Baby, I'm Yours (Life, Love and Babies)

by Chase, Samantha

  The hotel was beautiful.

  The reception was magnificent.

  The food was absolutely decadent.

  The migraine that was jack hammering in her head was going to be the death of her.

  All afternoon, Nikki had made her rounds throughout the room with Josh plastered to her side while he carried Ellie to meet even more members of his family. They had danced together, posed for even more pictures and had sat shoulder to shoulder at the head table. But now, tears were beginning to form from the pain, and if she didn’t get a few minutes of peace and quiet away from Josh, she knew she’d surely die.

  Grateful for a brief interruption from one of Josh’s cousins, Nikki escaped from the table and walked along the outskirts of the room to get to the ladies room. There was a small sitting area in there and once inside, she wet a cloth and molded it to her head as she collapsed in one of the plush chairs.

  Josh’s father had been toting Ellie around so Nikki knew that she had a few minutes where she could relax. Adding to the pain she was in was Josh himself. Her skin tingled all over from his constant touching, and he never let on that there was anything inappropriate about it. To the one hundred and fifty people in the other room, they were a couple who were crazy about one another. While he had made no attempt to kiss her or have any kind of private conversations with her, his mere presence was driving her crazy!

  The cool cloth felt wonderful and she fished into the bottom of her tiny purse for a couple of ibuprofen to bring the pain down to a dull roar. Just a few more minutes and…

  “Excuse me, Nicole?” Nikki looked up from under the cloth to see an elderly woman whom she had been introduced to earlier as Josh’s Aunt Marie standing over her.

  “Yes?” Nikki replied weakly.

  “I’m so sorry to bother your, dear, but Josh is a nervous wreck out there looking for you. He sent me in here to make sure that you were okay. Can I get you anything?”

  Josh was a nervous wreck? He was concerned about her? Or was he just at a loss at how to perform without her by his side? Better to keep that comment to herself. “Tell him I’ll be out in a minute, please,” she said with a brief smile and the woman reached out and cupped Nicole’s cheek.

  “He loves you so much, you know.” It was a statement of fact, not a question or even an observation. At Nikki’s stunned expression, the red-headed woman went on. “It’s written all over his face. He’s been pacing that hallway like a madman. I thought he was going to barge in here on his own, but I scolded him and told him that he’d better behave himself.” She chuckled and so did Nikki. Even though it hurt. “I’ll see you back inside, dear.”

  “Thanks,” Nikki managed to say as she slowly rose from the chair. A glance in the mirror showed her complexion to be pale and her eyes looked bloodshot – all the usual reactions to a migraine. Walking gingerly, she made her way to the door and pulled it open carefully. Josh took one look at her and strode over to scoop her up in his arms and carried her over to a small alcove where there was soft lighting and a sofa.

  “Are you all right?” he asked nervously, scanning her face.

  If her head didn’t hurt so much, she’d actually laugh. “I’ve got a bit of a migraine. As soon as David and Dee leave, I’m out the door.” Her voice was small and shallow, and unable to help herself, she completely relaxed into his embrace.

  “We’ll leave right now; I’ll take you and Ellie home and…”

  “Shh…” she prompted. “Not so loud. I want to stay and see them off, Josh. I’ll be fine in a little while. That’s why I went to the ladies’ room; to have some quiet and try to relax. I don’t have my prescription with me because I don’t get these very often. All I had was some ibuprofen.”

  “Did it help?”

  “Not really.”

  “Is there anything I can do? Anything I can get for you?”

  She shook her head. “I just need to relax. Most of the time, these headaches are brought on by tension.”

  “What caused you to be tense today?” His words were spoken softly, but they allowed the irritation she had felt toward him all day to unleash.

  “What caused my tension?” she asked incredulously. “Where do I even begin?” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You haven’t left me alone all day!” She climbed off of his lap and carefully stood up. “Everywhere I go, there you are introducing me to someone, putting your hands on me somewhere; I mean, for crying out loud, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic!”

  Josh stared at her. “Excuse me?”

  “You didn’t acknowledge me all week and then…”

  “I was doing what you asked!” he shouted as he stood to face her.

  Nikki winced with pain at the sound of his voice and immediately began to rub her temples. Heedless of whether she wanted him there or not, Josh stepped forward and moved her hands and took over. “Shh…just relax,” he whispered.

  She placed her hands over his as her eyes closed. “I can’t do this with you anymore. It’s all just…too much.” Ignoring her, he continued to massage her temple with great care. Nikki felt the tension ebb from her weary body. “I need to go back inside. Ellie…”

  “Is being taken care of,” he interrupted. “My parents are watching her and loving every minute of it.” He led her back over to the sofa and sat them both down. He positioned them so that her back was to his chest as he continued his massage. “I agree with you; I can’t do this anymore, either.” She stiffened against him and made to turn around but he stopped her.

  “I owe you an apology,” he began quietly. “I’m sorry that I made you feel like you couldn’t trust me. I know that you have no reason to, not with my track record; but I want you to know that you can. When I met you, my whole life changed. If I could, I would go back and tell you the truth about everything – my name, Erin…everything. I had no idea that you were going to be…the one.”

  This time when she tried to sit up, Josh didn’t stop her. “What?” she asked with trembling lips.

  “You’re the one, Nicole,” he said softly, his eyes meeting hers. “When I woke up that next morning and you were gone, I went crazy trying to find you. I didn’t even know where to begin to look. And then, last month when I came to your house? I couldn’t believe my good fortune; I was getting a second chance. I should have been honest with you that first night when I came back and told you that I loved you; that I had been looking for you. Waiting for you. There is no other woman for me, Nicole. Not now. Not ever. It’s you.”

  Her eyes welled with tears. “I don’t know how to believe you.” The honest admission hurt for her to even say, and when she saw understanding in his eyes, she felt her first glimmer of hope.

  Taking her hands in his, he pulled her close. “Let me tell you what I’ve been up to,” he began. “First, those meetings in RTP? Those were with realtors. I’m moving my business here.”

  “But what about…?”

  “Shh,” he interrupted. “After we spoke Monday night, I sort of went a little crazy. I knew I had already gotten the ball rolling with moving the business, but I knew it wasn’t enough. So I did a little restructuring and promoted two of my guys. They’ll be handling most of the traveling from now on. I may still have to go to a job site from time to time; but if I do, then I want you and Ellie with me.”

  “Josh, that wasn’t…”

  “Hear me out.” He placed one finger on her lips. “I’d like to keep the house in Wilmington because it’s right on the beach and I’d love for us to have a place to go just to get away, but if you’d like to pick one of your own, I can sell it.”

  “What are you saying?”

  He smiled as he leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “What I’m saying is that I love you. I want a life with you. I want to be there every day for you and Ellie. I want us to have more babies, and I want to be there to see them grow. I love you, Nicole.”

  “Oh, my…”

  “I didn’t plan on doing this today,” he said as he
shifted and dropped to one knee on the floor in front of her. “And I don’t have your ring with me; it’s back at David’s.” He winked. “But Nicole Taylor, I want you to be my wife. I love you, and I want to spend every day of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

  “Josh, this is crazy,” she said as tears freely began to fall. “We barely know each other…”

  “I knew everything that I needed to know about you three years ago. Coming here and finding you again and seeing the way that you have loved and cared for our daughter? That just confirmed it all. You are everything that I’ve ever wanted; all I ever needed.”

  “Me?” she mouthed, unable to speak.

  He nodded. “Always.”

  She took a moment to let that sink in. He loved her. He’d always loved her. How could she have doubted that? Since coming back into her life, hadn’t he done everything possible to prove to her how much he cared? Wasn’t her self-doubt her own worst enemy? For so many years she’d been strong; done all that she could to get over the one man who never left her heart. And now here he was on bended knee in front of her, telling her that he loved her.

  “I’m scared, Josh.”

  He reached up and cupped her face. “I know, sweetheart. I’m sorry for making you have doubts. I promise that I will make it up to you for the rest of our lives.” He stroked a finger down her cheek. “Do you love me, Nicole?”

  She nodded. “I do. I have since that first night.”

  Everything inside Josh relaxed. Standing, he gently pulled her to her feet and kissed her. They had a lot of time to make up for, but for now he would settle for just the sweet feel of her lips beneath his. When they broke apart, he leaned his forehead against hers. “Say it.”

  Shyly, Nikki looked up at him. “I love you, Josh. I love you so much.”

  Pulling her into his embrace, he held her tight. “Thank God,” he said. He didn’t want to let her go; wanted to keep her in his arms for much longer, but there was a reception going on down the hall that they needed to get back to. He took a step back. “How’s your head?”

  “Much better.”

  He held out his arm for her to loop hers through. “Ready to head back to the party?”

  Nikki smiled. “I think I’m ready to go wherever you’re going.” Together they walked arm and arm back to the celebration.

  Epilogue

  The sun was rising over the ocean, and the sight of it simply took her breath away. Sighing with contentment, Nikki leaned back and rested against her husband’s chest. “You were right; this was definitely worth getting up for.”

  He smiled and placed a kiss on her temple. “You can understand now why I wanted to keep this house, right? The views are incredible.”

  “Mmm…” she purred. It was an incredible sight, but so were the backs of her eyelids after a night of so little sleep. “Can we go back to bed now?”

  Josh chuckled. “I would have thought you’d be too tired for that right now.”

  Nikki jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. “I meant to go back to sleep.”

  “Oh,” he said slowly. “I think that can be arranged.” He stood and swiftly scooped her up into his arms and walked back into their bedroom, placing Nikki on the bed. “How’s that for service.”

  She smiled. “Careful; I spoil easily.”

  Leaning down, he placed another kiss on her temple. “You deserve to be spoiled.” He was going to let her get some more sleep, alone, but instead he walked around to his side of the bed and slid under the blankets beside her and pulled her in close.

  “I was hoping you’d stay.”

  “I guess a couple of more hours of sleep couldn’t hurt me, either. Besides, in another couple of days we’ll be back to early mornings and the real world.”

  “Shh…don’t remind me.” Three months to the day of David and Denise’s wedding, Nicole and Josh had said their vows and were now taking a short honeymoon on the coast. “I hope Ellie’s behaving for your parents.”

  “I think we need to worry about it being the other way around. I hope that my parents aren’t spoiling her rotten. We could have a monster on our hands when we get back.”

  “Not our sweet little angel. You must have her confused with somebody else.” They both laughed at that one. “Seriously, I hope that she’s okay. This is the longest we’ve ever been apart and…”

  “We’ll call her when we get up later, okay? We’ve only been gone for two days.”

  “Today’s the third one, and it’s still long.”

  “It should have been longer,” he murmured and felt that elbow to the ribs again.

  “A girl needs time to plan her dream wedding,” she reminded. It wasn’t the first time they’d had this discussion. “By the time the wedding plans were all figured out and our date was set, we were hitting back-to-school time. We could have waited until winter break.”

  “Hell, no,” he growled and rolled her beneath him. “I waited over three years to make you my wife; I wasn’t going to wait any longer.” He kissed her hungrily and felt her melt in his arms.

  When they broke apart, Nikki smiled up at him sleepily. “Then don’t complain.”

  He knew she was right, but he was disappointed that they didn’t get to take the kind of honeymoon that she deserved. If his plans worked out right, they would get away during her winter break from school and go someplace tropical. He thought about making it a family trip, but he was going to be greedy; he wanted them to have some time to themselves. They had no shortage of babysitters between his parents, Nicole’s parents, and David and Denise. He had already spoken to all of them about his plans and all he had to do was say the word and Ellie would be well taken care of.

  Nikki yawned. “Sleep,” she said as she squirmed out from beneath him.

  Looking down at her he smiled and accommodated her moving so that they were spooned together with him pressed firmly against her back. Over her shoulder he could still see the beach and the sun rising higher and higher in the sky.

  They were blessed with another beautiful day and that had his smile growing. A beautiful day, a beautiful wife and the promise of a beautiful future.

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