“Good evening, Felicity. Glad to see you’ve come to your senses.”
I laced my fingers together in front of me. “I didn’t say I wanted to sell yet, just that I was open to hear your new offer.”
“My new offer? The price hasn’t changed, sweetheart,” he chuckled. “If anything, I’d be doing you a favor.”
“Doing me a favor?” I raised my brows. “Bullshit. The restaurant is back up and running, everything is fixed. There’s tens of thousands of dollars of improvements in that building.”
“But we both know I have no interest in the building. Only the land beneath it. The improvements aren’t worth shit to me.”
I kicked my chin out, crossing my arms in front of my chest. “Well then, I guess we don’t have a deal then.”
The idea of him tearing down the building, which had been in Liberty for as long as I could remember - long before I turned it into what it was today.
My diner might be somewhat new to Liberty, but the building itself was practically historic.
And I wasn’t about to be low-balled either. I knew I deserved better than that.
“Really? You think you’re going to be able to run your business while pregnant with triplets?”
The only drawback of living in the small town was everyone knowing your damn business. “I’ll find a way, yes.”
“And afterward, what about then?”
I knew that Chester was thinking I’d be raising my babies. That’s what he likely meant. But of course, the question was still up in the air - what was I going to do after giving birth if I couldn’t stay here?
My hands began shaking, and I was on the verge of crying. Not because anything Chester had said, not really. But because of everything. I had so many choices to make, so many different paths, and I couldn’t be sure what the right one was.
“Please leave,” I said, hoping he’d get the hell out of sight before the tears began falling.
“Ooh I struck a nerve, didn’t I?”
“No, this has nothing to do with you.” And that was true. I wasn’t crying because Chester Garrison was a bottom-feeding scum hoping to make money off a desperate pregnant woman. No, I was crying because I couldn’t believe I actually thought this was a good idea. I actually entertained the idea of selling the place, that I was prepared to leave Liberty behind.
And I still was.
But I wouldn’t be selling to Chester.
Chester steepled his fingers in front of his face and leaned in closer to me. He opened his mouth, but before the garbage could fall out, a familiar face stepped up to the table.
“Is this man bothering you, Felicity?” Levi asked me.
Levi was a big man, much larger than Chester. He was a firefighter and could carry full-grown men out of burning buildings. Chester was, well, nowhere near as strong or as noble as all that. I watched as Chester weighed his options, his smirk faltering.
“I was just leaving, actually.”
“Yes, yes you were,” I said, wiping my eyes.
Chester got up and walked away, and I let out a sigh of relief. I had forgotten all about Levi for a second, who was still standing there.
“Are you okay?”
I wanted to lie, to tell him that I was fine - but before the words came out, the tears began to fall. I let out a sob, covering my face with my hands. Levi slipped into the booth beside me, putting an arm on my shoulder.
I’d never seen Levi as anything more than a friend, so it felt weird.
“Don’t worry,” he said, chuckling. “I’m not coming on to you. Mallory and I got back together; we’re getting married next summer. I’m just worried about you.”
“Thanks, Levi,” I said, wiping away the tears and relaxing a bit.
It was nice having a friend there, even someone I didn’t know all that well. It was nice not being alone for a little while, as I pulled myself together again.
Levi was good looking, sure, but he was no Abe.
And that was part of my problem - I feared that no one would ever match up to Abe.
Abe
I swung open the door to the diner and marched straight to the counter. It wasn’t my usual time for stopping by, it was mid-day. Felicity was no longer opening, and I only figured she was there now because I stopped by her place first.
Allison greeted me at the counter. “Hey Abe,” she said. “What can I help you with?”
“I’m here to see Felicity.”
Allison nodded and walked toward the back. I tapped my fingers on the countertop. Did she not think I’d find out? After seeing her at the bar with Levi, I’d given her some space. But the fact that I had to hear the latest news from Jeremiah who’d heard it from Elle who’d heard it from Leah pissed me off.
She should have come to me.
Felicity stepped out from the back, and I swear she’d put on ten pounds since the last time I saw her. All belly. All babies. And I found it sexy as hell.
Her face fell when she saw me, and for a moment, she seemed to think about turning around and heading into the back. But our eyes met and she sighed, closing the distance between us.
Before she could say anything, I slammed my fists down on the counter and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me you’re thinking of selling the diner?”
“What?” she stammered. “How did you--”
She looked around, and so did I. All eyes were on us. Felicity grabbed ahold of my arm and dragged me toward the back. Once inside the office, she shut the door behind her.
“What in the hell, Abe?”
“You’re pissed at me? You’re the one who’s keeping secrets from me. Why are you selling the diner?”
“I’m not selling the diner. At least, not for sure. I was entertaining an offer, that’s all. Why is it any of your business?”
“Why would you even think of selling after everything we’ve done to get it back and running?”
“Everything we’ve done?” She asked, closing the distance between us and pointing a finger directly into my face. “Oh, I see. Since you paid me, you feel like you’re entitled to part of my business, is that right? This is exactly why I didn’t want to take money from you in the first place. But you didn’t invest in my company, Abe. You paid me to be your surrogate, you don’t get to tell me what I do with my business or the money.”
She was right of course, but I couldn’t even think straight. “Are you seeing someone?”
She took a step back and looked like I’d slapped her. She scrunched up her face, almost in disgust. “No, why would you even ask such a stupid question?”
I thought back to her and Levi at the bar, but I couldn’t bear to say the words, to ask her about that directly. “Are you planning to run away with someone else? Is that it?”
“Abe, you’re acting crazy right now. Are you jealous?”
I didn’t say anything.
“You’re fucking jealous? Unbelievable.” She plopped down in her office chair, shaking her head. “I’m not seeing anyone, but you have no right to be jealous of anyone. You’re the one who doesn’t want to commit to me, not the other way around.”
“I’m not jealous,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “I just--”
I couldn’t answer that. Because truthfully, I was jealous. I was filled with jealousy at the thought of Felicity with another man. It made my blood boil to even think about it, and it had nothing to do with the babies inside of her. I wanted to blame it on that, but I couldn’t.
And she was right. I had no right to be after what I’d told her.
I walked over to her desk and put my hands down on it. “Felicity, I need you to be honest with me. Why are you wanting to sell the diner? I thought everything was going well.”
“Like I said, this is none of your business, Abe.”
Before I could say anything else, Felicity let out a cry and doubled over in her chair. I was by her side, kneeling next to her in an instant.
“What’s wrong?”
“Cramp,” she
managed to say, her words coming out breathy as if she struggled to breathe from the pain. “A bad one.”
She let out another cry of pain and looked at me with a terrified expression. Her eyes were wide and filled with tears. “Help me, Abe. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, but we need to get you to the hospital right away.”
I helped her to stand, and she doubled over again, nearly screaming from the pain. “The babies-- they can’t come yet, it’s way too early.”
And she was right. We weren’t even into the second trimester. There was no way she could have these babies now, they weren’t viable. This couldn’t be labor. There were many things it could be though- and I ran down the list in my head as I lifted Felicity into my arms.
“What are you--”
“I’m going to carry you,” I said.
Even with the pregnancy weight, she was nothing in my arms. I carried her with ease. We exited the office and since I didn’t know the way out the back, walked toward the front. We ran into Allison first.
“I have to get her to the hospital,” I told her.
Allison nodded and moved out of the way, running toward the diner’s front door and opening it for us. I carried her through the diner, and again, all eyes were on us.
This would be the talk of the town, surely.
I carried Felicity out to my car and helped her inside. She was no longer crying out in pain, and seemed more relaxed - but still, we had to be careful.
I hopped behind the wheel and drove off, forgetting all about the reasons for being at the diner in the first place. I even forgot about seeing her with Levi. Because in that moment, nothing else mattered but getting Felicity to the hospital and making sure both she and our babies were alright.
Ooo000ooo
“Good news, it appears everything is normal,” Dr. Morris said with a friendly smile. She was not Dr. Lawton, and already I liked her. Her bedside manner was so much better, she actually seemed to care. I felt at ease with her and could tell Felicity did too.
“But what about the cramping? That couldn’t possibly be normal, right?” Felicity asked.
“In fact, it can be,” Dr. Morris said, pulling up images from the sonogram. “The babies are growing, Felicity - and your uterus is trying to make room for them. Women often get them with one baby, but you have three, so it’s putting even more stress on the uterus to grow. We’ve been monitoring you, and the contractions have calmed down. There’s no other signs that you’re in labor, and there’s no sign of fetal distress. Everything looks great as far as that goes. But if you experience any more pain, you can always come right back and we will continue monitoring you.”
Felicity nodded. “Thank you. I mean it, thank you.”
“Of course,” Dr. Morris said, patting Felicity on the hand. “I’m going to prepare your discharge paperwork. But in the meantime, if you have any other questions, I’m happy to help.”
Felicity looked over at me. I felt pretty confident about what she was saying, and I agreed with her diagnosis. It was better to get things checked out, especially with how bad the cramping had been, but Felicity hadn’t had another cramp in hours. There was no bleeding. They’d done a sonogram and the babies were fine, their heartbeats were normal. Felicity was back to her old self again.
“I think we’re good, doctor. Thank you.”
Dr. Morris left and Felicity let out a deep sigh. “I was so scared,” she said after a few moments.
“Me too.”
She reached for my hand, which took me by surprise. I gave hers a firm squeeze, then brought it to my lips. I left a kiss on her knuckles and found her watching me, a small smile on her face.
“I’m so sorry about earlier,” I said, rubbing her hand. “I just-- well, I can’t imagine Liberty without your diner, and I thought we’d found a way to keep it open. I didn’t mean to imply anything by my questions. And yes, I’ll admit, I was a bit jealous. I saw you and Levi together the other night and--”
She sat up straighter. “You think I’m seeing Levi?”
I shrugged and looked away. “It’s none of my business, Felicity.”
I felt her hand on my chin, lifting my face and forcing me to look at her. “Levi and Mallory Montgomery are getting married this coming summer. They’ve been together since high school, only taking a brief break recently - she’s the love of his life, Abe. And even if he was single, he’s never been my type. I can’t put my finger on it, but I can assure you that I’m not interested in him.”
Well now, I felt like a complete and utter fool.
“Then why are you thinking of selling the diner? Are you wanting to leave Liberty?”
I stared deep into her baby blue eyes, and my heart nearly broke. There were tears there now. I had upset her again. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
“Abe, I-- I don’t think you understand how hard this pregnancy has been on me,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “I’ve grown so attached to these babies inside of me already, I’m not sure if I can let them go. I know I have to, don’t worry, but I was thinking of leaving Liberty because I wasn’t sure I could face life here without being their mother.”
My heart sank into my stomach, and if I had felt bad before - I felt even worse now. We’d never really talked about what would happen once the babies were born. I never really thought about it. In a typical surrogate arrangement, the mother may have limited to no contact with the baby, but this was anything but typical. Felicity may have agreed to be a surrogate, but neither one of us really knew what that would mean.
I couldn’t blame her for having those thoughts. In fact, it only proved to me that she was the right woman to carry my babies. She loved them as much as I did. She knew them in ways I never would since they were part of her.
How could I break that bond?
I couldn’t.
Felicity’s cheeks were covered with tears, and I did my best to wipe them all away. “Felicity, why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I didn’t know how,” she said.
“No, you didn’t trust me,” I whispered. And could I blame her? I tried to keep her at an arm’s length this entire time. Was it any wonder she’d think I’d do the same once the babies were born? “I’m sorry. But I promise you, we can work this out.”
“What do you mean?”
I sighed. “If you stay in Liberty, you can be part of our children’s lives. They can know that you’re their mother and we can co-parent.”
Going into the situation, I never would have imagined coming to these terms. But things were different now.
“Really? Are you sure?” Felicity asked, her face pressed against the palm of my hand.
“Yes, of course. I want our children to know their amazing mother,” I said, kissing the palm of her hand. “I want you in their life.”
And I want her in mine, even though I didn’t say it.
I wanted Felicity to stay in Liberty, and not just because I wanted her diner to remain open. I really didn’t want to imagine my life - or my children’s lives - without her in it.
“Thank you,” she whispered softly. The tears kept falling, but this time, she was smiling. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”
“Will you be staying?”
“Yes,” she said.
Relief washed over me.
“One more request,” I asked her.
She tilted her head to the side. “Go on.”
“Stay at my place tonight. Please. Just so I can keep an eye on you. You can go back home tomorrow, but I’d feel much better if you were under my roof.”
I prepared for her to fight it, and I couldn’t blame her if she did. But to my surprise, she nodded. “Yes, I think that’s a good idea. Just to ease both of our minds.”
It was more than just to ease my mind. Yes, I was worried about her and the babies, but I also loved having her in my home. It felt less lonely, and her presence just made it feel more like a home to me.
Not that I
was ready to admit that to either of us just yet.
Felicity
One night turned to several. It was just so hard to leave once I started staying there. Things were looking up, and while Abe and I might not ever be together, I was at least going to be part of my babies’ lives.
I slept soundly at night, knowing that Abe was right there, in case I needed anything at all. Koda was good at staying by my side too, and Abe told me he knew how to alert him if anything were to go wrong. How could I go back to staying alone knowing all that?
It hurt sometimes to be that close to Abe, knowing that he wasn’t able to commit, but I put my babies first.
Several weeks into the stay, I was awoken to a phone call in the middle of the night. Nothing good ever comes from a phone call at two am and my heart was racing as I answered.
“Hello?”
“Felicity? This is Teddy,” the sheriff said. He didn’t even have to give a last name - we all knew who he was.
Still, I wasn’t too happy to be hearing from him. A call from the sheriff at two in the morning is especially not good.
“Yes, what’s wrong?”
“There’s been a break-in at the diner,” Teddy said. “The alarm went off, but by the time my deputy arrived, the burglar had already left. I can’t tell if they took anything, but there’s extensive vandalism to the building, inside and out.”
My heart dropped. I closed my eyes and blocked out the tears.
Teddy continued. “I know you’re pregnant and all, but--”
“I’ll be right there,” I said.
I hung up the phone and noticed Koda was whining at the door, scratching at it to get out. I opened the door to let him out and he went straight for Abe’s room. His door was cracked open, so Koda managed to push the door open.
I was getting dressed when Abe knocked on my door.
“What’s going on?”
Dammit. Koda woke him up. Good dog, but I hated to wake him up to have to deal with my problems.
I slipped on my shoes, even though I could barely bend down to reach my feet.
Take a Mountain Man Home for Christmas: A Mountain Man Romance Christmas Collection Page 91