“Oh, that’s so cool. Did you get this at the zoo?”
“Uh huh,” Jax answers with a huge grin on his face.
“I don’t smell anything cooking,” I tease him back.
“Well, you know I can’t cook to save my life, so I ordered Chinese. You said you were craving it.” He beams and looks down toward my belly. “You feeling okay?”
I sigh. “As good as can be expected.”
“Daddeee?” My eyes dart down to Jax who looks past Randy. I follow his line of sight right in time to catch Dirk crouching down.
“Hey kiddo,” Dirk says, and Jax runs toward him.
I glare at Randy. “You can bring Jax home when you’re done,” I say quiet and snippy.
“Rebs, stay.”
I shake my head. I lean into him. “Blindsiding me is not a wise move right now,” I whisper.
“Stay, please?” Dirk asks as he stands with Jax in his arms.
I cock my head and shake it slowly with narrowed eyes at him.
“I’d like to spend some time with Jax—”
“He can stay,” I interrupt.
“—and you,” he finishes.
The doorbell interrupts us.
“That will be dinner,” Randy announces as he slides past me.
“I stopped by your house,” Dirk says once Randy is occupied with the delivery guy.
“When?”
“About four. Melody told me you were sleeping.”
I cock my head. “Funny, she didn’t mention it.”
“I told her not to wake you and to forget I was there.”
“Did you know we’d be here tonight?” I ask.
“No, not until you pulled in the driveway.”
“Did he invite you?” Dirk nods. “When?”
“This morning.”
“Fucker,” I grumble under my breath.
“Thanks, have a good night,” Randy says to the delivery guy and he closes the door. The smell of Chinese food hits my nose, and my stomach rumbles.
“Stay. You’re hungry.”
I let out a long, slow breath. “Alright,” I say softly. I take off my coat and hang it on Randy’s coat rack.
“Little man, can you go help Uncle Randy?” From the corner of my eye, Dirk crouches down to set Jax down.
“Yeah,” Jax coos and off he goes, following after Randy.
Dirk straightens to his full height and leans against the doorjamb. “Randy’s right, you look great.”
“Platitudes aren’t going to work, Xavier.”
“It’s not meaningless. You…you’re glowing.” He smiles sweetly.
“Pregnancy does that to a woman, or so they say.”
“It looks good on you.”
“You didn’t seem to think so four days ago,” I remind him.
“You promised,” he reminds me.
“And I told you,” I counter.
“Six months later.”
“At least she hasn’t been born yet,” I snap.
“No, she hasn’t. But I’m under the impression you were working toward it.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
He nods slowly. “You are. But I was also getting on a plane three days ago.”
“To where?”
“New York.”
“And do you think you’d have been any less pissed at me if you’d have shown up in New York and saw me like this? ‘Cause I can go back.”
“Nope, wouldn’t have made a difference.”
“I told you in October we needed to talk.”
“And you made me wait until now.”
“I wasn’t going to tell you over the phone. I knew I owed it to you to tell you in person, Xavier. You deserved that much.” I reach for my jacket.
“I deserved to know when you found out.”
“I didn’t see you running after me when I left in June,” I sneer.
He doesn’t say anything, so I put my coat on. “Randy, call me when you’re done, I’ll come get him,” I holler. I look at Dirk. “Enjoy your time with him.”
I turn on my heel and open the door. I’m out the door and down the steps of the porch in record time. I need to make it to my truck, then down the block and around the corner before I can let the tears loose.
I got this.
I can do this.
I take a deep breath and hit the button on my key fob. The truck flashes and beeps. I take the last three steps and reach for the handle but stop dead when a hand stops me. “I may not have run after you two years ago or in June, but I’m tired of you running from me.”
“And I’m tired of fighting with you,” I say dejected.
His hand moves from the window of my truck to my chin, grabbing it gently and pulling my face up to look at him. “I don’t want to fight,” he whispers.
“Then what do you want, Xavier?”
“You,” he breathes. “Always you. And Jax, and her.” His eyes move to my belly and back up to me.
“Always love me,” I whisper.
“As long as you love me,” he breathes, and then his lips crash into mine. His hands wrap around me and pull me to him as the sky unloads on us. It’s cold and damp and wet, but I don’t care.
His lips are on mine. His hands are wrapped around me. I’m back in his arms.
I am safe. I am home.
He’s my everything, and I know I will always love him because he will always love me.
Epilogue
Skylar
Two years later…
* * *
By Christmas that year, Dirk was staying at my house so much I finally told him to move in. He didn’t hesitate.
He would spend the next three months making up for lost time with Jax, me, and my belly. I got the impression Deidrick Tyler likes me pregnant.
Over the next couple of months, he would sell his houseboat, though, he kept his catamaran.
In January, he drove the Bearded Bean back to Dutch Harbor where he, Dribbler, Jessie, Tommy, and two new crew members would get her ready for snow crab season. He spent two weeks on the water, completing their first offload. He walked off the boat and hopped on a plane back to me.
Short of helping with the occasional repair, he’s never set foot on a crab boat again.
He hung up his slick and handed the reigns to Dribbler permanently.
I know he misses it, but he never complains.
Instead, he spends as much time as he can with Jax and Lily.
He made it home in plenty of time to see his daughter born. Within five minutes, she had him wrapped around her finger, and Deidrick ‘Dirk’ Xavier Tyler looks amazing with a pink blanket in his arms.
It’s Christmas morning.
I’m leaning against the doorway to our living room watching Dirk on the floor with Jax and Lily as they finish opening their presents.
I gave up the rental about three months after he moved in, when Lily was a month old. I’d never planned on staying there long. Only to transition into a permanent place. Which we found the perfect one. We’re still on the water, but across Puget Sound on Bainbridge Island of all places.
Back where it all started 25 years ago.
A month after moving in, we got married in a private, friends and family only ceremony. It was perfect, and everything we wanted it to be. Our new home was our backdrop and Puget Sound our view. It was everything.
I laugh when Jax rips into a present. He gets so excited by the firetruck inside. Those seem to be his favorite thing on the planet right now, and I’m thankful for it. As much as I know Randy would love to see the family business carry on with Jax, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Neither Dirk nor I are all too thrilled with taking Jax onto a crab boat anytime soon.
Speaking of Randy, he sold the house he and Aunt Kathy had bought when they moved back to Seattle about a year ago. He said it was too much of a reminder being surrounded by something that had once belonged to the two of them. He tried to move into a condo downtown, but I talked him into moving here. Ra
ndy and Dirk spent a couple months building the perfect guest house for Randy. It’s even closer to the water than we are. I look at it as a perk because Grandpa is always around for Jax and Lily.
Diem and Kara—they got married a couple months ago. I was maid of honor, and Dirk was best man. Kara is still working for me on an as needed bases, much the way Diem is. Though I require his services less and less with each passing month.
Melody still works for us on a part-time basis, but only to help with the kids when Randy is unable to. She’s expecting her first child with her husband Alex. That kid is going to be so lucky having Melody as a mother. I am so excited for her.
I sold Rebel Industries for a very large profit about eight months after moving to Seattle and five months after realizing being a mom to two small children was a full-time job, even with the support of Dirk and everyone else.
Dawson moved up in the world of what was once Rebel Industries to become Rachel’s right hand once the company was sold. I am so proud of him. Dirk, Jax, Lily, and I flew back to celebrate with him. He’s since settled down with a wonderful man who I love almost as much as Dawson. They’re perfect for each other, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
After more than a year on the market, I finally sold the penthouse in New York. I’d sold the condo after finding out I was pregnant with Jax. So, the penthouse was my last tie back to New York, and other than Dawson’s celebration, I haven’t been back.
Ryleigh still lives in Montana, despite her situation being cleared up. I guess she and Kavanaugh are quite the pair. That’s a story for another day. Hell, I could probably write a book about it. Their story is almost as exciting as mine and Dirk’s.
“That’s it,” Dirk says, putting his hands up. I can hear the happiness and excitement in his voice. He’s been dancing around the house for days because it’s Christmas and he gets to spoil the living shit out of our kids. Though, it’s not like he doesn’t do that anyway.
“Come on, Lils,” Jax says as he stands up with a ton of his new toys in his hands.
She gets up with her hands full of her new toys, as many as she can carry. They disappear into their playroom.
I move to sit on the couch behind Dirk. I set my cup down and wrap my arms around him, placing a very special present in his lap.
“What’s this?” he asks looking up at me.
I smile. “Open it.”
He pops the ribbon on the brown box and finds the lid, pulling it off. He chuckles when he sees all the tissue paper I put in there about 15 minutes ago. He pulls it all out until he gets to the bottom. He picks up the stick and flips it over.
The ‘pregnant’ sign is still flashing on the screen.
He turns in my arms, breaking my hold on him. “Truly?” he beams.
“Mmhmm,” I nod excitedly.
“Really?”
“Yes,” I laugh.
“Say it.”
“I’m pregnant.”
He rolls his eyes in exasperation. “Not that.”
“Always love me?”
His lips press to mine as he pushes me back onto the couch so I’m laid out on my back. His hand comes to rest right above my pelvic bone on the little pouch left over from Jax and Lily.
The biggest shit-eating grin lights up his face when he pulls back.
“Forever and always.”
The End
About the Author
BEST SELLING Erotic, Paranormal and Contemporary Romance author Zoey Derrick comes from Glendale, Arizona. Zoey, was a mortgage underwriter by day and is now a romance and erotica novelist full-time. She writes stories as hot as the desert sun itself. It is this passion that drips off of her work, bringing excitement to anyone who enjoys a good and sensual love story.
Not only does she aim to take her readers on an erotic dance that lasts the night, it allows her to empty her mind of stories we all wish were true.
Her stories are hopeful yet true to life, skillfully avoiding melodrama and the unrealistic, bringing her gripping Erotica only closer to the heart of those that dare dipping into it.
The intimacy of her fantasies that she shares with her readers is thrilling and encouraging, climactic yet full of suspense. She is a loving mistress, up for anything, of which any reader is doomed to return to again and again
www.ZoeyDerrick.com
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Other Books by Zoey Derrick
BOLD WORLD NOVELS
Finding Love’s Wings
Chasing Love’s Wings
One Week – A Standalone
Claiming Addison
Craving Talon
Redeeming Kyle
Taming Dex
Devouring Raine
Defining Us
Aryn’s Desire
Caden’s Command
Unexpected Desires
Suddenly Fallen
Finally Fallen
Irresistibly Undeniable – A Standalone
Fractured Breaths – A Standalone
WICKED ANGELS MC
Wicked Revenge
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Give Me Reason
Give Me Hope
Give Me Desire
Give Me Love
Always Love Me: A Standalone Second Chance Romance Page 38
