The Billionaire Bad Boy Plan

by Michelle Love

  And with his simple little words, he’s made all the trouble and effort I went through to get this all done worth it. Appreciation goes a hell of a long way!

  Chapter 4

  JUDE

  With the deed done and the congratulations said, our wedding guests are taking off a couple at a time and I notice my sister talking to the security guard who walked Mercy to my side. “Who is that guy, Mercy?”

  “Oh him?” she asks with a grin. “I met him last night. He walked me out to the car and I thought he was nice and might make Rose a better love interest than her usual suspects.”

  “So I’ve married a matchmaker, have I?” I ask her with a laugh.

  The festivities come to an end as Doctor Sweeny enters the room with her usual stoic slash intimidating expression and she’s got those steely eyes trained on the woman sitting on the bed next to me. “Mrs. Hurst?” she asks as she walks straight up to Mercy.

  “Now I am, yes,” Mercy answers.

  “I need a word with you,” she says and looks around the room at the last of the guests. “The rest of you need to leave. This man needs his rest.”

  Mercy cuts her eyes at Rose. “Rose, can you take the kids out and wait for me?”

  Rose nods and she and the security guard take the kids and leave the room. I wait for them to get out before I say, “Look, I’ll talk to her about it, doc.”

  “Talk to me about what?” Mercy asks with a frown.

  “About your make-out session last night and how it set him back several days in his recovery process and could’ve even been worse,” the doctor tells her.

  “What happened?” Mercy asks and gives me a little shove. “You should’ve told me about this, Jude.”

  “Mercy, come on! There was a room full of people. It wasn’t the right time to bring this up.”

  “Well, I want to talk to her, anyway,” the good doctor says as her hands go to her hips. “Being that you two just got married, I feel compelled to educate you on your husband’s condition. That little erection he got last night ripped some of the stitches on the underside of his penis. It’s imperative for his recovery for you not to induce such things.”

  Mercy looks at me and her lips form a straight line as she hisses at me, “Damn it, Jude. I told you so.”

  “I know,” I say and look at the doctor. “That was really all my idea. She wasn’t the one starting anything. And now that I know what can happen, I’m not about to go trying to get excited again until I’m healed.”

  The doctor focuses on Mercy once again as she says, “I need to hear it from her.”

  Mercy laughs a little. “I won’t be trying to excite him either.”

  “Okay, because I don’t know you but I know this man has a ton of money and you just married him right before he’s to go into a dangerous surgery and I have no idea of you love this man or want him to die so you can end up with his money,” the doctor says, making both, Mercy and my jaws drop.

  Before I can say a word, Mercy gets off the bed and throws her arms around the young woman who seems to think I need her to guard me for some reason. “Oh my God! Thank you,” Mercy says then stops hugging the woman who looks as if she hasn’t been the recipient of very many of them as she’s as stiff as a board. “Thank you for really looking out for him. That means so much to me. And I love this guy with everything in me. We haven’t told anyone as I haven’t gone to the doctor yet, but I took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. I want this man alive and well. But thank you for caring enough to tell me what you did.”

  I look at the doctor who is still wearing a stoic face. “She handled that a lot better than I thought she would,” I tell her. “So, we’re all good here.”

  The doctor nods and spins around and now I can see she was nervous about the whole thing as she stumbles a little. “Okay, see you in the morning to examine you again, Mr. Hurst.”

  “In the a.m. doc. Goodnight,” I say and take Mercy by the hand and pull her back to sit next to me. “So, that was weird.”

  Mercy’s eyes are shimmering and she dabs underneath them with her fingers. “That was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  I pull her in for a hug and say, “I think those pregnancy hormones are already kicking in. I thought you’d be mad for her talking like that.”

  “No, she cares and that’s a relief. I want all of the doctors and nurses to care that much,” she says with a little whimper. “And now I’m going to get the kids so they can tell you goodnight and we’ll go home and let you rest. It’s been a long day and you apparently weren’t feeling well.”

  “I keep telling everyone that I haven’t felt well since I woke up here but no one seems to get that,” I say as she walks out and waves then comes right back in.

  Carter and Mia come running into the room. “Tell, Uncle Jude, goodnight, kids.” Mercy picks up Mia so she can reach me and she gives me a kiss on the cheek.

  “Goodnight, Mia.”

  “Night, Unkie Jude.”

  As I run my hand through her perfectly coiffed, blonde locks which are usually on the unruly side, I think about the day when we adopt her and make her our first Hurst daughter.

  Mercy puts her down and Carter gives me a salute. “Goodnight, sir,” he says then laughs. “Me and my friends were pretending we’re in the army. That’s how we say hello and goodbye now.”

  So I give him a salute back. “Goodnight to you too, sir.”

  And that little man will be our first Hurst son. Our oldest child and my heart swells with love for my little family. Mercy kisses me on the forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning after I drop the kids off at daycare.”

  “Mercy, about that. About help with the kids. How about we hire Becky as our full-time, live-in, nanny?” I ask.

  The kids’ faces light up and they both jump up and down. “Yes!”

  Mercy looks at them and then me. “I’ll ask Becky what she thinks about that.”

  “Make sure you tell her a safe car comes along with that to cart the kids around when necessary. And tell her she’ll have every other weekend off. We won’t monopolize her time.”

  “I’m sure she’ll like that.” Mercy kisses my lips only for a moment then they’re gone and I feel the absence of them already. The room is quiet and I feel lonely.

  For the first time since I’ve been here, I feel lonely. I wish I was going home too and spending the night in bed with my wife. But that day will come soon.

  Please let that day come soon!

  Chapter 5

  MERCY

  In the small waiting room, we all wait for news of how the surgery has gone. We had an update a little while ago and the nurse said Jude was doing well. The surgery was pushed back three days after he spent two of them with fever. But once the small infection cleared, he was fever free and eligible for the surgery once more.

  Rose and I are sitting in a corner, looking at the pictures on her phone of our little wedding and laughing at some of the sillier ones. We look up as we hear a man’s voice say, “I wanted to be the first to tell you,” Randy walks in and says as he looks at Rose. “He’s in recovery. He looks great.”

  Rose gets up and goes to hug him. The two have been inseparable since they met at our wedding and I have to say my matchmaking skills rival those of the best. I get up to hug Loretta as Doctor Padron comes into the room.

  We all look at him as he smiles at us. “It went better than I even expected it to. I was worried about all that time in bed affecting his muscles and I have to say if it did, I sure as hell couldn’t tell. That man is in perfect shape. I don’t know how he did it, but he needs to patent his workout and diet.”

  I laugh. “He pretty much is going to do that, doc! So he might walk again?”

  He nods. “The odds are in his favor now with the repairs I made and the new bones I put in to replace the damaged ones. His recovery time is around three months, give or take. In my opinion, with his determined spirit, it will be less than that.”

  I
fall back into the chair and let out a sigh of relief. This is the first good news we’ve had since the accident. I needed this little pick me up. “When can I see him?”

  He wiggles his finger at me. “Right now, Mrs. Hurst. You’re his wife, you can come see him in recovery. Your face can be the first one he sees when he wakes up.”

  I jump up and go to the waiting doctor. “Well, what are we waiting for. Come on, doc!”

  Going with him down the different hallways I find myself giddy with emotion. “You know, Jude told me that you went to the doctor yesterday and got the news that you two are having a baby.”

  “He told you?” I ask as he takes another hallway to the left and I’m now completely lost. “He told me not to tell anyone until tomorrow.”

  “Well, he told me right before we put him under. He said if he didn’t make it he wanted us to know he was having a baby and he felt he’d accomplished at least one good thing in his life.”

  I get a little choked up as I think about my Jude, lying there on an operating table and thinking he might not make it through the surgery. “That man.”

  Finally, we get to a door that says recovery on it and he opens the door. “This is Mrs. Hurst, Bonnie.”

  The older woman gives me a nod as she runs a wet cloth over his forehead. “Good, maybe he’ll wake up for you.” She hands me the cloth. “Run it all over him and call for him to wake up.”

  I look back the doctor. “Thank you for everything, doc.” Then I turn back to Jude and wipe the cool cloth over his cheeks.

  He looks pale compared to his normal tanned skin. But he’s been inside for quite some time now and with more surgery and blood loss, I guess it’s pretty normal. “Jude, honey, it’s time to wake up.”

  His hand moves to touch my arm and he holds it with a weak grip then his dark eyes flutter open and he’s looking at me. “How did it go?” he croaks with a scratchy voice.

  “It went better than the doctor expected. He said your recovery time is around three months.”

  His smile is weak but he looks a thousand percent happier than I’ve seen him since his accident. Even happier than on our wedding day.

  “Good. I had a dream, Mercy. I had a dream that we had five kids, including Carter and Mia. I had a dream we lived in a beautiful home,” he whispers to me, then his eyes close again.

  “He needs to stay awake,” the nurse tells me.

  So I try to keep him talking. “And what kinds of kids were they? Boys, girls, a mixture of them all?”

  I touch his cheek with the cloth and his eyes open again. “Uh, uh. You have to be surprised.”

  “Come on,” I say with a smile. “Did we have any pets?”

  “There was a bird,” he says and he looks past me like he can see something behind me. “Hey, is that her?”

  “What?” I look back and see no one there. “Is who her and who is her?”

  “I think that’s your sister, Mercy. She’s nodding her head. Her hair is blonde but her eyes aren’t blue like yours, they’re green like Carter’s.”

  I look back again and feel no presence at all. Then I look back at him. “You’re right.”

  “She’s mouthing, thank you, to me.” He blinks and smiles. “You’re welcome, Hope. I promise to always take excellent care of them all for you. I’ll never let them forget you guys.”

  I look back again. “Me too, Hope. Even though I can’t see you. Which isn’t fair in the least, may I add.”

  “It’s the drugs, baby,” Jude says, making me turn back to look at him. “She’s gone.”

  I run my hand through his hair and kiss his forehead. “The drugs, huh?”

  “Yeah, these are some good drugs. I don’t feel anything but in a good way this time. And when I get all the way better you had better watch out for me.” His hand moves slowly up my arm and then it’s resting on my breast. “Because I’m going to make up for lost time, over and over.”

  “Shush, Jude!” I say as I blush. “There’s a nurse in here.”

  The older woman laughs. “I think it’s sweet.”

  I lean over and kiss his lips. “Okay, we can talk about that much later in your recovery.”

  “I get it,” he mumbles. “You’re afraid of that little doctor Sweeny getting all over our asses again, huh? Don’t worry about her. I’ll protect you.”

  I look at the nurse. “He sounds like he’s drunk.”

  She nods. “You wouldn’t believe some of the things people say when they’re coming out from the effects of the anesthesia. It’s hilarious.”

  “All I know is, I can’t wait to get this man home where he belongs.”

  “And in our bed. Right, baby?” he asks as he pulls at a lock of my hair.

  Oh Lord, how am I going to keep him calm with this attitude?

  Chapter 6

  JUDE

  Standing in front of the judge, Mercy, Mia, Carter, and I become a legal family under one name. “I know pronounce you, the Hurst family,” the judge says.

  Carter asks, “So now my name is Carter Hurst?”

  The judge nods at him. “How do you like that?”

  “I like it just fine,” he says with a smile and he turns to me and holds his hand up for a high-five which I give him. “So can I call you Dad, now?”

  “You better call me that, buddy,” I say as I pat him on the back. “I’m your Dad now.”

  Mercy picks Mia up and straddles her over her large baby bump. “You can call me Mom now Mia. If you want to.”

  Mia takes Mercy’s face between her palms and places a kiss on the tip of her nose. “I do, Momma.”

  That little girl has never been able to call anyone that before and it stirs my heart. I just might cry. But men don’t cry in my family so I sniffle and shake away the tears. “See you, Judge. I’m taking my family for pizza.”

  Carter jumps up and down as he walks out ahead of us and Mercy puts Mia down to join him in his jumping as they shout, “Pizza, yes!”

  I put my arm around her as we follow them out and whisper in her ear, “I love you, Mrs. Hurst.”

  Her hand flows over my cheek. “I love you too, Mr. Hurst. We’re a real family now, aren’t we?”

  I nod. “We always were but now it’s official.”

  She runs her hand over her stomach. “And in about a week, we’ll have this little guy to add to us all.”

  Our son will be born soon and then things will really be flowing with us. It’s hard to believe that less than a year ago I had no hope of ever walking again much less having an entire family of my own.

  Mercy won’t let me talk openly about things like her days of tragedy being behind us all but I do think that’s the case. We’ve only had blue skies since my surgery to regain mobility and feelings. Which went better than the doctor ever expected it to.

  I feel almost like the man I was before the accident. Thanks to his special work on my broken body and my continuous work on keeping it strong and healthy.

  It seemed like forever until I could take those first steps but once I managed that, the rest went pretty quickly. And as we get out to the parking lot and we each grab a kid’s hand, Mercy and I look at each other and all we can do is smile.

  All those little things that make people aggravated each day, roll off us like water off a duck’s back. We don’t sweat the little things. Not one bit. When you know you’ve come to the edge and made it back, it makes you see life in a whole new light.

  As I buckle Carter into his car seat, I say, “How about you join me later to go fishing at the pond this evening. If you catch a fish, I’ll teach you how to clean it and Mom can teach you how to cook it.”

  He holds up his little hand and I give him another high-five. “Cool, Dad,” he says with a laugh. “That feels funny calling you that. But don’t worry, Dad, I’ll get used to it. Dad!”

  Mia laughs and kisses her hand then throws it at me. “Dad, wuv you!”

  I’m having to fight back the tears. Man, these kids are making it rough on m
e today!

  So I mess up Carter’s hair and throw a kiss back to Mia and climb into the driver’s seat of the new Range Rover I bought to replace the Jag. I figured something a little more family oriented would be better than another speedy car.

  Mercy takes my hand once I get going on the road and holds it on the armrest between us. She smiles at me. “Dad, looks like we have a pretty great day ahead of us, doesn’t it?”

  “Why, yes it does, Momma,” I say and pull her hand up to give it a kiss.

  Carter asks, “Can we name the baby, Rock?”

  Mercy laughs. “No, Carter. We’re naming him Stanley after my father.”

  I watch Mia in the backseat as she crinkles up her nose. “That name’s not good. Not at all. I don’t want to call the baby, Stanley.”

  Carter nods. “Come on! Let’s name him, Rock. I think that name sounds cool.”

  “I don’t want him to be cool. I want him to be my little man,” Mercy says as she turns to look back at the kids to try to explain to them for the one thousandth time why she’s insisting on that awful name. “Cool is not a thing I want any of you kids to be. Forget cool. Just be good and nice and kind.”

  Mia giggles. “You can be all of those things and still be cool. And I don’t want to call my new baby brother, Rock, either. I want to call him Paco.”

  I have to interject because it’s obvious all of these people are related and have terrible ideas of what a person’s name should be. “How about I get to name this one? And maybe if you guys can learn anything about picking out good names, one of you can name the next one.”

  “So, what name do you like, Dad?” Carter asks then laughs again. “Dad, that’s still weird. But anyway, Dad, what name do you like?”

  Mercy’s forehead is creased as I think she’s not super happy with my idea. But I kind of hate the name Stanley too so someone has to step in and save this kid. “I would like to name him Rogan.” I wait and let the name sink into their brains for a moment.

  “Rogan,” Mia says.

  Carter echoes her, “Rogan.”