Since Bethy was closing tonight, and Easton and I had the night off, we were having a family dinner after Cheyenne’s softball practice. I couldn’t wait to hear what Jimmy and Jane thought about Nicole. From what I saw, they’d loved her, but I still wanted to make sure.
Before I left for their house, I called Nicole. She didn’t answer. I double checked the time and she should have been home and waiting for my call. It’s what we did every night. Thinking that she must have just been away from her phone, I left a message telling her that I’d call once I got home from dinner.
I pulled up to Jimmy and Jane’s just as Easton pulled up with Cheyenne. Cheyenne ran over to me while Easton slowly got out of his car. We nodded our hellos.
“Oh my God, Uncle A! Today in practice, I dove for a ball. I dove like Brooke told me she used to do.”
“That’s awesome, C.C.!”
“Except, I didn’t stop the ball.”
I laughed slightly. “It takes practice, C.C. Took me a few tries to get the timing down and I still would miss some.”
“At second base?”
“Yep.” I walked towards the front door with my hand on her head. She didn’t complain about her hair like she had when Easton touched her hair on the plane. Softball was toughening her up already.
“Do you miss playing? I mean, since you’re old?” She smiled.
“Peanut!” Easton scolded from behind us. “I told you we’re not old.”
“Then why don’t you both still play?”
“Because we have you, munchkin,” I answered.
“I’m old enough to go to your games.”
“Our games would be late at night and past your bedtime,” Easton said.
“Well, I love playing and I think that you two should play again.” She opened the front door, not waiting for us to respond.
It had been years since either one of had played baseball, but the more I watched Cheyenne play, the more I missed it. Maybe she was right? Maybe we should see about joining an adult league.
“Sorry about that. You know she doesn’t know why you stopped playing,” Easton said.
“Nah, it’s cool. Maybe we should?”
“Really?” His eyes lit up.
“Really what?” Jimmy asked.
“Maybe Easton and I should start throwing the ball around again.”
“Really?” they both asked in unison.
“Yeah.” I smiled. “I’m starting to miss the game, and if C.C. wants me to show her my moves, I need to start practicing.”
I left Easton and Jimmy staring at each other. They had both been there when I gave up and didn’t join the minor league. They’d supported me. I hadn’t thrown a ball since my last game in college, but things change. People change.
It was time for me to change.
“Av, can you open this?” Jane asked, handing me a jar of pasta sauce.
“Smells good in here,” I said, taking the jar from her hands.
“It’s just spaghetti.”
“And garlic bread,” Jimmy said, walking into the kitchen.
“With extra cheese?”
“Of course. I know how my boys like it.”
“I can’t wait. I’ve been trying to cut down on my cheese intake.”
“Why?” Jane asked.
“Nicole’s been having a bad reaction to it lately, so I try not to eat it in front of her. She says she loves cheese, but can’t eat it.” I shrug.
“Well, you better get your fill now,” Jimmy said.
“I plan on it.” I smiled. “I asked her to move in with me.”
“You did?” Jane beamed.
“Yeah, but let’s not tell East. I don’t want him to feel like he has to ask Brooke, and we don’t want to tell Brooke with everything that’s going on.”
“Your secret’s safe with me,” Jane said, using her fingers to lock her mouth.
Easton and Cheyenne came in a few minutes later and we sat down for dinner. I hated keeping secrets from my best friend, but Brooke was having surgery on Friday. Once she was well, Nicole was moving.
Period.
After dinner, Cheyenne told us all about softball. I think we all loved the fact that she was taking after Dana in some way. I remember Dana playing high school softball. She was pretty good at fielding, but a terrible batter. Maybe I could talk Easton into letting me help coach?
I left about an hour later. It was almost nine and I needed to say goodnight to my girl before she crashed. I hadn’t talked to her all day and she hadn’t called me either. She knew I was having dinner with The Crawfords, but I still wished she would have at least texted me. I missed her.
I drove home, trying her cell again with no answer. I was starting to worry. She knew I’d be calling after dinner. I tried her again, still no answer. I was about to call Easton and ask him if the girls were together tonight, but as I pulled up to my townhouse, I saw Nicole sitting on my front steps in her work scrubs.
I parked quickly and jumped out of my truck. “What are you doing here?” I asked, pulling her to me as she stood.
“I have something to tell you,” she said, hugging me back.
“It’s not that I don’t love that you’re here, but you couldn’t tell me over the phone?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
I stared into her beautiful blue eyes that were dark from the night sky and her face only lit by my porch light. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Let’s go inside,” she said, giving a sad smile.
I took a deep breath and unlocked my front door. If she were breaking up with me, then this night had just become the worst night of my life. But would she drive four and half hours just to break up with me? Why would she break up with me after we’d just said we loved each other?
I didn’t like not knowing.
I slowly opened the door, looking over my shoulder as she smiled tight again. I let her walk in first, and then I shut the door behind us. The silence was killing me, and the few seconds it took to open and close the door felt like an eternity. I even felt like I was physically moving slower. Maybe I was. I didn’t want time to speed up if she was leaving me. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked her to move in. Maybe I was moving too fast. Maybe I scared her away.
“Are you breaking up with me?” I blurted.
Fuck it, I had to know.
“What?” She had started to sit on my couch, but stood at my question. “No. Oh my God, no!”
“Can you just put me out of my misery then? The suspense is killing me,” I said, not sure if I should go to her.
“Come here.” She reached out her hand to me. I looked down at it, then back up to her face. “Come sit with me. I swear I’m not breaking up with you.”
I walked forward, slowly.
“You might break up with me, but I’m not breaking up with you.”
“What?” I shouted, stopping a few feet from her. “Why would I break up with you?” Did she cheat on me? That would be the only reason why I’d break up with her.
“Okay, maybe that was the wrong choice of words. Just let me talk. I’ve had four and half hours to think about what I was going to say.”
“You’re scaring the shit out of me, Baby.”
“Great,” she murmured, barely audible, but I still heard her. We both sat on the couch, our knees facing each other. All I wanted to do was wrap her in my arms and kiss her, but she hadn’t made any move to show me that I still could. “Remember our first night on the cruise?”
I nodded. I remembered everything about that night. Her smile. The way she’d laughed at my corny jokes. How she’d touched me for the first time. The first time our lips met. The way she’d tasted. The way she’d smelled. How I’d thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. How I’d fallen in love with her the moment I saw her.
“Actually, remember the next day when we started our game and said we’d never lie to one another?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve never lied to yo
u.”
“That’s good.” I chuckled awkwardly.
“Okay, now go back to our first night together. Remember what happened?”
A huge smile spread across my face. “How could I forget?”
She smiled back. “Remember how the condom broke?”
“Yeah?”
“Okay, I’m just going to say it.”
Good because she’s really freaking me the fuck out.
“I’m pregnant,” she said, staring into my eyes with a sad smile.
Pregnant? She was pregnant?
“You’re…?”
She nodded.
“With my…?”
She nodded again.
“We’re going to be…?”
She nodded a third time.
I moved fast. One minute I was sitting next to Nicole, staring at her. The next I was on her like a cat in heat. She was going to have my baby. My baby. The love of my life was going to have my baby!
I’d had the itch to kiss her since the moment I saw her on my steps, but we’d never got that far, so I was kissing her all over now. I kissed her forehead, her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her ears, her neck and then back up to her lips. She was giggling below me, a sound I was scared I would never get the chance to hear again.
“So you’re not mad?” She laughed.
“How could I be mad?”
“I don’t know. Because I’m pregnant and we just started dating?”
“It’s because you’re the one I’m supposed to be with. Forever.”
“I like the sound of that.” She smirked.
“We can still…you know?” I asked, looking down at her breasts.
“Yeah.” She laughed.
“Good.” I leaned down and kissed her again, my hands working blindly as I started to tug at her scrub top to pull over her head.
Her hands reached for my T-shirt and we tugged, our mouths still pressed together. Lifting up, I pulled my shirt over my head and threw it on the floor. Nicole sat up so I could take her top off. I stared at her stomach for a few seconds then back up to her eyes.
“My baby’s in there?” It was a question, but I meant it more like a realization.
“Yeah.” She smiled.
“You have no idea how awesome I’m going to be as a dad! I’m not going to be like my parents. I’m going to be the exact opposite.” I kissed my way down her chest to her belly where my baby was. “I’ve had practice with Cheyenne, but this is my baby and I’m never leaving it.”
I didn’t care that we weren’t married or barely knew each other. For years I’d wanted to be a father, and in the end everything had happened for a reason. There was a reason we’d met on the cruise. There was a reason the condom broke. There was a reason she got pregnant.
She didn’t respond as I hooked my fingers in the elastic band of her scrub pants and started to tug them down. She lifted her butt and I shimmied them off with her panties, leaving her in only her bra. My dick was already straining against my jeans, searching for his prize. I scooted down the couch. One of her legs was resting on the back of the couch, the other on the floor. Her pussy was glistening, waiting for me to eat it.
“I’m glad you’re here.” I looked back up to her gorgeous face.
“Me too.”
I leaned down, my tongue running up her folds. She moaned at the contact and my dick jerked, wanting to break free. Soon Nicole would move in with me and I could do this whenever I wanted. I hated the distance between us.
Her arousal was my new favorite drink. If I could bottle it, I would. She was sweet like the nectar from a peach. The more my tongue licked, the more her juices got in my mouth, and I drank it like I hadn’t had water in days.
Nicole’s hands found my hair and her touch sent a shock through my body all the way to my toes. I wanted to savor this moment. I wanted it to last forever. But if I didn’t bury myself deep in her warmth, I’d bust a nut all over my couch.
Slipping two fingers inside her, she moaned again as I worked every inch of her pussy until her body jerked and she moaned her release. I kissed her while she came down from her high, my hands roaming her body.
“Now, my baby momma, on your knees and bend over the arm of the couch,” I said, kissing her nose.
“Yes, sir, baby daddy, sir!” She giggled.
I slapped her bare ass as she rose, then removed my jeans and boxers as she looked over her shoulder at me.
“So since you’re pregnant, I can go bareback now, right?”
“Yeah,” she said, biting her lip.
“Dammit, Nic,” I said, lining up my body with hers. “You and that fucking lip bite.”
“Just fuck me already.”
I cracked a sly smile at her. “With pleasure.”
She watched me over her shoulder as I eased into her, little by little, the warmth of her heat engulfing my dick. “Fuck,” I groaned. “You have no idea how good this feels with nothing between us.”
She moaned her response, pressing back into me with her ass until I was buried to the hilt. On my knees on the couch, I gripped her hips and began to thrust. She slid back as I thrust forward, our bodies moving together. My hands tighten on her hips, hers on the arm of the couch and we rocked.
“Oh God,” she moaned. “I’m so close.”
Reaching back, her hand slipped between her legs, her head resting on the arm of the couch, and my thrusts quickened at the sight. Sweat began to coat my skin as I continued to pound into her from behind. Everything about the sight in front of me was bringing me closer to the edge. Nicole’s ass in the air, her eyes closed as she pleasured herself, and the little moans coming from her mouth.
Her pussy clenched my dick and it was enough to make my body jerk. Cum squirted deep inside her, my ass clenching and my hips rocking as her warm pussy took all of my seed. She moaned at her release, panting until we were both exhausted.
“I didn’t hurt the baby did I?”
“No.” She laughed. “It doesn’t work that way.”
After we’d cleaned up, we went to bed. I didn’t want to think about the fact that she’d be leaving me again to return to Boston the next day. Now that we found out that she was pregnant, I didn’t want her to keep making the drive. I knew that wasn’t realistic, but I was counting down the days until I didn’t have to watch her leave.
I called in sick to work the next day. I honestly didn’t care if they knew I really wasn’t sick. I didn’t tell them that I drove to New York after work; I just told them I needed a personal day. And I did.
Avery cooked me breakfast and now that we knew I was tired from being pregnant and hating cheese because I was pregnant, we didn’t need to worry that something was seriously wrong with me. I was just carrying his baby.
I’d always thought that I would be married and settled down before I had a baby—and maybe I would be by the time she gets here. Of course, I didn’t know if I was having a girl, but it just sounded better than it.
After breakfast, Avery gave me a key to our townhouse and once again we had to say good-bye. I couldn’t wait until I didn’t have to make the drive anymore. I hated everything about it, especially watching New York disappear in my rearview mirror.
I wanted to tell Brooke about my pregnancy, but I couldn’t. She had too much going on in her life and plus, I still needed to confirm it with a doctor, find out how far along I was and if I did get pregnant our first night together. So instead, I acted like it was any other Wednesday—except it wasn’t.
Brooke was having surgery in three days. She’d gone to the doctor for a second opinion and after talking to all her doctors and Dr. Sam, she scheduled her surgery. When she told me what day she was having surgery, I knew I had to get her sister to Boston. Brooke didn’t tell Bailee about her tumor, but I had to. If something was to happen and Bailee wasn’t there, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
I called Bailee the day Brooke told me she scheduled her surgery.
“Hey, Nic,” Bailee answered on the th
ird ring. “Or should I call you Mrs. Scott?”
I laughed. “Not yet.”
“How are you?” she asked.
We made small talk before I jumped in and got to the reason for my call out of the way. “Bai, remember in Cabo how Brooke was complaining about her shoulder?”
“Yeah?”
“Well…” I paused, looking out my kitchen window at nothing in particular. “She went to my doctor the day after we got back from the cruise.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” I heard Bailee sigh with relief. “Well, kinda. I mean…shit.”
“You mean shit?” She laughed.
“No.” I laughed back. “She has a tumor, Bai.” I stopped laughing.
“Oh…”
“Before you get all worried, we don’t know if it’s cancerous and she’s scheduled for surgery next Friday.”
“Oh my God! Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Brookie didn’t want you to worry. You know how she is.”
“I do, but I’m her sister. I should know.”
“I know.” I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “That’s why I’m calling you. I want to book you a flight to come here when she has her surgery.”
“Okay. I’ll tell my teachers tomorrow. Book me a redeye on Thursday and I’ll go straight to the hospital from the airport when I get in.”
It was the day of Brooke’s surgery. Avery and I picked up Brooke and Easton as the sun started to rise and we drove to the hospital just like we had the day of Brooke’s biopsy. But this wasn’t just another test. This was the day. The day that might change our lives forever.
After Brooke checked in and the nurse brought her back to get her prepped for surgery, I felt like I was going to throw up. I still had heartburn off and on, and once I’d found out I was pregnant, I stopped drinking coffee. I was craving the caffeine. No alcohol and no caffeine for nine months, I might kill someone before I had my baby.
The One (The Halo Series Book 2) Page 13