Birthright

by Shay Savage

  “I love you so much,” I whisper.

  “I love you, too, Nate. Forever.”

  “I can’t wait to marry you and start a new life with you and our baby.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. Now I just need to figure out where I’m going to school so we know where to start.”

  “True.” I hug her close once more before she rolls off of me, and we both lie on our backs, staring at the ceiling and catching our breath.

  I feel the warmth of her body close to mine, and I close my eyes as my body starts to feel heavy. Just before I fall asleep, Cherry speaks.

  “What are you going to do while I’m in school?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that a bit,” I reply as I try to regain my senses. “I’m not sure how you will feel about it though.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I think I might just want to be a stay-at-home dad.” I feel myself blush a little as I say it out loud. “I know that’s pretty nontraditional and all, but I can’t imagine putting my kid in daycare. I think I might be too paranoid for that, and I like the idea of raising our kids myself.”

  Cherry doesn’t say anything, and I’m afraid to look over and see her reaction. My heart starts to beat faster, and I feel the need to defend my position.

  “Money is never going to be an issue for us,” I say, “so I wouldn’t have to get a job doing something else. I don’t know what I’d do anyway. What the hell would my resume look like?” I laugh nervously. “I don’t really have much experience with kids except for Antony’s daughter, but I know I like them. I think I might be good at it, and—”

  “Nate, stop rambling.” Cherry rolls over and kisses my cheek. “I think it’s a wonderful idea. Though I think daycares are fine, and we’d have to work out some way for our child to get some socialization, I’d be very happy with you being a stay-at-home dad.”

  “You would?”

  “Yes.” She grins at me. “I’ll expect dinner on the table at six o’clock every night.”

  “I’d totally do that.”

  “Do you even know how to clean a house?” she asks.

  “Not a clue,” I say, “but Andrea owes me one, so I’ll make her show me all the tricks.”

  Cherry kisses me softly, and I roll over on top of her—still careful not to put pressure on her abdomen—and press my lips against hers, warming her up for another round.

  I’ll learn everything Andrea knows about caring for a home. I’ll read every book on bringing up children to feel safe and happy. I’ll attend parenting and child development classes wherever Cherry decides to go to school. I’ll find the best therapist out there to make sure I don’t do any of the things Pops did to me.

  A year ago, I never would have pictured such a life. Now, the more I think about it, the more I want it—just a little house in the country with Cherry as my wife and a whole pile of children. Violence won’t have a place in our lives, and everything we do will be legitimate—I won’t risk my kids having their parents hauled off to jail or killed. They will not want for anything, and I will always be there for them.

  With Cherry, I’ll be able to raise our children the way they should be. They’ll never doubt who they are or where they came from. Our children will be raised knowing exactly how much they are loved and accepted.

  Always and forever.

  Epilogue—New Life

  “Cherry? You in here?”

  “Yes!” I call out. “Almost done.”

  I trim off one more tiny branch from the bonsai tree I’ve been working on for the last six months. It’s really starting to have a nice shape, and if I can get this one right, I can start on a couple more.

  “Someone is looking for you!” Nate slips through the greenhouse door with little Natalie in his arms. She rubs her eyes, looks at me, and calls out.

  “Mama!”

  “Hello there, little one!” I smile at my daughter, who is dressed in her favorite yellow T-shirt with the dragon on the front and her belly sticking out of the bottom a bit. I can imagine the tears when she realizes she can’t wear it anymore, and I wonder how in the world she grew so big so quickly. Was she really about to turn three years old? I can’t imagine where the time has gone. “Did you wake up just in time to help mommy?”

  “Water!” Natalie reaches her little hands toward the watering can on the floor next to the table full of orchids.

  “All right,” I say, “you can do the watering.”

  “But not on the cactuses.”

  “Cacti.” I shake my head at Nate, but he just laughs.

  “Dumb word.”

  “Dumb cactuses!” Natalie wriggles out of Nate’s arms and points at the table of prickly pears. “Ouchie plants!”

  “We’ve learned to stay away from those, haven’t we?”

  I help Natalie fill up the watering can and point her over to Vee and Vee’s offshoots. It’s one plant she can’t really overwater, as opposed to the orchids she drowned right before my final exam last spring. It’s not easy explaining to your professor that your experiment was ruined by your toddler. I might as well have told her that the dog ate my homework.

  “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes,” Nate says.

  “Oh, good! I’m starving!” I stand on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek. “You’re the best househusband ever!”

  “Hey, I’ve got my work cut out for me.” He wraps one arm around my waist and rubs my belly. “I’ve got to get my shit together before the work is doubled.”

  “By that I assume you plan on finishing the deck this weekend?”

  “If someone will take a nap and let me, yes.”

  “No nap!” Natalie wails. “Already had nap today!”

  “Not now,” Nate says with a smile. “It’s time to wash up and eat.”

  “Yay!”

  After Natalie finishes watering the floor as much as the tropical plants in the greenhouse, she scurries out of the structure and down the walkway to the farmhouse. She stops at the wraparound porch and yells at us to hurry up. Nate is all smiles as he takes my hand, swinging our arms between us.

  Clearly, we don’t move fast enough for Natalie, and she rushes back to shove herself between us. Nate and I each take one of her hands, and we all head down the short path to the house. We pass the large garden area, which is mostly bare after the fall harvest, and a grove of trees. I glance around the six-acre property—“Our little haven,” Nate calls it—and smile.

  Nate has spent a lot of time fixing up the outside of the house, including landscaping, making the box gardens, and even building a deck. However, he’s proven to be nearly useless when it comes to inside handiwork. Thankfully, I’ve managed to figure out some basic plumbing and electrical skills, so we don’t have to call someone every time something breaks.

  My husband gets nervous when we have a person we don’t know come to the house for any repair work. He’s still a touch on the paranoid side though we haven’t had any indication of anyone in the Ramsay family trying to find us or take revenge. Antony and Nora swear the Ramsay family is completely disbanded, and we have nothing to fear, but there is always an outside chance. Nate doesn’t talk about it, but I know those old feelings occasionally resurface.

  At least he’s found a good counselor here, and he’s never had a relapse of his sleep disorder or hallucinations of his father.

  “Nora called earlier,” Nate says as he serves dinner. “She wants to know when we’ll be there for Thanksgiving.”

  “My last class is over at two o’clock, Wednesday. We should be able to leave here by five and get to Cascade Falls around midnight if you want to drive straight through.”

  “That’s my preference.”

  “Did she tell you what to bring?”

  “Apparently, my pies went over well last Christmas,” he says, “so I’m going with pumpkin and sweet potato. The sweet potatoes are taking over this year.”

  “You’d better make a test pie this weekend though,” I say with a sly g
rin, “so I can make sure it’s okay.”

  “I want pie!” Natalie pulls at my hand and then demands to be held.

  “See? You can’t deny this face.” I hold Natalie up, and she gives her daddy a big, goofy grin.

  “Fine. Test pie it is. I’ll get one done Saturday.”

  “I want pie now!”

  “Ugh!” Nate rolls his eyes.

  Natalie reaches out for him, and Nate takes her in his arms. She makes the same goofy grin again and points to her cheek.

  “This face!” she says, and we all laugh.

  After an overly lavish dinner and a few educational games, Nate ushers me into the bedroom with my study notes for my plant-microbe interaction class while he puts Natalie to bed. After about an hour, he joins me, still smiling.

  “You really like this, don’t you?” I grin at him as he climbs into the bed next to me.

  “What’s not to like?” Nate leans over and places a gentle kiss on my lips. “I’ve got two beautiful girls, a ton of land all around us, and you’re just about to graduate with your degree. Now, if this one is a boy, I’ll probably explode with joy!”

  “We’ll find out next week.” I place my notes on the nightstand and turn toward him.

  “I can’t wait.” He pulls me close and kisses me again.

  After a few minutes of making out and cuddling, Nate breaks away with a more serious look on his face.

  “Hey, I wanted to tell you something,” Nate says.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t want to foul up any good mood you might be having, but it has to come out at some point.”

  “What?”

  “I finally heard back from Virginia Bay.”

  We had been trying for the last year to get a hold of the woman who allowed the Ramsay family to steal her identity so I could be raised in isolation. I didn’t feel right about trying to sell the house and shop in Accident without talking to her first, but just hearing her name reminds me of the woman who raised me. Though we hadn’t actually been blood relatives at all, I still miss her.

  “What did she say?” I ask.

  “Well, the gist of it is, she wants nothing to do with us or the property. She said that was ‘done and done years ago’ and not to contact her again. Then she hung up on me.”

  “I guess we should start planning on selling the house and the store.” The idea makes me sad, and I have to fight back the tears again.

  “Hey,” Nate says softly as he pulls my head to his shoulder, “don’t cry. You can keep the house and the antique shop if you want to.”

  “It’s just the hormones,” I whisper as I bury my face in his chest. “I was like this with Nat, too.”

  “You were a weepy thing.” Nate kisses the top of my head. “But I also know you’re disappointed. You wanted to meet her.”

  “Yes, but I also feel bad about the house and the shop. What are we going to do with them?”

  “Sell them, I guess. Good way to start a college fund for Natalie.”

  “Don’t we already have a college fund?”

  “The money, yes, but it needs to be, uh, ‘cleaned.’”

  “This is the part where I stick my fingers in my ears and hum a lot, isn’t it?”

  “That’s your MO, yes. I’ll take care of the sale. We’ll get the places fixed up first. Reid might like the opportunity to rehab an old house like that.”

  “He asked about it before Nat was born,” I say. “Back then, I was still hoping the real Virginia Bay might want it back.”

  “I think it would be a little difficult for her to go back to that town after all these years, don’t you? I’m not surprised that she doesn’t want to leave a life of relative luxury on a Caribbean island for Accident, Maryland.”

  “I suppose that’s true. Such a small community would have a lot of questions if she just showed back up there, trying to use her real name again.”

  “At least the county sheriff stopped asking about the shooting.”

  “I’m sure all that money you gave to Pablo to stop pressing the issue helped.”

  “His shop was damaged.”

  “You gave him enough to build two more stores.”

  “He’s a good guy,” Nate says with a shrug. “He deserves it.”

  We snuggle down into the pillows, and Nate pulls the quilt up over us.

  “Are you going to see Jessie when we go visit?” Nate asks.

  “I talked to her about it,” I say, “but we might have to wait until Christmas. I don’t think there will be time over the long weekend.”

  “Nora says that woman still comes by with baked goods on a regular basis.”

  “You know, it’s probably best I don’t live so close to her anymore,” I say, “or I’d be two hundred pounds by now! You spoil me with your food as it is.”

  “You’re eating for two.” He rubs my belly under the blanket. “I have to make sure you eat healthy for two as well.”

  I reach up and touch the side of his face, then kiss him gently.

  “Thank you for taking care of me,” I say softly.

  “Thank you for loving me.” Nate runs his hand from my stomach up to my face. “If it hadn’t been for you, I’d be in a business I wanted nothing to do with, alone and probably completely insane.”

  “You worked on that yourself,” I remind him. “You’re still working on that.”

  “Yes, but as much as I know I needed to do it for myself, I don’t think I would have had the courage without you.”

  He kisses me again.

  “I love you, Nate.”

  “I love you too, Cherry. Always.”

  When I moved to Cascade Falls to find my family, I never could have imagined that just a few years later, I’d have not only my birth family but a family of my own. I have Nate, Natalie, a new child on the way, and countless family and friends around me now.

  I was simply seeking a connection to my past, and it turned into an amazing future.

  ~~THE END~~

  Author’s Note

  I hope you’ve enjoyed Cherry and Nate’s adventure! Surviving Raine fans probably noticed a few Easter eggs (Evan Arden fans, too!). I love bringing characters from other books into a new story to give fans a bit more info and to tease new readers. If you aren’t familiar with their stories, you definitely want to check them out. Landon Stark may have come to the rescue in this scenario, but that’s not his usual MO. Learn more about Landon, Sebastian Stark, and Evan Arden (the hitman from Chicago), by checking out Surviving the Storm and the Evan Arden series. Both boxed sets are available for free if you have Kindle Unlimited!

  Surviving the Storm Boxed set: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OE9I6NQ

  Evan Arden Series: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01899NUUK

  Until next time!

  Much love,

  Shay Savage

  More Books by Shay Savage

  Stand Alone Novels

  Transcendence

  It’s said that women and men are from two different planets when it comes to communication, but how can they overcome the obstacles of prehistoric times when one of them simply doesn’t have the ability to comprehend language?

  Ehd’s a caveman living on his own in a harsh wilderness. He’s strong and intelligent, but completely alone. When he finds a beautiful young woman in his pit trap, it’s obvious to him that she is meant to be his mate. He doesn’t know where she came from; she’s wearing some pretty odd clothing, and she makes a lot of noises with her mouth that give him a headache. Still, he’s determined to fulfill his purpose in life—provide for her, protect her, and put a baby in her.

  Elizabeth doesn’t know where she is or exactly how she got there. She’s confused and distressed by her predicament, and there’s a caveman hauling her back to his cavehome. She’s not at all interested in Ehd’s primitive advances, and she just can’t seem to get him to listen. No matter what she tries, getting her point across to this primitive but beautiful man is a constant—and often hilarious—strug
gle.

  With only each other for company, they must rely on one another to fight the dangers of the wild and prepare for the winter months. As they struggle to coexist, theirs becomes a love story that transcends language and time.

  Also available as an Audiobook!

  Luffs: a Transcendence Compendium

  Once upon a time, you fell in love with a caveman.

  His needs were basic, his ambitions primal, his love fierce.

  Now, fall in love with Ehd all over again…through Beh’s eyes.

  Luffs—Shay Savage’s holiday gift to Transcendence fans everywhere!

  Talen

  In a world plagued by constant earthquakes and volcanic debris, people in the valley struggle to survive while those on top of the hill want for nothing.

  This is where I come in.

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  There have always been those with wealth and those without.

  My name is Talen, and I’m here to even the score.

  Deklan

  My father owes a debt.

  I am his currency.

  I’m supposed to marry the recently crowned mafia king of the Foley family as repayment for my father’s transgressions. I don’t understand why the Foleys would want me, but I’ve grown up in a crime family, and I know the ugly consequences of not doing what you’re told.

  But as the wedding date approaches, the deal changes, and I’m about to be wed to a man I know nothing about. In fact, I don’t even know his last name.

  Instead of becoming a mafia princess, I’m marrying the henchman.

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  After one look at him, I’m not sure I’ll survive the wedding night.