Stumbling Into Forever (Stumbling Through Life Book 2)

by Molly O'Hare

  “Please call me Ben.”

  “Fine, Ben. You donate to local charities every month, you make sure your family’s business is being run properly, and you clearly have the funds to sustain fostering a child.” Carol looked out to the field. “You need to understand I take my job very seriously. Sometimes I’m all these kids have.”

  “I’m glad you do.”

  “Today’s meeting is about compatibility,” she continued.

  Holly bounced on her feet as she looked at the social worker. “Uhh, we want to be honest with you. I’m three months pregnant.”

  Carol smiled warmly at her. “I was hoping you’d tell me.”

  “You already knew?”

  “Of course, I did. Like I said, I take my job very seriously. I called Detective Bower as soon as I found out to see if this would be something you could handle along with the trials and tribulations of raising a newborn.”

  “We were made for this,” Holly announced proudly.

  “That’s what Detective Bower said.”

  They all fell silent as they watched the little boy and dogs play.

  “Jimmy’s had a hard life,” Carol spoke. “No one at his age should have to experience the kind of loss he has. However, to try and cope with his feelings he started turning down the wrong path. His current foster parents don’t know what to do with him. That night at the clinic wasn’t the first time he’d snuck out of his room.”

  “He’s lost,” Ben answered. Even though Ben was much older than Jimmy when his father passed away, he felt the same way. There would be no telling what Ben would have done if it had happened when he was Jimmy’s age.

  “He is. It’s why we’re here. At first, I was apprehensive about this, but the more and more I looked into you both I knew he needed to meet you. Call it a weird hunch.”

  “It’s the Universe. It works in weird ways.” Holly smiled brightly as she placed her hand on her stomach.

  “That it does.” Carol turned her attention to Ben. “Mr. Richman, I know your lawyers have been working to file the paperwork, along with that, I will need to check your home and have a few more supervised meetings with the three of you. Do you have any problems with that?”

  “Not at all,” Holly chimed in. “Our house is pretty much accident proof. It has to be with me around.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “What Holly’s trying to say is she’s the world’s champion of tripping over thin air.”

  Carol laughed. “Huh, I have a daughter like that.”

  “Then you understand,” Ben chuckled. “Our house is as accident proof as it’s ever going to get.”

  Carol nodded.

  “It’s true.” Holly rolled her eyes. “After we found out we were having a baby he bought an industrial size roll of bubble wrap.”

  “To do what with?”

  “Wrap me in it.”

  Carol laughed at Holly’s glare at him.

  Ben was sure Holly was remembering when it arrived. It wasn’t his fault Holly wasn’t a fan of being wrapped head to toe in bubble wrap. It was a necessity in his eyes. But after a few minutes of wrestling her into the bubble wrap and her then demanding she had to pee he ended up cutting her out of it.

  It was definitely a sight to see.

  Ben scratched his chin. He was still contemplating a way for her to be wrapped in it when he wasn’t around to keep her safe. And he’d figure out a way. He just needed time.

  “You seem like a fun pair.”

  “We’re all right,” Ben responded with a laugh.

  They all idly talked for the next twenty minutes as they watched Jimmy play with the dogs.

  However, the moment Holly started ruffling with her bag, Waffles’ ears perked up. As if he were in a high-speed chase, Waffles ran to Holly plopping onto his butt in front of her.

  “Okay fine, you’ve been good, so you get a treat. But, listen here, Bub, just ‘cause you hear me go in my bag does not mean treat time.”

  Jimmy laughed as Waffles caught the treat in his mouth. Ripley then barked signaling her treat was needed as well.

  “You too, missy.” Holly tossed Ripley a treat which she gladly chomped down on.

  “When can I play with Waffles again?” Jimmy asked scratching Waffles’ back as his tongue hung out of the side of his mouth. “I really like him. I’ve always wanted a dog. Mom and Dad said when I was older, they would think about it.” Jimmy looked back at Waffles. “I’m older now.”

  Ripley sensing Jimmy’s discomfort nudged her head under his hand, pushing Waffles out of the way. “I like this one too,” Jimmy announced moving to scratch Ripley instead.

  Waffles being offended at his scratches being cut in half jumped onto his feet and barked at Ripley. Ripley then turned her back effectively blocking his way to Jimmy.

  A smile appeared on Ben’s face. He guessed their dogs were now going to fight for Jimmy’s attention. “Looks like they both like you too,” Ben remarked.

  Out of nowhere he could sense Holly was only a few seconds from crying, whether it was the overwhelming feeling of the situation at hand or maybe it had to do with Peanut, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure. Regardless, he wrapped his arm around Holly’s shoulders pulling her in close.

  Then as if Waffles knew they needed the tension to be broken, or he just needed to be the center of attention again… probably the latter. He took a step back then ran full speed at Jimmy knocking him backward onto the grass and started giving him tons of kisses. Ripley not to be outdone started doing the same.

  Jimmy’s laughed erupted around them.

  Waffles nudged at Ripley trying to get her to move out of his way. Ripley then ran toward the open field with Waffles right on her tail.

  Surprisingly enough, Jimmy jumped up and ran right after them as his laughter filled the air.

  “Looks like they’ll be tired out tonight,” Ben joked.

  “Good. Plus, Waffles needs the exercise,” Holly said with a gleam in her eye.

  “I must say,” Carol interrupted them. “I’ve been with Jimmy since he was first placed into the system. I’ve never seen him smile. Not once. Even his foster parents mentioned his lack of joy when doing routine evaluations. All he’s done here is smile.”

  Holly turned to Ben. Her face glowed as her smile spread from ear to ear. “Its Waffles. He does that to everyone.”

  Carol returned her smile as she wrote something on her clipboard. She then looked at her watch. “Unfortunately, our time here has to come to an end.” Carol looked toward the field. “Jimmy, it’s time to go!”

  Jimmy stopped running after the dogs as a sad expression replaced the smile he had moments ago. He slowly started walking their way with Waffles and Ripley running around him in circles trying to get him to play. When Jimmy made it back to them, he looked up at Ben and Holly, the exact same pain they saw in the video was back in his eyes.

  Holly did exactly what Ben had the urge to do. She pulled Jimmy into her arms squeezing him like her life depended on it. “This isn’t goodbye, Jimmy.”

  “It isn’t?”

  Holly pulled out of their hug but kept her hands on Jimmy’s shoulders. “No, buddy, this is a, ‘we’ll see you real soon.’”

  Jimmy then looked to Ben, his eyes wide and hopeful. “Do you promise?”

  At that exact moment, Ben’s heart soared. He didn’t care what he needed to do, or who he needed to get in contact with, but he was damn sure they would keep their promise to Jimmy. Their encounter today only proved what he knew in his heart all along.

  Jimmy was made to be in their family.

  “I promise.”

  A wide smile appeared on Jimmy’s face as Carol took over and ushered him away. Once he got a few feet from them, he turned back and waved.

  Holly and Ben both stood there in silence as they watched Jimmy and Carol leave. When the two were fully out of sight Holly turned to Ben. “He’s ours.”

  Ben agreed.

  He kissed the top of her hea
d. Words wouldn’t work right now, not even if he tried.

  He’d only felt this overwhelming feeling of rightness once in his life before, and that’s when he met Holly.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The past few days had been a whirlwind for Ben and Holly. Since meeting Jimmy, they knew they wanted to continue with whatever they needed to do to have him in their lives. Even with Peanut coming they never felt more right about anything.

  Ben and Holly walked up the steps to their house with massive grins on their faces. They’d just left his lawyers office where he signed the last few forms to get the ball rolling to start the process.

  “I cannot believe we’re doing this,” Holly said as they walked through the front door.

  “I can,” he answered.

  Ben followed Holly into the living room where Twitch ran from the back room to greet them. “Hey, little guy.”

  Twitch started purring as Ben scratched behind his ears. Feeling Twitch’s head movement in the palm of his hand reminded him of what they were still dealing with.

  Even though they were beyond thrilled with what had started to transpire with Jimmy, they needed to remember there was still a possible threat.

  Ben hadn’t heard anything from Will since the meeting in his office about the case.

  Thankfully, there hadn’t been any more occurrences. Ben was hoping everything had died down, and the kid had given up or at least felt he got his revenge. And after talking with Carol the other night there hadn’t been any threats to Jimmy.

  Which was a good thing.

  A wave of protectiveness rushed through Ben. He would stop at nothing to protect Jimmy. He wasn’t surprised at that feeling, though. Since meeting Jimmy, in Ben’s mind he was already theirs. Right now, they were just crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s as far as he was concerned.

  As Ben placed Twitch onto the floor his phone rang. Quickly he retrieved it. “Speak of the devil. Hey, Will, how’s it going?”

  “Great,” he answered. “I have good news.”

  Ben looked at Holly who was staring at him with her brow arched. “Oh, yeah. What’s that?”

  “Four days ago, we located and detained the suspect. He’s since confessed. It didn’t take long for him to admit everything. You don’t need to worry anymore, this time he’s being sent to a rehab facility in hopes to get him the help he needs.”

  There was a wave of relief that washed through Ben. “You’re kidding me?”

  Holly started mouthing ‘what’ as she flung her arms around trying to get Ben’s attention.

  “I’m not. I would have called sooner but with everything happening, I couldn’t.”

  “Seriously, this is great news, Will. And, don’t worry about it. We’ve been kind of busy ourselves.”

  Holly picked up a pen from the coffee table and threw it at him. When he ducked out of the way she narrowed her eyes.

  “I can imagine with the baby coming and then the meeting with Jimmy and his social worker. How did that go?”

  A bright smile appeared on Ben’s face. “Really well. Actually, better than well. It was amazing.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Ben could hear papers being shuffled around. “Okay, well, I got to go. Paperwork won’t fill out itself, you know? You’ll have to call me in a few days so we can catch up on how the meeting went. Martha is dying to have you and Holly over.”

  “Of course.” Ben smiled at Holly who was now threatening to throw a book at him. “Hey, Will, wait a second.”

  “Yeah.”

  There was something inside of Ben that told him he needed to do more. He avoided the book Holly tossed perfectly at his head, as he spoke, “Can you send the info of the rehab facility to my lawyers?”

  “Why?”

  “What in the hell is going on?” Holly growled at Ben, which had him holding up his hand to her.

  “I’d like to offer some financial assistance.” Ben watched as Holly’s eyes widened. “What?” she whispered.

  The other line of the phone was silent. “Will, you there?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” he answered. “I’m a little in shock. I guess I just forgot how truly good of a guy you are.”

  “Everyone deserves a second chance in life. And if going to rehab can help this kid then I want to be a part of it. It’s what my dad would have done.” That’s exactly what his dad would have done, Ben knew that. He always told him, desperate people make desperate choices. You never know what a second chance could give them.

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thanks, Will. I’ll call you in a few days.” Ben ended the call smiling at his wife. Things were looking up.

  “What’s going on?”

  “They arrested the kid that broke into the clinic.”

  “They did?” Holly’s eyes widened.

  “Yeah, he’s being sent to a rehabilitation center. I want to offer some financial assistance to him.”

  “Whoa.”

  Ben shrugged at Holly’s shocked expression.

  “I really did marry the best guy ever.” Holly smiled brightly. “After what he did to Twitch I would have told them to throw away the key.”

  “You did.” Ben pulled her into his arms kissing the top of her head. He ignored her other statement. He got it, Holly loved Twitch with everything inside of her. But he knew he needed to do this.

  “I really did, though.” Holly wrapped her arms around him. “After having lunch with Emma yesterday, I’ve realized more and more what a jackpot I got in you hitting me in the face.”

  “I didn’t hit you in the face.”

  “The Frisbee you threw hit me in the face.” She shrugged. “Same difference.”

  “I told you to watch out.”

  “And you know now how fast I am at reacting.”

  “How was I supposed to know that?”

  Holly reached up on her toes and kissed his nose. “You’re right, you wouldn’t.” Holly pulled out of his grasp as she walked out of the room shaking her ass.

  “Oh, you are gonna get it.” Ben ran after her scooping her into his arms as he rushed them both to the bedroom.

  “Hey, hey, hey now, precious cargo here.” She placed her hand on her stomach.

  “You’ve always been.” He leaned over capturing his lips with hers. “I love you, Holly.”

  As Ben started kissing along Holly’s jawline, she leaned her head back giving him better access.

  She couldn’t be happier than she was at this exact moment. Things with Jimmy were working out, the clinic situation had been taken care of, and her little peanut was happy and healthy protected inside of her.

  She opened her eyes to see Ben looking down at her with the corner of his mouth turned up.

  “What’s that look for, Mrs. Richman?”

  “I’m happy.”

  “Me too.” Ben pulled his shirt over his head tossing it behind him. “And we’re about to be much happier.”

  Holly burst out into giggles.

  “Oh, do you think that’s funny?” Ben arched his brow at her. “I’ll show you funny.” He started tickling her causing Holly to thrash around on the bed.

  “Stop, stop,” she pleaded.

  “Not on your life.” During the onslaught of tickles, Ben somehow managed to remove Holly’s shirt and bra.

  “How’d you do that so fast?” she asked after realizing she was indeed topless.

  “Eye on the prize, babe.” He winked.

  Holly rolled her eyes. “At least you didn’t rip them this time.”

  “The night’s still young.” Ben grabbed onto the waistband of her pants pulling them down her legs exposing her sex.

  The way Ben looked at her when she was naked always sent Holly into overdrive. Every person deserved someone that looked at them like this. Ben’s eyes held so much passion and desire, it drove her fucking wild.

  Ben reached around her grabbing one of their pillows. “Over,” he demanded. He flipped Holly onto her stomach t
aking the pillow he’d grabbed propping it under her hips.

  Holly looked at him from over her shoulder. “What about you? You’ve still got your clothes on.”

  “Not for much longer.” Ben unbuckled his pants before jumping from the bed and tossing them to the side.

  “That’s better.” Holly wiggled her ass in the air. She loved this. So, fucking much.

  Nothing could stop them when they got to this point.

  However, just as Ben hopped back onto the bed Holly heard a bark.

  Ben sighed loudly. “I forgot to shut the door.”

  This caused Holly to burst into laughter. “You might as well get used to the interruptions,” she said. “Soon, there’s gonna be more than just us in the house.”

  “No,” Ben growled. “I’m just gonna have to remind myself to close the door.” Ben grabbed his pair of boxers tossing them all around in the air getting the dogs attention before throwing them out into the hall.

  Holly had to bite her lip when she saw Twitch run after the dogs a few seconds later, once he realized they were now going after the piece of clothing instead of them.

  Once the door was shut Ben crawled back onto the bed. “Now, where were we?”

  Holly pushed her ass into the air.

  “Oh, that’s right.” Ben got behind her before bending to kiss her exposed back.

  “While we have the house to ourselves, we might as well make the best of it.”

  “Huh?” she said looking over her shoulder at him confused.

  He gave her a wicked grin before entering her in one fast movement causing her to moan loudly.

  “Loud, Grace. I want to hear you scream my name.”

  She sent him back a grin that matched his. She pushed her ass making him enter her deeper. “My pleasure.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Two Months Later

  Today was the day.

  And, not just any day, this was the day. Everything Ben and Holly had worked toward was finally coming together. And Holly couldn’t be more excited.