“We could have little Evie and Genny,” I said with a smile.
“I love it.”
“Me too.”
Abe shot me a look that nearly stole the breath from my lungs. It was just a smile, but it felt more intimate than that. The way he looked at me, almost like there was some hint of love there.
Stop it, Felicity. Stop thinking like that.
I looked down at my belly and thought about the boy.
“And I like the idea of naming the boy Abel, after you and your father,” I said.
“And my grandfather,” Abe said.
“So it’s a family tradition? Alright, I think that settles it then.”
“Only if you want to,” he said. “I’ve never been too much of a fan of naming a son after myself, but--”
“I love the name Abel,” I said.
“Then Abel is good with me. As long as that’s what you want.”
“It is,” I said.
Sure, we had plenty of time and things could change - but it felt special to name our children after those who helped shape who we were today. And the names were also ones I liked, so it was perfect.
Everything felt perfect for a moment.
I never wanted that feeling to end.
Ooo000ooo
At twenty-four weeks, when the babies would be viable and survive if born early, I felt like celebrating. But I spent most of the time in bed, feeling like I could pop at any time - and even though the babies were likely to survive if they were born, we wanted them to stay in as long as possible to finish growing. If they were born now, they’d likely spend months in the NICU and possibly have some lasting damage from being born so early.
So I took the suggestion of bedrest seriously, not wanting to go into pre-term labor.
It also meant I was bored out of my ever loving mind. I wasn’t used to being off my feet all day, every day. I was used to moving around, working almost nonstop. Abe made sure I had everything I needed, of course. He hired staff to keep an eye on me when he wasn’t around.
I had a nurse, a fifty-something year old woman named Rosa, and she had an assistant named Nicole that were with me constantly. If I needed a drink, they would get it for me. Abe had decided to let me stay in the room that was to be the nursery, changing the nursery to his office instead. His office was right there as well, and I often went into the room and marveled at the cribs and everything - knowing that the empty room wouldn’t stay empty for long.
He’d brought in a designer and I worked with her. He gave me complete control over the nursery even though I wouldn’t even be living there. It was still nice to be able to pick out colors and furniture, especially since I seemed to have a never-ending budget. My babies would never want for nothing with Abe as their daddy.
Working on the nursery helped stave off boredom for a bit, but now that it was finished, I felt like I would go crazy.
One Saturday, when Abe was at home, there was a knock on my bedroom door.
“Come in,” I said.
I expected Abe to come inside, maybe to talk to me about an upcoming doctor’s appointment, but no. Instead, all my girls pushed into the room, their hands full of balloons and gifts and even a cake.
“Surprise!” Leah said, holding three different balloons - two saying, “It’s a girl!” and one saying, “It’s a boy!”
“What is this about?” I asked, sitting up in bed to get a better look at everyone.
Piper was there with the cake in hand - three layers, two pink and one blue of course.
Josie and Elle were also there, two of my friends from high school that I didn’t get to see as much. They had their hands full of gifts.
“It’s a baby shower, silly,” Leah said, playfully rolling her eyes. “Since you couldn’t come to us, we came to you.”
“Wow, I’m speechless,” I said, the tears welling in my eyes already. “You guys, you really shouldn’t have.”
“Thank Abe,” Elle said with a smile. “He’s the one that helped coordinate a lot of this. He’s a keeper, you know that?”
The room went silent, you could almost hear my heartbeat racing at her choice of words.
“What? What did I say?” She looked around, confused.
Leah cleared her throat and leaned in, whispering something in Elle’s ear. I knew what she was telling Elle, of course, even if I couldn’t hear it. Elle looked puzzled then whispered back to Leah, but she was never very good at being quiet.
“Jeremiah told me he was going to-- never mind.” Elle’s cheeks flushed and she looked at me with wide eyes. “I’m so sorry, Felicity. I didn’t mean to imply anything.”
“It’s fine,” I said, brushing it off with a wave of the hand. Of course it hurt, I wanted to be with Abe, but I wasn’t going to let it ruin a perfectly good event. Except, her words to Leah had me wondering. “What did Jeremiah tell you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Elle looked at Leah who shrugged. Finally, she sighed. “He told Jeremiah that he was thinking of taking you out, seeing if he could make it work.”
A lump formed in my throat. None of that had happened. He never even mentioned this to me, and I wondered why. “I guess he changed his mind, because we’re not together.”
“I’m sorry, girlie,” Elle said, coming over to my side and giving me a big hug.
“It’s fine,” I lied. “Let’s just enjoy the party.”
“Yes, let’s,” Piper said. “I need somewhere to put the cake down.”
“I’ve got it,” Abe said from the doorway.
I wasn’t sure how long he’d been there or how much he’d heard. Did it matter? He came into the room silently, carrying a small table that he placed next to the bed.
“Here, let me take those,” he said, taking the gifts from Elle and Josie, placing them within reach of me on the bed.
He didn’t dare look me in the eye. He had to have heard some of the conversation, I assumed. I so badly wanted to ask him about it, but not here.
No, not in the middle of the amazing party my friends had thrown me, but later.
Definitely later.
Abe excused himself, and I focused on my girls instead.
Ooo000ooo
“Did you have fun?” Abe asked me at dinner.
I was sitting at the table across from him, pushing some carrots around on the plate. I’ve been ravenous lately, which the doctor said was normal. But sitting there, across from him, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Elle had said. I was hoping he’d bring it up - but he hadn’t.
“Yes, it was very sweet of them.” I bit my lip and looked up at him. He wasn’t stupid, he could tell from my tone of voice and my facial expression that something was wrong. Before he could ask, I went straight for it. “You heard what Elle said, right? What her husband had told her?”
Abe looked away from me but nodded.
“Was any of it true?”
“Felicity, I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I just want the truth. Did you ever think about us being together at some point?”
After a second, he looked back up at me, met my gaze and I knew he was speaking the truth when he said, “Yes.”
“Then what happened? What changed your mind?”
“Well, I saw you with Levi at the bar right after I had the conversation with Jeremiah, and--”
“And I explained it to you, didn’t I? We’re just friends, he’s marrying someone else. There’s nothing between us.”
“I know.”
“Do you not believe me?” I asked, leaning back in the chair to get a better look at him. His brows were furrowed, and he was frowning, his jaw clenched tightly.
“That’s not it at all. I do believe you, it’s just--”
“What? What is it then?”
“Felicity, it has nothing to do with you. My reaction, my intense jealousy, it made me realize that I might always struggle to trust you. And that’s not your fault, it’s mine. It’s something I have to deal with.”
<
br /> “I see,” I said. I was prepared to take my meal back into my room, just to avoid the way he was looking at me. I saw the way he looked at me, sometimes it even felt like he loved me. But I couldn’t change his mind.
I couldn’t change him.
He would either work through his issues or he wouldn’t.
“I need to get a nursery set up in my place too, for the nights the babies stay with me.”
Abe didn’t answer me. Typical. Things get too complicated and he shuts down.
Well, two could play at that game. I picked up my plate and without another word, I walked toward my room. Koda followed me, he always did. He rarely left my side anymore.
He was more devoted to me than Abe was, and it killed me inside.
But there was nothing I could do about it.
Abe
“What do you mean they upped the asking price?” I sighed. I was in my office, between patients, so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to talk. Since giving over my office at home to the nursery, I tried to conduct most of my business relating to my surprise here at work. “Alright, then we up the offer, like I said before.”
Apparently, I was in a bidding war for the barn property. Another party was interested, and they were going all-in as well. We were already coming up on a quarter of a million for a property that needed a lot of work in little old Liberty. I had a feeling that it had a lot to do with the lithium found in the soil. While our mayor, Jeremiah’s wife, Elle, had tried to put a stop to the developers trying to buy up the land, private property was another story. And this one was right outside city limits too, which meant Elle had no jurisdiction over it anyway.
I hung up with Steve, confident we’d win the bidding war. I had more than enough money to compete for this place. After everything I’d put Felicity through, I owed it to her. She deserved this and I’d stop at nothing to give it to her.
I was also heading over after I left the clinic to meet with contractors at the diner. They’d been doing work, in secret, and I wanted to make sure it was still on schedule to be completed shortly after the babies were born.
We were coming up on seven months, which meant at this point, the babies could come at any time. Felicity was completely bedridden now, one reason I could do most of this work without her knowing. Allison and Gavin were helping me and sworn to secrecy, of course.
My phone rang and I assumed it was Steve calling me back. I picked up without even checking the number.
“Hey, what is it now?”
An unfamiliar voice answered back. “Is this Abel Hammond?”
“Yes, may I ask who’s calling?”
“Are you trying to purchase the Camden property?”
The Camden’s were the owners of the barn.
“Again, may I ask who’s calling?”
“Answer the question.”
My professional etiquette only went so far. I sat up straighter in my chair and checked the number. It was a blocked number. Interesting.
“Yes, I am actually. I’m assuming you are the other person trying to buy it?”
“You need to back off it. Do you hear me? I’ve been working on getting the sellers to sell for over a year, the property is mine.”
“The property isn’t yours until they sell it to you. I’m not stupid, I know how these things work. And you can’t intimidate me with your threats. I might not be a property developer, but I have money and power too.”
I was about to hang up the phone when he said, “You’re making a big mistake.”
“I don’t take kindly to threats. Goodbye.”
I hung up the phone before he could say anything else. I was seething mad, but I pushed all thoughts of the phone call into the back of my mind. Checking the time, I had a few more minutes before my next patient, so I called Felicity to check on her.
“Hey,” she said, answering the phone on the second ring. “Can you please tell Rosa that I don’t need to be waited on hand and foot?”
I chuckled. Felicity thought the hired help was overkill, but with her being this far along, I didn’t want to take any chances. I didn’t want to leave her alone.
“Why don’t you tell her?”
“I’ve tried, and she insists that you made it clear that I deserve the best treatment, at all times. Nicole has backed off some, but Rosa is-- excuse me, Rosa is asking me something. One second.”
She covered the phone with her hand and I heard their muffled voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying to one another.
Felicity came back on the line. “Are you expecting someone?”
“No, why?”
“Rosa says a black SUV just pulled into the driveway and they’re just sitting there.”
My hackles were raised. I was out of my chair in a second and headed for the door. I had no idea who it might be, but no, I wasn’t expecting anyone.
I didn’t want to stress Felicity out, so I told her. “Don’t answer the door. I’ll be right there. Probably just someone lost and at the wrong address, it’s easy to do in the mountains with all these side roads.”
“Yeah, probably,” Felicity said, brushing it off.
“Where’s Rosa?”
“She went back to the foyer to keep an eye on things,” she said. “Wait, what was that?”
Her voice went from calm to nearly shrieking in a matter of seconds.
“What was what?”
I hurried out of the office and climbed into my car. I put her on Bluetooth as I started the car and backed up.
“It sounded like a gunshot.”
My heart raced.
“Felicity, lock your door. Do you hear me?”
“Okay,” she said, her voice cracking.
A loud burst of sound caused me to jump and scream out, “Felicity? Are you there?”
“Oh God, Abe…”
“Felicity?”
I was on the main road, speeding toward home. It would take me at least fifteen minutes. I knew I needed to call 9-1-1, but I didn’t want to hang up with Felicity either. I needed her to talk to me.
Her voice came out from the other end at last. “Abe, there’s someone-- he’s got Rosa. He wants to talk to you.”
A man’s voice came through the phone. “Get here immediately, or we will kill her. Call the cops, and we’ll kill her before they even get into the house.”
The line went dead.
My heart stopped. I felt like I couldn’t breathe for a second. I was driving on auto-pilot, speeding down the road now. Call the cops and they’d kill her. I had no other choice then, I had to get to her right away.
Felicity
“Please don’t hurt us,” I begged. I was crumpled to the ground with the nurse’s assistant, Nicole. Rosa was still standing near the doorway, the masked gunmen holding a gun to her head. Koda was locked in Abe’s room barking furiously and scratching at the door. My insides felt like I was on the verge of exploding. Cramping hit me hard and fast, starting in the back and taking me to my knees.
I’d never experienced pain like that before, and it scared the shit out of me. I was thirty-four weeks now, and the doctor’s had told me that the babies could come at any time - but of all times, why now?
Nicole was holding my hand. “Breathe, Felicity. We can get through this.”
“I don’t think this is another Braxton-Hicks,” I cried out. The contractions had stopped, giving me a second to breathe. “That was much stronger.”
Nicole nodded. We both knew that the stress could have pushed me into labor. Tears welled in my eyes. “Please don’t let the babies come like this.”
Rosa spoke up. “She needs to see a doctor. She’s going into labor.”
The masked man laughed, a maniacal sound that send a shiver down my spine.
“Do you think I give a fuck?”
“Do you really want to cause the death of three babies?” Rosa asked, speaking calmer than I ever would have expected, considering she was at gunpoint.
The man didn’t answer. T
hat was enough of an answer as any.
“Then let me go to her,” Rosa said. “At least let me help her.”
I didn’t think there was any way in hell that the man would allow that. I stared at Rosa, pleading with my eyes to just be careful to not push things. I didn’t want anything to happen to her.
A gush of water took me by surprise, covering the floor underneath me. “Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.” That’s all I could say as the realization hit me. This was it. This wasn’t some Braxton-Hicks. It was the real deal.
I was in labor. And we were being held hostage by a masked gunman.
“Let me go to her,” Rosa said. “If something happens to her and those babies, I can promise you, Abe will not work with you. You need to keep her and his babies alive if you want him to give you what you want.”
I had no idea what the man wanted. I didn’t think Rosa did either, unless they’d said something at the door when they broke in. Maybe it was a wild guess. It was a risk.
And it worked.
The man let Rosa go, pushing her toward me.
“Help her. But if anyone does anything suspicious, I will kill all of you. Don’t think I won’t.”
Rosa nodded and hurried over to me, dropping to the floor.
“Can we get her back in bed at least?” Rosa asked.
“Move slowly,” the man said.
Rosa and Nicole helped me to my feet. They were both average sized women, but Rosa had more muscles than I gave her credit for. Years of nursing probably meant she lifted and moved a lot of people. They were able to help me over to the bed and get me laying down, comfortable.
Nicole was at my side, reminding me to breathe. Holding my hand.
I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the masked gunman in my doorway. Abe would be here soon. I heard the man tell him to get here. Abe would know what to do. He’d save us.
Rose was talking to Nicole, using medical speak that made no sense to me. They might as well have been speaking a foreign language for all I knew. They spoke quietly, and Rosa moved around me with ease.
The babies were coming, whether we were ready or not. And I knew enough from my doctors that triplets should not be born naturally. They’d need to be delivered via c-section or there was a chance that they - or I - could die.
Take a Mountain Man Home for Christmas: A Mountain Man Romance Christmas Collection Page 93