by Hart, Hanna
“You gave me a whole new life,” he corrected.
“I’m scared, Beckett,” she began, and Beckett felt his heart lilt with nerves.
“Don’t,” he said, not wanting to hear it.
“Please,” she reasoned softly, smiling at him. “Beckett, I’m scared that I’m going to die and that…”
Fiona tapered off, but Beckett knew what she wanted to say.
She was afraid nobody was going to be there for Ruby. She didn’t know where Ruby’s father was and she had no relatives to leave her with. He knew these things almost as well as Fiona did, because he worried about them, too.
“Ruby will always have somewhere to go,” he said.
Fiona blinked in surprise and asked, “Are you sure?”
“I love you guys,” he said and meant every word of it. “I feel like I didn’t know what life was until you were here. Both of you. So, if anything happens and you trust me to do it, it would be my honor to raise her.”
“This from the man who didn’t want kids?” she said wryly.
“I didn’t know what I wanted,” he said, and Fiona’s expression immediately changed.
Beckett had been thinking about this since his first night cradling Ruby in his arms.
If anything happened to Fiona, he wanted to raise Ruby. She gave him purpose. The three of them fit together like puzzle pieces that had been lost, and if Fiona was gone, he wanted any part of her that was left.
Fiona began to cry, and he pulled her close to his chest.
“Thank you, Beckett,” she wept. “I trust you, I trust you, I trust you.”
“You guys are my family now,” he said, “And I take care of my family. If anything happens to you, she will always be taken care of.”
Within two days of that monumental conversation with Fiona, custody of Ruby Miller was expedited out of the temporary care of Kathleen Hobbes and was legally turned over to the joint custody of Fiona and Beckett.
Thankfully, his lawyers made sure the process was as expedient as possible.
Beckett felt immediately calmed to know the papers were out and that Fiona’s last will and testament, willing her daughter to him in case the paperwork was not filed in time, was all taken care of.
There was something morbid about filling out such paperwork, but Fiona was insistent, and so he complied to make her happy.
Beckett had assumed his mother and father would have thrown a fit when they found out Fiona had a child, but they seemed to feel just the opposite.
“She’s so precious,” his mother said softly as she held Ruby in her arms for the first time. His mother had been strangely attentive to Fiona when she found out she was sick. She had shown empathy for Beckett and had come to help with Ruby when Fiona was feeling too weak.
“She’s just like you,” his mother said, and Beckett winced back with a laugh.
“Ma, I had nothing to do with her. You know this, right?”
“Oh, I know!” she waved him off. “But she reminds me of you. She’s got your attitude creeping through, don’t you think?”
“Why?” he laughed. “Because she doesn’t listen to anyone?”
Bebe cocked her head to the side and narrowed her brows lightheartedly. She chuckled to herself at the sentiment and shook her head before laying three quick kisses on Ruby’s forehead.
“No,” she smiled. “Because she’s cuddly. She loves to cuddle, doesn’t she? Don’t you!” she cooed at the little girl. “You loved to cuddle me when you were little.”
“Gross,” Beckett laughed.
“No, it was sweet!” she insisted. “Michael loved to cuddle, too. Do you remember that?”
Beckett stood against the floor-to-ceiling window and stared out at the white beach that sprawled ahead of his home. He nodded slowly. He didn’t dare look at his mother as he said, “Yep. Yes, I remember.”
It was then that it hit him—he wasn’t the only one who had been hurting. His mother had been suffering, too. She lost her grandson and her daughter-in-law. That must have hurt her beyond imagining.
He always knew this as fact, but it never reached his heart until this moment. Not until he saw the way she had attached herself to Ruby.
Somehow, that little girl was healing everyone she came into contact with. She was special, that way.
Then, on one not-so-special Tuesday afternoon, something amazing happened.
Fiona was on the couch with Ruby on her chest, watching television.
Beckett was steps away in the massive kitchen making them all lunch when he heard a strange sound coming from the foyer.
“What is that?” Fiona called from the living room, and Beckett hurried to the foyer.
He opened the brown leather backpack-purse that Fiona carried around with her and pulled out a beeper that was buzzing at full speed. At the same time, Fiona’s cell phone was lighting up like fireworks.
“Hello?” Beckett said nervously.
“Hello, this is Dr. Thompson’s office calling; may I please speak to Miss Miller?”
“This is her husband,” he said quickly, marching back into the living room and muting the television.
“Mr. Miller,” the woman said incorrectly, “can you please get your wife to the Willow-McNamara hospital as soon as possible? We have a heart for her.”
Beckett had only ever felt such a bone-chilling rush of adrenaline once before in his life. The night Lynne died. He was determined to do everything in his power to ensure that this night had a very different outcome.
“Willow-McNamara. Willow-McNamara. Willow-McNamara,” Beckett repeated the name under his breath the whole way out to his Jeep.
He tucked Ruby safely into her car-seat and raced back into the home to help Fiona out to the car.
Beckett had a host of things he wanted to say to Fiona. To tell her how much her presence in his life had changed him. How all he wanted in the world was to be her true husband and make her happy every day of her life. How he vowed to protect Ruby and love her for the rest of her life.
Yet, even with all these thoughts bubbling inside him, the car ride was eerily silent.
With all the words they could have shared with one another, all it took was Fiona grabbing his hand as they drove and squeezing it tightly for him to know she felt all the same things he was feeling.
“It’s going to be good,” he said firmly, staring at the road ahead of him.
“Don’t say that,” she said. “Just say that whatever happens, Ruby will have somewhere to go.”
“You know she will,” he said. “And you’ll know because you’ll be right there with me. You’ve got me forever, you hear me? You married me. You’re stuck with me now.”
Fiona snorted and wiped away a tear. “Okay,” she breathed.
The hospital staff didn’t seem as urgent or dire as Beckett felt they should have. He wanted things done now, but that’s not how this surgery worked, he was told.
Fiona was a match. The doctor and nurses talked with her briefly, took her blood, put in an IV, and took an x-ray of her chest. The surgeon then reviewed the surgical procedure and the risks of the operation with both Fiona and Beckett.
There were hours to wait before the surgery, but they flew by without a trace. The hospital corridors were cool and bustling with life. Beckett walked through them in a blur until he reached Fiona's room. Private, of course. Whatever he could buy to make her more comfortable. She sat in a wheelchair with a nurse at her side.
"What happens now?" Beckett asked, still holding Ruby firmly in his arms.
"We're going to take her to the operating room now," a female nurse said, setting her hands on the back of Ruby's wheelchair. "She's going to have some more IVs placed and will be taking a big nap."
The nurse's lighthearted speech was comforting. Beckett knew Fiona appreciated her attitude just as much as he did, but nothing could make the moment they took Fiona away from him any easier.
Fiona reached up and took Ruby into her arms, hugging her tightly.
"I love you, baby," she said, kissing Ruby's cheek and brushing her curls back. She looked up at Beckett, and her eyes began to water. "And I love you, Beckett."
"Finally, she says it," he teased, kneeling down and kissing her lips.
Fiona smiled, and Beckett took Ruby from her. He watched as the nurses began to wheel her out of the room and was filled with a sudden panic. This was real. She was really going now.
"No matter what happens..." he said as they began to wheel her away. He didn't finish his sentence, but he didn't have to.
"No matter what happens," Fiona repeated with a nod.
No matter what happened, everything was going to be alright. With Ruby. With Beckett. With all of them.
Beckett waited in the family room with Ruby, his father, and his mother, who had both joined him as soon as they heard the news.
The hours ticked by with no word from the doctors and Beckett’s heart continued to race.
“You should take a walk or go get something to eat,” his father said. “I’m sure the food they serve here is absolutely monstrous, but it’d be good to have something in your stomach. You want me to go get something in the cafeteria or go to the restaurant and grab something?”
“No, thank you,” Beckett said nervously. “I’m fine. I just want to wait here.”
“You can put her down, know you,” his mother said, gesturing to Ruby. “She must be getting fussy.”
“No,” he said softly, “I’d rather have her with me.”
“Once a father, always a father,” his dad whispered, nudging his mother.
This comment soothed him somehow. He looked over at his father, and they locked eyes. It was comforting to know that, in his way, his father hadn’t stopped believing in his ability to be a good father. To care for someone else.
And he was still a father, Beckett thought. Michael being gone didn’t erase all of the fatherly intuition and need to protect your child. Losing a child didn’t make you any less of a parent, as he’d once thought. It just made you a stronger one—ready to love harder and protect more fiercely than before.
He looked down at Ruby, sleeping gently in his arms, and promised himself he would never let her down.
The more time went by, the more anxious Beckett felt. It had been five hours since the start of the surgery, and he kept thinking to himself, surely, they should have heard something by now. Some word of how the surgery went or if Fiona was awake.
He began to worry that the surgery went wrong and that the doctor was trying to revive her or that they just weren’t sure how to tell Beckett that she’d passed away.
His anxiety spiked when a dark-haired nurse came out from the ICU and stepped into the waiting area. She scanned the room briefly before locking eyes with Beckett.
“Beckett Davenport?” she said, gesturing to him.
Beckett swallowed hard and stood up, walking toward her like she was the keeper of his fate.
“Yes?” he asked nervously.
The nurse smiled at him and nodded her head triumphantly. “The surgery could not have gone any better,” she said with a grin. “She’s going to be just fine.”
Beckett couldn’t help the tears that funneled down his cheeks then. He clutched Ruby close in one arm and wiped his tears on the sleeve of the other.
The nurse gave an empathetic smile and said, “Would you like to come and see her now?”
“Yes,” he said. “I want to see my wife.”
Epilogue
Fiona
“Happy anniversary,” Beckett said, leaning down and whispering into Fiona’s ear.
“Happy anniversary right back,” Fiona smiled at her husband as he set a glass of champagne down on the table next to her.
The two of them sat out on the beach in front of their Nani Makai mansion under a bright yellow beach umbrella.
Fiona had spent less than two weeks in the ICU. Her recovery had been speedy and successful. Beckett and Ruby were there every single day while she recovered. Beckett even said that he had spoken to her while she was still under anesthesia, coaxing her back to consciousness.
He was the first thing she saw when she woke up that day.
And now, six years later, she and Beckett were still together and celebrating the anniversary of their marriage.
Their marriage may have been one of convenience, at first, but it had blossomed into a deep, meaningful connection that neither one was willing to let go of.
They chose to celebrate by spending the afternoon on the beach with Ruby. She absolutely loved building sandcastles and had actually gotten quite good at it, for a seven-year-old.
Ruby was running around in the sand, kicking her tiny feet through the impossible white and splashing in the puddles of water that were left behind by the soft waves that brushed the tips of the beach.
When Bebe came to watch Ruby after work, Fiona and Beckett would be going out on their boat where Beckett promised fresh fish, caught by the boat side and grilled in the boat’s kitchen. He wanted to make some sort of blackened fish topped with peppery arugula, but Fiona was dying for fish tacos.
Either way, as of this morning, they were going to need to readjust the menu.
“We may need a change of plans tonight, babe,” Fiona said, looking over at Beckett as he sat on the sand in front of her.
He watched Ruby out of the corner of his eye as he sifted sand through his fingertips. As if he had just registered what she had said, Beckett said, “Why? I love fishing. You love fishing. We love fish! You always do this,” he began to laugh.
“Do what?” she giggled, knowing full well.
“You never know what you want to eat. You change your mind like crazy.”
“You are my personal chef,” she teased, pulling the scruff of his shirt forward and drawing him into a sultry kiss. “It’s my prerogative to get the best from my chef. Besides,” she said with ease, leaning back into the chair and landing a hand on her flat stomach.
Beckett’s eyes followed her hand, and then he met her eyes with a delighted surprise.
“You can’t eat fish when you’re pregnant,” she finished with an impossibly wide smile.
“You…” he repeated in a daze. “Are you sure?”
“I took two tests, both positive, and the doctor just called me this morning to confirm,” she gushed.
Beckett’s eyes flicked back and forth from hers, then briefly he turned to watch Ruby. “Is it safe?” he asked, obviously thinking of her heart.
Some patients experienced serious issues when becoming pregnant after a transplant, but Fiona was assured and reassured that no such thing would happen to her. She was as healthy as ever.
“We’re good to go,” she said. “Babe, you’re gonna be a daddy plus one.”
Beckett stared at her, elated. When the words finally sunk in, he jumped up from the sand and throw his arms into the air. “Woo-hoo!” he yelled, cowboy-style. “We’re having a baby!”
When he was done celebrating solo, he got back on his knees in front of Fiona and pulled her into a loving embrace, reminding her once again what a wonderful husband and father has was.
“Life is good,” he said.
She nodded. “Life is good,” she said, rubbing her stomach as she looked up at Beckett.
He pulled her into one more sweet kiss and rested his hand on her stomach. The excitement in the air was almost palpable.
“Can I tell Ruby?” he asked excitedly and Fiona winkled her nose.
“Go get her!” she cheered and watched him race down the beach and scooped her daughter up in his arms, eliciting a myriad of giggles from the young girl.
Life was good. Fiona was married to the man of her dreams. Her daughter was blossoming in a community that showered her with love and opportunity. And her heart was healthy—in more ways than one.
The End
Other Books In This Series
**All books in this series can be read as a standalone**
The Billionaire’s F
ake Marriage
Book 1 of the Crystal Beach Resort Series
The Billionaire’s Fake Bride
Book 2 of the Crystal Beach Resort Series
About the Author
Hanna Hart is a passionate sweet clean contemporary romance author who has found the love for writing since the age of 6.
Hanna lives in the beautiful Santa Cruz California with her loving husband, two children and dog Milo. Other then dreaming up of extremely sweet & romantic stories, Hanna enjoys spending time with her family, going to the beach, cooking great food, traveling the world, and getting a lot of exercise.
Hanna’s purpose is to delivery very sweet romantic stories to her readers that will touch their hearts in a very meaningful taking them to another place that will positively impact their life.
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