by Andrea Hurtt
He had no idea what his ‘brothers’ were doing, but the few people watching the session burst out laughing.
During the shots with just Grace and Hope, Nick noticed the priest was still there, having a quiet chat with Thomas and Scott.
He glanced back and forth between the two scenes, the cousins and the priest, and the bride and his woman.
His woman.
His heart confirmed how true that was.
She always had been.
Nick wanted to make sure it always stayed that way.
He slowly let out a breath and stepped up to the two women.
The photographer was bitching about something, but he tuned her out.
He had a mission and nothing would stop him.
I waited all my life for this moment, and now I know exactly what to do.
Nick got down on one knee in front of Hope. “I know we seem to do things a little backward, but you’re here, I’m here, so’s the priest. Our best friends are here. Marry me.”
“What?” Her hazel eyes bored into him. “You’re not asking me to marry you right now, are you?”
He stood, grabbing her hands. “I am. Why not? We already have the perfect background; our important people are here…”
She tugged away and held a hand up. “No.”
“Awesome… what? No?” It took a moment before her single word hit him. It was a sucker punch to the gut. He had to lock his knees so he wouldn’t fall over.
Hope put a hand on his cheek before leaning to kiss him softly. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to spend the rest of my life with you, but this is our best friends’ wedding day. I won’t take that away from them. Besides, we just spent the last five months not knowing what was going on with each other. I think we should spend as much time getting to know each other before we fully commit.”
Nick heard her words, but weren’t they already there?
He put his hands on her growing belly. “I think we’re already fully committed.” He kissed her back, just as gently. “But I’m willing to wait, if you think right now isn’t the right time.”
“I do.”
Chapter 30
“I hate you so much, Nickolas Gene Ford!” Hope screamed, squeezing his hand so hard, pain bit back and he expected to see grounded numbs where his hand had been.
“I know, baby. You can hate me today. It’s all right.”
She’d been in labor for almost fifteen hours and was barely halfway there.
The midwife kept coming back and checking on her, letting them know how little she’d progressed.
“Where’s Grace?” Hope whimpered when another contraction had come and gone.
“She’s coming. She had to stop and pick up Blaze from the airport.”
After the wedding, Nick had worked hard to convince Hope, the only way to work on their relationship, was for her to quit her job, get her neighbor to care for her pets, and come on the road with him.
She’d have Grace by her side during the concerts, and him at night.
In the mornings, he’d loved waking up to her beside him for the past three months.
Being so close to her delivery, they expected the baby anytime.
So they all agreed the best thing was for Hope and Grace to stay in L.A..
The moment she’d started having contractions, she’d called him.
Of course, it’d been in the middle of a show, halfway across the country.
Nick had been on a commercial plane by eleven p.m., and in her arms before midnight.
Thank God for time zone changes.
They waited until the contractions were closer together to call Blaze.
His ‘brother’ had insisted on being there when he became an uncle. Nick was grateful he had such an amazing family.
God knew he was becoming more estranged from the one he’d been born into. They couldn’t agree on what should or shouldn’t happen with his younger brother. He loved Charles. Always would. He was his little brother.
However, was best for Chuck, and society in general, was keeping him locked up. So he left them out of this. They had no clue he was about to become a daddy.
Hope gritted her teeth as another wave came over her.
“Breathe through it, baby. You’ve got this.”
“Shut the fuck up, Nick!” she yelled back.
He tried not to laugh, but it wouldn’t have mattered.
The room was filled with laughter then.
Nick glanced over his shoulder.
Grace’s expression was sheepish, as all four of his bandmates came bursting into the room.
“Damn, boy, she’s gonna have your balls in a jar before this is over,” Blaze teased.
“You just wait until it’s your turn,” Dwaine said. “Evey took forever to forgive me when our son was born. Okay, it was like six weeks, but to a man… that’s forever.”
Grace stepped up to his woman, putting her hand on her cheek. “How’re you holding up, do you need anything?”
Hope started crying. “I need to get this kid out.”
“I know. It’s happening. It takes time. Do you want some ice chips?”
She nodded and Grace reached around Nick to grab the cup with a plastic spoon handle sticking out.
“I can do that.” He was slightly offended she was taking away the one thing he could do to help Hope.
“I know. But you need to step out into the hall and talk with your boys.”
“No, I don’t—”
“Yes, you do,” Grace insisted. “Now. Go.”
Nick took in the slight sheen of sweat across Hope’s brow. “Will you be okay if I step outside, honey?”
“I’m okay. I’ve got another minute or two before I want to hurt you, again. So be quick.”
He still couldn’t believe he was there. At a hospital, about to meet his unborn child. A gift he’d never expected.
He didn’t want to leave the room.
Blaze must’ve sensed this, because he grabbed the back of Nick’s shirt and practically dragged him from the chair and out into the hallway.
“So, I got to thinking,” Thomas said the moment the door was closed. “You proposed at the wedding and she said no, right?”
“Yeah, what’s your point?” Nick glared, a little irritated they’d brought him out for this.
“Why did she say no?” Thomas pushed.
“It wasn’t the right time. It was their wedding,” he pointed to Blaze.
“Maybe now is the right time?”
“How’d you come to that conclusion?”
Scott put a hand on the his shoulder. “We know that family means a little something different to each of us. And you’ve been struggling a lot lately with parts of yours. Thomas came to me and thought you might want Hope to be your family.”
“Obviously,” Nick snapped.
“Let me finish,” the oldest boybander said, with great patience. “The hospital has a preacher or a priest. Someone that could marry you. You’ve got your family here. Make that baby legally yours before he or she’s born. Cut the red tape from the beginning.”
Nick didn’t know a thing about the law when it came to such matters, but Scott’s words hit him hard.
He wanted Hope for his wife.
He hadn’t even thought about what would happen if they weren’t married before their child was born.
“Can you go find them? The priest or whatever? I’ll go talk to Hope.” Nick didn’t wait to hear if his brothers had things under control.
He just wanted to return to her side.
Another contraction hit, right when he reentered the room. He’d barely made it to her side when the midwife came back in.
“Let’s give you a check, honey, see how things are going.”
Nick couldn’t watch while the woman was all up in Hope’s business. He just held her hand and waited for her to finish.
“Well, things have moved along rather fast in the last thirty minutes. You jumped from three centimeters to ten d
ilated. And you’re ninety percent effaced. You’ll be pushing fairly soon. I’ll get the team ready.”
“Not yet, she can’t start pushing yet.” Nick was desperate to get the words out. “We need a little more time!”
“I’m the one pushing a watermelon through a hole the size of a lemon! What the hell do you need more time for?” Hope snapped.
Another contraction hit, and her pretty face contorted. She grabbed at the side arms of the raised bed.
Grace helped her breath through it and Nick bit his knuckles.
Maybe this isn’t the right time.
But… our baby.
As she was coming down from the pain, Grace glanced at him, a raised eyebrow, along with the ‘I’m gonna hurt you, if you hurt her’ look on her face. “What did the boys need you for out there? Nick.” Blaze’s wife bit out.
“Can I have your hands, Hope?” he asked, trying to get them out of Grace’s hold.
His woman could only nod.
After taking her hands in his, Nick let out a deep breath, pushing it through pursed lips. “I’ve got less than thirty seconds to get this out.”
“All right! Let’s get this party started.” The midwife returned with all sorts of people behind her.
One nurse was pushing a weird-looking glass case that made his heart drop.
“Is that for the baby?” he asked, completely forgetting what he was about to do.
“Yes.” She explained what they used it for.
“But the baby’s gonna be okay?” he asked.
She didn’t answer, or if she did, Nick missed it.
Another contraction racked Hope and his attention was brought back by his crushed fingers.
“I need to push,” Hope screamed.
“Not yet, sweetie. Almost. But not yet. Breath through it.”
“Nick, I hate you!”
Nick found words and shoved them out. “Hope, I asked you once if you’d marry me, and you said not yet, the time wasn’t right. It’s not any better now, but I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want our baby to legally be my child. Marry me. Right now. Before it’s born.” He said it all in one breath, not willing to lose the chance to get it all out before another contraction came.
“Are you fucking serious?” she screamed. “Now? When my vagina is up in the air for the world to… ahhhhhh!” A new contraction stole her words.
“Next one, Hope. On the next one, let’s give a big push!” the midwife said.
“Oh my God, this really hurts!”
His heart stuttered, but he needed her to answer. She could call him an asshole, or a fucker, or whatever, as many times as she wanted to. “Hope, will you marry me?” Nick dared ask again.
“Yes, damn it, yes! Just get this kid… ahhhhh!”
“Hope, on the count of three you’re gonna push. One, two, three, push.”
The scream that came from deep in her throat had Nick feeling nauseous.
He could only imagine the agony she was in.
When the midwife was instructed her to push again, the boys came back with a priest in hand, trailing apprehensively behind them.
“That’s the groom.” Thomas pointed to Nick.
“Young man.” The priest stepped closer but clearly avoided getting a view he’d never forget. “As I explained to your, um brothers, it takes more than a few words to perform a wedding ceremony. There’s paperwork that must be filed first. It’s a process.”
“But you could do it for emotional and spiritual purposes, right? Under the eyes of God, it’s still legit, right?”
Nick loved that Thomas held his faith close to his chest.
“Well, yes. I believe it would. But the state is what matters.”
“Not today,” Thomas pushed.
“Hope, are you sure you want to do this now?” Grace asked, standing on the other side of the bed, glaring a deep hole into Nick’s soul.
“Yes! I want my baby to be his baby,” she said right before she pushed again.
“Keep it simple,” Scott said.
With one last look of apprehension, the priest pulled a Bible from his pocket and flipped through the pages until he found what he needed. “Brothers and sisters, we are gathered here today, during this joyous occasion, to unite these two…”
“Simple, Father!” Thomas pushed.
“What are their names?” he asked Thomas, who was obviously the team leader today.
“Nick and Hope.”
“Under the eyes of the Lord, and before your friends and family, Nick, do you take Hope to be your wife?”
“I do!”
“AHHHHHH!” Hope screamed as she bore down one more time.
Damn, how long does it take to push out a baby?
Nick hurried back to her side, opposite Grace, although, he could feel Blaze’s wife’s incredulousness and a new death stare in his direction.
She was going to kill him if this didn’t go right.
“Under the eyes of the Lord, and before your friends and family, Hope, do you take Nick to be your husband?”
“Yes!” she gritted out with another contraction.
“I see the head! One more big push, Hope!”
“Then by the power vested in me…”
“One more, Hope! The head is out! Did you want to see,” the midwife asked Nick, while the priest continued.
He could only shake his head.
He didn’t want to let go of her hand, to watch his child be born. Not to mention, Dwaine had warned him not too look. His buddy had said he’d seen her differently, whatever that meant.
“Last one! That’s it.”
“I now pronounce you…”
“You did it, Hope. You have a beautiful…”
“Husband and wife.”
“Baby girl!”
Hope stared into the face of her beautiful little daughter. She had a head full of dark brown hair. Of course, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t fall out and grow back blonde, like her daddy. She had ten perfect fingers and ten tiny toes.
Nick dozed in the reclining chair in the corner.
She’d sent everyone else home.
Well, to their hotel rooms.
Blaze and Grace didn’t have room for everyone. As it was, her bestie had turned their flowered room into a makeshift bedroom/nursery for her and the little bean, so they had a home until they were ready to return to the road with Nick.
Once the tour was over, he’d already made plans to sell his Nashville home and find them something that was theirs.
“Sweet Little Bean. You need a name,” she crooned to the tiny bundle at her breast.
She hadn’t been able to come up with any names that felt right.
Hope and Nick had discussed a few, but hadn’t singled out one they both liked. Every time she suggested one, he would mention someone named that, or it was a fan’s name.
She’d tried to explain, no matter what they named their child, there surely was a fan out there with the same name.
“My beautiful girls,” Nick whispered, waking up from his brief cat nap. “How are you feeling?”
Hope smiled. Her body felt like she’d pushed a tanker truck out, or like she’d been run over by a dump truck, which had always been her favorite saying when she didn’t feel good. “I’m okay,” she replied.
He didn't need to know how badly she hurt. On more than one occasion, she’d suspected he was going to pass out earlier.
“Did we really get married while I was delivering?” she asked.
“We did. Thomas thought it was important.”
Hope’s heart swell even more.
They were all looking out for her.
“His faith is important to him. The fact that he cared enough about us, and our baby, that he hunted down a priest to marry us, means the world to me,” Nick said, joining her and the baby at her bedside.
She looked down at her most precious gift. “Faith,” she whispered.
“What’s that?”
; “Faith,” Hope said louder this time. “It’s something we both were missing, but carried with us at the same time.”
“I guess,” Nick said, looking thoughtful.
“She’s our faith.”
“I like that,” he whispered. His smile was tender. “It feels right. Faith.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her tiny head. “Our daughter, Faith.”
THE END
Also by Andrea Hurtt
Razor’s Edge Rockstar Romance
Masquerade - Book 1
Undone - Book 1.5
Unmistakeable - Book 2
Coming Soon
Razor’s Edge Rockstar Romance
Incomplete - Book Three
Drowning - Book Four
Inconsolable - Book Five
The Sealgaire Saga
A Slice Of Hell - Book One
Prince Cove Curse
Under The Sea - Book One
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UNDONE
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Undone
CHAPTER ONE
“Breathe. Just breathe.” Grace took a deep breath as she entered the community hall’s recreational room. This was where she was going for her life-changing event?.
The lights were bright, harsh old fluorescent tube bulbs. The room smelled like a locker room.
She took in the less-than-impressive view.
The bleachers were closed and pushed up against the walls, giving the room a large cavernous feel. If anyone yelled, it would echo off the walls.
It made Grace smile.