by Max Monroe
I should be at my wits’ end or frazzled or juggling the weight of what to do now.
Instead, I can honestly say I have never been more at peace.
Soft light from the street outside casts a glow on Harrison’s beautiful face as he sleeps with Ellie on his chest. She’s curled up tight, little cherub cheek to manly pec, her whole world content and right in the loving warmth of her daddy.
I grin at how her little baby butt sticks up in the air as she cuddles against his tanned, warm skin.
Is there anything cuter than a tiny baby’s bottom? Round and perfect and almost too big for their body. I think not.
A dreamy, content sigh escapes my lips.
The three of us like this, with trustworthy people like Dr. Will and Melody looking out for our privacy while we soak in what it’s like to be a real family—this is what dreams are made of.
Not star-studded walks down the red carpet. Not questions about my sex life on a tour of nonsense late shows. Not a hectic schedule dictated by a group of people who are dependent on my success for money.
My whole world is right here, in this room.
Another content sigh escapes my lips, a soft whoosh of air into the dimly lit silence. I don’t bother closing my eyes. I’m tired, sure, but lying here, watching my world come into focus with a clarity I’ve never felt before is worth the sacrifice of sleep.
I just want to take in the beauty that is Harrison and Ellie—my family.
When I was a kid, my family was a good family. A loving, caring family, even. But when we entered the world of Hollywood, everything changed. Our lives changed. My parents changed. Hell, my brother changed so much he had to leave everything behind, including me.
I don’t want that for my family.
I want safety and security. I want quiet, innocent, peaceful moments like this.
Ellie squirms a little on Harrison’s chest, and eventually my lovey-dovey gawk fest is disturbed when he opens his eyes and looks over at me.
“You okay?” he asks, likely because of my stare.
“Uh-huh.” Truthfully, I don’t think I’ve ever been better. And I just pushed a bowling ball out of my vagina, so…that’s saying something.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?”
I shrug and smile. “Too busy watching you two, I guess.”
Harrison glances down at the sweet little angel on his chest and presses a kiss to her forehead. “Our daughter is something, isn’t she?”
“She’s everything,” I whisper back, and unbidden tears start to fill my eyes. “Our little family is everything.”
His green eyes turn soft. “I know. I’ve never been happier in my whole damn life.”
“Me too.”
His face morphs from contentedness to a weird mix of serious and playful. His eyes, they’re alight, but the smile I’m used to finding comfort in is notably missing.
I can’t help but question it. “What? What is it?”
“I just…” He shakes his head a little, and my breath catches in my throat. “I have a little bit of bad news for you.”
My hand flies to my chest, settling onto the top of my racing heart. “What is it?”
“I’m going to marry you.” A surprised laugh escapes from my lips as a smile takes hold at the corner of his mouth and makes a dash across his face. “And I won’t take no for an answer.”
I could kill him for worrying me like that, but then I wouldn’t have a husband. Geez. A husband. The sound of forever with Harrison Hughes is so good, I have to use every single year of experience I’ve spent building my acting chops to make being aloof even the tiniest bit convincing. “Is that right?”
“Oh, baby, it is so right,” he responds with a sexy smirk and sits up to place a still-sleeping Ellie inside the hospital bassinet.
Before I know it, he’s sitting on the bed beside me like some sort of jujitsu master—or someone who doesn’t have on a giant pair of hospital underwear, a sore vagina, and an ice pack stuffed between their legs. I can only dream of a time when I’ll be able to move that quickly again.
He stares earnestly into my eyes and holds both of my hands in his. “I want us to be a family forever, Rock. You and Ellie, you’re my life now, and I don’t ever want that to change.”
Me either. If I never have to live another day without the two of them, it’ll still end too soon.
“So, you’re just skipping the whole proposal thing and going straight to demanding marriage?”
“Yes. I demand that you let me love you forever.” He grins. “I want to be the person in your life you can count on—who loves you, cares for you, protects you, supports you. I want to be your husband.”
“And I want to be your wife,” I answer, without hesitation, all vestiges of teasing gone. I want him to see my heart through my eyes—to hear my love in my voice.
“Is that right?” he asks and leans forward to press a soft kiss to my lips.
“That’s right,” I whisper against his mouth. “But now, I have some bad news for you.”
He leans back and stares into my eyes.
I’m certain I want to marry this man more than I’ve probably ever wanted to do anything. But I don’t want the typical wedding. I’ve spent my whole life in the spotlight, and the moment we commit to each other for the rest of our lives, I want those words to be spoken without flashing cameras and wedding planners and anything else that could distract us from what is the most important part—Harrison and me and the love that brought our sweet little angel into this world.
“We’re going to elope.”
“No big wedding?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“Just me, you, and Ellie.”
He smiles and kisses me once more. “Sounds perfect, baby, and not at all bad.”
I shake my head with a smile and then let out a little laugh. “Yeah, that’s not the bad part.”
His eyebrows draw together. “Then what is?”
“You have to tell your friends.”
The very next morning, we are up early, packing up for our big exit from the hospital.
I can’t deny that it’s going to be a relief to be at Harrison’s apartment for a week or two until we’re ready to head back to LA. The hospital staff here has been so wonderful to us, but it’s time we officially start our lives as a family of three.
Ellie is dressed in the cutest little flower-embossed onesie with a pretty pink bow on her head, safely strapped into her car seat and ready to hit the road. And I’m comfy and cozy in yoga pants and a T-shirt, my postpartum belly still poking out beneath my clothes. And I’m doing a great job of bypassing the whole situation between my legs—carnage and a pad so big it could absorb an oil spill from a 747—and just acting like it doesn’t exist.
Harrison tucks the last of the gifts from his friends into one of our seventeen bags and laughs. “I wonder if they realize that we also need to fit a baby into the car.”
I smile. “It’s so sweet of them, Harrison. You really have the best friends.”
“We,” he corrects. “We have the best friends.”
I nod just as Ellie squeaks a tiny newborn squeal in her car seat. It is most likely the start of a cry, and Harrison jumps into action before I can even think about moving to quiet her.
“Hi, little angel of mine,” he says in the sweetest freaking voice. “We’ll be on our way soon. Home to rest and recover, and then right back into filming with your mommy. You’ll see, Ellie. Your mom is one of the most beloved people in the whole world.”
I shake my head with a smile as he keeps talking, rubbing the tip of his thumb across her tiny cheek. “But you’ll never have to worry. We’ll always love you more.”
All of a sudden, though, it hits me like lightning.
The sour gut at the mention of filming. The absolutely torturous churn that overpowers it at the reminder the whole world is watching—and will soon know that Ellie has made her debut. Dealing with Heidi and the fallout from having to completely revamp my tea
m.
It all sounds…horrible.
And I don’t think I want to do it.
Actually, scratch that.
I know I don’t want to do it.
I know I don’t want to live that life anymore. I want privacy and calm and quiet and motherhood and family. I want all the things I haven’t had since I was a child myself.
Maybe I’ll change my mind at some point, but right now, I don’t want hustle and bustle. I want to be a mom. I want to snuggle and cuddle my baby, and I want to do it without worrying about dieting and binge-exercising to get my mom body under control for the Hollywood critics.
Most people would probably think I’m being impulsive. That I’m high on birth hormones and Hollywood-style trauma or something crazy like that. But this doesn’t feel impulsive at all. This feels like it’s been a long time coming. For the past decade, I think I’ve been on the path to burnout. And I am officially burned-the-fuck out from Hollywood and LA and the crazy schedule I’ve been at the mercy of for far too long.
I just want this. Right now. This moment.
And I want it here. In New York. With our friends.
“Harrison,” I say, the sudden need for urgency diving into my veins and making this impossible for me to ignore. I know what I want for my life, and I want that life—Harrison’s, Ellie’s, and my life, our life—to start right now.
“You won’t believe it, Ellie,” he coos, smiling down at our daughter. “The buildings are so tall, and there are so many people.”
“Harrison, I need—”
“But they pretty much keep to themselves, sweetheart, so you won’t have to worry about vultures like you will in LA. That’s where they really—”
“Harrison!”
He jerks his head around suddenly, clearly hearing me for the first time as a result of being so enamored of our little girl.
I don’t mind, though. Because as soon as he gets a look at my face, there’s nothing in the whole world that’s more important to him than listening to what I have to say. “Yeah, baby?”
God, how’d I get so lucky with a man like this?
I honestly don’t know, but I swear on everything, I will spend the rest of my life being nothing but grateful. Grateful and living in the moment, actually enjoying life with my little family.
“I…I don’t want to go back to LA,” I admit out loud for the first time ever. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be, this drastic change I’m signing up for, but oddly enough, there is so much freedom in that. So much freedom in being in complete control of my life. “I want us to stay here, in New York, as a family. I don’t want to be consumed with work and crazy schedules. I want to be around our friends instead of all the fake people out there, and I want to focus on just being a mom.”
Normally, I’d be locked into ironclad contracts, but the timing is actually kind of perfect. Since I was so close to popping out this kid anyway, Highlander had already shot the rest of my scenes for the season ahead of the cast—part of what I spent my last ungodly-long day doing—and had several options for writing my character out of the show completely. And thanks to my planned maternity leave, I hadn’t committed to anything else yet either.
Harrison searches my eyes for a long moment. If he’s wondering how I’ve gotten here, to this decision, he doesn’t ask. Obviously, he can see that all I need right now is support. “Okay, Rock. If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do.” His warm smile makes my chest expand. “And I’ll move heaven and earth to make sure you get it, baby.”
I nod. I know he will.
This man. He owns my heart.
“Anything for my girls,” he says with a smile that lights up every single fleck in his amazing green eyes.
With a wink, he steps forward and wraps his arms around me to give me a kiss. “No matter what, baby. You’ll always be my star.”
I nod into the crease of his neck, tears threatening to make their debut. Harrison Hughes—he’s the best in the whole world.
Harrison
I peek in the bedroom—filled with every baby item known to man, courtesy of my friends—and my gaze lands on Ellie, sleeping in the center of her crib. Rocky is asleep on the daybed across the room, her hair fanned out across the pillow and her lips slightly parted.
She’s beautiful—she’s always beautiful—but tonight, she looks content in a way I’ve never seen her before.
I know deciding to leave show business behind might be an emotional response to the betrayal she’s endured at the hands of her team, but I’m okay either way—temporary or permanent. Jared didn’t even blink when I suggested he hand over HawCom West Coast to my second-in-command—a young guy all too happy to get a change in “scenery” since he’s not ready to settle down—and I’m just glad for the respite the decision to shift coasts seems to have given Rocky now.
And for the opportunity to get our family as far away from those toxic people as possible. Because as angry and hurt as I know she is, I know I feel exponentially angrier.
I hide it well—she doesn’t need or deserve to see any of it firsthand—but I was manipulated away from my family by a woman who proved herself conniving from the very first moment I met her.
I can’t let that stand—not for me, and certainly not for Rocky. So, while she’s peacefully secure in the bubble of new motherhood, I’ll be working quietly in the background to ensure that the people who have betrayed us get theirs—and then some.
I tiptoe into the darkness of my study, shut the door with a soft click, and then flick on the light to find my way behind my desk.
I settle into the supple leather of my favorite chair and dial Cap’s number.
He answers on the second ring.
“I’ve been waiting for your call,” he says, his voice more business-y than I’ve had the pleasure of hearing it in a long time. Since he’s one of the most revered lawyers in the world, I know it’s something he’s capable of. But with his friends, he’s much more prone to letting down his metaphorical hair.
“I was waiting until Rocky and Ellie were settled.”
“Understood. I took the liberty of getting the ball rolling. Obviously, this kind of case isn’t my particular forte, but Ruby and I know enough people who can help us. All I need from you are the details. Send me texts, call histories, timing…anything and everything you can think of.”
The list of Heidi’s crimes is a mile long, but I have no problem digging deep into every interaction both Rocky and I have had with her. I don’t care if it takes me fucking days, I will find everything I possibly can that will ensure some justice will be served.
“Consider it done.”
“And, of course, I just need to know one very important thing. How bad do you want her to hurt?”
A wolflike laugh jumps from my throat. How bad do I want to hurt Heidi Morris?
Man, I’m not generally the revenge-type, but this, I can’t let go.
And I certainly can’t make it easy on her.
What she did was unforgivable. The hell she put Rocky through is something I won’t ever forget.
“For all the pain Heidi caused Rocky over the years and everything she did to both of us since…” I shake my head. “Yeah. Make it bad, Cap. Make it really fucking bad.”
Cap’s laugh is exactly what I would picture for a rich, good-looking, maniacal hero-style vigilante in any Avengers movie. “With pleasure, Harry. With pleasure.”
Four Months Later…
Harrison
“Rocky!”
“Yeah?” she yells back from the floor of the living room, where I know she’s lying eye to eye with little Ellie during her tummy time and making all the cutest faces.
“Come here,” I say from the door to our bedroom.
“I’m a little busy!” she yells back predictably. I shake my head with a smile and tuck her phone into my pocket, strolling casually down the hall to the living room.
About a month ago, after three months of voice mails from her bro
ther—the long lost Luca Weaver—we agreed that if he kept calling for another month, she would take the bull by the horns and call him back.
Three months of licking her wounds was acceptable, but after that, she’d be the one at fault. Because clearly, Luca, despite his abandonment and mistakes—is serious about making an effort to make things right with his sister.
And Rocky, while content with just Ellie and me, deserves all the family she can get.
And at this point in her life, Luca is the only other family she has. Her parents haven’t shown any interest in their daughter’s life or the life she created in Ellie. They haven’t called or written or sent a card of congratulations. I don’t know what kind of poison Hollywood injected into the Weaver parents’ veins, but it seems to me as if they’ve written their kids off as people entirely. Both Rocky’s and Luca’s lives are products of their abandonment, and as such, they need to lean on each other.
I make my way into the room and settle onto the couch behind Rocky, stretching my arms across the back cushions, and Ellie cranes her little neck as much as possible to try to look at me.
Immediately sucked in, I drop my cool guy act and dive down onto the floor beside my woman so we can both make silly faces at our girl.
Ellie laughs and coos, and I swear to God, being a father is the best gig I’ve ever had. She makes my days special.
Well, her and her mother—who, as of a few weeks after Ellie was born, just so happens to be my gorgeous wife too.
That’s right. My Rocky got her wish for a small, elopement ceremony at City Hall.
She wore a sexy little white dress, I wore a suit, and our Ellie had on a little dress and one of those frilly bows her mom is always putting on her head.
And we said “I do.” Just the three of us.
I never dreamed I’d be this blessed, but my good fortune is undeniable. I have the best woman in the whole world, a little girl made in an unexpected night of love, and the best friends a guy could ask for.
In fact, Heidi Morris should be neck-deep in legal proceedings for the next twenty-five years thanks to my awesome friends. My loathing for her rivals that of Joe Exotic for Carole Baskin, though, so I’m not sure it’ll ever be enough.