The Retake (Cate & Kian Book 3)

by Louise Hall

  “I didn’t want to,” Liv insisted, “I missed you and Lo so much, I felt like my right arm had been ripped away. But I didn’t want you to save me this time, I wanted to do it myself. You’re so perfect; if I didn’t love you it would actually be kind of annoying.”

  “Yeah, right,” Cate spluttered. “I’m so far from perfect.”

  “Oh please,” Liv scoffed, “you got straight A grades in your A Levels and a first-class honours degree. You’ve got a husband that lots of women seem to find attractive for some bizarre reason and the most adorable little girl in the whole entire world.”

  Cate laughed, “yeah, I’ve got a degree that I’m doing absolutely nothing with. Lola is amazing but I couldn’t even give birth to her properly and who know what trauma is going to happen with this little one?”

  “Stop it,” Liv admonished. “I hate sounding like one of those motivational posters…”

  “Ugh, I hate all that psychobabble.”

  “You do realise you’ve got a Psychology degree, right?”

  “Ha ha,” Cate stuck out her tongue.

  “After everything that’s happened this year, what I’ve realised is that I’m enough. You are too, sis. And Mum, Ben and Remy.”

  “Have you told Mum that?” Cate asked. “I still feel so guilty that we went behind her back and found Dexter Rathburn. She did everything for us and I feel like it was a humongous slap in the face to her.”

  “We’ve had some really good talks actually,” Liv smiled. “I think finding Dexter Rathburn has kind of freed her a little bit too.”

  “I’m going back to Calder Harbour the day after tomorrow but if it’s OK, I’d like to stop by again before I go?”

  “You’re definitely going back then?”

  “Yeah,” Liv sighed. “It’s where my life is now but after this little one’s born, you should come and visit. I know you didn’t get to see much of it last time but it’s really beautiful I promise, you could all come, you, Kian, Lola and the burrito.”

  “I don’t know,” Cate chewed on her bottom lip. “What if we bumped into him? I still don’t understand why after everything that’s happened, you still want to live in the same small town as him.”

  “I don’t exactly relish the idea of bumping into him in the supermarket or something like that but honestly, we don’t really move in the same circles. Yes, I’m friends with Ruby but she hasn’t spoken to him since the night of her birthday party. It’s not like he stops by Nico’s bakery for his morning coffee. From what I can tell, he tends to keep himself locked away in his fancy house high up in the hills, away from all the little people. Besides, I’ve spent most of my life letting him have power over me and I’m just not doing it anymore. I love Calder Harbour and I’m not going to let him chase me away.”

  “I guess,” Cate conceded. “I’ll talk to Kian and we’ll work out when we can come and visit then.”

  “Of course, I’ll come back to Manchester when the burrito’s due as well. I can’t wait to meet my new little niece or nephew.”

  “I’d…” Cate swallowed the lump at the back of her throat. “I’d really like that.”

  She walked Liv to her car which was parked at the back of the house. “Will you text me when you get home so I know you got back safely?”

  “Of course,” Liv smiled.

  “How was your day?” Kian smirked, knowing that he’d arranged for Liv to come by and see Cate while he and Lola were at the game.

  “It was OK,” Cate said, refusing to look up at him from her Kindle, “quite quiet actually. I got a few jobs done around the house.”

  “That’s it? You didn’t get any unexpected visitors?”

  “Nope.”

  “Oh, really?” Kian put one knee on the mattress. “Are you lying to your husband, Cate Warner?”

  “Maybe?” she smiled, “you’re so sneaky. I can’t believe you set that up!”

  “You two needed to have a proper talk.”

  “So you decided that you’d be the one to set it up, huh?”

  “If I’d left it to you and Liv to sort out, you’re both so stubborn, this new baby would be graduating from university before you’d got around to it.”

  “Hey, I’m not stubborn,” Cate folded her arms across her chest.

  Kian laughed, “angel, you are one of the most stubborn people I know.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Every time you protest that you’re not, it just proves how stubborn you really are.”

  CHAPTER 36

  “Kian?” With one hand tightly gripping the edge of the bathroom sink, Cate dialled her husband’s mobile number. She didn’t think that she could make it all the way downstairs to the dining room, where Kian was still sat with the rest of her family. They’d just finished Sunday lunch. “Please have it switched on.”

  It went straight to voicemail. “Darn it,” Cate cursed. Her phone slipped out of her hand and dropped on to the bathroom tiles. Although, she’d felt uncomfortable during the meal, she hadn’t said anything. She wasn’t due for another week. Sara had been two weeks late giving birth to her daughter, Alicia.

  As she tried to kneel down to get her phone, she felt something flood between her legs. “Please tell me I didn’t just pee on myself,” Cate winced. Her phone was swimming in a puddle of water.

  “Ew,” Cate picked it up and gave it a sniff. The screen had a large crack down the centre. It didn’t smell like pee.

  If she hadn’t peed, where had all that water come from?

  “Fuck,” Cate cursed herself for being so stupid. She hadn’t peed on herself; her waters had broken, she was in labour.

  She dialled her mum’s home phone. She could hear it ringing downstairs. “Pick up the goddamn phone.”

  Nobody answered. The electronic voice asked if she wanted to leave a message. “No, I bloody don’t.”

  Cate hung up and tried again. She tried three times until eventually Liv answered the phone. She and Ruby had come up to Manchester yesterday and were staying until after the baby was born. “This had better not be another bloody sales call,” Liv grumbled.

  “It’s me,” Cate squeezed her eyes tightly shut as another contraction tore through her abdomen.

  “Cate?” Liv was confused, “but you’re here?”

  “I’m in the first floor bathroom,” Cate sighed, “can you ask Kian to come upstairs, I need him”

  A few seconds later, Cate heard her husband come running up the stairs. “Cate?” he knocked on the door, “let me in.”

  “It’s open,” Cate croaked.

  The door swung open and Kian knelt down in front of his wife, “what is it, angel? What happened?”

  “I’m…” Cate gritted her teeth, the pain was so intense.

  “Are you having another panic attack?” Kian asked gently. He brushed his knuckles down her flushed cheek.

  “No,” Cate shook her head. “I’m in labour.”

  “You’re in…?” Kian gulped. Cate could see the fear in his eyes; they were both thinking about what had happened the last time.

  He only allowed the fear to show for a moment before he quickly shook his head and put his game face back on. He steeled his shoulders and his dark eyes took on the same intense look of concentration they did when he was waiting in the tunnel before a big Rovers game. “It’s OK,” Kian said firmly as if he really believed that he had the power to make it so. “Do you think you can stand up?”

  “I don’t know, maybe?”

  Kian helped Cate downstairs and settled her in the back of his Range Rover. “Your mum’s going to look after Lo.”

  “Thank you.” As he revved the engine, Cate gripped his shoulder, “I’m scared, Kian.”

  “I know, angel.” Kian reached for her hand and pressed it to his lips. “But I’m not going to let anything happen to you, OK?”

  “Do you promise?” Cate looked pleadingly at him.

  “I promise.”

  As he sped towards the hospital, Cate clung to the
back of his seat, trying to breathe through the contractions.

  He screeched to a halt in front of the hospital and jumped out, quickly opening the passenger door. He reached for her hands and gently helped her down from the car.

  Cate was put in a wheelchair and taken straight to the maternity ward. “Kian?” She lost sight of him as she was wheeled through the maze of corridors.

  “I’m right here, angel,” Kian reached for her hand and held it securely inside his own. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Hi Cate,” the young nurse said brightly as Cate was wheeled into one of the rooms. “I’m Kelly and I’m going to be looking after you today. You’re going to need to take off your dress and underwear. I’ll give you some privacy.”

  Cate looked at Kian, “I haven’t got anything with me. I can’t sit here in just my bra?”

  “Here,” Kian stripped off his t-shirt, “you can wear this.”

  He helped Cate remove her dress and panties and put on his soft, black t-shirt. “Thank you.”

  “OK,” Dr Waters walked in, “let’s have a look at you, Cate.”

  “Oh,” she stopped when she saw Kian standing there shirtless. “Should I ask why you’re not wearing a top, Kian?”

  “Cate needed it,” Kian shrugged.

  “Kelly,” Dr Waters asked the nurse. “Why don’t you see if you can find Mr Warner a scrub top or something?”

  Kelly was still gawping at Kian’s bare chest. Dr Waters gave her a nudge, “Now, Nurse Jackson.”

  “What?” Kelly blushed furiously. “Yes, of course. Sorry Dr Waters.”

  “I do apologise for Nurse Jackson’s lack of professionalism,” Dr Waters said sternly. “I’ll have a word with her.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time somebody had been distracted by my Torso of the Week,” Kian nudged Cate.

  “OK,” Dr Waters said after she’d finished examining Cate. “It looks like this little one is rather eager to be born.”

  “Is that good?” Cate asked, squeezing Kian’s hand.

  “It’s really good,” Dr Waters tried to reassure her. “You’re almost there.”

  “Do you need anything?” Kian asked Cate when they had a few moments on their own.

  “Promise me, you’ll stay up here,” Cate said seriously. “If you see what’s going on down there, you’ll never have sex with me again.”

  Kian chuckled, “we both know that’s never going to happen.”

  Cate held the mask against her face and took a deep breath. She was too far gone for an epidural. Kian was sat behind her on the bed; he’d refused to wear the scrub top Kelly had brought him so Cate could feel the heat of his skin through the thin cotton t-shirt. “You’re doing so good, angel.”

  “Here comes another one,” Dr Waters said. “Come on Cate, I need a really big push this time.”

  Cate squeezed her eyes tightly shut, gripped Kian’s hands and focused everything she had on pushing.

  “Good, I can see the head,” Dr Waters smiled at Cate.

  Cate pushed again; her t-shirt rode up and she could feel the rough denim of Kian’s jeans against her bare skin.

  “Almost there.” Kian had never seen anything as incredible as watching his wife give birth to their child.

  One more push, Cate’s whole body went rigid and then a loud cry punctured the room. Cate sagged back against him, her breath coming out in shallow pants. They took the baby to one side to do some tests, clean off the blood and goo and wrap it up in a pale-blue blanket. “You did it,” Kian was almost giddy with relief. He held Cate’s limp body and smothered her damp skin with kisses. “I love you.”

  Kian manoeuvred out from behind Cate so she could lie back against the soft cushions. Her eyelids flickered closed. “Angel?”

  Kian panicked and quickly called Dr Waters, “is she OK?”

  Dr Waters checked her out, “she’s just exhausted, Kian.”

  Kian sat down on the chair at the side of the bed.

  “Would you like to meet your son?” Kelly asked softly.

  “It’s a boy?” Kian held the tiny bundle in his arms, his son. He looked just like Cate had done when Kian had seen her for the first time just a few hours after she was born.

  “Your mummy and big sister were right all along,” Kian said gently, stroking his son’s soft cheek. Lola had always insisted that she was going to have a baby brother.

  “Have you got a name picked out?”

  Kian nodded, “Mateo.”

  CHAPTER 37

  “Mm, so good,” Cate closed her eyes as she submerged her tired, aching body in the lovely, warm bath Kian had prepared for her.

  Kian was stood over by the sink. He’d rolled up his shirt sleeves and was drying his forearms.

  “Why don’t you join me?” she asked, resting her chin on the lip of the bath. “There’s plenty of room.”

  Kian shook his head ruefully, “I wish I could, angel.”

  Cate laughed, “you can. It’s really easy. You just need to take all your clothes off.”

  Kian sat down on the tiled steps at the side of the bath. “Don’t tease me,” he warned. He leaned forward and planted a chaste kiss on her forehead. “It hasn’t even been a week since you gave birth to our son, angel.”

  Cate looked at the tell-tale bulge at the front of his jeans. “Just because I can’t have sex doesn’t mean I can’t use my hands…” She teased him further, tracing the outline of his throbbing cock with her damp fingers. “…or my mouth?” She licked her lips.

  “Cate!” Kian grunted, shifting uncomfortably. “You’re supposed to be resting.” He might have been protesting but she could still feel him getting hard against the palm of her hand. “Besides, I’m a big boy; I can go without sex for a couple of months.”

  Cate giggled, “you’re definitely that.” She gave his cock a gentle squeeze.

  Kian rolled his eyes. He reached down and removed her hand from his groin. “Just relax and enjoy your bath, angel.” He kissed each of her fingertips.

  The baby monitor was at the side of the bath and they heard Mateo start crying. “Ugh,” Cate quickly sat up, wincing at the soreness between her legs. “Could you pass me that towel?”

  “Stay there,” Kian insisted, “I’ll check on him.”

  “But…” Cate was about to protest.

  Kian brushed his lips against hers, silencing her. “I’m perfectly capable of giving my son his bottle, angel.”

  Cate stopped him just before he got to the bathroom door. “Kian?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you, you know.”

  “I know,” Kian smiled. “I love you too, angel.”

  “What’s all that noise for, little man?” she could hear him talking to their son through the baby monitor.

  “Mummy thinks that’s a hungry cry, shall we see if she’s right?” He took Mateo downstairs for a bottle and then she heard them come back upstairs to the nursery again.

  “Your mummy is a very smart lady, isn’t she?” She heard Mateo whimper a little and felt a sharp tug in her chest that she wasn’t with him. “I know you’re tired,” Kian crooned. Watching Kian with Lola and Mateo, Cate fell even more in love with him. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Since she’d come home from the hospital, Cate had been wearing the same baggy t-shirt and plaid pyjamas that she’d worn while she was pregnant but tonight she wanted to look… not necessarily sexy but just more feminine. She found a loose-fitting white, silk camisole and a pair of matching shorts at the back of a drawer. She thought about braiding her inky-black hair to one side just how Kian liked it but thought that might be a bit cruel considering that they couldn’t really do anything.

  When she walked into the nursery, Kian was just putting Mateo back in his crib. “He’s got your eyes,” Cate whispered, as she straightened out her son’s blanket.

  “I guess it’s only fair since Lola is a mini-you.” Kian wrapped an arm around Cate.

  She laughed softly, “at least nobo
dy will suggest that you get a DNA test for this one. He looks so much like you.” When she’d found out that Cate was pregnant with Lola, Kian’s sister, Sinead had suggested that Kian get a paternity test to prove that he was the father since Cate was such a “humungous slut”.

  Kian frowned, “from the second you told me you were pregnant, I never once doubted that Lola was mine, you know that.”

  “I know,” Cate reached up and tried to smooth out the frown lines between his eyebrows. “It was just a bad joke. I’m sorry.”

  “Hey,” she said, looking down at his groin, “you’re not, um, you know?”

  Kian laughed. “Yeah, changing dirty nappies will do that to you.”

  At Cate’s request, Kian only wore a pair of flannel pyjama bottoms to bed. While he stroked his fingers through her hair, she could feel the heat of his skin through her thin camisole. Her nipples pulled taut at the gentle contact. To distract herself, she traced the bumps and dips of his washboard abs. When her fingers drifted lower to the trail of black hair which led down to his groin, Kian reached for her hand, “if I’m going to be good, you need to stay above the belly button, angel.”

  “What are you thinking about?” Kian asked, kissing her fingertips.

  “I was just thinking about Ruby,” Cate admitted. “It hurts that she didn’t come to see Mateo yesterday with Liv. I thought we were friends.”

  “Maybe she had to go back to Calder Harbour?”

  Cate shook her head, “I know she’s still at Mum’s. We’re friends on Facebook.”

  CHAPTER 38

  “But I don’t want to go to school today,” Lola protested the following morning. “I want to stay here with Mummy and Mateo.”

  “I tell you what…” Cate was sat on the daybed on the back porch, feeding Mateo his bottle. “How about if I pick you up from school today instead of Granny Jean? I’ll bring Mateo with me.”

  “Cate…” Kian frowned.

  “We’ll be fine,” Cate assured him. “It will do us both good to get out of the house for a little bit.” His protectiveness was so touching.