by Sienna Grant
“I’ll pop around tomorrow, just text me when it’s okay to stop by.”
“Will do thanks Taylor.” She hugs me and kisses me then they make their way out of the ward.
The next two hours are the worst moments of my life. I thought it was bad when Chris was in here but sitting here watching someone say goodbye to a loved one is the hardest thing ever. We’re waiting on his personal possessions and then I can finally take her away from here. I can take her home and look after her like she needs.
A while later a nurse approaches Christine and passes over a clear bag with some items, it’s got his watch in and his wedding ring. He didn’t have anything else on him, it’s hard to believe he’s only been in almost two days. Once she signs everything she needs to we’re walking from the hospital. Christine just needs to wait for the death certificate.
The next week passes in a blur of tears and heartbreak. I try to soothe and comfort Darcy as much as I can but she’s on shutdown. She’s preparing the funeral as her Mum is in bed. Yet again she’s taken on the role of the provider and it kills me to watch. I’m at my wit’s end as how to help her. She hasn’t spoken about him since we came back from the hospital. The door to the bedroom has been shut and the only time Christine has gone in is for clothes. She won’t sleep in there which is understandable - I can’t imagine how much pain she’s in.
She’s sleeping in the spare room for the time being.
I’m tidying up while Darcy is having a shower upstairs, I pick up her handbag to put it on the furniture so I can hoover up as it drops upturned. Her purse, other bits and pieces fall out - girly things! A box drops out - a rectangular box. I bend to pick it up as I see the word ‘pregnancy’. What the fuck? I pick it up and read the box. It’s a pregnancy test. I pick it up and look at the front. I stop what I’m doing and head upstairs, I sit on the bed with the box in my hands and wait for Darcy to get out of the shower.
I’m still holding onto it, looking at it when she walks in the room. She stills when she sees the rectangular box I’m looking at. “Hey.”
“Hey. Is there something you need to tell me?”
“Um, I’m not sure.” She hesitates as she answers me. I pat the bed for her to sit next to me. She sits down stiffly.
“So?” I put her hand in mine. “You can tell me.”
“I haven’t done one at all yet. I’ve had that since the day my Dad died. I forgot about it totally.” She looks at me but a frown takes over her pretty face. “That was in my bag.”
Feeling the need to explain myself, I don’t want her to think I was snooping. “It dropped out of your bag when I picked it up so I could clean. It was on the floor staring at me, when I realised what it was, I came up here.”
“I would’ve told you I promise. I just haven’t thought about it.”
“It’s ok, you’ve had a hard time, you’re still having a hard time. How long have thought you may be pregnant?”
“Over a week. Taylor made me buy that.” I turn my body to her so I can look her in the eye.
“You know I love you right?” she nods, “how about putting me out of misery, you know I’m not the most patient bloke around.” I smirk as Darcy sniggers.
“Don’t I know it.” with a raise of my eyebrows, she gives me a small smile, that’s the most I’ve had in a week, but knowing I put that smile there makes me happy.
“Okay. I’ll do it now.” I rub across her bottom lip with my thumb. It’s the first time today she hasn’t cried, but I’m expecting them, it’s also the first time she’s really eaten anything. “I love you, Adam. I’m sorry I’ve been such a mess.” Bending my head, I place my lips against hers and kiss her softly.
“I love you too, so much with every piece of me,” kissing her again a little bit deeper, I pull back from her. “You’re not a mess, you’re grieving and you can take as long as you want to. You’re allowed to grieve and I’ll be here every step of the way; in everything we have to go through. As long as I have you I’m happy.” Rubbing my nose with hers, I say against her lips, “now go pee on a stick… and find out whether I’m going to be a Dad or not.”
“I’m going!” She puckers her lips and kisses me then leaves the room.
My hands go to my hair, the panic sets in, my heart beats a little too fast and she’s taking forever to pee! Who takes this long to pee?
I’m about to shout her as she walks from the bathroom with a stick in her hand. She sits down next to me. “Now we wait for three minutes.”
This is going to be the longest three minutes of my fucking life….
CHAPTER 23
DARCY
“Has it been three minutes yet?” My foot is bouncing on the floor at a rapid speed as I ask for the second time. Adam places his hand on my knee to stop it.
“Calm down.” He tells me softly.
“Oh god, Adam. What if I am pregnant? What will we do?”
“First, let’s see if you are.”
“Okay.” I breathe in deep, preparing myself, “On, three, two, one…
“Just open it already!” Adam says with a smile. He kisses my lips as I pull of the lid. We both look down at the same time. The blue letters that spell the pregnant are a big giveaway.
“Oh my God, Adam. I’m pregnant.”
“Are you sure?” I look at him confused. “No, I mean are they 100% accurate?”
“Nothing’s hundred per cent.”
“Okay. Stay put I’ll be twenty minutes.”
“Where are you going?” He stands from the bed, kisses me and runs down the stairs. Within minutes I hear the roar of the engine in his truck start up and then it fades into the distance.
Fuck! I bloody knew it. I lie back on the bed and my head spins. I wonder what my Dad would say about this... I try not to think of him, every time I think of him, I cry, and I really don’t want to cry anymore. My hands go to my abdomen, I lay them on top as I lie on the bed, just knowing there could be a baby, a tiny baby…
A tear pricks my eye and slides down across my temple, I’ve been a big ball of emotion - I’ve tried to keep busy but it doesn’t do any good. I’ve tried to shut them down so I don’t have to think but that’s just worse than pretending.
By the time I’m done with my musings - Adam’s back with another three tests. “Ad, are you kidding, why did you buy three?”
“What? So, we can be sure.” he rips the boxes open and passes the tests to me. “Now go pee again.” He ushers me into the bathroom with the three tests and I close the door behind me. I can’t pee, I run the tap to see if it’ll help and I drink some water from the tap... after a few minutes, it starts to trickle slowly... I wait until it comes faster and then one by one I place the test in the flow. Once I’m done, I wipe then flush and stick all the caps on the tests.
I hand them to Adam. “Here, I can’t sit here for another three minutes waiting, I’m going to get dressed. I dress in record time, sods law - then sit with Adam to repeat the process all over again.
He removes the caps, one says ‘positive’, another has two blue lines and another says ‘pregnant’. I think that’s a sure bet. I glance at Adam, he’s staring at the tests, his eyes flitting through them all. “Darcy, I think it’s safe to say you’re pregnant.” I nod silently. “Darce, are you okay?”
I nod again. “I think I’m going to be sick.” I run into the toilet for the second time today but I think this is nerves not the baby. Adam holds back my hair and waits for me to finish. He passes me some tissue to wipe my mouth before I’m up again and throwing some water on my face. He leads back to the bed and sits me down.
“I know you’re worried so am I. But once the funeral is out of the way we can start looking forward.”
“How Adam. My Dad is dead. How do I tell my Mum I’m going to have a baby? I have the garage to run too. My life is such a mess.”
“Is that how you see us - a mess? Because I don’t. I see two people getting over obstacles, trying their hardest to make it work. I see two people
who love each other and will help each other when times are hard... like now. You may think your life is hard at the minute because things keep kicking you back down, but as long as I’m here you’re not going to be down for long because I promise to lift you back up. You and this little one, are never going to want for anything again.” He holds my face gently, his eyes entrancing me.
“I love you Darcy. You’re my Infinity.”
The tear that works its way from eye doesn’t have chance to go anywhere because Adam catches it with his thumb and wipes it away. He gazes into my eyes, the type of gaze you could get lost in, beholden to him, seeing right into my soul - my heart. He knows everything I want and need. “Don’t cry. I can’t bear to watch you cry anymore.” Every word etches itself onto my heart until it’s engraved there, never to be erased.
He leans forward and kisses me, softly at first but then he delves deeper, trying to show me that our love will stand the test of time and I believe him. “I love you Adam with all my heart, I can’t imagine not being with you ever. You’ve made my whole world brighter.” My gaze raises until I’m looking up.
“If you’re looking for a word better than Infinity, it’s not going to happen, there’s nothing bigger than that. So, I win.” He smiles.
“Yeah, well you may think that buster but it’s two against one now.”
He smiles wide, bends down and lifts my shirt, then kisses my belly. He places his ear against it and wraps his arms around my waist. “Are you happy?”
“Yes.”
“Well, apart from the obvious but I mean are you happy with me?”
“Adam?” He looks upwards at me, “I love you Infinity plus Infinity.” He smiles again his whole face lighting up and I know with the funeral coming up and a baby on the way - I know I’ll get through it because I have Adam.
Because together we’re stronger.
EPILOGUE
ADAM
Four months later
Standing at the bottom of her Dad’s grave, I slip my arms around her waist and rest my hands on her bump which has just started to protrude. She’s twenty weeks pregnant now and I can’t wait to meet my baby. I kiss her cheek as we admire the new gravestone which has just been placed at the grave.
Here lies
James Ambrose
Husband, Father, Grandfather.
“Do you think he’d be happy?” She asks.
“About?”
“Being a grandfather.”
“Babe, I think he’d be over the moon.” She turns her head slightly to look at me and smiles.
“I miss him. I miss him so much, Adam.”
“I know you do.” I hug her tighter to me. “this one will be told all about his/her grandad, don’t worry.”
She breaks away from me and places the flowers at the stone, then presses two fingers to her lips, kisses them and blows then into the air. “Love you Dad.”
I’m kind of living between two houses until we get our own place. I live at Darcy’s as she didn’t want to leave her Mum straight away with it still being so soon after James’s death, but I work from my study at my parent’s house as there isn’t much room really and I didn’t want to take all the space in the house.
The garage is going stronger than ever. When people found out about James’ death, help came in from everywhere. Now that Darcy’s pregnant she’s had to step back from being a mechanic which she hates - but instead she does the books and manages the garage, but it’s doing so well now that she’s also hired another mechanic.
Life is good. The first few weeks after finding out she was pregnant were a struggle, she was crying all the time, mainly - she missed her Dad and was grieving, the rest of the time she was over emotional. She was sick at least twice a day - so much so that she was losing weight but as soon as the first trimester passed, it stopped I’m glad to say.
Everyone was happy with the news of the pregnancy even though it was a shock but hey, I don’t like to do things the normal way, that’s boring.
“You ready to go?”
“Yeah, let’s go home.” she turns in my arms so she’s facing me, pushes on her tiptoes and kisses me. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I place my arm around her shoulder as hers goes around my back and we walk out of the Cemetery, together.
Darcy will always be at my side.My world. My Infinity.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Okay, I’m not sure where to start this. With every book, the thank you list gets bigger and bigger.
I’ve been writing this book since February time. After I wrote Soulmates, Adam was screaming for his own book, so I started writing it only to hit a roadblock. But eventually we got there.
Now, it’s not only much the people I want to thank in helping with the book but the people who help me all the time without fail. From reading an excerpt for me to the whole book, then there’s the people behind the scenes, designing a cover, editing and helping me format because I keep screwing it up. There’s promotion, who work really hard to promote me, Kim,
Cindy, you are amazing! My beta reader team, Amo, Lauren, Rhonda, Sandy, Stacey, Liv, Beth, Valerie and Helen, who make sure us authors aren’t writing a pile of rubbish. But most of all the readers…yes you. It’s the readers who buy our books that keep us writing. For every reader that sends me a message and says thank you to me for giving them the story and for every one of the messages that say, “I loved it!” I’m very humbled. I still can’t believe I have published books, so I still shock myself.
To everyone who has had a hand in helping me with the day to day running of my books, I want to say a massive thank you and I wouldn’t be without you.
Laura, who is my fiery PA who keeps me in line all the time. Without her I wouldn’t have achieved half of what I have. <3
Maria Lazarou, you have got me out of many situations when formatting has fried my brain, you are amazing! Thank you so much. I know you must dread seeing my name when you see a message come through. I couldn’t do it without you though.
To my friends and there’s quite a few…there’s a group of ladies who I speak to daily and they’re pretty special, ladies you know who you are. #Sassyladies.
Kennedy Kelly, you did an awesome job on this cover, thank you lovely.
The authors that I speak to daily, you are a godsend. You may not realise this but you inspire me every day. There’s a few that I’ll be seeing soon at a signing…yes you know who you are - Tracey Wainwright, Jen Thornhill and probably a few others. Cassie, Caroline, Gemma, Sarah Jayne, Jo and Nadia, Lauren and Cheryl, you are probably my biggest cheerleaders. Thank you. Lots of love being sent.
Last of all my family and my best friends. I know I’m grumpy and tired and spend way too much time on the laptop but I love you lot with all my heart.
Michelle, Jay, Rea and Sophie you are my surrogate family and I wouldn’t be without any of you. Love ya!
You’re my Infinity.
AUTHOR BIO
Sienna Grant is a 40-year-old British romance writer from the West Midland’s that decided to step into the world of writing a year ago and has since never looked back. She’s now got five published books and has more on the horizon.
When she’s not writing, she’s a wife and mother to three children, two of which, are now grown up but of course, still need their Mum.
She still also loves to read most kinds of romance but likes a hint of realism in there.
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