The Air I Breathe

by K. Renee

His Pricilla is now walking me toward the altar, her hand creeping awfully low on my ass. I have to move it more than once as we stand there waiting. When I see my girl again, Elvis is walking her down the aisle, and she’s got a white veil over her face.

  I suck in a breath and feel like my whole world can be summed up in this moment. She is perfection. Even in a dress that she bought from a secondhand shop, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

  She is everything that I’m not, and I couldn’t be happier than I am now. Plus, I might be a fucking mess ninety percent of the time, but she loves me. She truly fucking loves me and is going to be my wife.

  The Elvis starts talking, but the only thing I can focus on is her. She’s got a bashful look on her face, and when she bites her bottom lip, I practically lunge at her which gets her to giggle and Elvis to get between us before I can pull her into my arms.

  It takes half a dozen Elvis sayings and way too many words before he announces that we are man and wife. I grab the back of Cameo’s head and pull her in for a kiss that she’ll never forget. Her hands grip my forearms and she kisses me back with the same fervor.

  “Hot damn!” Pricilla says as I break the kiss. “You found you a good one, honey,” she says to Cameo, but she’s wrong. I’m the one who found a good one.

  If I didn’t meet Cameo in that supermarket, I would still be fucking my clients and not really giving a shit about anything other than working and fucking.

  I wouldn’t have a chance to build this family with Cameo and I sure as hell wouldn’t know what real love looked like. Sure I may have not had to go through the bullshit we did, but knowing that at the end of it brought me to this moment, a cheesy ass wedding with Elvis in Las Vegas, I would still think it’s all worth it.

  Pricilla hands Cameo a piece of paper that everyone signed and even the witness that we pulled from the street and she flashes me a huge grin.

  “It’s official!” She throws her arms around me and squeezes my neck.

  “It is,” I murmur kissing her neck just like I’ve done so many times. “You are officially Mrs. Stone.”

  “Eek! I love the sound of that.” I squeeze her a little, and I feel the baby kick too.

  “Good.” I kiss her lips again before leading her out of Elvis’s chapel and toward the Strip.

  We walk a few blocks before she grabs my hand and drags me into a casino. Half a dozen men take her in, and I’m just glad that I’m the one who has the ring on her finger now. I know it doesn’t mean much to most people because of the shit we did to her fiancé behind his back, but this shit between us is real.

  I don’t think she would cheat on me. I trust her to stay faithful no matter how stupid it might make me seem.

  “Where are you dragging me?” I finally ask.

  “Just wait.” We weave in and out of crowds, making our way toward wherever it is she is taking us. Finally coming to a stop, I stare at the window of the shop.

  “A baby store.” She nods her head up and down. “What are we doing here?” I ask, clearly not understanding.

  She rolls her eyes at me just like she’s done way too often and leads me toward the back of the store. When we come to a row of nameplates, she points one out to me. “I was thinking since we didn’t have a name for the baby yet, we could name her this.”

  I stare at the name that is painted on this handmade sign. My heart starts to hammer in my chest as I continue to just stare.

  “Do you like it?” she finally asks when I don’t say a word.

  I turn toward her and pull her into my arms, my mouth crashing down on hers.

  “I fucking love it and you.”

  Epilogue

  Cameo

  Three Years Later

  Walking into the kitchen, I open the fridge to find a juice box for Maven. At two and three quarters, she is the light of our lives and as stubborn as her father. When I told Sager what I wanted to name our daughter in Las Vegas, he was in shock, or maybe a little in awe. Before we left the diner, I had to pee again, and when I came out of the bathroom Amelia stopped me.

  She told me about Sager’s mother and that her name was Maven. She told me how proud of Sager she was and that Maven loved that he didn’t take after his terrible father. I have still yet to meet his father or his stepmother, but I don’t really mind. They don’t deserve to know Sager or our daughter.

  As soon as I shut the fridge door, I hunch over in pain. Setting the juice on the counter, I rub my belly and take a deep breath.

  I hear Maven cry in the other room for her juice, and just as I take a step to take it to her, I whimper at the pain and rub my stomach again as the baby kicks.

  “Maven Marie!” I call out. She comes toddling into the room with my phone in her hand, a huge grin on her chocolate covered face.

  “Mama!” she cries, running right at my legs. She wraps her arms around me, and I reach down to grab the phone from her, which causes her to cry and reach for it back.

  “Mama, no! My one!” She makes grabby hands at me, and I ignore them, dialing Sager’s number instead.

  “Hey sexy, can I call you back? I’m in the middle of a meeting.” His voice is smooth and dark.

  “Sager.” My voice breaks as another contraction hits me. I feel my water break and Maven starts squealing.

  “Mama peed! Mama peed!” Her high pitch squeal is loud enough to wake the dead, and then I hear Sager in my ear telling whomever he’s meeting with that he has to go.

  “My water just broke,” I finally say as I stand in the puddle with our crazy child still squealing that I peed myself.

  “I’m on my way. I’ll be there in five minutes. You going to be okay?”

  I take a deep breath and nod even though he can’t see me.

  “Cam? Yes or no?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be waiting. Please hurry.” I hang up the phone and set it on the counter. Looking down at our little brown-haired beauty, I can’t help but smile even though I want her to stop yelling about me peeing.

  “Maven, here is your juice.” I take the straw out and push it through the top and hand it to her before the next contraction hits. Wincing, I hunch over slightly, and she frowns at me.

  “Are you otay, Mama?” Her little brown curls move into her eyes, and I reach a hand out to brush them behind her ear.

  “Yeah, I’ll be okay when Daddy gets here.” She nods her head and takes a drink from her juice, but she doesn’t leave my side. When I found out I was pregnant again, it sure was a surprise. I mean, we have never really practiced safe sex, and just like the first time, it took a little while.

  The front door bursts open and Sager comes charging into the house with Jenner following right behind him. When Maven sees Uncle Jenner, she runs toward him and throws her arms around his legs. He reaches down to pick her up, and she practically chokes the poor man.

  “Let’s get this baby out.” Sager grins. He grabs my bag from the living room and gives his princess a kiss before he wraps his other arm around my waist, leading me out the door.

  “Good luck guys. I got the princess until you’re ready.” I blow my girl a kiss and she blows one back at me. It’s her favorite thing lately since she learned to do it the other day.

  We hold hands the whole way to the hospital, and as soon as they wheel me back, I start to freak out. My first delivery was a nightmare. Everything went wrong, and for a minute, she didn’t breathe. The whole room went crazy, and people were yelling things out and when I looked at Sager, his normally calm demeanor was gone, and I could see the worry written all over his face.

  “Babe, it’s going to be fine. Maven is perfectly healthy now, and this one is going to be too.” He grabs my hand and squeezes as the nurses come in.

  By the time the doctor comes in for me to push, I’m terrified, and Sager has the nail impressions in his hand to prove it. He’s been amazing, but in the back of my mind, I can still see the day Maven was born perfectly.

  When I start to push,
Sager is amazing just like always. He whispers sweet things in my ear that makes me want to murder him and never let him touch me again. All the pain is worth it the moment I hear the cries fill the room and everything is perfect.

  Our beautiful baby boy is put on my chest, and I can’t help the tears that fall. The nurses continue to move around the room, but I ignore them for the most part. Sager leans down and presses his lips to my forehead, and I can’t help but grin at him.

  “He’s perfect,” he murmurs against my forehead.

  “What do you want to name him?” I ask, brushing my finger along the side of his cheek. Last night we had settled on two names. He was going to be named either Monroe Joseph or Jackson James.

  “Monroe Joseph.” Unshed tears finally fall down my face, and I can’t wait to take this little one home to meet his big sister.

  “I think it fits perfectly.”

  Sager leans over to kiss Monroe’s head, and he gives his daddy a big yawn in answer.

  “I love you, Cameo. Thank you for being the most amazing woman, mother, and wife I could ask for.”

  “I love you more.” He kisses my lips, and when I pull away, my attention goes back to the handsome boy on my chest.

  Our relationship may have started off on the wrong foot, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I regret. I met the man of my dreams and have two beautiful children to speak for it. Every day Sager makes me feel more loved than Alec could have ever done, and although I hate that I hurt him, I’m glad I met Sager.

  I’m glad I took that leap.

  He is the air I breathe.

  About the Author

  K. Renee is from sunny, California. Creative by nature, she decided to put her imagination to paper. K. Renee is an avid reader. During the day she works in an office, and at night she writes. These stories have been in her head for years and are finally coming out on paper.

  http://kreneeauthor.net

  https://www.facebook.com/kayreneeauthor

  k.renee.author@gmail.com

  Twitter: k_renee_author

  https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/36533772-k-renee

  Acknowledgements

  First and foremost I want to thank everyone for buying this book! I hope you fell in love with the characters like I did.

  I want to thank my beta readers for giving their honest opinion about the book and my in house beta reader (mom)… You ladies are awesome! Thank you for taking time out of your schedules to beta read for me. I am thrilled that you loved these characters as much as I did.

  A big thank you to Gray Ink for doing their editing magic for me. You are awesome Ellie!

  Thank you to Lindee Robinson for providing another amazing set of photos for the cover!

  To the readers and fans, I thank each and everyone one of you who come hang out with me during takeovers and participate in my giveaways! I hope you enjoy my books in the future and as well as this one.

  -K.