by J. Sterling
Ryan had always told me that my hands were made of ice, but he claimed to like it, placing them on any sore spots he had on his shoulders and back.
“Well, if your mom says it’s okay,” Ryan said, giving me a sly glance, “then I’ll start sleeping in there with her.”
Matson nodded. “She’ll say okay. She likes you.”
I cleared my throat, causing Matson to jump away from Ryan like he’d gotten caught stealing the last cookie. “Time for bed. Go brush your teeth, please.” I only had to ask once, and Matson practically skipped down the hall after he stopped to give me a hug.
“Guess I’m sleeping with you now, ice pack,” Ryan teased, and when I swatted at his arm, he grabbed my hand and pulled me hard against him. “Ice-pack angel? Angel ice pack?”
“Will you start the hashtag? I still like #CryinOverRyan the best.”
His lips brushed mine. “You would.”
Ryan was right. That particular hashtag started on social media after word got out that he had a girlfriend. A bigger person wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as I did, but apparently I liked the world knowing he was off the market.
Ryan had also been right about Derek’s father being sick. Damian Huntington passed away a few days after Derek had been killed, and the company ended up going to his cousin, just like Derek had feared. It was the first time in the history of the firm that it didn’t go to the Huntington heir, and I was actually grateful that the cycle had been broken. As far as I knew, no one from the company knew Matson even existed, and since I gave him my last name and Derek wasn’t listed on his birth certificate, there would be no reason for anyone to suspect he had a son.
• • •
I waited almost a full month after the accident to see if Mrs. Huntington would reach out to me after everything that happened. When she didn’t, I decided to be the bigger person. As much as I disliked her family, I knew she was grieving and had lost her whole world within the span of a few days. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through, or how alone she must have felt. She deserved to know she had a grandson.
I knew she still lived in the same house they’d lived in when Derek and I were in high school, so I dropped a condolence card in the mail to her, along with a recent school picture of Matson.
Mariana Huntington showed up on my doorstep the same day she got my card, expensively dressed, her shoulder-length brown hair perfectly styled, and tears in her eyes.
“Sofia, I had no idea. Derek and Damian said you were pregnant, but they told me you didn’t have the baby. They said they paid you off, and I never questioned them or thought about it again. I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t know?” I was bewildered how she couldn’t have known. It also made me incredibly sad that I’d wasted so much time hating her for being able to stay away from us for so long when it hadn’t even been true.
“No, I didn’t. Can I come in?” she asked as she wiped her eyes.
I held my front door open and allowed her inside before offering her some tea. We sat at my kitchen table and cried together over all the time we’d lost due to miscommunication.
She absolutely lost it when she learned what the men in her life had been up to behind her back. The poor woman had been completely left in the dark about the ugly inner workings of the Huntington men.
To be honest, I think she preferred it that way. Mrs. Huntington wasn’t stupid, but I think staying blissfully unaware of her family’s dirty dealings helped keep her sane and her conscience clear. She slept peacefully at night, and I couldn’t—no, I wouldn’t—blame her for that.
She left that day with the promise to keep in touch.
When I decided a few days later to tell Matson who she was, he was so excited.
“I’m going to have three grandmas? That’s so cool!”
My heart swelled at his reaction, especially the fact that he’d included Ryan’s mom as one of his grandmas already.
Ryan warned me that our moms had bonded while I was in the hospital, but I had no idea just how much. His mom accepted Matson and me like we were blood relatives, and my family did the same for Ryan. It never ceased to amaze me that family dynamics like this existed.
• • •
Three quick knocks sounded at my front door before the doorknob turned, alerting me to the fact that Jess and Claudia were here. They’d been stopping by without warning for days now, often enough that I’d learned to expect them.
“Did you miss us?” Jess asked as she walked in.
“It’s like I don’t know what to do without you two anymore,” I teased back before giving them each a hug.
These women were both so welcoming, accepting, and nice, I understood completely why Frank and Nick loved them. I felt like I’d been initiated into a secret club that revolved around the Fisher brothers, and I never wanted to be out of it.
“Aunt Jess?” Matson yelled from his room before he careened down the hall and into her arms, giving her a big hug as she swung him around.
Matson had a huge crush on her. “I like her yellow hair,” he would say every time she left, and would run to the kitchen table to draw a new picture of her. There were yellow-haired drawings all over my house.
“I’m starting to get a complex, little man,” Claudia whined, and Matson dove into her arms next.
I stared at them, grinning from ear to ear, wondering how in the world my life had changed so drastically in such a short time. Our family had grown so big, and yet I hadn’t realized we had such a small one before. I’d always thought that my heart and Matson’s were full, our lives fulfilled and our family complete, but having all this love and these wonderful people around us made me see just how much we’d been missing.
We were the luckiest people in Santa Monica, and I hoped that never changed.
My Future
Ryan
Eight months later
Today was Matson’s ninth birthday, and everyone was in our backyard eating before we headed to the bowling alley for his actual party. My parents, my brothers and their girlfriends, Sofia’s parents, her friend Sarin, Grant, and even Mariana Huntington were all sitting around the tables I’d set up, chatting like old friends. On days like this, I almost couldn’t believe this was our life. It seemed too good to be true—too easy, too fucking wonderful.
Sofia and Matson were my family now, my future, and I’d do anything to stay in their lives. I wasn’t ever leaving their sides again, which was why I insisted on moving in with them at the end of Matson’s school year.
Okay, insisted might be too strong a word, but I strongly suggested the idea, and both Sofia and Matson had enthusiastically agreed.
We went out for ice cream to celebrate that night. I wanted to puke after eating all that sugar, but I promised to punish myself at the gym the next day. We went out for ice cream again when the owners of Sofia’s rental house said they weren’t planning on moving back to the States, and sold us their house at a fraction of what it was worth. Clearly, I never learned my lesson on celebrating good news with ice cream.
I tried to pay the owners more money, considering that I could afford it with the success of the bar, but they wouldn’t have it. They said they didn’t need it, and told us to save it for all the other babies we planned on having in the future.
Sofia’s face had paled a little when she heard that, and mine had done the complete opposite. There was nothing I wanted more than to have a few dozen little Sofias and Ryans running around our yard, but I knew that no matter how much I wanted to knock her up, that would have to wait.
“Hey, loser,” Grant grumped as he came up next to me in the doorway. “Why are you over here? We’re all out there.”
“I was just watching,” I said with a smile I couldn’t erase if I’d tried.
Sofia happened to look over at that moment, and she looked so damn happy, it almost made my heart burst. Her smile was just for me, but I knew Grant was going to claim it was for him. I was in too good a mood to fight him over
it.
“She’s your angel now,” he said, and I swung my head around at him in shock.
“Say what?” I cupped a hand around my ear and leaned toward him, not believing what I was hearing.
“You heard me, jackass. Plus, I might have a new angel.” He nodded toward Mariana Huntington, and I slapped him on the back.
“You dog. You sure move on quick.”
“She’s a nice lady,” he said. “Sure got a raw deal with that marriage of hers.”
I nodded because he was right. When Sofia had first told me about Derek’s mom, I was wary, distrustful, all my protective instincts flaring. Could she be trusted?
But after I met Mariana, all my fears disappeared. She was a good person, truly kindhearted. I had no idea how someone like her could have possibly raised someone as screwed up as Derek.
My admiration for her only grew when she told me she planned to pay for Matson’s college expenses, and anything else we needed help with, since Sofia had done everything on her own for so long. Mariana had told me first because she knew I’d have to talk Sofia into accepting any help of that magnitude.
And she was right.
At first, Sofia put up a fight, but I eventually got her to see it was Mariana’s way of apologizing, of trying to make amends in her own heart, not necessarily Sofia’s. Mariana had a lot of guilt she needed to work through, and this was part of her way of doing that.
Sofia made her way toward me and gave me a hug, wrapping her arms around my waist as she nuzzled her head against my chest.
“I love you,” I said against her hair.
She looked up at me, those hazel eyes shining. “I love you too.”
“Where were you headed?” I asked as she pulled out of my arms.
“To pee.” She laughed before hurrying away, and I swatted her ass.
Smiling, I looked around our yard at everyone who cared about us. Nick held on to Jess like she might run away at any moment, his fingers hooked through the belt loop on her shorts. He wasn’t entirely wrong to be worried—Matson had been trying to steal her away for months now. Did I mention that my house is filled with crayon drawings of Jess? They’re everywhere. I think I could wallpaper Matson’s room with them if he asked.
Frank and Claudia stood arm in arm, both wearing black shirts and dark jeans, which I knew they hadn’t planned. It was the family joke now how they always showed up in matching outfits without trying. They both claimed that when they got dressed, they usually picked out the same color shirts, and then they both refused to change. Nick was relentless in his teasing of them, but I thought it was sweet.
Grant currently had Mariana laughing hysterically at something he’d said, and I chuckled at the idea of him hitting on her. Maybe they’d be just what the other needed—friendship, companionship, or even love? I had no idea, but I was glad they found each other.
As for me, I planned to propose when the time was right. The ring I bought a couple of months ago was sitting in the safe at the bar, next to the one Nick had bought for Jess ages ago. I couldn’t wait to give Matson a little brother or sister.
Or five.
Or maybe twelve.
However many babies Sofia would let me put inside her belly, I planned on doing exactly that. I’d do it tomorrow if she let me. Hell, I’d do it right now.
I’d probably have to enlist Matson’s help on the baby front since Sofia seemed a little skittish. Having your first child all by yourself probably wasn’t the best memory for someone to have. But every day, I remembered how excited Matson got when he met my brothers that night at the hospital, and all I’d wanted since then was to give him siblings of his own.
Our future was crystal clear in my head, and waiting for it to start was sheer torture.
“I just want to start our life,” I complained to Sofia almost daily.
“It’s already started, babe,” she’d tell me every time. “We’re in it. This is our life. It’s begun.”
And I knew she was right, but it was the rest of it that I wanted— the wedding, the babies, being husband and wife. All the other things that I envisioned and planned for in the future, I wanted them right now.
No one said I was a patient man.
“Uh, Ryan?” Sofia said in a strained voice.
I spun around, and when I saw how pale she looked, I rushed to her side. “What’s the matter? Are you sick? You don’t look okay.”
She shoved a white stick at me, and I stared down at it. Pregnant showed in the tiny oval screen.
My breath left my body as my heart thumped. All rational thoughts exited my head before coming back. I picked her up and swung her around, planting kisses all over her face before gently placing her back down.
“You’re happy?” she asked, sounding absolutely terrified.
“Happy? I’m ecstatic, angel!”
“Really?”
“Hell yes! If I would’ve known you could get pregnant despite your birth control, I would’ve tried a lot harder.”
Sofia swatted at me, her worry flitting away, leaving a huge smile on her face.
I guessed I wouldn’t have to wait for our future to begin, after all. Sofia was right . . . we were in it. It was happening. And it was happening exactly how I wanted it to.
Right now.
The End
Happy Ending
by
J. Sterling
Women Are Crazy
Ryan
I couldn’t stop staring at my cell phone. The picture Sofia just sent me of herself made my pulse race and my dick throb. My woman was drop-dead gorgeous.
I would swear on everything holy that Sofia was even more beautiful carrying my baby than she was before she became pregnant. There’s nothing quite like seeing the woman you adore grow round and curvy with the product of your love. I always knew I wanted to be a dad, but I never truly understood just how much until meeting her and Matson.
I loved her son like he was my own, and I was determined to make sure that I never treated him any differently than his little sister. Not that we knew what sex the baby was, but I not-so-secretly hoped for a mini Sofia, a mini angel. It was a concern of mine and Sofia’s, one we’d stayed up nights talking about. We both wanted to make sure that Matson knew he was just as much my child as the one growing inside his mom’s belly.
Thankfully, it never even occurred to Matson to be concerned about it. He was just excited to be a big brother. “Like you are to Uncle Nick,” he’d said, and I’d felt like my damn chest might explode.
The only thing better would be making it all official. I’d proposed to Sofia at least a dozen times since we found out she was pregnant, but each time she told me no. The first time I asked, she was concerned that I was only asking because we were having a baby together.
“I don’t want to get married because I’m pregnant, Ryan. They’re two very different things—babies and marriage,” she’d tried to explain, but I refused to listen.
“I bought this ring for you before we found out. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not asking because you’re carrying my love child.”
She cocked her head to the side, bit back a grin, and narrowed her eyes at me. “Then you can wait until after the baby comes to decide if you still love me enough to get married.”
The idea that I wouldn’t love her enough to marry her was beyond absurd. It was official . . . being pregnant made women crazy. Well, crazier than usual.
Another time when I asked, she looked at me like I’d grown two heads. She flat-out refused to get married in a maternity dress and tried to convince me that they didn’t even make them, even though I knew they did. I’d researched them already, but knew if I told her that, I was potentially risking my life by arguing. Pregnant Sofia was a force no one wanted to reckon with. Plus, she didn’t want our wedding pictures to be me looking all hot and perfect in a tux while she looked like a beached whale in white.
Her words, not mine.
The other night when we were lying in be
d, I tried to be sneaky and slip the ring on her finger, but the damn thing wouldn’t fit. I couldn’t push it past her knuckle before she realized what I was doing. I knew that once she saw the diamond sparkling on her ring finger, she’d never want to take it off. But she was so swollen, it only further proved her point instead of mine. She insisted that if she couldn’t wear the ring, then she wasn’t saying yes.
Women.
She claimed it was bad enough that her body would still be all out of whack in her bridesmaid dress for Frank and Claudia’s wedding, and that if I loved her at all, I wouldn’t ask her to do that twice. So I’d reluctantly agreed to wait until after our baby was born and Sofia felt beautiful enough to walk down the aisle to me.
I only prayed it would be sooner rather than later.
The desire to make this woman my wife overwhelmed all my other thoughts. She absolutely consumed me, especially after everything that had happened with her ex.
It wasn’t often that I thought about Derek and the car crash he caused, but when I did, I got all choked up, my breath catching as my throat closed up. I could have lost Sofia that night, and the very idea of not having this woman in my life was almost too much for me. I hated thinking about what he’d almost cost me . . . what I could have been forced to live without.
“Dude. Wake the fuck up.”
Nick snapped his fingers in front of me, and I blinked a few times and focused on his smug face.
“What the hell do you want?” I clicked away from the picture of Sofia I’d been staring at and put my phone in my pocket.
“I’d like you to join us here in reality where people are ordering drinks, and it’s your job to make them.” He swung his arm around, gesturing at the half-full bar.
“You make ’em,” I growled, fighting with him for no reason.
“Nah.” He spun and walked away, leaving me alone behind the bar.
