by Pamela Yaye
“Oh my God! I’m going to be a father.”
Erin pushed back and looked at him. Was he serious? But she saw no doubt on his face. “You’re happy? You always said you didn’t want kids while you still played.”
“I didn’t think I did, but hearing this...” He cupped her face in his hands. “Erin, I couldn’t be happier. I want a family. You are my family. I want to marry you. I want kids with you. I want forever and old age with you.”
Her head spun. She placed her hands on his broad shoulders. Steadying herself even though she was sitting still. “Wait...are you for real? I mean... I thought...”
His brows drew together. “You didn’t think I wouldn’t be happy, did you?”
“I wasn’t sure.”
“Are you happy?”
“Yes.” She didn’t hesitate. “I want this child.”
He slid closer and placed his hands on her hips. “Do you want to raise this child with me?”
He sounded so unsure. So afraid she would walk away. Erin placed her hand on the side of his face. “I love you, Will. This is new, and sudden, and scary, but...” She ran her fingers through his beard. Stopping him from speaking when the uncertainty in his eyes increased. “I wouldn’t want to take this step with anyone but you.”
His shoulders relaxed. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers. “I promise to do everything in my power to prevent another situation like last night. I never want to see that look in your eyes again.”
“I promise to hear you out before jumping to conclusions. You’re right. If we’re in this, then we talk to each other. Trust each other.”
Will lifted his head and met her gaze. His eyes were soft, warm, happy. “Love each other.”
Erin grinned and placed her lips against his. “I can get down with that.”
Chapter 25
“Eight pounds, twelve ounces!”
Will accepted the hugs and back-pounding after he announced the weight of his son to the waiting room full of people. His dad, Erin’s parents, Kelly, Jacobe, Kevin and Isaiah along with their wives all filled the space. There were no other people in the waiting room. Though Erin called it a drastic waste of money, he’d rented out the entire floor. There would be no pictures of his family leaked to the media on this day.
“When can I see her?” Kelly asked, pulling back after nearly strangling him with her hug.
“She’s in recovery,” Will said. Erin had to have a cesarean and had gotten through the procedure like a champ. “The doctors will come and let us know when she’s moved to her room. But Little Will is already in the nursery.”
“Then why am I still talking to you?” Kelly asked, and rushed past him.
She was quickly followed by Erin’s parents and his friends’ wives. He laughed as he watched the rush to see the baby.
“Get used to that,” Kevin said. “Once babies come, no one wants to see you anymore.”
Will grinned and shook his head. “Just means my boy is loved.”
Isaiah slapped Will on the shoulder. “Will Hampton is a father. Congratulations, man. I’m happy for you and Erin.”
“I appreciate that,” Will said. “And congrats to you and Angela. I hope things go well with her pregnancy.”
Isaiah’s face brightened with pride and love. “Thank you. Our kids will get to play together.”
“That’s going to be crazy,” Will said, shaking his head. “I never thought I would want to be here, but now that I’m here I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Before we all start crying,” Jacobe chimed in, “can we go see the baby now? For his sake, I hope he took after his mom.”
Will pushed his friend’s shoulder and handed them cigars, and they joined the group of family and friends hanging around watching his son through the nursery glass.
His son!
Man, he’d never get tired of that.
Later that night, after all of their family and friends had left, Will sat on the edge of Erin’s hospital bed and watched as she nursed their child. His heart was so full of love, contentment, fear about being a good parent and excitement about watching his kid grow up.
He brushed the hair away from Erin’s forehead and kissed her softly. “I love you so much.”
She grinned up at him. Her eyes still tired from the surgery but also bright with happiness. “You’re only saying that because I had your baby.”
He chuckled and kissed her lips. “I’m only saying that because it’s true.”
Erin chuckled. “Did you see the way Kelly kept checking on him? She’s going to spoil him worse than our parents.”
“Kelly should spoil him. Because of her we almost didn’t make it.”
Erin sighed but didn’t argue. He’d forgiven his sister, but he no longer trusted her with the secrets of his and Erin’s relationship. She and Erin were good, and he was glad their friendship had survived.
She laid her head on his shoulder. “Can you believe we’re here?”
“No,” Will said. He couldn’t keep his gaze off the beautiful, perfect face of his son. “I never would have thought I would be here, with you, this happy.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Not a second. Do you regret it?” he asked hesitantly. “Moving to Jacksonville?”
She tilted her head back to meet his eyes. “You know I don’t.”
“You wanted to run the Chicago office. Your career was the most important thing to you. Now...”
“Now I’m an executive running the Jacksonville office, a wife and a mother. I wouldn’t change anything.”
A small knot of worry released in Will’s chest. He’d gone to the farewell party they’d thrown for her in Chicago. Watched as the people sincerely wished her well and expressed how much they wished she were staying in their office. Saw the hint of sadness in her eyes. She still had the job and traveled to Chicago and New York when duty called, but she wasn’t at the center of things. He’d worried a part of her regretted marrying and moving in with him.
“You sure?”
“Positive. I love you, Will. I’ve loved you ever since that night I was afraid to let you kiss me after the military ball, even though I wouldn’t let myself admit how I felt. I’m the lucky one because I actually got to marry the only man I’ve always wanted.”
Will wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close. His eyes burned. His throat was thick with emotion. He doubted anything, not winning the championship every year, coaching a championship team or being inducted into the Hall of Fame, would ever make him feel this happy ever again.
“No turning back?” he whispered against her forehead.
Erin snuggled close to him. Their son made a gurgling noise that brought smiles to both of their faces. She placed her free hand on his thigh and squeezed. “No turning back.”
* * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Journey to My Heart by Terra Little.
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Journey to My Heart
by Terra Little
Chapter 1
The Wi-Fi call was on its fifth attempt to ring through, splitting the calm morning air with one last shrill-sounding, eardrum-scraping melody that finally managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of rattling Olivia Carrington’s resting nerves and startling her awake. Up until that very moment, she’d been asleep for exactly three hours, a fact that she planned to remind her caller of as soon as she could think clearly. Cursing viciously under her breath, she kicked her feet loose from a tangle of covers and punched a pillow before turning her head, zeroing in on the culprit—the open MacBook on the nightstand—and reaching out to press a button on the keypad.
“This had better be good,” she snarled.
“Don’t worry, it is,” a cheerful feminine voice immediately replied. Triggered by the exchange, the screen flickered to life, giving Olivia an unobstructed view of plump, plum-tinted lips and even white teeth, curved into a gracious smile. After a few seconds, the camera zoomed out and the face belonging to the dazzling smile came into view. Unlike Olivia’s, it was flushed with happiness, perfectly made up and runway ready. “Oh, damn. Did I wake you?”
“Uh, yeah,” Olivia said, barely restraining herself from adding duh. “So if you’re calling to swoon in secret over some new trick that your husband just learned, that you don’t want him to know that I know about, could I please, please hear about it later?” The last few words came out on a whine as her head sank deeper and deeper back into her pillow and her eyes started drifting closed again.
“For your information, I’m not calling to talk about Broderick. Although now that you mention it, there was this one incident yesterday—wait a second. You don’t...you’re not...is there a man in bed with you? Is that why you’re in such a hurry to hang up?”
Olivia’s head popped up from the depths of her down-filled pillow just in time to catch a close-up and grossly distorted view of the other woman’s eyeball as it peered suspiciously into the camera. For a second, she was stunned into speechlessness and could only stare at the screen blankly. The call had come in all the way from the other side of the world—Abu Dhabi, to be exact—where it was probably early evening right now and at least seventy-five degrees in the shade.
She knew firsthand that it was impossible to visit the tropical oasis and not be both physically and mentally seduced by its balmy breezes and panoramic seascapes, so she didn’t give a thought to envying the other woman’s glowing caramel-brown skin or the lively sparkle in her eyes. Coveting her thick lashes and naturally arched, bushy brows was an exercise in futility as well, since they, along with her dimpled cheeks and the tiny beauty mark in the center of her chin, were birthrights that she’d come by naturally. Neither the surf, sand nor sun was to blame for enhancing the other woman’s good looks. But the perpetual glow of blissful cluelessness in her laughing eyes was something else altogether. Apparently the surf, sand and sun had joined forces to make her delusional.
The poor thing had only just acquired that annoying trait a little over a year ago, when she’d given up her lifelong membership to the single ladies’ club to elope with her Prince Charming. The problem was that, in the process, she had seemingly forgotten that the rest of the world, and every happily-single-by-choice woman in it, including Olivia, still had to work for a living. And that they required sleep to do it.
When Olivia found her voice, it roared. “No, I don’t have a man in bed with me, you sex fiend! It just so happens that I was up late, working!” The entire bed shook with the force of her outrage. “Some of us still have to do that, you know!”
The oversize eye crinkled with humor and then withdrew to normal proportions. Minus the artfully applied makeup, purposely wind-blown hairstyle, and a freckle or two here and there, it was an exact replica of Olivia’s face, right down to the beauty mark in the center of her chin and the secret third dimple in each of their right cheeks. The woman on the other end of the camera was Elise Carrington, her identical twin sister.
Which, Olivia mentally reasoned, was the only thing keeping her from going through the phone.
“Wow,” Elise Carrington said. “Someone’s angry.” Clearly not in the least bit put off by Olivia’s hysterical tone, she sat back in her chair and scratched her fingers through a wild mane of curly, bronze-streaked brown hair and shook it loose around her bare shoulders. “Good morning to you, too, sunshine.”
It was Saturday, barely seven o’clock in the morning, and her first day off in weeks. Olivia was exhausted—not to mention overworked—and hardly in the mood for small talk. As far as she was concerned, she’d seen and heard enough. “Elise Monica Carrington, I swear to God,” she warned as she reached across the mattress for the MacBook’s blinking power switch. “I closed three cases last week and took on two new ones just yesterday, which means that I have work to do and I need sleep to do it. I’m hanging up now. I’ll call you back later.”
“Wait!” Elise cried just before Olivia would’ve hung up on her. “I have some news that I’m pretty sure you’ll want to hear.”
Olivia froze. “What is it? Are you pregnant?”
Elise’s expression turned admonishing. “I’ve asked you to please stop speaking things like that into the universe. It gets less and less funny each time you do, you know.”
“So that’s a no?”
“That is most definitely a no. As a matter of fact, my dear, that is a definite hell no.” Elise’s head dropped back to the pillow heavily. “I called to give you a heads-up. Live coverage of the robbery at First Federal Credit Union, there in Clayton, has been streaming all morning. They think it’s connected to a string of heists that have happened across the country over the last several months. Your friend—what’s her name? Shannon something-or-other?—and one of the tellers were both there when it happened.” Elise raised her head, staring at the screen incredulously. “They’ve been detained by the FBI for questioning about their possible involvement.”
“Oh my God! The last time I talked to Shannon, she’d just been promoted to branch manager and seemed happy. Why the hell would she be involved in a bank heist, of all things? It doesn’t make sense.”
Elise shrugged. “It does if you recall that I have always said she was a very strange person.”
“Elise—”
“What?” The look on Elise’s face was innocence personified. “She’s always been weird and secretive, and you know it. That’s all I’m saying.”
“She’s my friend.”
“Which is why I figured you’d want to know. Google it. See for yourself.”
Olivia leaned forward and pressed a series of buttons on the MacBook’s keyboard to split the screen. She searched the web for up-to-the-minute news about the incident and clicked on the first credible link that popped up in search results. “What in the world?” she wondered aloud, midway through watching the live feed that was plastered across the top of the web page. Police helicopters circled the air above the credit union, and on the ground, a swarm of law enforcement officers and media foot soldiers milled around the building.
“I can’t imagine what Shannon must be going through right now,” she said just as the coverage shifted to a recap of earlier events and an image of Shannon being escorted off the premises by two somber-looking agents flashed across the screen
. She gasped in shock. “Wow!”
“I know,” Elise said somberly. “She looks terrible, doesn’t she? After all this, her mug shot has to be worse than Nick Nolte’s.”
An errant giggle bubbled out of Olivia’s mouth. “Only you would notice her looks at a time like this.”
“Well, it’s certainly something to consider, isn’t it? What are you going to do? And before you answer that question, I would just like to go on record as saying that I think the correct and appropriate answer to that question is, absolutely nothing.”
“She’s my sorority sister, Elise, and from the looks of things, she’s in serious trouble. The least I can do is make sure she’s okay.” Olivia had been so busy with work that she hadn’t seen or spoken to Shannon Bridgeway in more than a year. But they’d been close in college and had regularly kept in touch over the years. She’d never forgive herself if something terrible happened to Shannon and she hadn’t at least attempted to check on her friend’s well-being. “It won’t hurt to have Eli do a little poking around,” she added, referring to Eli Seamus, the ex-CIA agent who dabbled heavily in private investigations, now that he was retired.
“Olivia...”
“Relax. I said a little poking around, and that’s exactly what I meant. Trust me, with everything else going on around here, the last thing I need is more work. I don’t know if you’ve gotten the memo yet, but running a private-investigation agency all by myself is pretty exhausting. Poor Harriet is on the verge of going on strike, and frankly, sis, so am I.” Harriet was Olivia’s part-time office assistant who had been working full-time at an intense pace for the past several months. “But not before I make sure that Shannon is okay,” she declared as her head hit the pillow again and she snuggled in. “After that, I can’t make any guarantees. Thank you for the update. I’ll take it from here. Now can I sleep, please?”
