I grinned. “Hunt and gather, man of mine. I want that house.”
He laughed and nodded. “I’m lookin’ at it tomorrow. If I like what I see, then you can check it out and we’ll make it happen.”
“Can I come with you, Dad?” Maverick asked.
I laid my hand over my chest. It was the first time Maverick had called Carter ‘dad,’ and it was precious.
“If your grandma can come hang out with Mom, then yeah, of course you can. Maybe Grandpa can come too,” Carter said.
“Awesome!” Maverick sat up on his knees. “Does that mean I get to live next to Lily?”
“If we buy the house, yep, that’s what it means.”
“Cool,” he said. “Now that Dad’s home, can I please play on my DS?”
“Yeah, honey. Thirty minutes,” I said.
“Okay.” Maverick scrambled from the sofa and headed to his room.
Carter checked his watch and rose to his feet. “You’re due for meds, babe.”
“Oh, good,” I said, the pain getting stronger with each minute. “I hope this doesn’t go on forever. I feel really great for a while and then it just hits.”
“I know, baby,” Carter said, and grabbed my pills.
I took them and smiled up at him. “I’m okay, honey.”
“I know that here—” he tapped his temple, “but here—” he laid his hand over his heart, “I don’t like it.”
“I get it.”
He leaned over me, bracing his hands on each arm of my chair. “If you really got it, Cassidy, you’d quit waiting longer for relief.”
I sighed. “I was hoping you hadn’t noticed that.”
“I notice everything when it comes to you.”
“I’m picking up on that,” I admitted. “I just don’t want to get addicted.”
“Cassidy, you were shot less than ten days ago. You got a whole lotta time before you run the risk of getting addicted. Take the damn pills.”
I reached up and stroked his cheek. “Okay, honey. I’ll take the pills.”
“Thank you.” He leaned in and kissed me quickly, then rose to his full height. “Can you eat somethin’?”
“I could try. Something small, though.”
He smiled. “Okay, babe. I’ll find you something.”
Carter fixed dinner and the three of us ate together in front of a movie.
* * *
Six weeks later, despite the fact I wasn’t allowed to lift a finger, the three of us moved into our new house next to Hawk and Payton. It was perfect. The top floor was a ranch style with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, an office, huge kitchen and great room, and a basement with another two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchenette and a bonus room that Carter wanted to convert into a media room.
I could never have imagined living somewhere so nice, not on my salary and living as a single mother, but as I watched (from my place on the recliner in the great room) the club and my family carrying in boxes and furniture while I sipped water and directed the flow, I realized the dreams I had so long ago were happening right in front of me. They might have taken a little longer than I expected, but they were no less sweet.
We’d been married now for two weeks. Our ceremony took place at the courthouse as Carter had suggested at the beginning (with Torbig in attendance, but not presiding over the event). However, Carter made up for the low-key event by making the club organize a major party. We’d have to postpone our honeymoon due to my health issues, but I was happy to bask in the glow of him for the moment, the honeymoon could wait a few months. Within all of the drama, Maverick turned six, and he was happy that we’d rented out Chuck-E-Cheese for the day and filled it with club kids and friends from school. He loved being the center of attention.
Carter had made the difficult decision to cut ties once and for all with his mother. He left the door open, but there were specific stipulations to her being let “back in.” And the biggest one was that she had to accept me completely, which right now, she wasn’t ready to do. I would have tried, but Carter said that I shouldn’t have to. She was the one with the problem, so she had to be the one to fix it. Again, he was protecting me, and again, I let him, because the alternative wasn’t particularly pleasant. I didn’t want to be at family gatherings and feel as though I wasn’t welcome.
A surprising friendship with Josh’s wife, Melanie, had come out of Carter’s ultimatum to his mother, and I found Mel to be warm and giving, and extremely funny. But she’d been the first to deal with Sheila’s passive aggressive nastiness, and had borne the brunt of all of it. Melanie had confided in me that she hoped Josh would stand up to Sheila one day, but until then, she would live vicariously through me.
As I sat in my recliner and guided traffic, I decided supervising was fun, especially while relaxing and being fussed over by my man in between him utilizing his gorgeous muscles to move heavy stuff. Yum.
I knew that it would take some time to come to terms with not having Carter’s children, but he was right, life apart was torture, but together we could face anything. So, I settled in and took my man’s advice, to not worry so much. I had been blessed beyond measure and it was more than enough.
Two years later…
“I don’t understand,” I said as I stood on the phone with the doctor. I’d been dealing with the stomach flu for weeks now, and Carter had forced me to go in and find out what the hell was going on.
“Well, Mrs. Quinn, you don’t have the stomach flu. You’re pregnant.”
“But that’s impossible.”
“Well, if this isn’t good news, I can refer you to someone you can talk to.”
“No,” I rushed to say. “It’s not that. It’s just I was shot two years ago and the doctor said I wouldn’t be able to have children. Are you sure you’re right? Maybe I should come in and take another test.”
The truth was, it hadn’t been definite, but considering we hadn’t used any kind of birth control since I’d been released from the hospital, my OB/GYN hadn’t been particularly positive that a pregnancy would happen. We’d resigned ourselves to not having a baby the natural way...well, until now apparently.
“We ran both blood and urine tests, so there’s no mistake. I think we should schedule you for an ultrasound so we can check things out at this early stage, but you’re definitely pregnant.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
“Mrs. Quinn?”
“Sorry, I’m here,” I said. “Um, yes, let’s schedule the ultrasound.”
The nurse transferred me to the scheduling desk and I took the earliest appointment available before hanging up the phone and promptly rushing to the bathroom to throw up again.
As I sat on the floor of our powder room, I couldn’t stop myself from giggling uncontrollably. Of course I was pregnant. Being married to Carter Quinn ensured it, despite the odds. Especially, considering he probably had bionic sperm and made every problem his bitch. A little thing like my uterus being shot to hell was nothing he couldn’t “fix.”
Because we tended to go at it like rabbits, I couldn’t really estimate when it had happened, but I didn’t care. If I could carry this baby to term, it meant we could have more and I wanted more. Maverick was going to be eight and it was time he had a sibling.
“Babe!” Carter called, and I heard the garage door close.
“In here.”
He pushed open the door and frowned, hunkering down beside him. “You sick again?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Has that fuckin’ doctor called you back yet?” He stood and rinsed a washcloth with cold water, laying it gently on my forehead. “I’m gonna call them and find out why the fuck they haven’t figured out what’s wrong.”
“They have, honey. I just got off the phone with them.”
He knelt beside me again, his face pale and his expression grave. “Tell me.”
“I’m pregnant.” Yep, I just spit it out. No easing into the information, just dropped the bomb.
“
Come again.”
I giggled, but stopped myself from giggling like a loon… sort of. “I’m pregnant. I’m going in the day after tomorrow for an ultrasound.”
“Pregnant.”
“Yep.”
“You’re gonna have my baby?” he whispered.
“Well, no, it’s the gardener’s baby, but I’d hoped to wait to tell you that information for a while.”
He rolled his eyes and cupped my face. “Holy fuck, a baby.”
I nodded. “Yep.”
He rose to his feet. “What do you need? I’ll run to the store and get saltines and lemon-lime soda. What about juice? Can you handle juice?”
“We have all the stuff now. I think I’m set for while.” I stood as well and brushed my teeth quickly.
“You should go to bed.”
“Honey, I’m fine. If this pregnancy is anything like what I had with Maverick, I’ll be feeling totally great in a few weeks. My pregnancy with him was a breeze.”
Carter laid his hand gently on my stomach. “Will you at least sit in the recliner and relax for now? We’ll go to the ultrasound and decide what to do from there.”
I looped my arms around his neck. “If you want me to sit in the recliner and let you serve me for the next two days, I won’t argue, but I really need you not to worry.”
“Look who’s changed positions.”
I grinned. “We’re gonna have a hundred kids, Carter. I have to learn not to stress out every second.”
He leaned down and kissed me. “I love you, Cassidy Eleanor Quinn.”
“I love you too, honey.”
“In the chair.”
I laughed and let him lead me to the recliner where he fussed over me until Maverick got home from school. Then they both did. Saying that Maverick was excited about a sibling was an understatement, although, he’d just gone through a very minor ‘where do babies come from’ discussion with Carter and me, so he was both excited and grossed out. After all, Payton was close to having her new little boy, so it was incredible to me that we’d be raising our kids together.
Later that night, Carter took me to bed and made love to me gentler than he ever had, which at one time, I thought would bore me, but I decided this was definitely going on the approved list of sexual standard procedures.
Seven months later, Liam Patrick Quinn arrived. The boy we affectionately called “Moose,” weighed in at nine pounds, eight ounces and was twenty-two inches long. It was no wonder I’d looked like a Volkswagon Beetle while carrying him.
As I held our second son in my arms, I kissed Carter and smiled. “Thank you for forgiving me.”
“Aw, baby, I was just going to say the same thing.” He kissed Liam, pulled Maverick onto the bed with us and hugged him. “I love you guys.”
“Love you too, Dad,” Maverick said.
“Love you, honey.”
He kissed me again and I snuggled up against my family, basking in the joy of the miracle and healing of absolution.
Life was perfect.
ABOUT PIPER
Piper Davenport writes from a place of passion and intrigue, combining elements of romance and suspense with strong modern day heroes and heroines.
She currently resides in pseudonymia under the dutiful watch of the Writers Protection Agency.
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Road to Absolution Page 18