by Harper Sloan
We lie like this, together and entwined, until the nurse comes in. She fusses until he moves back to his chair. I can’t help but laugh at the pout he is sporting while she finishes up her vitals checks. When he hears me, the look is instantly gone and he looks over with a huge smile.
“Love that sound, Princess. Most beautiful sound in the whole fucking world.”
I stayed in the hospital overnight. There wasn’t anything wrong with me, but they wanted to monitor my vitals and make sure that my head wound was okay. Luckily, I came out of the whole ordeal with only a small bump right next to my temple.
When I’m released, Axel and I make our way to the floor Greg is on. Maddox and Coop are in the room when we get there. Greg is awake but groggy. I walk into his room on the arm of Axel, who hasn’t let me go once since I woke up. Greg looks up and a small smile forms on his pale lips.
“Baby girl,” he said with a tear falling from his eye. “Baby girl, you are a sight.”
I walk over to the side of his bed and push Coop out of the chair he was sitting on, pulling it close to his bed. “Hey.” Yup, that is all I have before I break down and bury my head in the bed next to his hip. Axel comes up behind me and rubs my back.
“Baby girl, I’m okay. Nothing I can’t handle.”
“I thought you were dead, G!” I cry harder into the bed. “Don’t ever do that shit again!”
He laughs but agrees, and I sit there holding his hand while the conversation continues around us. Coop tells Maddox about all the good-looking nurses who keep popping in offering sponge baths and how he might have to get shot if that is what’s waiting for him. Maddox was shakes his head, but his eyes never leave mine.
“You okay, girl?” he asks when Coop finally shuts his mouth.
Axel gives my shoulder a squeeze in support, and I climb to my feet and walk over to Maddox. He opens his arms when I get closer and I wrap mine around his back. “I’m okay,” I say into his chest.
“Good. That’s good,” he says and gives me a small squeeze before releasing me.
“Get over here, Izzy,” I hear Axel say behind me. I roll my eyes at Maddox before turning around and walking back to Axel. “Mine,” he says to Maddox and pulls me into his body.
We get a rare laugh out of Maddox, and just like that, the tension in the room is lifted and we are able to breathe easy again.
Greg and Dee are fine. The baby and I are fine. And Axel’s arms are around me.
Life is good.
CHAPTER 21
4 months later
“You almost ready, baby?” Axel asks, sliding his arms around my waist and rubbing his hands over my swollen belly. I started to really show a few weeks ago. My small pouch went gone from making me look slightly overweight to a definite baby bump. I love it, but I love it more when Axel comes up behind me and places his hands over my small bump.
When I have moments like this, just Axel and me, I am reminded how lucky we are. It’s been a hard road for us both since that day with Brandon. I have been plagued with nightmares, and Axel has been dealing with his worry about my mental state. About two months after Brandon’s attack, I made an appointment with Dr. Maxwell. We both knew I wasn’t dealing with taking his life well. Finally, four months later, I have come to terms with everything that happened. My nightmares are few and far between, but I am alive and so are the people I love. I have become stronger and stronger every day, and it is all because of this man.
I continue to fix my make up while he rolls his fingers around my skin. “We need to get going soon if we’re going to make your appointment.”
“Okay, I’m hurrying. I would have been ready by now but there is nothing that fits anymore.” I put down my mascara and turn in his arms.
I step up on my toes and wrap my arms around his neck, burying my hands into his thick hair. I look at myself in the mirror and can’t help the small smile that forms. My hair is hanging in long waves down my back. My makeup is done in neutral tones to match the soft yellow color of my sundress. The material stretches across my ample chest but flares out against my belly.
“Worth it, baby. I love seeing you carrying my baby.” He brings his hands down and pulls me up by my hips, placing me on the counter.
“Be careful, Axel. Right now you’re asking to be really late,” I warn, opening my legs up for him to walk closer to my body. My dress pushes higher up my thighs.
My belly pushes into his hard stomach. He barks out a laugh before pressing his lips to mine and making my toes curl with the heat of his kiss. “Princess, I could take you right now and you wouldn’t even fucking care if we missed that appointment, and don’t think I don’t know you’ve been crossing the days off until this one.”
He is not wrong. We have our twenty-week baby appointment today and we are finally going to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. Axel is firm that it is a boy. I keep going back and forth, but deep down, I hope it is. I can just picture a little version of Axel running around the house.
I curl my hands into the fabric of his shirt, humming my agreement, and lean in for another kiss. Right before his lips hit mine, there is a sharp kick against my belly. Axel snaps back and looks down in complete shock. We have been trying to get him to feel the baby kick for weeks now, but either the baby wasn’t having it or Axel just wasn’t there when the baby was active. Either way, this is the first time he has felt any movement.
He looks down at my rounded stomach and then quickly back up to my eyes. The look of pure wonder in his eyes brings a smile to my lips. He is completely transfixed with this little person in my belly.
I reach down and grab his hands before placing them on the center of my bump. The baby kicks a few more times. I keep my eyes glued to Axel’s face, watching the emotions play across his handsome features. Shock, awe, and enchantment. He is fascinated with this feeling—feeling of our baby.
“What are you thinking?” I ask him after a few minutes.
He looks up at me with his smile wide and his eyes bright. “How fucking lucky I am.” He leans down and gives me a kiss, not once removing his hands from my active belly.
“Hey!” we hear Dee yelling up the stairs. “Where are y’all?”
Axel groans and helps me down from the counter. He might have offered for Dee to stay with us, but I can tell she is starting to get under his skin. She has a knack of knowing right when things are heating up. I love her, but right now, she is my little happy cock blocker.
“Play nice, Daddy.” I laugh and slap him on the ass before walking around him and out of the bedroom.
I slide my feet into some flip-flops and walk down to meet Dee in the foyer. She looks stunning in a long orange maxi dress that fits tight to her body.
“You suck, you skinny bitch,” I say and smile up at her. Of course she towers over me in her four-inch heels. I’m the midget around the giants. These days, the only thing that feels good is flip-flops.
“Whatever, Iz! You look beautiful! Doesn’t she, Axel?”
He snorts but keeps walking down the stairs.
“Where’s G?” I ask them. It’s debatable who was more excited about the baby when we told everyone, Dee or Greg.
We told everyone together when we had a small ‘family only’ party at the house to welcome Greg home. He had stayed in the hospital for almost two weeks after the shooting but was one hundred perfect healed now. When we told them, Dee broke down in tears, Maddox gave me a rare smile, Coop praised Axel on his super swimmers, and Beck offered a polite congratulations. Greg, however, had hollered his excitement and pulled me into a big hug, which earned a growl from Axel. Greg just laughed and hugged me tighter.
From that day on, he’s called daily and checked on my progress. He has bought baby books and is constantly filling us in on baby info. I knew he would be happy for us, but he is over-the-moon excited to become an uncle.
“He said he was running late. Something about an appointment and would meet us at the office,” Axel calls from the kitchen
.
I look over at Dee and she just shrugs her shoulders.
I follow Axel’s voice and find him in the kitchen checking his emails on his phone. He looks up and I stop when I see the hunger in his eyes.
“Look good enough to eat, Princess. Can’t wait to get back here so I can drag you back to the bedroom. Need to be buried deep, baby.”
“Oh my god, Iz! That was seriously hot!” Dee says from behind me. I close my eyes and hear Axel let out a string of curses.
“How’s the house hunting going, Dee?” he asks, and I laugh at her puzzled expression.
“We love having you here, Dee, but have you thought about finding a place yet?”
She looks down and goes silent.
“Dee?” I prompt.
“I don’t know if I can do it yet,” she says after a few seconds of silence.
I give Axel a pointed stare, and he gets it. Dee’s been struggling since the Brandon scene. She has trouble feeling safe and usually sticks close to one of us. She has been working more and more at Axel’s desk in the home office than he is.
“Okay, Dee, we get it. Promise.”
She looks over at me with a frown, and I can see the fear in her eyes.
“Stay as long as you want.” Axel offers.
She nods her head and then leaves the room to grab her purse.
“You okay with that, Ax?” I know he is ready to have his house back, but he just gives me a nod with nothing but understanding swimming in his green eyes.
We leave the house a few minutes later and make the short drive into town to the ultrasound clinic. Axel holds my hand the whole way and a content smile plays at his lips. I smile over at him and thank my lucky stars that he is back in my life.
When we pull up in front of the office, I see Greg standing outside the doors with his phone to his ear. He looks up when he hears the rumble of Axel’s truck and quickly says his goodbyes. I look over at Axel, wondering if he caught the abrupt end to Greg’s call.
“Stay out of it, Izzy. He wants you to know, he will tell you, yeah?”
I grumble but stay quiet while he walks around the truck and opens my door before taking me gently around the hips and bringing me to my feet. I hear his moan when I brush against his cock.
“Do not get my dick hard right before I go see my baby,” he laughs but can’t disguise the strain in his voice.
“Later,” I promise and walk around him to give Greg a big hug. Dee hangs back but comes up to give Greg a hug, too.
“You ready, baby girl?” he asks with a smile.
“God, yes. Last-minute guess on your niece or nephew?”
He smiles and looks over my shoulder at Axel. “Boy, baby girl. That is definitely going to be a boy.”
“Why do all of you seem so sure it’s going to be a boy?”
They both laugh loudly, and Dee and I just look at each other with confused faces.
“Baby girl, look at him. There is no fucking way he made a girl. No way.” He is still laughing when we walk into the reception area and I sign in. I shoot him a few dirty looks before sitting down next to Axel and thumbing through a baby magazine.
We wait for about fifteen minutes before they call me back.
“Is it okay if my family comes back, too?” I ask the technician.
“Sure, honey. The more the merrier.”
We follow her down a long hallway before entering the ultrasound room. It’s a large room with a couch off the side and a large recliner next to the ultrasound machine. The only other thing in the room is a large projector pointing down from the ceiling. When I sit down in the recliner, I notice that the large wall in front of me is a screen for viewing.
“Here you go. Place this sheet over your lap. That way we don’t flash everyone in the process.” She laughs and helps me cover up.
I look over to Axel and see the nervous anticipation on his face. He smiles at me and grabs my outstretched hand.
“Love you,” he mouths to me.
“Love you too,” I return.
“All right Ms. West. Let’s get you ready.”
I smile at Axel one more time when I see the frown on his face over the use of my last name. He was not happy with me when I told him that I wanted to wait for the baby to be born before we got married. He grudgingly agreed when I bribed him with sex.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be married to Axel, just the opposite. I couldn’t wait to be Mrs. Axel Reid, but it just felt right that our baby be there with us. When I sat him down and explained my reasons for wanting to wait, he wasn’t so upset anymore, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it.
“I’m just going to do some measurements before we take a look and see if this little one wants to make an announcement today, okay?”
I nod my head, too engrossed with the image of our baby on the large screen in front of us. Axel squeezes my hand, and I hear him let out a shuddered breath.
“Amazing,” I hear Greg whisper to Dee, who is too busy sniffling in her tissue to answer.
When the baby’s heartbeat fills the room, we all seem to pause in amazement. It never fails to fill my heart with joy to hear that fast-paced beating.
“You ready, Mom and Dad?” she asks us with a smile.
“Yes,” Axel says quickly before I can open my mouth.
I look up at her and smile. She gives me a wink before turning her attention back to the screen.
“Well, will you look at that? Someone isn’t shy at all.” She laughs to herself, and we sit there all looking at the moving little image on the screen.
It doesn’t take long for us to see what she was talking about. Right there, larger than life, is my son just letting it all hang out. Axel lets out a loud whoop and jumps up from his chair. He leans down and gives me a kiss before slapping hands with Greg. I laugh at their antics and wipe the tears from my face.
Axel comes back to my side and leans over me. Taking my face in his hands and pushing his nose up to mine, he rubs his nose against my own, and the smile that takes over his face makes my heart speed up.
“We’re having a boy,” he says. “You’re giving me a son.” He places a soft kiss to my lips and briefly closes his eyes. When he opens them, they are so full of love and happiness. “Making my dreams come true, Princess. Making my life worth living. Love you so much, baby.”
I grab his head, and push my face up to his, and give him a kiss that I hope expresses my feelings.
“I love you, Axel.”
The rest of the appointment passes in a blur. Axel continues to hold my hand and shake with his excitement. He is itching to get out of this room so he can scream to the world that he is about to have a son.
When we finish, the technician hands us some prints and he scoops them up before I can even take them, thanking her while looking down through the images. He is like a kid with a new toy. Completely enamored.
I go up to pay and Axel steps outside, immediately jumping on the phone. Chances are, the whole state will know when he is done that we are having a boy.
I finish paying and turn around to find Greg standing behind me.
“Happy, baby girl?”
“More than you could even imagine.”
He smiles and throws his arm around me and gives me a quick hug.
Axel turns, sees him, and pauses in his conversation. “Hands off, Cage!”
Greg laughs and drops his arm.
“Let’s go! The gang is meeting us at Heavy’s to celebrate my boy!” he yells across the parking lot.
The only thing I can think of is that I put that peacefulness in his tone and together we are finally where we are meant to be.
EPILOGUE
5 Months Later
Axel
I have been running around all day trying to make sure everything is in place for tonight. It’s Izzy’s birthday, and between anxiously waiting for our son to decide to come and dealing with the memories that still plague her around this day, it was turning out to be a nightmare.
So far, the only highlight of today was seeing the blinding smile on her face when she woke up. Other than that . . . anything that could have gone wrong has.
The caterer is late, the cake hasn’t shown up, and the birthday girl will be here in an hour.
I am officially losing my shit.
This day has to be perfect. Dee took Izzy early this morning to spend the day at the salon next to the office. I avoid that place. I don’t care how many times Izzy tells me that weird little man is harmless—I’m not buying it. The other day, he pinched my ass, which Izzy thought was hilarious. I couldn’t even be mad about it when she was standing there laughing. Her large belly was bouncing with each breath. It was almost worth asking him to do it again if it got that kind of reaction from my girl.
The last few months have flown by. We have spent every second getting the nursery ready and finally filling my house with more furniture than one person should ever own in one lifetime. It keeps a smile on her face and it makes her happy. I would bend over backwards if it means that smile stays on her face.
These last few days have been harder on her. Not only has she been dealing with an overdue baby, but the Georgia heat is making her miserable. We all do what we can to make things easier, but I can tell it is getting harder on her.
Yesterday was a bad day. She spent the day in bed crying and wouldn’t let me leave her side. She would say things about our angel baby missing out on his little brother. It killed me to hear her talk like that, but I would be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind too. We have worked hard to overcome our loss, even going to therapy a few times to talk about things that were still painful. We are closer than ever, but that doesn’t mean that things don’t still sit heavy on our hearts.
“Yo! Reid, got the cake. That bitch at the bakery tried to tell me that you didn’t tell her you needed it this afternoon. Got it, but damn that shit wasn’t pretty.” Coop comes through the door with the stupid fucking cake I have been screaming at the bakery over for the last two days. Idiots.
“Dee just called. She said Sway was finally done rubbing all over Izzy’s belly and has just started her hair. Should be another two hours now. Good news is, we can figure out where those fucking caterers are,” Greg says, coming into the kitchen from the deck.