She hesitated for a second but then her smile grew and reached from ear-to-ear. “So, she would be your new wife?”
I swallowed, that question making my heart beat faster. “If she wants to be, then yes.”
She fell forward and wrapped her little arms around my neck. “I would like that, Daddy. We would have a lot of fun, I think.” I think so, too.
I had finally made my decision. The gift from Felicity to my daughter was the most obvious sign I could have asked for to confirm that this woman was exactly who I had always wanted. She was sweet and smart, beautiful, and would be a wonderful mother to Penny. She clearly already loved the girl to go through that much effort to make her happy.
Now, I wanted to make myself happy, too.
Plus, it was no secret that Penny adored Felicity as well and that was all the answer I needed. I was going to get Felicity back in our lives, beg her to forgive me for my foolishness in pushing her away.
I just prayed that she would want us back.
##
Chapter Fifteen
Felicity
Those two lines stared up at me from the bathroom counter.
Smiling at me. Taunting me. Almost laughing at me.
If a pregnancy test stick could have the qualities of being a smartass, the one sitting on my bathroom countertop was sure fitting that bill.
I’m pregnant.
And it’s Gabe’s.
Oh God.
I just sat on the toilet lid, staring wordlessly at that stick, blinking, blinking…clearly in shock. Wasn’t the first question out of every unexpectedly expectant mother’s mouth how did this happen? It seemed pretty ridiculous because I did know how it happened, obviously.
But when I thought back to how it was allowed to happen, it didn’t take me long to figure out the answer. I had been on the shot for years—I was terrible about remembering to take a pill every day—and I had always been good at keeping it updated on time. So, when I thought back to the last appointment I had to get the shot, I cursed myself.
I had made it several days too late.
Bea and I had been giving a huge presentation to a group of clients—one that almost went south but was thankfully saved by Bea’s boyfriend, Zane—and I had been so distracted that I had completely forgotten about my appointment at the doctor’s office. I’d had to reschedule it and the doctor had mentioned being careful because of the time gap.
But I hadn’t been having sex at the time so I hadn’t worried about it.
And that had certainly been the last thing on my mind once I did start having sex with Gabe. Clearly, all rational thoughts had fled my mind from the second he first kissed me.
“You okay in there?” Bea cautiously asked from the other side of the door.
She knew I went in there to take a test. Hell, she had gone with me to the store to buy the damn thing because I hadn’t been able to go alone.
I took a deep breath and let it out. “Yeah. You can come in.”
The door slowly slid open and Bea eased through, concern on her face and caution in her eyes. Like she didn’t want to say the wrong thing for fear of causing me to lose it. Her eyes drifted down to the stick on the counter, her feet edging closer to it. When I saw understanding flash in her eyes, she took a step closer to me and took my hand.
“Don’t worry, it’s goin’ to be okay,” she whispered sympathetically. “Whether he’s in the picture or not, we’ll make this work. Everything is goin’ to be alright.”
I felt the first tears track down my face but they weren’t caused by sadness from being pregnant. I was crying because that man I was madly in love with had gotten me pregnant—I was carrying his child—and he wasn’t there to share the moment with me. I had always imagined finding out I was pregnant as this ecstatic, celebratory moment with my husband where we laughed and cried and immediately started coming up with a list of baby names.
But Gabe wasn’t there—he didn’t know—and we weren’t even together anymore.
I didn’t want to do something like this alone either. I wanted my child to have a father, one who was there all the time. I had seen how hard splitting time between Gabe and Vanessa had been on Penny and I didn’t want that for my child. I wanted my child to know that their parents’ loved each other, wanted them to know what that looked like.
“How are you feelin’?” Bea asked when I never responded to her.
“I’m okay, I guess,” I said brokenly. “I’m not upset that I’m pregnant. Really, I’m not. I just wish he was here. I don’t know what he’s goin’ to say about this, how he’s goin’ to react. Oh God, Bea,” I said as I buried my face in my hands. “How am I goin’ to tell him? What if he still doesn’t want me back? What if he doesn’t want another kid?”
Bea squatted down in front of me and pulled my hands away from my face. “Hey, look at me.” When I did she continued, “Whether he does or he doesn’t won’t matter. How do you feel, hon?”
The corner of my mouth lifted in a grin, despite my queasy stomach. “I want it,” I whispered. “I already love it.” I laughed at myself. “Stupid, isn’t it? I just found out there was somethin’ in there but I’m already in love with it.”
She nodded, rubbing my arm. “Then, that’s your answer. We’ll have time to figure everything else out later.” The fact that she had said “we” and not “you” comforted me more than she knew. “This is a happy time though, okay? My little sister is havin’ a baby. So smile, F.”
I smiled through my tears and let out a short laugh. She leaned forward and hugged me, pulling me in tight to her, squeezing.
“Daddy’s goin’ to get such a kick out of this,” she said as we pulled away from each other.
“About me bein’ alone and pregnant?”
“No,” she said on a sigh. “I’m goin’ to be Aunt Bea.”
I laughed, something I hadn’t been able to do wholeheartedly for weeks. The Andy Griffith Show was our daddy’s favorite television show of all time.
No matter what happened, I was going to be okay.
I hope.
##
Days later, I was still trying to figure out how to tell Gabe. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get through it without totally breaking down. So, I hadn’t called him yet. Instead, I was using work as a distraction from facing him.
“Bea, please tell me you sent over the invoice for the Michaelson account,” I yelled, knowing she could hear me from her office right next door. “They wanted it yesterday.”
“Like I told you both times yesterday when you asked me, I got it to them by ten sharp,” her voice carried from her open office door. A few seconds later, I heard her enter my office and looked up to see her arms crossed over her chest, an amused expression on her face. “I thought baby brain was a myth.”
I rubbed the tension knot on the back of my neck and dropped down into my chair. “I’m sorry. It feels like I can’t keep anything straight.”
Her eyes softened. “How’s the nausea?”
I huffed out a laugh. “Still a pain in the ass.”
The buzzer on my desk sounded and Bea leaned back to see who had entered the shop. Her body froze and I could see her eyes widen. She looked back at me and tossed me a smirk before backing away.
“I think I’m goin’ to go grab some lunch,” she said. “I’ll bring back your usual.”
Assuming the person who came through the door had been Zane and she was leaving with him, I put my head down and got back to work. A few seconds later, a deep voice coming from the doorway cleared his throat, making my head snap up.
There stood Gabe, looking all kinds of hot in a white button-up shirt and charcoal gray slacks. “Hey,” he said.
He looked nervous, tentative. He took a small step forward but stopped, like he wasn’t sure if he was invited in or not.
My brain stuttered but then got back on track. “Hi. What are you doin’ here?”
He came farther into the room, his eyes unmoving from mine. “I need
ed to talk to you.” He took my silence as his cue to keep going. “I made a mistake, Felicity. I shouldn’t have pushed you away that night. I was just lost and worrying that I had messed up with Penny. It was never my intention to mess up with you, too.”
I slowly nodded, my heart pounding like a bass drum. “It’s understandable. Everyone’s emotions were runnin’ pretty high that night.” The reason for his visit still wasn’t apparent and I hoped he had more to say.
He did.
“You see, I thought that by removing you from the equation that it would allow me to focus more on Penny, concentrate solely on her. But it didn’t. In fact, it only made it worse.”
My breaths were shallow as I listened to his confession. “It did?”
He narrowed his eyes as he slowly nodded at me. “Yeah, it did. Without you in my life, I couldn’t focus on anything. All I was doing was missing you, worrying about how you were doing. Even Penny noticed how unhappy I was. The thing is, Felicity, I can’t be happy if I’m not with you.”
“So…” I had to take a deep breath before I could get the question out. “So, what are you sayin’?”
“I’m saying I want you in our lives again. I want you back…Penny wants you back.” Those hazel eyes pierced mine. “I’m saying that I love you. I’ll always love you. And I hope that you’ll let me love you, every day from now on.”
My eyes began to water. The pregnancy was making my hormones go crazy and it felt like I had been crying nonstop lately.
The pregnancy.
I still have to tell him.
I could do this. I stood up and walked around the desk, stopping right in front of him. “There’s somethin’ you need to know before you say anything else.” His brow furrowed, worry entering his eyes but I pushed through my anxiety. “I’m pregnant.”
I wanted to look away, afraid that I would see something on his face that would break my heart. But at the same, I had to see his reaction. I needed to know from the second it reached his ears how he felt before he attempted to mask his emotions.
And whatever I had expected to see in no way compared to what I actually witnessed.
He was blank at first, probably adjusting to the shock of those words. But then his mouth slowly spread into the most breathtaking, genuine smile of joy I had ever seen on a person’s face. There had been no fear or uncertainty before that. There hadn’t been doubt or anger.
There was only happiness. Excitement. Elation.
He stepped toward me and put his large hand on my flat belly. “My baby is in here?” he asked, awe lacing his words.
Well, that did me in. No woman was immune to the father of her child touching where their unborn child grew, awestruck by the miracle of it.
I nodded as my tears finally fell. “Yes,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “Are you…okay with that?” After I said it, I realized how stupid that probably sounded.
He looked up at me, disbelief etched in his features. “Okay? Felicity, I didn’t think you could make me any happier than you already have. But I was wrong. I love you and you’re carrying my child. How could I not be okay with that? Did you think that this would make me change my mind about us or something?”
I bit my lip. “I just wasn’t sure if you wanted another child. I mean, you’ve been dealin’ with a lot from Vanessa and with all that was goin’ on with us…we didn’t exactly plan this.”
He closed his eyes, his jaw clenching. He opened his eyes again before saying, “I’m sorry that I made you doubt my feelings about us or about how I would react to this. I’ve always wanted more kids so to me, this couldn’t be more perfect. I want you to be the mother of all of my children, Felicity.” He looked down at his hand still resting on my belly. “Not just this one.”
Penny.
He wanted me to be Penny’s mother. I would never be able to express with words how much that meant to me.
I couldn’t take any more words because I was about to start sobbing. So, I threw myself at him and brought my lips to his in a hard, desperate kiss. When I said my hormones had been going crazy, I meant all of my hormones. I had needed Gabe and his touch so much lately that I almost couldn’t breathe at times.
Gabe moaned through the kiss, grabbed me, and shoved me against my office door, his hand reaching down to flip the lock. “Oh God. I missed you, baby,” he breathed into my ear, panting.
Our movements were already frenzied, our kisses passionate and all-consuming, our bodies fueled solely by our desires. “I need you to touch me, Gabe. Please.”
He jerked my pants down in two seconds flat. I had his own opened as soon as mine pooled at my feet. “You need my cock to fill you, baby? Is that what you need?” His voice was taunting yet sexy and I loved it, had missed it.
“Yes,” I answered. “I need to feel you inside me. Now.”
A growl ripped from him whenever he entered me in one thrust. I didn’t wait for my body to get used to him; I just started working my hips back and forth, knowing this was going to be a quick one for me but craving it more than anything else in the world.
“Mmm. My woman has needed me, haven’t you?” Gabe whispered into my neck, his grunts increasing along with the speed of his drives into me.
I could feel sweat dotting my brow as he worked me over, an animalistic nature to our intimacy. “Oh, you have no idea.”
That seemed to spur him on and then he was slamming into me, ramming his thick length inside, making my eyes roll back in my head. It feels so good. I never wanted to be without that again.
“That’s right. Come on my cock, Felicity. Let me feel it.”
I don’t know why but the sound of my name coming from him sent me spiraling over the edge. As soon as he felt me clenching around him, he let go, pumping furiously against me, making the door behind us shudder.
My mind was in a fog after that.
I couldn’t tell up from down or left from right.
All I knew was that I had Gabe back in my arms and that, to me, was right.
##
Chapter Sixteen
Gabe
Four months later
Bliss.
It was something I hadn’t experienced often in my life, at least not over the past several years. The only thing that had made my heart bloom with that kind of feeling was Penny.
But now I had two girls that filled my life with so much bliss, I almost couldn’t believe it was real.
The last four months had passed in a whirlwind of Felicity moving in with us, Penny starting first grade, and ultimately, the three of us becoming a family. All of that was in addition to the doctor appointments, the morning sickness, the constant weird food cravings—I mean, pickles dipped in ice cream?—the overwhelming fatigue, and the ever-changing hormones. Felicity hadn’t had the easiest first trimester, but I was thankful that the second one had seemed to calm down significantly for her. She’d had a lot more energy and for the most part, the sickness was gone.
It was kind of crazy how quickly everything had happened. How I had basically acquired a complete family in the blink of an eye.
Penny’s visits with Vanessa had been going relatively smoothly, much to my surprise. Vanessa hadn’t caused any trouble or given me or Felicity any grief, which I was grateful for. It seemed like she had just given up on trying to fight me on every little thing. I wanted to believe that part of it was due to how happy she could see that Penny was with us, but you never really knew the woman’s true motivations.
Every day with my two girls had been special, but today was a particularly special day.
Because Penny was getting her pony today.
I had held off on it for a while, insisting that she take riding lessons before I even thought about letting her have one of her own. I was not about to put her on a horse without ensuring that she had a good feel for them. But that also didn’t mean that I was going to let her ride off into the sunset on one by herself. Hell no. I was going to be walking by her side, every step of the way, until Penny
was at least twenty and then I might back off a little.
Felicity and I had taken her to the stables, both of us probably more excited than her since she hadn’t known where we were going. But then we led her to where her new pony stood behind a wooden barricade, told her it was hers, and Penny had about lost her mind…and Felicity and I had about lost our hearing. I was actually afraid that she was going to spook the horses with her squealing.
“Thank you, Daddy!” Penny screamed as she wrapped her skinny arms around my legs. Then, she moved over to Felicity, conscious of her growing belly and repeated, “Thank you, Felicity!”
Then we were forgotten.
The handler had worked with her, teaching her everything she needed to know about her new horse. He showed her how to strap on the saddle—she absolutely loved the one Felicity had gotten for her—how to care for the horse and what they liked to eat. He then got her sat atop the animal, an extremely tense moment for me, and walked her around the corral, letting her get used to her new friend.
“What are you going to name her, Peanut?” I asked her as she rode around, her face a mask of concentration.
“Gingerbread! Duh!” she answered, like I should have remembered that.
Felicity chuckled next to me and bumped my shoulder with hers. “Yeah. Duh.”
I threw my arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. She then asked Penny, “Wait, Penny. If you’re Peanut and that’s Gingerbread, what are we goin’ to call the new baby?”
New baby.
I loved being reminded of that. That this stunner of a woman was having my baby. I looked down to see both of her hands gently rubbing her small baby bump and my heart swelled.
My son is in there.
We found out just last week that we were having a boy. I was going to have a son. Penny had been ecstatic when we told her she would have a little brother. She was more than ready to presume her role as big sister. We hadn’t decided on a name yet, but all I wanted at the moment was a healthy child and a healthy mother and I would be content.
Unexpected Love (Timid Souls Book 3) Page 12