by JB Heller
“She’s not big,” Kai said “She’s only 6lb 3oz. That’s actually pretty small. You just had midgets,” Kai said to Ivy defensively.
“Huh, tiny you say. Tell that to my vagina,” I muttered. Both Kai and Ivy burst out laughing giving little Annabelle a fright, and she jumped in my arms and began to wail. It was a soft cry, and it made my heart melt. I cooed at her and swayed her ever so carefully in my arms, and she settled.
Sometime later, Axel showed up with his hand in a cast. “What happened?” I asked when I saw it. Had Trent hurt him?
Axel smiled and cleared his throat. “It would seem that a woman in labour possesses the strength of ten thousand men,” he said.
I had no idea what that meant. I looked at Kai, who was sitting shirtless in a seat beside my bed with Annabelle held against his chest as she slept. He lifted his shoulder, also having no idea what Axel was talking about. “I don’t get it,” I told him.
His broad shoulders slumped a little then he said in a soft voice, “You broke three bones in my hand.”
My eyes bugged out. I did that? Me? No, I couldn’t have. “Wh-what?”
He sighed deeply as he came to sit on the edge of my bed by my feet. “You were in the middle of a pretty nasty contraction, and I took your hand for some stupid reason. You squeezed the shit out of it, in turn, broke three of my fragile girly bones.”
“I, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. I don’t even remember doing it. Oh god, Axel, I’m really sorry.”
A devastating smile lifted his lips. “Don’t sweat it, sweet cheeks. The nurse who took care of me thought I was the best thing since sliced bread. Coming to the rescue of a pregnant chick and all.” He winked. “I’m taking her to a movie tonight.” Then he bounced his brows. “And who knows after that.”
I was mortified that I’d hurt him but even more so that he was using it to pick up. “That’s gross.”
He shrugged. “I’ve gotta use whatever I can get my hands on with these fuckers around.” He nodded towards Kai. “They snap up all the good ones before I even get there. Thank fuck they’re off the market. I might actually have a chance at finding a nice girl to make little Axels with now.”
Kai’s foot kicked out and made contact with Axel’s shin. “Watch your language in front of my princess.”
Axel bent over and rubbed his shin. “Jesus, fatherhood has shoved a stick up your arse, mate.”
Kai’s only response was a hard glare, and Axel lifted his hands in a placating gesture. “Alright, I’m sorry. I won’t curse around delicate ears.” Then he leaned over to get a better look at Annabelle. “Damn, she’s pretty just like her mumma, huh.”
Kai looked down on our baby with pride. “Yeah, she is.”
“Can I hold her?” Axel asked.
“No,” Kai shot back. “She’s mine. Get your own.”
Axel glared back at him. “I’m trying! But in the meantime, give me that baby.” He stood up and took a step towards Kai. “Come on, hand her over. It’s time for her to fall in love with Uncle Axel.”
I laughed, and Kai grumbled something under his breath as he carefully handed her over. Once she was securely in Axel’s arms, he instructed Axel, “Sit, you’ve got a broken hand. You’re lucky I’m even letting you hold her.”
“Fu— uh, I mean, jog on ya tool, I’m not going to drop such precious cargo,” he said while looking dreamily upon Annabelle’s sleeping face. “Damn, she’s beautiful. You better keep that gun licence up to date in her teen years, mate. I’ve got a feeling you’re going to need it.”
“Tell me about it,” Kai grumbled.
I laughed quietly, but they both noticed and shot me meaningful looks. “You laugh now, but just wait, you’ll see,” Axel said.
After Kai pried Annabelle from his arms, Axel left, all the while grumbling about Kai being a selfish bastard. I was tired and ready for a nap, so Kai asked the nurse to turn away any other visitors for the next couple of hours. And it was a good thing he did because Stella and Bray, Sloan and Dex, and Gabe all made an appearance but were turned away.
I slept like the dead for two straight hours. When I woke, I felt rejuvenated and wanted nothing more than to spend time with my little family. Kai had put Annabelle in the little bassinet by my bed and was lying next to me watching over us as we slept. “Hey,” I said as I woke.
He smiled down on me. “Hey, yourself.” Then pressed a kiss to my nose. “How you feeling?” he asked.
“Good actually.”
“Good because there’s something we need to talk about.” He paused. “Trent has been arrested for kidnapping. The cops are gathering the evidence to press charges as we speak. Gabe is handling everything, so you don’t need to worry about anything except making a statement when the cops come back later.”
I stayed completely still as he spoke. I hadn’t given Trent any thought since Axel had arrived at the apartment. Now it was all coming back, and I was faced with the horrifying prospect that if Axel hadn’t arrived when he did, Trent would have hurt my baby.
Pain ripped through my chest, and I grasped hold of Kai’s arm. “He was going to hurt her. He told me, he told me he was going to get rid of her.” I sobbed as he pulled me into his chest.
“He will never hurt you again. Do you understand, Mia? I won’t allow it. He isn’t going to get away with this. With your statement, the evidence of a struggle at our unit, as well as Gabe and Axel’s statements, he’ll be locked away for a long time.”
I nodded and held onto him for dear life. I owed this man so much. He hadn’t just saved my life all those months ago when he found me, but he’d saved my baby’s and taken her on as his own. I couldn’t possibly love him anymore if I tried.
CHAPTER TWENTY
THREE WEEKS LATER.
I had the best baby in the entire world I’d decided after Annabelle started sleeping through the night a week ago. She would have a feed at nine p.m. and then sleep through until five a.m. That counted as all night to me. It meant I got time alone with Kai and enough sleep that I could function semi normally.
Kai was by far the best man I had ever met, and Gabe and Axel weren’t far behind him in that department. Before I met them, I didn’t know that people could be this genuinely selfless. They had all come for me when Trent had taken me. None of them had given any thought to their own wellbeing. They’d just acted on instinct.
I now knew there was literally nothing Kai wouldn’t do for me. Including filling condoms with water and freezing them to soothe my sore who-ha. I’d needed five stitches after giving birth to Annabelle, and from what I’d read, I’d gotten off lucky.
Gabe had told Kai to take a few weeks off to spend with me and Bubba while we all settled into a routine. Today, would be Kai’s first day back at work since she was born. “Daddy will be home soon, baby. You be a good girl for mumma now. No more projectile spews, yeah?” he cooed to her as he walked to the door with her in his arms.
“I’m going to miss you, blossom,” he said. Then he kissed both her chubby cheeks and handed her back to me. “I’ll miss you too, Pretty Girl.” He winked and planted a swoon-worthy kiss on my lips before he closed the door behind him.
I sighed. “Your daddy is pretty amazing, baby girl,” I said as I carried her over to her swing in the corner of the lounge room. Ivy and the girls would be here soon to keep me company on Kai’s first day back at work.
Being a mother was hard, although I had gotten lucky with a particularly chilled out baby. But it was still nerve-racking. The first night she’d slept through, I’d nearly had a panic attack because she’d slept through her one a.m. feed. I didn’t know if I should wake her or leave her or what. I’d called Ivy, and she’d told me to leave her be. I did, and she’d done it every night since.
I got my special cushion and placed it at the end of the couch closest to Annabelle’s swing and lowered myself down onto it. I sat there, watching her as she drifted off to sleep while the swing swayed with a gentle rhythm, and thought about h
ow much my life had turned around in the last year.
I’d been nothing and nobody a year ago. I’d had nothing of my own and no one who truly loved me. Now I had it all. Everything I could have ever dreamed of. A family of my own, a beautiful home, friends who actually cared about me, and a man who owned my heart and soul.
The sound of little girl’s laughter echoed through the door right before I heard the knock. “It’s open,” I called out, not being bothered to push myself back up off the couch.
Ivy let herself and the girls in. “Quiet now, baby Annabelle looks like she’s sleeping. You remember the rules—no waking sleeping babies,” she said sternly to the twins. They looked over at the swing and then back up to Ivy. “Yes, Mummy,” they said in unison.
I frowned. “When did they start saying that?”
Ivy smiled proudly at her daughters. “Not long ago. Maybe while you were in hospital?” She waved her hand. “It’s new, so no, you didn’t miss it.” She laughed.
“Where are my kisses? I need my kisses from my beautiful girls!” I said and waited for them to climb up to give me said kisses.
Gracie was on my lap in a flash and smothering my face with kisses. “Mia, baby Belle,” she said, pointing at Annabelle. I smiled wide nodding at her.
Then Tessie was at my back wrapping her arms around my neck. “Pretty baby,” she said also pointing at my sleeping cherub.
“Yes, I know, isn’t she lovely?” I said to them. “But we mustn’t wake her, or she will cry and get cranky with us,” I said. They both nodded together.
Ivy dropped a beach-sized bag of toys down beside the couch. “Here you go. Your toys are over here so you can play without waking little Annabelle.” The girls slid off the edge of the couch on their tummies and ran over to their toys.
“I need coffee,” Ivy declared. “You?”
“Oh god, yes,” I replied. Even though Annabelle was a fantastic sleeper, I was still dead on my feet most mornings since she would wake at five and stay that way until eight. It was now nine, and I hadn’t had a coffee yet. I needed the caffeine to wake me up today. Kai had been taking the morning shift, meaning after I fed her, he would take her out of our room and let me go back to sleep for a couple of hours.
He really was amazing. I sighed dreamily as I thought about all the amazing things about him. Ivy’s voice was like a bucket of cold water bringing me back to the moment. “Huh?” I said, not quite having caught what she was saying.
“You were thinking about when you get to have sex again, weren’t you?”
I blushed. “No.”
She smirked. “Yes, you were. I know that look.”
I looked at anything but her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-ha, that’s why you’re blushing. Because you weren’t thinking about being able to rip his clothes off as soon as humanly possible.”
I gave up. “Fine, I was thinking about him naked. Happy?” I glared at her.
She ignored my glare and smiled knowingly. “Yep.” Then she placed a steaming cup of glorious caffeine on a coaster on the solid arm of the couch for me.
She made the best coffee ever. Seriously. I’d never met someone as serious about coffee as Ivy. And she’d rubbed off on me in a big way. I’d only been drinking coffee since I’d had Annabelle and only one a day at that, but throughout my pregnancy, Ivy had tortured me with the incredible aroma that would drift over to me from her side of the desk that we shared at McLeod Investigations.
The first one she’d made me could only be described as heaven in my mouth. It was that good.
“So you know you don’t have to wait the six weeks to get busy that all the books talk about, right?” Ivy said, pulling me from my coffee fog.
“I don’t?”
She shook her head, sending her shiny blonde hair over her shoulder. “Nope, you just have to wait until you stop bleeding. Then give it a couple of days, and as long as you feel up to it, you’re free to jump back on the horse. Or cock as the case may be.” She laughed.
I rolled my eyes. “You have problems, you know that?”
Her response was a shrug and, “You’ve met my husband.”
It was true. Gabe and Ivy were incredibly open about sex. It had taken some getting used to, but now I was glad for it. It made talking to her about girl stuff a lot easier. “So, how long did you guys wait?” I asked her.
“Four weeks. And it was pure torture. No lie. I mean, yeah, I was tired and exhausted, but I still had needs, you know? Like every time he’d walk out of the bathroom after having a shower and he hadn’t dried himself properly, I’d have to sit there just watching the water droplets roll down his back and over his—”
I cut her off, “I get the picture.”
She smiled coyly and went on, “So are you still bleeding?”
I sighed dramatically, talking to Ivy often gave me a flair for the dramatic. “Yes. And I’m pretty sore. I’m still using those condom icepack things to soothe it.”
She nodded in understanding. “I see.”
Glancing down at Annabelle, I sighed again, only this time, less dramatic. “But it’s okay, I mean, look what I get to snuggle anytime I want,” I said my eyes glassing up. My damn hormones still hadn’t gotten back to normal, and I was still an emotional wreck.
“Don’t you go getting emotional on me. You know if you start crying, I will too,” Ivy scolded.
Smiling, I blinked the tears away. “I’m just sayin’ I can wait a little longer to get in his pants, is all. But I know what you’re saying about the coming out of the bathroom naked. I mean, can he not take in a fresh set of clothes with him when he goes in there?”
Ivy and I burst out laughing and spent the rest of the morning chatting and fawning over my precious baby girl. The twins had turns nursing her on the couch, and I practically had to tackle Ivy to get her to hand my baby over. I swear she’d steal her if I turned my back. And after everything I’d been though to bring her into this world, nobody, not even my best friend, was taking her away from me.
CHAPTER TWENTYONE
Instead of working on the caseload Gabe had handed me when I’d arrived at work this morning, I’d been preoccupied with thoughts of my girls. I couldn’t focus on anything else. I ran my hands through my hair in frustration.
“Can’t think straight?” Gabe asked from across the room where he was sorting through his own pile of new cases.
“Yeah,” I muttered.
“You ask her yet?”
I lifted my head and threw the papers onto my desk, giving up on even trying to concentrate on work. “No, I’m waiting for the right moment, but it never seems to come.”
“So make the moment. You know, like I did with Ivy,” he said.
The cogs in my brain started to turn over this new information and process it. It wasn’t a bad idea. Ivy had loved the flowers and romantic shit Gabe had done for her the night he proposed. An idea started to form in my mind. I would make the moment.
“Do we have any urgent cases that need our immediate attention?” I asked Gabe.
A knowing grin spread across his face. “Nope.”
I picked up my phone and called Axel. He answered, and I told him to meet us at the office. Twenty minutes later, Axel walked in with a bag full of take-out. “Hungry, bitches?”
He knew us well. We dug in while formulating the perfect proposal.
THE NEXT DAY.
Ivy was taking Mia on her first outing without me to help with Belle. They were going shopping or some other equally girly activity. I didn’t care what exactly they were doing as long as Mia was out of the house.
I waited for Ivy to text me that she’d picked up my girls and the coast was clear before I went back home. The unit was a mess, so I started cleaning it up. I threw on a load of washing, stacked the dishwasher, and vacuumed and mopped the floors. Then circled back and put the washing from the machine into the dryer and threw in a new load of dirties.
By lunchtime, the hou
se was pristine, and Axel was due to arrive with the flowers any minute. I cranked up the air con so the flowers wouldn’t wilt in the incessant heat. Gabe texted to say everything was sorted out on his end and ready to go. The front door opened, and Axel came in carrying a vase full of peach coloured roses.
“These smell really good,” he commented as he placed them on the coffee table.
“Good, I want everything to be perfect.” I slapped him on the shoulder, and we headed to his car to get the rest of the flowers.
Two hours later, the unit was transformed. Vases of flowers covered the coffee table, the side table, the kitchen bench, and the top shelf of the bookcase. Axel and I had strung fairy lights up along the top of the walls casting a warm glow around the room instead of blinding light from the ceiling lights.
The caterers arrived right on time and set up outside in our little courtyard. Not long after, Gabe showed up with Stella, Bray, Sloan, and Dex. Everyone was here, except for my girls and Ivy. My palms began to sweat as I realise this may not have been the best idea after all. What if Mia said no?
Axel, the little prick, chose to draw everyone’s attention to my sudden revelation. “Check it out. Mr Confidence is sweating bullets. You think she’s secretly in love with me, don’t you?” he mocked. “Shit, the secret’s out. Pack it up everyone. Show’s over,” he announced.
Before I realised what I was doing, I punched him right in the jaw. He burst out laughing and rubbed his jaw with his good hand. “I got your mind off your nerves though, didn’t I?”
“Fucker,” I muttered but pulled him into a man hug to thank him for helping me pull my head out of my own arse.
My phone pinged with a text from Ivy saying they were just pulling into our gated community. I passed the info on, and everyone moved to the kitchen and dining area. I waited in the lounge room alone.
Two minutes passed in complete silence, except for the clicking sound from me nervously opening and closing the ring box. Then I heard the sound of Mia’s sweet voice through the door and jumped to open it before she got there. I swung it wide taking her by surprise. “Oh my god! What are you doing home already?” she asked breathless.