by Max Monroe
“Because things were going well. I didn’t need any guidance while things were going well.”
Cassie snorts. “God, I really do love men.”
“What?” I question.
“It’s never actually going well,” Winnie supplies. “Not until all the chaos settles.”
“And man,” Georgia chimes in, “you sure had a boatload of chaos going on over there.”
“It’s Hollywood,” Cassie says with a nod. “I’m a little disappointed you didn’t expect this.”
“Expect to get my heart broken?” I ask as all the women look at one another like Cassie just said something she shouldn’t have. “What are you guys talking about?”
Georgia looks panicked, and Cassie slides over on the coffee table to position herself in front of her.
“Okay,” I say. “Something is definitely going on. Who’s going to tell me what—”
“Harrison,” Cap interrupts, using my real name for what might be the first time ever. “Door.”
Now hot on the women’s suspicious trail, I wave him off. “You get it.” I have no fucking clue who it could be anyway. The gang’s all here.
“No,” Cap replies, surprising me entirely. “I think you should get it.”
Annoyed, I jump up from the couch and charge to the door, and when I arrive, I don’t open it gently. A dramatic, harsh motion swings the wood toward me, and the instant I take in the visitor on the other side—a wide-eyed Rocky, looking painfully beautiful with our baby in her belly—I turn into a man made of stone.
I’m so shocked, I don’t think I could move if I wanted to.
“Rocky?” I whisper. “What are you doing here?” The necessary logistics hit me like a wave, and I panic. “How did you get here? Jesus.” She’s so close to her due date and I know she shouldn’t be flying and I’m just about to ask her all of those very things, but her sweet, quiet voice fills the space between us.
“Can I come inside?” she says simply. My head nods before she even finishes asking.
I walk her into the kitchen, and she takes it upon herself to sit down in one of the chairs at the table. I stay standing in front of her.
It’s worth noting, the formerly boisterous, uninvited party guests are quieter than church mice now.
“Okay…can I first start by saying how good it is to see you?” Her voice breaks at the end of the question, and my heart squeezes. “I wasn’t sure I would again, and…” She pauses as threatening tears choke off her voice temporarily. “I’m sorry,” she says, embarrassed, and then raises her shoulders in a shrug. “I missed you.”
I can’t take it anymore. I have to touch her. Swiftly, I pick her weight up off of the chair and pull her into my arms. She comes willingly, wrapping her arms around me so fiercely, I think she might be clinging to me harder than I’m clinging to her. We’re as close and tight as two people can be when there’s a pregnant belly between them.
And her whisper is quiet but unmistakable from our tight hug. “I love you, Harrison. I’m hormonal and tired and confused about a lot of things, but I know without a shadow of a doubt, you are the man I’m meant to be with.”
My chest expands like a balloon. Oh, thank fuck.
I hear a manly sniffle behind me, and if I had to guess, I’d say it’s coming from Thatch. But I have absolutely no interest in the other people in the room right now. The only thing that matters at this moment—the only thing that’s mattered from the moment we reconnected that night in August—is Rocky and me.
“I love you too, Rock. Probably always have. There’s never been anyone like you.”
I take her head in my hands and pull her back just enough to wipe away fallen tears with the sweep of my thumb. And then, I seal our lips in a kiss.
When we finally pull away, the peanut gallery is cheering and clapping so loud, I’m pretty sure my neighbors will be filing a complaint with the co-op board.
And I don’t care at all.
Keeping an arm around Rocky, I turn to face the group and find Cap’s eyes immediately. He’s smiling like a smug bastard, and the answers start to come together.
“You knew she was coming.”
He shrugs. And then winks.
“I can’t believe you flew here,” I say to her. “Why didn’t you just call? I would have gotten on a plane to you. It would have been so much safer.”
She looks from me to Cap and back again, and when I look over at the group, they’re all doing a real shit job of acting innocent again.
“All right, what’s going on?”
Rocky turns me around and sits me down in the chair she vacated, and immediately, I know what I’m about to hear isn’t going to be good.
I’m a pragmatic guy. Not prone to anger. And she knows that. Which means what she’s about to tell me is bad. I try to steady myself in preparation. The last thing she needs is me flying off the handle and stressing her out.
“Okay. Well. First of all, I paid Dr. Simpson to fly here with me, so you don’t have to worry. I went about it safely, and I was never in any danger.”
“Second of all?”
“Second of all…I’ve been trying to call you since yesterday. Every time I try, it tells me your number is disconnected.”
My eyebrows draw together. “How can that be?”
She licks her lips and grabs my hand to hold on to it. “I’m not sure. I just know that when I texted Cap to yell at him, he told me your number was the same.”
“Why didn’t you answer my calls or texts, then?”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “I didn’t get any. And I know my phone is working because Heidi has been calling me nonstop for the last seven hours since I snuck away.”
“And what about when I was at your apartment last night and you were locked in your bedroom, outright refusing to talk to me?” I ask, and she tilts her head to the side in confusion.
“Locked in my bedroom? What are you talking about?”
“I was at your apartment last night, Rock. You told me to go away.”
“Uh…I did no such thing,” she says, and her eyes are about to bug out of her head. “I didn’t get back from set until, like, two in the morning, and the first place I went was your apartment, but you weren’t there.”
“You’re fucking with me, right?”
She shakes her head. “I swear, Harrison.”
“What the fucking fuck?” Anger floods my veins, and I try like hell to stay calm.
Cassie appears beside us, her hand held out. “Can I see your phone, Rocky?”
Rocky pulls it from her pocket and offers it up without complaint.
Cassie concentrates as she roots around, and then finally, spins the phone around for us to look at. It’s a list of numbers with mine at the top. “That’s my number,” I say. “What is that?”
Cassie bites her lips and then swiftly and bluntly breaks the news like only she can do. “Rocky’s blocked numbers list. And I’m guessing by the way she’s looking at you, she’s not the one who blocked you.”
“Seriously? What the fuck?” I yell, jumping to my feet and forgetting all about keeping a cool head. “Who the fuck would do something like that?”
But no sooner than I’ve asked the question, I’m certain I have the answer. “Heidi.”
When I look at Rocky, she’s nodding. “I think so. I don’t have any physical proof yet, but she’s the one who told me you left. That you didn’t want to come to set.”
“That’s bullshit!” I shout again, and Cap clamps a hand down on my shoulder.
“Relax, dude. If this bitch really schemed the two of you this way, I’m going to nail her ass to the wall.”
“No,” Ruby contests. “I am.”
“We all are,” Kline says definitively. “We all know powerful people. We’ll use them.”
“I’m all about the mob mentality you guys have going right now when it comes to taking down the evil lady who tried to backhandedly turn Harrison and me against each other in a bid to not only control
my life and secure her income, but to also, in all probability, use my child as a means to gain more control and money…but it’s kind of going to have to wait a little bit,” Rocky says in one big breath followed by a giggle.
“What?” Cap roars. “Why?”
“Well…because I can’t be sure, but I think maybe…kind of…sort of…my water just broke.” Rocky glances down between her legs, and the wet spot on her shorts and the small puddle of fluid on the floor beneath her makes the evidence pretty clear. “I…uh…think I’m about to have the baby.”
“Oh my God!” I shout as the room erupts into a manic mix of elation and panicked chatter. I grab on to Rocky quickly and help her down into the chair behind her. “We have to get you to the doctor.”
“What doctor?” she laughs sardonically. “I brought Dr. Simpson with me on the plane just to make sure I didn’t give birth by myself midflight, but she’s already on the way home. She had other clients she had to get back to,” Rocky updates, but then grips her belly and takes a deep, stuttered breath, blowing the air out through pursed lips. “Oh boy, are you supposed to feel contractions that soon after your water breaks?”
“Yeah, okay.” Georgia steps up immediately, phone in hand. “I’m going to call my brother.”
“Don’t worry,” Kline comforts. “He’s not just some guy off the street. He’s the best OB-GYN in New York, and he’ll admit you with absolute discretion. You won’t have to worry about the press.”
“That’s great,” Rocky says as she begins to breathe through what must be another contraction. “I just hope he’s good at answering the phone too!”
Raquel
Mamma mia, I’m going to push a baby out of my vagina today!
Georgia’s brother greets us at the secret ambulance bay of St. Luke’s hospital, quickly getting me inside and into a wheelchair to push me up to the private maternity ward on the fourth floor.
As we walk, he says hello to Harrison and introduces himself to me. “Hi, Rocky. Dr. Will Cummings. It’s nice to meet you. I understand that you probably don’t think it’s very nice to meet me right now, seeing as you’ve got a cute little human trying to make its way out of your body and you didn’t imagine not meeting your doctor at all before having that come to pass. But I promise I’ll do my best to assure you’re as comfortable as humanly possible while we make it happen, okay?”
I nod; it’s all I can manage as a contraction grabs ahold of my will to do anything other than scream bloody murder and smother it.
“Great,” he says cheerfully. “My wife, Melody, is going to be your nurse, so you won’t have to worry about someone you can’t trust breaching your privacy. I assure you, we’re dedicated to making this a happy experience for you.”
I nod again. “Good.”
He laughs. “Please, stop talking, Dr. Will. I got it. Reading you loud and clear, right?”
I can’t not smile. “No offense, but yes.”
He grins. “None taken.”
Finally at my room, he wheels me inside and gives Harrison a good-natured salute. “Okay, I’ll leave the two of you to get settled, and we’ll be back in shortly to get Raquel admitted and everything going. Congratulations, guys.”
Harrison steps forward to help me from the chair while I wheeze in pain, wrapping his arms around me from behind and letting me lean all of my weight into him. “I’m so sorry it hurts, Rock. You’re doing so good, baby.”
I nod, breathing through the contraction until it finally passes, and then using the two minutes off to change into my gown.
A few minutes later, Melody, my nurse, comes in to put an IV in my vein, draw some blood for lab work, and put the baby’s heartbeat and my contractions on a monitor.
The whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sound of our little baby’s heartbeat fills the room, and it is music to my ears. Well, between all the horrible contraction pain, that is. During a contraction, it is freaking impossible for anything to be music to my ears.
Once I’m settled in the bed, thrashing around seems like the only way to get any relief as contraction after contraction rolls through me.
Through it all, though, Harrison is so fucking supportive, getting me ice chips and wiping my forehead with a cool cloth whenever I let out even the slightest of a whimper. And with every passing contraction, the lump in my throat grows.
He is literally the best man I know, and I don’t feel like my lying ass deserves him.
It doesn’t matter that we’ve said our I love yous and compared our stories enough to know that Heidi changed Harrison’s number in my contacts, texted him from my phone a string of unbelievably hurtful things to convince him I wanted us to be over and then deleted the evidence, blocked his real number from my phone, lied to us both directly and indirectly, schemed to make sure we never connected, and even went so far as to record me insisting that people leave me the fuck alone in my trailer at work and using it against Harrison to make him leave… I still haven’t told him that the night we slept together—the night we got pregnant—I was knowingly unprotected against pregnancy by implying I was on birth control when I wasn’t.
Heidi isn’t the only evil, scheming witch…I’m one too!
Gah!
Between the contraction pain and the hormones and the adrenaline and my racing thoughts and Dr. Will and Melody getting the room set up for delivery and all of the fucking things happening around me right now, sudden tears burst from my eyes, and it’s all I can do not to wail at the top of my lungs.
“Rocky, baby, what’s wrong?” Harrison asks, rubbing at the back of my hand as a huge contraction barrels in on me.
Sweet Jesus and Lucifer at a pancake breakfast together, it feels like I’m getting fucked by a train!
Harrison is patient and kind and everything good, and I tricked him into having a baby with me! I can’t hold it in anymore!
As soon as the contraction stops sinking its claws into every fiber of my being, I blurt it out in a rush of words and spit and tears.
“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry that I’m having this baby that you’re having to have now.”
“Baby, what are you talking about?”
“I tricked you!” I cry. “You thought I was on birth control, but I was most definitely not on birth control. And I was a virgin! And you didn’t know that either. But you eventually found out that lie! Oh my God, I’m a horrible person!” My sobs ring out in the delivery room, and Dr. Will and Melody very graciously look the other way. I am a mess and a half, so when Harrison laughs, it is the very last thing in the world I expect.
“Why are you laugh—ahhhhh!” I scream as another contraction takes charge and ruins my life.
“Because you didn’t trick me,” he says, still laughing. “Rock,” he continues, tears in his eyes, making them spring to my own. “You saved me. That night is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Neither of us planned on this. I know that. But my God, I’m the luckiest son of a bitch in the world because it happened.”
My sobs are absolutely grotesque as Harrison puts his lips to my own, and a pain like I have never known grips me so fiercely, I could swear I’m going to be ripped in half.
My scream cuts our kiss short, and without my even having to say anything, Dr. Will and Melody jump into action.
When Harrison asks him how he knows it’s time, he says that a woman ready to push has a look and sound all her own. After this many years in the business, he’s learned it well.
It takes an hour of the most intense pushing, but when I finally succeed, it is the sincerest satisfaction I’ve ever felt in my life. Better than any career milestone, any award, and any amount of money.
“Congratulations, guys. It’s a beautiful, magical, incredibly loved little…girl,” are the best words I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
A girl. We have a girl.
A sob escapes my throat, and Harrison’s tears are hot and beautiful and special as they drip down onto my face, his arm around my shoulders and his head right above me.
Melody takes a quick peek at the baby to make sure she’s perfectly healthy as she takes her from Dr. Will’s arms, and then lays her on my chest.
Oh my goodness. She’s here. My little girl is finally here.
I stare down at her sweet little face, taking in her head full of dark hair and the way her big, wide, beautiful eyes blink open to take in the world.
Be still my beating heart.
“Proud of you, Rock. So damn proud of you,” Harrison whispers into my ear and then kisses my forehead. “I love you so much, baby. So, so much.”
I peek up at him. “I love you, too.”
He leans even closer, stroking the top of my head with one hand and using the other to stroke our beautiful daughter’s head in the same way.
“She’s beautiful, Rock. So beautiful,” he whispers. “And she needs a name.”
I smile and stare down at our little girl. “Ellie.”
Harrison glances at me in surprise, his eyes locking with mine. “You want to name her after my mom?”
I nod. “I can’t think of a more perfect name for our little girl.”
“Thank you,” he says and presses a gentle kiss to my lips.
And my tears are as strong as ever, but so incredibly happy as he whispers words he’s given me before, words he used to lift me up, right into the wide eyes of our sweet baby. “You’re not a daddy’s girl, Ellie. It’s the other way around. I’m this girl’s daddy. You are the star, you hear me? And I’ll be here to gaze at you while you shine every single step of the way.”
Welcome to the world, my sweet Ellie girl. You and your daddy are my whole life.
Raquel
It’s the middle of the night in a private hospital room in New York City. I’ve just given birth immediately after a cross-country dash and forty-eight hours of a volume of emotional trauma that could last a lifetime.
I’ve been betrayed by the very people I’ve held closest to me for years—people I’ve largely allowed to command every facet of my life—reunited with the man of my dreams, and played detective with a group of zany, overwhelmingly charming billionaires.