Love Happens

by Claudia Burgoa

  She relaxes again for a couple of minutes, and then another contraction hits. Her breathing is ragged, and she’s slinging profanities right and left. God, I love this woman.

  Henley

  After ten hours of excruciating labor, Dr. Walters lays this beautiful baby boy on my chest. Caleb’s breath is warm on my cheek as he leans in closer to get a good look at the new love of my life. I slowly trace my fingers over my son’s face as I memorize every curve and angle. His cry is music to my ears. I could lay here and listen to the sound of his sweet voice forever.

  “You did it, Henley. He’s beautiful. Just like his mother,” Caleb whispers.

  This moment between my husband, my son, and me seems so intimate. I wish everybody in the room would leave and give me this much-needed time with my boys.

  “Does he look like a Benjamin?” I ask my husband. We decided on a couple of names, but never made a final decision. Our plan was that our baby—whether male or female—would have a name of their own. To become the person he or she is destined to be. So we chose not to name our future baby Bonelli after anyone, even though Caleb’s boss and my good friend, Smitty, felt that if the baby was a boy then we should name it Reginald after him, of course. Even as much as I love Smitty—it’s not happening.

  “He definitely looks like Benjamin Tate Bonelli,” Caleb says.

  The nurse takes Benjamin from me to give him a bath, but says she will bring him back shortly. It takes everything I have in me to let him go. I want to scream that he’s mine and I can bathe him, feed him, and give him the love and care he needs, but I don’t, because the last thing the staff needs to think is that I’m a crazy blind lady. Because then they may not let me take Ben home.

  “He’s beautiful. We made this amazingly beautiful kid, Henley. Thank you for giving me this life,” Caleb tells me. His lips are soft on my forehead. Tears fall from my eyes again. It must be hormones, because I have cried more in the last twelve hours than in my entire life.

  I trace Caleb’s lips with my fingers before moving them across his cheek, over his eyes, down his nose, and around his chin. “He looks like you,” I say softly.

  Caleb wipes my tears again and places another sweet kiss on my cheek.

  “He’s beautiful, baby. The most beautiful little boy in the world. Thank you for making my life complete.”

  I smile as his lips meet mine. The kiss is soft, sweet, and means more to me than any words he could ever say.

  He quickly moves away from me as I sense Sierra’s presence.

  “You have a beautiful baby boy, Mrs. Bonelli. He’s back from the nursery. Are you ready for him?” she asks.

  I nod. “Yes.” I’ll always be ready for him. I grin as Sierra helps to adjust me in the bed, so that I’m comfortable holding my son.

  “How much did he weigh? I forgot to ask earlier.” I was so caught up in all my silly emotions I completely forgot to ask the doctor how much weight I’d been carrying around for the last few weeks.

  “He weighs eight pounds and two ounces. Quite a big baby for your little body,” Sierra giggles, placing Ben in my arms. He immediately nuzzles into me. Even though he’s swaddled in a blanket, his warmth radiates through my gown to my skin. And his smell is one that I will never forget. I hold him near and place a kiss on his face. His breathing is a bit quick, but from what I’ve learned about babies—this is normal. Caleb wraps his arm around me as he sits on the edge of the bed.

  This is my life and I welcome it. The one thing I was so afraid of for so many years feels so damn right. If it weren’t for Caleb’s persistence, I would still be wandering the streets of New Orleans without any direction. Without any hope. And without the love of this amazing man.

  Emery grew up in Southern Arkansas and has lived most of her adult life in Northern Louisiana. She spends her days working as a Nurse Practitioner in rural health and her nights reading, writing, and occasionally sleeping.

  She loves real life romance…lots of angst and heartbreak, but always a happy ending.

  Also by Emery Jacobs

  Twisted Fate Series:

  Twisted Fate

  Beautiful Torture and Beautiful Forever (Beautiful Fate Duet)

  Chasing Fire (Coming Fall 2017)

  Standalone:

  Until Him (Coming Summer 2017)

  Connect with Emery

  www.emeryjacobs.com

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  Unspoken Surprises by Gabbie Duran

  Life has been crazy since the gang from the Unspoken Series found their happily ever afters.

  Matt and Abigail’s love has grown, and so have their careers.

  Trey continuously travels, which keeps him away from home, leaving Victoria yearning to rekindle their love.

  David and Kelly haven’t spent time with their friends for far too long and miss them dearly.

  This vacation is supposed to be the perfect opportunity for the couples to unwind, but as usual, when they’re all together, life has a way of surprising them.

  MATT

  I skeptically peer at the log cabin in front of us, wondering why I allowed Trey to convince us to come on this little vacation. The lodging looks as if it’s ready to collapse—or at least seen better days.

  “Is this really the place?” I hear myself murmur, hoping I’m hallucinating and there is a perfectly structured cabin instead somewhere nearby.

  “It must be since Trey said the place was an hour out of the city.” Abigail’s reluctant answer indicates she’s just as suspicious as I am. “I’m calling Trey.”

  Before she can make the call, his SUV rolls up beside ours and he gleefully waves at us. If it weren’t my family who was planning to stay here with him for the next week, I’d be laughing at his reaction.

  Unwillingly, I find myself voicing, “It must be.” Deeply exhaling, I exit my vehicle. The moment I’m out in the fresh, air I hear him shout, “Isn’t it great?”

  “This is where we’re spending spring break?”

  Trey grimly looks at me. “It’s got character.”

  Abigail steps out of the car, voicing an opinion of her own. “If the character is waiting for someone to pull the plug,” she delivers with a scrunch of her nose.

  Trying a more positive approach, Trey encourages, “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”

  “I’m scared to even knock on it at all in fear it’d fall over,” Abigail mumbles.

  “Daddy, I want out!” Emily shouts from inside the car.

  “I’ll get her,” Abigail volunteers.

  “How was the drive?” I ask.

  “Madden watched a movie while Victoria slept. She’s been sort of blue lately,” Trey relays with a frown.

  Concerned, I ask, “Everything all right?”

  During the conversations I’ve had with Trey recently, he’s expressed Victoria’s animosity with him over the last few weeks.

  “I don’t know what’s going on with her. She doesn’t want to talk to me about it,” he relays, attempting to hide his uncertainty.

  Giving him a friendly squeeze on his shoulder, I say, “Maybe she needs this as bad as Abigail,” knowing that our careers have put a strain on our marriages.

  Trey focuses on the house, his expression conveying the same hope.

  “It’ll be fun. Like when we’d party in college.”

  “I know you’re not trying to compare this experience to our college days.”

  “Yeah, not so much fun anymore.”

  Victoria screeches, “Trey Johnson, I know you’re not going to tell me this is the cabin we’re staying in.”

  “Uh, oh …” I mock.

  “Fuck. She used my full name.”

  Cocking my head, I know all too well that he’s in for trouble.

  Trey rushes to Victoria’s side in what looks to be an attempt to star
t kissing some ass. I head back to my own vehicle to start unloading while praying everything goes as planned. If not, by the signs Trey was giving, he may just be in the same boat as I am: desperately trying to save what little spark they have left in their marriage.

  TREY

  As I walk toward my wife, I pray to the Almighty above she doesn’t plan to castrate me. I know Victoria’s tone. It can only indicate one thing: I’m in trouble.

  “Princess,” I gently say, hoping to soften her up. The glare in her eyes tells me it didn’t work.

  “Don’t ‘Princess’ me. I told you an hour ago I needed to pee and you didn’t stop.”

  “You fell asleep,” I defend.

  “It doesn’t mean the urge to pee went away. You’re lucky my pants aren’t wet!” she screams. “Where are the damn keys to this place?” Her tone indicates I’m already in the doghouse, and our vacation has barely started.

  Great.

  Handing her the keys, she yanks them out of my hold. “You can get our son and Mr. Whiskers. I’ll meet you inside,” she says, spinning on her heel then marching away.

  Deeply exhaling, I open the back door to our vehicle to retrieve Victoria’s senior citizen cat that’s crying to be released from his carrier—at least that’s what Victoria calls it. In reality, it’s an overpriced designer bag with mesh. “Only the best for Mr. Whiskers,” my wife claimed. I simply go along with the shit because she’s had the damn cat for so long, and I know not to argue with her when it comes to him.

  The cat releases a drawn out meow. The animal sounds aggravated, and I don’t blame him.

  “Kitty!” Madden cheerfully claps his hands as I inform Mr. Whiskers, “I know, old man, you didn’t want to come, but you know your momma. “Where we go, you go,” I remind him, earning a hiss. His complaints no longer faze me.

  Before I’m able to unbuckle Madden, I hear Victoria’s frustrated shriek. Whipping my head in her direction, I find her tugging on the handle of the screen door that won’t open. A few more tugs and she has the door coming off its hinges and crashing to the floor.

  “Seriously, Trey?” she shouts to me before turning her attention back to the wooden door to insert the key. Thankfully, it doesn’t give her any resistance.

  Releasing another exasperated sigh, I return my attention to my son, praying for some type of mercy.

  DAVID

  “Tell me again why we’re heading out to the middle of nowhere when we could be happily feasting on my mother’s meatloaf?” I dare to ask Kelly as I maneuver the car down the dirt path.

  Her hand gingerly gives mine a squeeze when she conveys, “Because it’s been a while since we’ve seen our friends, and a three-hour drive from Bend sounded more convincing than a twelve-hour drive to your parents’ house.”

  Looking down at the swell of my wife’s abdomen, I realize she has a point. Because of her condition, she is no longer able to fly. We could have spent the holidays alone, but it wasn’t what Kelly wanted. If we couldn’t be with our actual family, extended family would have to do.

  Bringing her hand up to my lips to place a kiss on the back of her palm, my smile widens before I say, “Whatever it takes to make you happy.”

  Most women would shyly smile, but my wife rolls her eyes. “Don’t act like you aren’t looking forward to spending time with the guys drinking the days away.”

  It has been a while since I’ve been able to hang out and drink with my friends. The navigation system announces we are approaching our destination, and within minutes, a hideous cabin comes into view.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kelly mutters at the same time I say, “There is no way this is the place.”

  Pointing her finger up ahead, she says, “Those are their cars, so I’m guessing it is.”

  “It’s not too late to turn around and head to my parents’ house. If we leave now, we can make it for breakfast tomorrow morning,” I suggest.

  Kelly playfully swats my shoulder. “Stop being mean. We promised them we would come.” Eyeing the cabin, she states, “Looks can be deceiving. Our house looked like a shack when we bought it and now it’s a beautiful little gem.”

  “A gem that cost us over ten grand to remodel and over a year to complete,” I dryly point out. “This place can’t be fixed in the week we plan to stay here, even if we called in those extreme makeover people you like to watch on television.”

  “We’re here, so let’s just make the best of it.”

  “All right, but I call dibs on the back seat if we have to sleep in the car.”

  Within minutes, I’m unloading our luggage and following my wife up the stairs, shockingly staring at a screen door lying to one side of the main door as we enter.

  Seconds later, Kelly is bombarded by her two favorite friends.

  “I’ve missed you so much!” Abigail exclaims, excited to see her best friend.

  “Victoria!” Kelly screeches before embracing her next.

  My own best friends have stepped up to my side to give me a greeting of their own. Exchanging customary half-hugs with Matt and Trey, I take in the spectacle before us. “They act like they don’t FaceTime every other day,” I tell my boys.

  Matt releases a laugh. “Yeah, I get you. But you know women.”

  Smiling, I nod my head in agreement as I watch my wife radiantly smile from being reunited with her friends. Making me just as happy to be here.

  VICTORIA

  “We call dibs on the room with the waterbed!” Trey shouts as he heads toward a bedroom with our luggage.

  Fearfully looking to Abigail, I inquire, “Please tell me there isn’t a room with a waterbed.” She appears just as stunned as me when she replies, “If there is, he’s called dibs on it for you.”

  Groaning, my reaction to sleeping on a waterbed does not match that of my husband’s.

  I hear the sound of Emily’s little feet running across the living room as she shouts, “Kitty!”

  “No, Emmy. Mr. Whiskers doesn’t want to play!”

  The poor cat looks ready to have a heart attack.

  Emily comes to a skidding halt then turns to face me. “Why doesn’t he want to play with me?” she whines, pouting her lips.

  “Because he’s a grumpy old man who doesn’t like to play, baby girl,” Trey answers for me. It’s not the exact words I would have used, but he does have a point.

  Thankfully, Emily is distracted by her uncle whirling her around in the air, giving my cat a chance to find a spot to hide. Feeling neglected, Madden crawls toward Trey, using his chubby arms to pull himself up to demand the same attention. His father reaches down to scoop him up, now spinning both children around in the air. Their gleeful laughter fills the room.

  KELLY

  The men have taken the kids outside to enjoy the gorgeous day, allowing us ladies to catch up until Abigail’s bodyguard—who has become another member of our little extended family—arrives with his mother. Once they arrive, the cabin is full to the brim.

  Putting slight pressure on the left side of my belly, a little foot kicks against Abigail’s hand, making her gasp then smile.

  “Told you. He’s quite predictable.”

  Victoria’s eyes widen with just as much enthusiasm. “It’s a boy? I thought you and David didn’t want to know the sex of the baby.”

  “We don’t, but I hate calling the baby ‘it.’ It reminds me of the Adams family.”

  Scrunching her nose, she chuckles. “Yeah, I wouldn’t like that, either.”

  Abigail removes her hand but it’s quickly replaced with Victoria’s seconds before the baby grants her a kick of her own to feel.

  “Regardless of what sex the baby is, I’m happy you’re finally having one.”

  It’s not the first time I’ve listened to this lecture concerning why we took so long to have children. We’ve heard it from everyone in my family. “We just wanted to make sure all our ducks were in a row before trying. Now that we have the house fixed up and are both in higher positions wi
thin our companies, David and I felt like we were finally ready for a family. We just didn’t expect to conceive right away.” I laugh, recalling how soon we were able to conceive. “I swear, it’s as if my uterus was desperate for a baby because it happened the first month we tried.”

  “It just takes that one time,” Victoria teases, which was true in her case.

  “You still made us wait long enough,” Abigail jokes.

  “We wanted to wait until we were financially stable before starting a family.”

  When I met Abigail, she was a world-renowned model before she took up a running career and then began designing for an athletic gear company. Her husband, Matt, became a NFL quarterback. They’re known as a power couple in the athletic world.

  Trey became Abigail’s athletic manager slash agent before taking on Matt as a client and then formed his own agency to represent many more athletes. Victoria was bred from one of the country’s wealthiest families. Formally a lawyer before marrying Trey, she was raised her entire life by staff and nannies, always feeling ignored by her parents. When she discovered she was pregnant, she made the decision to become a stay-at-home mother, refusing to allow history to repeat itself.

  David and I, on the other hand, come from middle class families and were barely out of college when we married. We struggled financially to reach where we’re currently at but are happy nonetheless.

  Victoria breaks my concentration when she corrects me. “Technically, I wasn’t loaded when I married Trey,” she says, pointing out how her family had disowned her in name and fortune when she refused to be their puppet anymore.

  They may have disowned her then and cut off her access to her trust fund, however, recently they are currently trying to repair their relationship. “What made them come to their senses?”

  “Madden,” Victoria says then smiles. “When the ice around my mother’s heart melted and she begged to meet her grandchild, I decided maybe it was time to forgive her. After meeting him, she immediately reinstated my access to the account so I could spoil him.” Her explanation has her frowning. “I have yet to touch the money, though. We don’t need it, and in all honestly, I’d rather it grow interest for when Madden or any future children are ready for college. Maybe, an Ivy League?” she sounds hopeful.