“Yeah, thanks, but I grew out of those months ago.” She reached for a pair of the stretchy yoga pants she’d been wearing lately, along with a long top. Then she stuffed a few more things into a bag she had previously packed. We went to the kitchen and I asked her if she was hungry.
“Not at three in the morning.”
The front door opened as the alarm dinged. Sheridan was here. I went to greet her. “Thanks for coming.”
All she did was grin and hug me. “Call me when the event happens.”
“We will.”
I took English’s bag and we went out through the garage entrance. My inclination was to drive like a maniac, but I was hauling precious cargo so I stayed under the speed limit. Then I heard a giggle. I glanced over at my wife, only she was looking out the passenger door window.
We got to the hospital and I went to the emergency room entrance.
“Where are you going?”
“To the emergency room.”
“Honey, we need to check in at the regular entrance. This isn’t an emergency.”
I kept on driving until we got to the front of the hospital.
“Tristian, I’m capable of walking. Go find a parking spot.”
I wasn’t too comfortable with that, but I wasn’t going to argue with her either.
We made it inside and checked in. A nurse came to take her to her room and settled her in. I was helpless and it was awful. This was my fault. I’d put her in this position. Wait, why was I thinking this? She was as excited about another baby as me.
“Tristian, can you rub my feet?’
I flew out of my chair and tripped over the leg of that tray next to her bed. I went sprawling across the floor.
“Oh, my God. Are you okay?”
I leaped to my feet. “I’m good. See?” I held out my arms.
“Um, your elbow is bleeding.”
I looked down to see I had cut the damn thing. “Shit.” I rinsed it off in the sink, and that was when the nurse came in.
“What happened?”
I explained about my graceful moves.
“Let me look at that.” The nurse did and announced I should have it sutured up.
“Why?”
“The elbow has thin skin and you’ll be bending it and tearing that wound open. It will heal faster. Go on.”
“Go on where?”
“Down to the ER. They’ll sew you up.”
“I can’t leave my wife!” My hands plowed through my hair as blood ran down my arm.
“Tristian, it’s fine. I have plenty of time.” English nodded at me. “You can’t stand there and keep bleeding like that.”
Funny thing, I hadn’t noticed. “I’ll go, but if they can’t do it quickly, I’m coming right back.”
The nurse was kind enough to call down and give them a heads up I was coming. It didn’t take long at all. I was pretty sure they felt sorry for me.
When I walked back into the room, the doctor was with English. When I’d left things had been fine, but now there were lines on her forehead and her expression was pinched. Something was up.
“What’s wrong?”
English held out her hand. “The doctor says I need a C-section. The baby’s in distress.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Tears rolled down my wife’s cheeks until they formed rivers.
“It’s going to be fine, babe.”
The doctor patted her leg and agreed. “If we wait, we could have issues, but if we do this now, you and the baby will be fine.”
The nurses came in and wheeled her to the room for the procedure. A different doctor, the anesthesiologist, came in and injected something into her spine. Then he asked her questions about feeling numb. Even I was numb and I hadn’t gotten that injection.
A screen was put up over her waist and her doctor was ready. She talked to us the whole time and before I even knew what was happening, she said, “Congratulations, you have a healthy baby boy.” Then we both heard a loud squawk, which turned into a solid cry.
English turned to me and smiled. “You didn’t get your wish. It’s a boy.”
“All I wanted was for you and the baby to be healthy, so I did get my wish. Thank you, my beautiful wife.” I kissed her lips.
The screen was removed and they handed her our baby, who was laid on her chest.
“He’s a stout little thing, isn’t he?” she asked.
The doctor said, “His weight is seven pounds twelve ounces.”
“Is that big?” I asked.
“It’s just right,” she answered.
English rubbed his body. “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” He actually was. I’d always thought babies were sort of squishy-looking but this one was pretty. Maybe it was because he was ours, but it didn’t matter. “Are we still going to go with Jameson?”
“Yep. I love it. Jameson Tristian Baines, but only if you’re good with it.”
“My dad would’ve loved it, so I’d love for our son to be named after him.”
And that was the day our first child out of five—not including Easton—entered the world.
Epilogue
Tristian
It wasn’t until Jameson was six months old that we had our vow renewal and celebration. English didn’t want to go traipsing off on a honeymoon while worrying about pumping her breasts. I offered to do it for her and got a good elbowing in the ribs.
Turned out it was perfect timing. The mansionville project was completed and we’d also had time to do some exterior work. The courtyard in the back, where we set up for the wedding renewal, had been completely renovated, bringing it up to modern standards. We renewed our vows under an arbor covered in flowers and it was perfect. English looked radiant in her understated creamy white gown. That had been done on purpose because Easton had one identical to it, but instead of carrying flowers, she carried a wand that had flowers entwined around it. Along with her rhinestone tiara, she swore she was a real princess that day. I knew my bride was. She’d always be a princess in my mind. Whether or not I was her knight in shining armor, who knew? But she was mine. She’d saved me from so many things, there were too many to name.
For her gift, I added the other ring to her wedding set. It was the perfect match. She loved it, even though she claimed it was unnecessary. English was the most selfless person I knew. Everyone else’s happiness was more important than her own. She’d once told me that she was the happiest when she saw everyone else that way. I believed it. I’d caught her looking at me once with a secretive grin. When I’d asked her about it, she’d only said I made her happy. If I could keep doing this for the rest of our lives, my purpose in life would be attained.
Easton ran up to us, tugging Stacey behind her. “Daddy, Aunt Stacey Bear wants to do a big dance with all of us.”
“We are in!”
The music came on and we danced until our feet ached. Stacey brought her new friend to the party. He was an attorney she’d met at the courthouse and English said he’d helped Stacey get over her ex and also sue him for dumping the house payment on her. I’d secretly run a background check on him and was happy with the results. No more bad guys for the good girls.
“That’s a sly grin you’re wearing.” English caught me scrutinizing the couple.
“Nah, I just happen to think Stacey hit the pot of gold at the end of her rainbow with this guy.”
“Something tells me that too, but my pot is wayyyy bigger than hers.”
“It pleases me endlessly to hear you say that, Mrs. Baines.”
“It pleases me to please you, Mr. Baines.”
“Then I have a brilliant idea. There is this place I know upstairs where we can please each other in secret. Are you game?”
Her knowing grin gave me my answer, so we snuck away and took the back stairs up to my old bedroom. When we got up there, I had her reach into my pocket. She pulled out a necklace I’d had made for her.
“It’s stunning.” She held it
up to inspect it. It was our initials, intertwined, with diamonds inlaid in them.
“I would’ve put the E before the T, but ET made me think of the movie.”
“‘ET, home.’” She imitated ET’s voice. “That would’ve needed a ruby.”
“A ruby?”
“Remember how the tip of his finger lit up?”
“Right. I like this better. The diamonds remind me of you, starshine. You brighten up everything for me.”
We didn’t begin our lives that day, but it was a great second start, without anything darkening the future. The only thing we had to look toward was our happy family with many more wonderful memories ahead of us.
The End
Thank you for taking your precious time to read this book. I hope you loved Easton, English, and Tristian as much as I do. It seems this family is part of me and I hated to write those two words above. Then again, you never know what’ll happen next. If possible, I would love for you to leave a review. Only a couple of words will do. Thank you in advance.
If you haven’t read Beck and Sheridan’s story, you can do so in For The Love of English. Click here to download: https://readerlinks.com/l/688972
If you love single parent novels, then you may want to read The West Brothers Series. To find out more, click here:
readerlinks.com/l/1420264/wbs
Other Books
For Other Books by A.M. Hargrove visit
https://amhargrove.com/book/
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Adult Novels
For The Love of English
For The Love of Easton
For The Love of My Sexy Geek
Mason Creek Series
Perfect Love (Mason Creek #3)
The Kent Brothers Novels
ACER
RAIDEN
CRUZE (TBD)
The West Sisters Stand Alone Novels:
One Indecent Night
One Shameless Night
One Blissful Night
The West Brothers Stand Alone Novels:
From Ashes to Flames
From Ice to Flames
From Smoke to Flames
Stand Alones
Secret Nights
I’ll Be Waiting
The Men of Crestview Stand Alone Novels:
A Special Obsession
Chasing Vivi
Craving Midnight
The Edge Series Stand Alone Novels:
Edge of Disaster
Shattered Edge
Kissing Fire
The Tragic Duet Stand Alone Novels:
Tragically Flawed, Tragic 1
Tragic Desires, Tragic 2
The Hart Brothers Series:
Freeing Her, Book 1
Freeing Him, Book 2
Kestrel, Book 3
The Fall and Rise of Kade Hart
The Hart Brothers Series Boxset
Sabin, A Seven Novel
A Hart Brothers Novel Spin-off
YA/NA Clean Romance
The Guardians of Vesturon Series:
Survival
Resurrection
Determinant
reEmergent
Co-Authored Books
Cruel & Beautiful:
Cruel and Beautiful
A Mess of a Man
One Wrong Choice
A Beautiful Sin
The Wilde Players Dirty Romance Series:
Sidelined
Fastball
Hooked
Worth Every Risk—
A Wilde Players Spin-Off
About The Author
Reader, Writer, Dark Chocolate Lover, Ice Cream Worshipper, Coffee Drinker, Lover of Grey Goose (and an extra dirty martini), Puppy Lover, and if you’re ever around me for more than five minutes, you’ll find out I’m a talker.
A.M. Hargrove divides her time between the upstate and the coast of South Carolina where she pursues her dream career of writing. If she could change anything in the world, she would make chocolate and ice cream a part of the USDA food groups. Annie writes romance in several genres, including adult, new adult, and young adult. Her books usually include lots of suspense and thrills and she sometimes ventures into the paranormal, sci-fi and fantasy blend.
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For Other Books by A.M. Hargrove visit
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Acknowledgements
It takes a family to write a novel, and in this case it took my blood relatives, my book family, and my reader family. I wanted to thank all of you who so graciously offered your time in order to make this possible.
My grandnuggets get a lot of credit for their antics and comedic adventures. They gave me brilliant material for Easton, which I willingly accepted.
My book family—Terri, Amy, Jana, Liv, Harloe, Nasha, Renee, Andrea, Kristie, to name a few—helped in endless ways. From encouragement to beta reading, to social media, I can’t possibly ever thank any of them enough.
My reader family—without you, I wouldn’t be doing this crazy thing called writing. To all the Hellions in Hargrove’s Hangout—I can’t put into words how much I value you. You are the ones who get all the credit, for reading my books and sharing your love of them. I adore every one of you who has ever taken the time to read my books and I couldn’t possibly be doing this dream job without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Najla Qamber—thank you for the gorgeous cover. I am still smitten with it after all this time.
Thank you RJ for rocking the words so much. You are an editor extraordinaire.
For The Love of Easton : A Single Parent Romance and Sequel to For The Love of English Page 29