by Maggie Way
“I don’t mind sharing you with my family, but make sure the last dance is mine.”
Chapter Nine
Chloe
The next few weeks went by like crazy. We spent the weekends at the lake and the week together at his place. After we’d been together for six weeks, he asked me to move in permanently, and I said yes.
Our schedules were hectic and between the nights of wild, crazy, amazing sex, and days filled with other peoples’ pets, all I wanted to do was curl up on the sofa every night in his arms.
When he had to leave for Phoenix for a business trip, I was sad to see him go, but I had the stomach flu and used the days to rest. I was dragging and couldn’t get my energy level back up.
Why does all hell break loose when you feel like shit and you have to do everything you can to fight through it, I asked myself. That was when Cherokee decided to take on another stallion at the farm and cut himself up on the gate.
“Doc, I think he just misses you and does crazy stuff for you to come see him,” Glenn said through the truck window.
“I am beginning to wonder. Where is he?”
“Stable number four.”
“Oh, you moved him, did you?”
“Yeah, some smart-ass doc said we should.” He grinned.
I worked on Cherokee’s wound, but the cut was deep and far from clean. I looked outside for some help to hold his reigns, but no one was around, so it was old school.
I tied him up and soothed him before putting my chair down by his flank. I must have struck a nerve because he jerked and bucked and kicked the wall, breaking the reins in the process. He positioned himself between me and the gate. He was wild-eyed and behaving fiercely. I tried soothing him with my hand, but he bucked up on the wall and pitched for me. I jumped back, and he then had me cornered. Every time I took a step for the gate, he rushed me and cut me off.
He was jealous. He was keeping me hostage for his own.
I yelled, but no one came. I waited over an hour and nothing changed. Cherokee’s eyes told me he was angry about something. He was behaving as though someone had drugged him. He was far from his usual self. He was wild.
Finally, I decided I could kick the chair one way to distract him and dodge him the other way. When I kicked the chair to my left, he went left, and when I got to the gate, it wouldn’t open, so I tried to climb it.
I didn’t remember anything else because everything went dark.
Chapter Ten
Flynn
“How long has she been out?” I asked.
“We don’t know. We found her in the stall, and he was standing over her,” Glenn answered.
“What did the doctors say?”
“They don’t know yet. They’ll let you in to see her shortly. They said they needed to speak with you. I told him you were flying back. I’m sorry, Flynn. I should’ve never left her alone with him. He’d been acting crazy all day, but she was always able to calm him. They were like kindred spirits.” Glenn stood up and ran his hands through his hair.
I wanted to be mad at him, but it wasn’t his fault. Chloe never asked for help.
I paced the ICU waiting room and pushed the buzzer a million times before someone finally answered. The nurse said someone would come out and talk to me.
It had been twenty-four hours since she’d gone out to the farm. No one knew exactly when Cherokee had hurt her, they only knew her truck had still been there the next morning. They’d found her when they were making morning feed rounds.
“Mr. Davis,” a man asked, looking out into the waiting room.
“I’m Flynn Davis,” I stuttered out and approached him. The grim look on his face made me nervous.
He leaned in close to my ear and put his right hand on my back and spoke softly. “Mr. Davis, I’m Dr. Hernsberger. Chloe has a skull fracture and a large bleed on her brain. She has not regained consciousness. We’ve put in a tube to drain the fluid and relieve the pressure, but I don’t want to build your hopes up. We don’t know how long it will be before she wakes up or even if she will. We have her on a ventilator to take the stress from her body, so she recovers quicker. So far, fetal heart activity is perfectly fine for the gestational age.”
“What fetal activity?”
“You didn’t know? Mr. Davis, Chloe is six weeks pregnant.”
The doctor explained all the risks and the prognosis and told me the next forty-eight hours would be the telling sign. I placed my chair by the head of her bed and began to count her heartbeats. I was going to count them until she woke up, but somewhere in the process of my counts, she squeezed my hand. It was only for a second, but she did.
It would take another four, long worrisome days before she finally opened her eyes. She came to like a wild cat with very little understanding of where she was or what had happened and the nurses had to restrain her. It broke my heart to see her almost lifeless, but when she became confused and combative, I lost it and the nurses made me leave the room until I could get it together. I was grateful they assured me it would be temporary.
When she was completely conscious and more like herself, she began to talk and ask questions. The doctors said to let her take the lead and refrain from forcing information at her. It was the most painful event I’d ever witnessed.
She remembered Cherokee cornering her, but that was it. When she tried to move her legs, they were very weak, but at least she could feel them and all ten of her toes.
I was scared to give her the news about our baby. I wasn’t certain of how she would react. Would she be happy? Or would she feel trapped, her biggest fear?
“Sweetheart, there’s some news I’m hoping you’re happy about.”
“Hmm and what could that be?” she asked with a cynical tone.
“You need to get well because we’re going to have a baby.”
“A what? No, that can’t be. I’m on the pill.”
“I’ve seen the ultrasounds, and there’s a little boy in there who’s just fine.”
“It’s a boy.” She started to cry.
“Genetic testing suggests it’s a boy, but they say it’s still too early to confirm, but I know it is. They can’t tell by ultrasound yet, but all the test say he’s fine.”
“But how?”
“Honey, if you don’t know how babies are made, then maybe we need to talk about the birds—”
“Oh, stop it. I want to see our baby. Do you have photos?” At least she was smiling.
I helped her sit up in bed and showed her pictures of the baby. She became excited and looked through the pictures over and over. Her face lit up in love.
“I have to get out of this bed. Can you help me?”
She wanted to try and take her first step. I was relieved; it was if she felt she had something to live for, if it wasn’t going to be me. When she tried to move, it saddened me to see her so helpless and struggling to control her body. She said her limbs felt like jelly. I had to turn away, so she couldn’t see my reaction.
It was another week before Chloe was able to take her first step, and even then, she had to use a walker. She struggled mentally, emotionally, and physically to become the woman she’d once been. I watched as she fought with fierce determination to come back. I was by her side every single day for therapy. I would leave for work and return to stay with her every night until she would fall asleep, then I would go home to our bed without her.
Simon moped and stayed by the door. He knew when something was wrong. He’d always liked girls more than me. Traitor.
When the hospital allowed me to bring Chloe home, I hired Carla, a nurse, to help take care of Chloe’s medical needs and Carla moved into the guest room upstairs. A physical therapist came to our home daily to help Chloe get her strength back.
Chloe slept in our guest room at the front of the house, and I fully realized what it meant to say you loved someone in sickness and in health.
Simon stayed right with her and made sure he approved of anyone who tried to touch her.
I watched as our baby grew inside her and finally got big enough to make a bulge in her belly. Whenever I looked at her, she always seemed to have her hand on her expanding tummy, like she was trying to connect with the baby from the outside because she couldn’t feel anything on the inside.
It broke my heart to watch her struggle daily to become the woman she once was and embrace her new life at the same time, but I did well to hide my emotions from her. I loved her completely, and I prayed for the day when she would come back to me with her heart instead of just being my roommate. I craved her touch and missed lying in bed with her in my arms, talking about all the things we loved to do, foods we loved to eat and our favorite stories from our earlier years. I yearned for the time when I could make love to her again.
One morning, several months after the accident, I was lying in bed alone, and I heard her giggling hysterically. I walked to the open archway and watched her. She was walking around in the kitchen talking to someone… There was no one there; she was talking to herself… No, she was talking to the baby.
She wasn’t limping, she was walking normally, and as I stood in the archway and watched her, I saw her dance. When she twirled around, she saw me.
“We were dancing,” she said. Her eyes sparkled in the light like a million fireflies.
“I love you,” she whispered and began to dance some more.
It was the first time she’d said it.
Initially, it seemed as if she was on a medication high or losing it, but then I realized, she was finding it… No, she had found it. Love. Happiness. Contentment.
I watched as my precious angel danced and talked to our baby. I watched as she let herself go until she began to weep and sink into a puddle of emotion on the floor. I raced to her side and picked her up in my arms, carrying her to my bed. Our bed.
When I laid her down, she smiled and her eyes lit up just like they had when I had laid her there the very first night.
“I felt the baby move,” she said with excitement.
She took my hand and placed it on the right side of her stomach. It was the first time she had let me touch her since she had been home from the hospital. She was now over five months along in our pregnancy. At first, I didn’t feel the movements and thought maybe she was wrong or they weren’t strong enough to feel on the outside yet. When I moved my hand toward her belly button, I noticed the ring was gone. I stared at the visible piercing scar and desperately craved to suck it. I was caught in my thoughts when my son kicked my hand.
“He kicked!” I shouted.
“Yes, you can feel it too?” She giggled.
I propped up on the headboard and pulled her between my legs. Together, we sat there with our hands on her belly and laughed and joked about names. For the first time since her accident, she seemed normal.
“Flynton Meyer Davis the V,” I proclaimed.
“Shut up. Seriously?” she asked, looking over her shoulder and up at me.
“Relax, it was only a suggestion.”
“You’re a fourth?”
“Yep and proud of it. But I promise, no ZZ Top business for me. Not my style.”
“I want to move back in here, and Carla can go. I don’t need her to babysit me anymore. All we do is play cards everyday anyway. She said I’d know when it was time.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure of a lot of things.”
“I can tell you’ve made up your mind.”
“Yes.”
I called Carla’s cell, even though she was right upstairs, and gave her the awesome news. She was thrilled and said she’d seen this day coming quickly and had already moved most of things back home. We met her in the kitchen and said our goodbyes, and when she left, I carried Chloe to our bed. Desire consumed me and then fear struck me down like a sword swung by a giant.
I’d never made love to a pregnant woman before or at least not to one I knew was pregnant. Chloe and I apparently conceived the first time without a condom, and we’d been going at it ever since. But that was different. That was before I knew my child was growing inside her.
“How do we do this?” I asked nervously.
“Do you need a lesson on the birds and the—”
“No, but you’re pregnant. I don’t want to hurt you or the baby.”
She slid off the bed and removed her T-shirt and yoga pants with a striptease strut. She was naked and delicately beautiful underneath. I’d never seen her more desirable. I threw my clothes on the floor and joined her on the bed.
When Chloe made up her mind, nothing stood in her way.
Chapter Eleven
Chloe
I’d never been pregnant before, but I knew pregnant women had sex all the time. Naked and craving Flynn, I got on all fours and backed up close to his body. He was gripping his erection in his hand with the look of fear in his eyes.
“We can call the doctor and you can ask permission if you want, but I’m more than sure this is fine,” I told him.
God, I hoped he didn’t chicken out because I was horny and needed him. Either he fucked me or I was going to take out my vibrator.
He gripped my hip with his left hand and guided the head of his shaft into my sex with the other. I was slick from excitement, and I could hear the sounds of our bodies combining and it sounded—and felt—incredible. I looked at his face over my shoulder and saw his head thrown back and his eyes closed.
He felt it.
So did I.
Need, passion, energy with both of us clinging to the verge of climax. But I craved more. More friction, more force. I was going to beg if I had to.
“Harder baby,” I asked.
He obliged.
When I came on his cock, it was an explosion like no other roaring through my body. I cried out in bliss and felt him pulse inside me, his hands gripping my hips and holding me tightly against him.
It was poetic and beautiful. Sex brought us together, had sustained us, and because of it we had created a masterpiece as one.
Slowly, he slipped from me and reclined on his back, pulling me tightly to his side.
“I love you,” I whispered again his chest.
“I love you too,” he said, rubbing my back. “Welcome home.”
We lay there together in the bed for the rest of the morning, making love again, talking and creating plans.
I wanted to go back to work, but that would be up to the partners at the clinic. After my accident, they’d hired a temporary vet to take my place—indefinitely.
“I know what set Cherokee off.”
“You do?”
“He sensed my pregnancy. He thought I had cheated on him.”
“Get real, Chloe. If I was a full owner, I’d shoot that bastard for what he did to you.”
“It’s not his fault. I think someone may have drugged him.”
“What?” He sat up on the bed and stared at me.
“He was wild and acted like he’d been doped. I was going to draw a blood test after I stitched him up, but I never go that far. Is someone doping out there?”
“I don’t know, but there’s a way to find out. I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
I returned to work part time, working a couple of days a week. It was good to get out and about again, even better when my keeper would let me drive the car. I loved him, but his protectiveness was extreme. I even had a few lunch dates with April and Sara, and they were helping me decorate the nursery for little Flynn.
“You’re seriously going to name him Flynn the fifth?” April asked.
“Look, how often do you get to name a child a fifth generation name?”
“Exactly. People stop the lineage of bad names for a reason.”
“Are you two gonna ever tie the knot?” Sara asked.
“He hasn’t even mentioned it. We love each other, and that’s enough for now with everything that’s happened. A wedding would be more stress than I’d want to plan.”
“I can plan it,” April suggested.
“When the time comes, I’ll let ya know.” I hoped I simmered them down.
I finished up the last of my charts at work with Penelope’s help before I headed home. Penelope had had two failed adoptions while I’d been out. Apparently, the old girl just had a nervous stomach. At the office, she was completely fine, but the moment someone took her home, she would start tossing her cookies.
I’d only been home for a few minutes when I got the call from Stuttgart Farms.
“Hey Doc, can you come out to check on Samantha? She’s in labor and thrashing about.”
“I’ll be right out.”
On my drive to the farm, I thought about the horses and didn’t remember one being named Samantha. They must’ve bought a new one. Oh well, looked like the little lady needed some help bringing her baby into the world, and soon, I’d know what that was like myself.
Glenn was waiting for me at the main gate. “Leave your truck here and take the ranger down to the back stables.”
“She’s in Cherokee’s old arena?” I asked, only because they’d never learn their lesson with it attached to the feed barn. Any horse could break into it. I shook my head in disgust as I rode the ranger down through the pasture.
It was fall, and the wind had picked up, which left me glad I’d thrown my jacket in the truck.
When I got to the arena, there was no mare in sight. I looked around the stalls, and the stable was completely empty. When I walked back outside to get on the ranger, Flynn was sitting on the fence dressed in a suit with a pink shirt and holding flowers.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him, very puzzled.
“I thought about the place where I first saw you. You didn’t know you’d caught my eye, and at the time, maybe I didn’t realize it, but you stole my heart too. You are my everything, heart and soul, and I want to spend forever with you.”