One more blow of the nose and she looks at me with red-rimmed eyes. “Okay.”
“I know you haven’t wanted to move…” Wait, what did she say? “Did you say, okay?”
She laughs a little then stops. “Don’t make me laugh, I nearly wet myself. And I said, okay. I know you love it there and I know I can’t find what I want here. I think that’s because I really want to move back too. I want to be able to see my family more and I want little Rocko to be able to see his grandparents as much as he wants to.”
“Rocko?” I ask as I start the car.
She nods. “I like it.”
“I hate it.” Pulling away, I look over at her and find her frowning. “How about, Marco? That’s a little more normal.”
“That’s Italian. We aren’t Italian,” she says as she rubs her belly.
“What the hell do you think, Rocko is?”
“Cool,” she says then runs her hand over my thigh. “Baby, do you still think I’m attractive? I mean, I weigh a ton and have this constant sweat going on. I’m a little irritable too. I’m no picnic.”
“You’re a delight, my love,” I say with a laugh. I’m no idiot!
“You know I can’t leave until the baby’s born. If you want to find a place in Texas, it’ll have to be after next month.”
“There is the ranch for sale on the outskirts of our old hometown. I could buy it and have some renovations done and six weeks after, Marco is born we could move right on in,” I tell her as I take her hand and kiss it. “You could let your sister, Sharon, do the decorating. She’s good at that kind of thing. I could pay her to do it. And my brother, Jared could help her. He found her to his liking at our wedding.”
She seems to be thinking about it then says, “Go for it. I like that place. We can keep your place in New York for when I have to be here.”
“Yes!” I say feeling as if I’ve won a great victory. “Does that mean we can name our son Marco too?”
“No way in hell,” she says, crisply. “I’m thinking a cowboy name is more in order if we’re going to live on a Texas ranch. Buck, or Lane, or, Tuff.”
“I see where you’re going and I’m liking it, Baby,” I say then kiss her hand again.
“Finally, we can agree on something.” She lets out a sigh and lays her head back. “So you and I are going to become ranchers of all things. We’re going to move back home and…” Her sudden stop has me looking over at her as I drive down the road. “Jason, why do you want to go back to that town?”
“Our families live there. Why else?”
Her eyes narrow as she looks at me. Distrust is sweeping her face as she looks into my eyes. I cut them away to look at the road. She snaps, “Why’d you stop looking at me?”
“I need to look at the road, Baby. Don’t read anything into it.”
“Suddenly you want to go back home. Back to the place where everyone knows you cheated on me. Back to where plenty of your old sluts still live. Is that why you really want to go back?”
If she wasn’t hormonal I’d get into it with her, but she is so I won’t.
“We don’t have to live there if it makes you uneasy,” I say with a very diplomatic tone.
“What does it make you, Jason? Horney?” she shrieks. “I knew one day this would happen. I’m fat and ugly and you want some on the side. I knew it would happen!”
“How about some ice cream?” I ask to try to get her off the rampage she’s gotten on.
“Don’t try to get me off my thought process!”
“Chocolate syrup, little rainbow sprinkles. Yum, yum.”
“I’m not that easy, Jason.”
I smile as I look at her. “Gummy bears, Pumpkin. Lots of gummies drenched in chocolate syrup.”
She points to a small café. “Stop there.”
Her eyes have lost the fury that was just in them as I pull up to the curb. “Don’t you just love the way the whipped cream makes the whole thing come together?” I ask her as I pop her seatbelt off.
She looks over and smiles at me. “I’m sorry. I get kind of crazy now and then.”
Now and then, yeah!
Chapter 10
BRITTANY
The sound of the blood pressure cuff filling with air startles me awake. My eyes fly open and I see Jason looking at me with concern, worry, and a touch of fear. “I’ll be fine,” I say to reassure him.
My doctor put me in the hospital and she’s about to begin inducing my labor. I’m two weeks overdue and my blood pressure skyrocketed yesterday. It seems I’ve gained too much weight with this pregnancy. A thing I blame Jason for, of course.
“I know you will, Baby.” He takes my free hand and holds it as the cuff squeezes my arm.
“Ow.” I moan as the thing hurts my arm. “This sucks. I don’t know how my sister did it six times already.”
“She seems to be able to pop them out pretty damn easily, doesn’t she?” he asks as he looks up when my doctor walks in. “How is she, Doc?”
“We’re about to start her up, you ready?” she asks him.
He nods and I frown. “I’m not. I mean, I am but then I’m not.”
She pats my shoulder as she smiles at me. My doctor is about fifty and the mother of four and grandmother of three. I like her a lot. I have complete trust in her. But I’m still scared as shit.
She looks at Jason and asks, “You have your focal points picked out for her, Jason?”
He points to various things around the hospital room. “There is my first one. Over there is the second. I have ten picked out in case it goes pretty long.”
“Well, I’m only going to let her go for ten hours. If he hasn’t made his appearance by then, I’ll have to do a C-section. And if her blood pressure goes much higher, I’ll have to do one then if that happens. Let’s keep our fingers crossed we can have a natural delivery.”
“We,” I say with a laugh. “I wish I had someone to share this with.”
Jason’s eyes droop as he pulls my hand up to his chest. “Believe it or not, Pudding pop, I’m feeling terrible too. I’ll be right here with you for every little pain. You squeeze my hand whenever you need to. I got you, Baby.”
“Maybe I won’t be so grouchy once I get this kid out of me,” I say. “I’m sorry if I’ve been a bitch.”
My doctor surprises me as she looks at me. “Thanks for the apology, Brittany. I was wondering if you were ever going to give me one.”
“I meant, Jason but I guess I owe you one too. I’m sure I’ll be kind of shitty to you through this little process too, so I’d like to apologize in advance.” I give her a smile.
She presses some buttons and the bag of clear liquid starts to drip into my IV. She smiles back at me and says, “Yeah, you’re about to really hate me.”
“Is it really that bad?” I ask as I wait for the first pains to start.
Jason looks at the older woman as he says, “I’m sure it’s not as bad as some woman make it seem. Isn’t that right, Doc?”
She just shrugs and walks out of the room. I look at him with a frown. “She’s making me nervous.”
“Me too,” he says then runs his hand over my forehead. “But you don’t need to worry at all because I have the back massager and the tablet for you play with to keep yourself distracted. Plus, you have me to keep you happy.”
“And you do make me happy.” I watch him go to pick up the television remote.
His ass looks so good in his jogging suit. I picked it out for him to wear just for this occasion. I figure if I have his hot body to look at, then I’ll recall why I did this to myself.
The tight T-shirt hugs his abs and pecs while accenting his magnificent biceps. When he sits in the chair next to my bed, I run my hand over one of them and moan a little.
“This morning was the last chance we had to make love before the baby comes and then it’s six long weeks without it,” I say.
I’ve been worried about him going without sex for that long. I haven’t seen him do a thing to make
me think he wants anyone but me, but those doubts flutter through my mind now and then.
“Don’t worry,” he says as he stands up and makes me lean up so he can fluff my pillow. “I can wait. I can see that look on your face, you know. I can almost read your mind, Pumpkin.”
“I’m sorry for being distrustful, I really am. I’m trying, Jason.”
A little tightness moves around my back then across my stomach. He looks at the machine that maps my contractions. “You had one. How was that?”
“Not bad at all. I think I can handle this just fine. Maybe I’m a natural like, Maddie.”
“Maybe you are,” he says with a grin and a kiss to my forehead.
***
JASON
Nine hours later and many contractions into her labor, my wife is begging for a C-section.
“No more! I can’t take anymore, please, Doc!” she begs as she holds onto her doctor’s arm.
With a shake of her head, the doctor says, “You are virtually minutes away from having this baby, Brittany.” She looks at me. “Where is the focal point she should be focusing on, Jason?”
“She won’t listen to me,” I say as I plead my case.
“You have to make her.” She pulls her arm out of Britt’s clutches and leaves the room. “I’ll be right back with an epidural.”
“Thank God!” Britt shouts. Then she starts breathing all hard as she motions for me to come to her.
I do what I’m supposed to and give her my hand. It’s kind of bruised already but it’s my job after all. “Okay, Buttercup, let’s just breathe through this thing. Relief is on its way.”
Her eyes go wide as she looks up at me and screams, “Something’s happening!”
The nurse who’s been standing in the corner, watching the machines looks at Brittany. “What is it?”
“A burning down there. A very bad burning,” Britt yells.
The nurse pulls back the sheet and then I go a little dizzy. “That’s a lot of blood.”
“Crap!” the nurse says. Then she looks at Britt. “I need to get the doctor. Do not push!” She gives me the stink eye. “Don’t let her push.”
“Okay,” I say but there’s not an ounce of conviction in the word.
She grips my arm and looks at me with a sternness in her face. “Don’t let her push!”
“Yes, Mam!”
With that same look the nurse gave me, I look at my wife. “Britt, now you listen here…”
Her mouth goes into a circle as she lets out a horrible noise. “I have to push, Jason! I have to!”
Sitting on the bed, looking at her. I place my hand on her stomach. She looks at it like she’d like to rip it out of the socket and possibly beat me with it. “Britt, you can’t. Wait for the doc then this is all going to be done.”
“You don’t know, Jason. I need to push.” She closes her eyes and I snap my fingers in front of them to make her open them again.
“You look right here, Baby.” I point to my eyes. “I got you. Do you hear me? You just keep your eyes right on mine. Okay, good. Now do you remember when we were in Bora Bora and you needed to listen to me about that shark?”
“There were two of them,” she says as she pants like a puppy who’s just run a mile.
“I know. And I got you out of the water safe and sound, didn’t I?”
She nods and grits her teeth. “And that dumb lady was giving us a biography lesson all the while.”
“Yes, she was,” I say as I watch sweat pour down her face. “And you were so brave. You are so brave, Britt. And you’re about to bring our son into the world. I’m so damn proud of you, Baby. Do you know that?”
She looks like she’s about to cry. “And I’m damn proud of you, Jason. You’re the best husband ever. I know you’re going to take good care of me and Levi.”
“Garret,” I correct her. “Remember we decided on Garret?”
She groans a loud groan. “Ow! It hurts not to push!”
Her eyes close so I touch her cheek and she opens them again. “But you have to wait. So when did Garret get thrown out?”
“A little while ago. I forgot to tell you. Levi is his name now.”
The machine next to her is going crazy as it records a very long contraction. I glance at it for only a second and see some high marks on the piece of paper. It has to be a bad one.
“Well, Levi is a great name, Pumpkin butt.”
The door opens and the nurse and doctor come in. Both are pulling on gloves as they come in. The doctor says, “What do we have here?”
One look has her draping another blue sheet over Brittany. Several more people come into the little room and Britt looks at me with scared eyes.
“You got this, Baby. You do,” I say then kiss her forehead.
“You can push, Brittany,” her doctor tells her. “With the next contraction, you can push.”
“Thank God!” she says then her face goes red as she looks at me.
The way she squeezes my hand lets me know she’s having a lot of pain. But she just makes a loud groan and pushes hard.
“Okay,” the doctor says. “Probably two more then he’ll be out. He’s a little bigger than I thought he was.”
The nurse mumbles. “Ten pounds, easy.”
I look at the doctor. “You said eight.”
She nods. “I did. That’s not the case, though.”
My hand is squeezed again and I look back to find Brittany going red again as she pushes. “You are doing so great, Baby.”
Relief spreads across her face. “It’s almost over. I feel it.”
The doctor looks up with a smile. “Shoulders are out!”
The nurse adds, “One more push, Britt.”
My wife’s eyes go glassy as she says, “I love you, Jason. I always have and I always will. I love you more than you’ll ever know.”
“I love you more than you’ll ever know.” I kiss her hand as she goes red again and makes a growl then I hear a weird slurping sound followed by a loud cry.
“He’s here,” I tell her. “You did it!”
The doctor holds up our son and I laugh like a crazy man as I see how big he is. Brittany’s eyes go huge. “That came out of me? I carried that little linebacker around inside of me.”
“You did,” I say.
I find tears falling out of my eyes and my nose is running and I’m crying as I look at our son as he cries too. Then I look down at Brittany and find her crying too.
Seems we’re a bunch of cry-babies!
***
BRITTANY
I’m not sure when I knew I loved Jason. It seems like I always did. There isn’t an exact moment in time that I realized it. He moved right on into my heart with such ease, it felt natural.
That’s how it was with our son too. He seems to have always been a part of us. Like he was always there, lurking around somehow. Little Herbert is crawling now and finds his way all over the ranch house with ease.
We knew that was his name the moment he looked into our eyes. We said it at the same time and I swear that baby smiled when we did.
Our little family is just beginning but most of my fear is gone. There’s still some, but it’s not in the forefront of my mind. It’s back there in the recesses where I’ll make sure it stays and doesn’t threaten our here and now.
Watching Jason follow our son around, I know we’re the two people who have his heart. That’s enough for me. That’s enough to keep me happy and feeling safe with what we have.
Sometimes things start out hard and end up easy. I suppose that was our course in this life. Whatever the reason, I’m glad we found each other again. And I am never letting him go.
I think we’ve found our happily ever after, after all.
The End
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When Billionai
res Collide
An Alpha Billionaire Romance
By Michelle Love
DESCRIPTION: Billionaire, Max Lane and gorgeous wife, Lexi, take a night away from the twins to enjoy one of Houston’s famous Galas, The Tour de Champagne. As the gala benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation many people with great wealth are in attendance as well. Prior to performing, Aussie rock star and billionaire, Kip Dixon, makes his way around to sample some of the many champagnes and gourmet foods chefs from all over the world have prepared for the generous donators. One last mini quiche on a silver tray has Kip and Max both reaching for it, but they come up empty handed as the quick and very pregnant, Lexi, beats them both to it. The men become fast friends, forming a tight bond as Max invites Kip to stay a few days at his mansion. Lexi finds Kip to be full of charisma and charm, yet extremely lonely and offers him a bit of advice, leading Kip to think in a different direction.
Max
Pinks and yellows fill the sky as the sun sets and I take my wife out on a much needed date. Lexi waves out the window of the Jag at Zoey and Zane as they hang onto Hilda’s legs and whine about getting left behind. The two-year-olds seem to think they must go every time Mommy or Daddy leaves the house.
I reach out and run my hand over Lexi’s large tummy as she’s seven months pregnant now with our next child, a little boy we’re going to name Zakk. She’s pretty stoked to be only carrying one baby this time.
“Are you ready for a night of bumping elbows with some of the richest people in Texas?” I ask.
She smiles. “I’m ready to be eating some of the gourmet food from all around the world, prepared by famous chefs, if you must know the truth. I have my billionaire, I don’t need to meet anymore.”
“The Tour de Champagne benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and all of Houston’s elite come out to donate. There may even be some stars there. I hope you don’t find yourself star struck by any of the beautiful people.” I move my hand and take hers in mine, lifting it up and leaving a kiss on top of it.
The Shameless Billionaire Series: Billionaire Romance Box Set (An Alpha-Male, Billionaire, Bad Boy, Bad Girl, Romance) Page 24