not used.”
“Don’t make him feel guiltier than he already does, Sage. Bad enough the SUV had to get towed to Dare’s shop.”
“What she said.”
“I’m not. I’m just wondering what’s in it for me if I don’t tell Oliver.”
“Wow,” Seth said, extending the word as he flicked a glance at Ally. “She’s more like that jerk than I thought.”
I pretended to examine my nonexistent manicure. There was no point in having one since I worked at the diner and usually chipped polish in an hour flat. “The jerk who is right now babysitting your children while you came to rescue us?”
“Hmm, she plays hardball. Okay, what do you want?”
/> “Babysitting on demand as needed for a year.”
“A year? A whole entire year? You can just share our nanny. I’m sure she can tolerate Oliver. Besides, with you two running the bed-and-breakfast, you’ll need—”
“What?” I whipped off my seat belt and practically hurtled between the front seats. “Say that again?”
He slowed down in front of his house, blazing with a million lights, and lightly thunked his head on the wheel. “You know what? I’ll just pay for the wedding. How’s that?”
“Deal.” I was already opening the door and climbing out, ignoring Seth’s shouts that he hadn’t parked yet. “I need my lingerie,” I called, racing around—as carefully as I could—to the back to grab my shopping bags.
“You know, it sounds as if his night is going to be a lot better than mine,” he called out as Ally thumped him on the shoulder. “Maybe he should pay me, since this is all his fault. I was just thinking outside the box to help him.”
“Too late, welcher. We have a deal.” I slammed the back of the SUV shut and turned to charge up the icy driveway, soon realizing I’d have to slow my roll.
Not only was it slippery out, I ached all over thanks to the jolt from the crash. I didn’t think I had anything more than a few bruises, but I was a little sore. Perhaps I should’ve waited until Seth parked. The extra seconds I’d gained wouldn’t help if I ended up on my ass. But I was on a mission.
With you two running the bed-and-breakfast.
No, not now. I couldn’t think of that yet. I had to see what Oliver had done.
Rather than head right into the house, I circled around the side and unlocked the gate to the backyard. The snow was still coming down at an angle, and no matter how many times I blinked, I couldn’t clear my vision. A couple of the spotlights were on, and as I tromped through the snow, I searched for whatever possible message Oliver could have left me. It was like a freaking winter wonderland. I could barely see the fence around the perimeter of the yard. Whatever he’d left for me, I needed to find it now before the snow messed it up even more.