Call Her Mine

by Melissa Foster

  Her trembling voice and damp eyes belied her steely facade. Ben felt his heart crumbling in on itself and said, “Of course. This afternoon?”

  A laugh bubbled out of Caroline. She covered her mouth with her hand, but she couldn’t hide the elation in her eyes. “I’m so tired. Can we please do it tomorrow morning? Mornings are often better for me.”

  “Absolutely. You can see her as often as you’d like.”

  She shook her head, no longer trying to hide the rivers of tears streaming down her cheeks as she said, “Things are going downhill fast. I don’t want her to see me at my worst. This will be my final goodbye.”

  They talked for a long while, and Ben told her about Aurelia and how Bea had brought them together. He learned that Caroline had known Brad in college and had stayed in touch via texts and phone calls the last few years. But she’d been in such deep denial when she’d received her diagnosis, she’d truly believed she could beat her fate.

  “Thank you for understanding. I’m looking forward to seeing Janie.”

  “We call her Bea,” Ben said.

  “Bea. That’s beautiful,” she said through her tears. “Jane means gift from God. She truly is a gift.”

  Gift from God. Another spear of regret stabbed him for thinking Caroline hadn’t even cared enough to pick a meaningful name. “Yes, she is truly a gift, Caroline. Thank you for trusting me enough to bring her to me.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  AURELIA WORRIED HERSELF into a frenzy Sunday night over how she would react when she saw Caroline with Bea. Would she burst into tears for both mother and daughter? She wanted to be open and welcoming and worried she might make things harder for Caroline if her sadness broke free. But from the moment Caroline arrived Monday morning with her friends Brad and Nelson, Aurelia felt a sense of relief and a kinship with her. She was warm and lovely and had a sense of humor despite all she was dealing with, and she approached the day as a gift rather than a goodbye. It was easy to see why Ben would have been attracted to her. She was strong, and she was smart and kind.

  Now Aurelia and Ben sat in the living room with Caroline and her friends. Caroline cuddled Bea on the rocker, wearing the most serene expression. She closed her eyes, nuzzling Bea’s neck, and when she opened them, her love billowed out. “Nothing smells as good as she does,” Caroline said softly.

  “Except at three in the morning when she has a messy diaper,” Ben said.

  They all chuckled.

  Caroline rubbed her nose along Bea’s cheek and said, “I’ll never forget you, sweet Janie, and I hope you’ll never forget me.” She touched Bea’s foot. “The first time I felt you kick, I didn’t recognize it for what it was. But you wanted me to know it was you, didn’t you? Because you did it again and again. And the first time I held you? I have never known love like my love for you, baby girl.”

  Aurelia fought tears.

  “I will remember every second with you, and everything about you, until my very last breath,” Caroline said softly to her daughter. “And I know that you are well loved.”

  “I’m going to get the bag from the car,” Nelson said, and quickly left the room.

  Brad and Caroline exchanged a look of understanding. “I’d better go with him.” Brad followed him out.

  After they left the room, Caroline said, “Nelson doesn’t like to cry in front of other people.” She nuzzled Bea’s cheek again and said, “But we’re not going to cry, are we? Because this is a blessed day, a day I’ll never forget.”

  Aurelia leaned against Ben, trying desperately to hold back tears, and whispered, “You did the right thing.”

  When Ben had returned from their visit yesterday afternoon looking like he’d been through hell and told Aurelia and his family what had transpired, they’d all broken down. Aurelia had cried for Bea and Caroline, for Caroline’s friends she hadn’t yet met, and even for Ben. She and Ben learned that every fleeting moment counted, and nothing—nothing—was meaningless. Ben confided in her and said he felt like he was losing Caroline, too, even though he barely knew her. That had brought more tears, and she understood where he was coming from, because every time they looked at Bea, they’d see Caroline’s face and they’d miss her. After taking Flossie home and finally crawling into bed, emotionally spent, Aurelia had realized she’d also been crying for herself and the loss of her own mother.

  Caroline looked at them now and said, “Please don’t cry. I know the gravity of our situation, but because of you and Ben, my baby girl will have a wonderful life, full of family who loves her. That’s what I want to carry with me when I walk out this door, not the image of us all in tears.”

  “I’m sorry,” Aurelia said, trying to force her emotions away. She needed something else to focus on and scrambled for something to do. “Would you mind if I took pictures of you and Bea?”

  Caroline smiled. “I would love that. The bag Nelson said he was getting has her baby pictures, birth certificate, and other things I thought you might want.”

  “Thank you,” Ben said.

  Aurelia took pictures of Caroline and Bea, and eventually the guys returned with the bag Caroline had mentioned. Caroline snuggled Bea a little longer.

  “I’ve had a wonderful visit, but I should go before I start feeling poorly,” Caroline said.

  Aurelia’s stomach clenched. She had so much respect for the woman she’d thought she’d hate, she ached with sadness that this was all she’d have with her baby. With their baby. And that’s exactly what Bea felt like now that Aurelia had met Caroline. Their baby—the three of them.

  “I know you call her Bea, which is beautiful, but will you keep Jane as part of her name?” Caroline asked.

  “We were thinking about making it her middle name,” Ben said.

  “Oh, Ben,” Caroline said with a soft laugh. “You might want to consider using Bea as her middle name, even if you call her by it. No girl wants to grow up with the initials BJ.”

  They all smiled, but Caroline was getting ready to leave her baby for the very last time, and the weight of that hung in the air.

  “Good point,” Ben said. “Jane Bea it is.”

  Caroline snuggled Bea one last time. “I will always love you,” she whispered, and then she handed Bea to Ben.

  “She really is a gift, Caroline, and we know she’s the most precious thing in the world to you. I promise we will do our best to make sure she never forgets you.”

  Tears slid from Caroline’s eyes as she kissed Ben’s cheek and said, “Thank you.” She turned to Aurelia and said, “Thank you for loving her. I want you to know that Ben’s love for you was what showed me I could trust him with her. You’re a lucky woman, and he’s just as lucky to have you.”

  She hugged Aurelia so tight, there was no stopping Aurelia’s tears from falling.

  “This will sound funny,” Aurelia said, “but I think we would have been good friends.”

  “Me too. Thank you,” Caroline said shakily. “For everything.”

  Later that evening, while Bea slept, Ben and Aurelia went through the bag from Caroline. In addition to Bea’s birth certificate and immunization records, they found the blanket in which she must have come home from the hospital, along with a tiny pink beanie and a framed picture of Caroline and Bea. Caroline was sitting in the hospital bed with Bea swaddled in the blanket they’d found in the bag and wearing the pink beanie. She was holding the baby in front of her, and they were nose to nose. Bea was looking at her, and Caroline’s eyes were closed, but the love in her smile resonated like an embrace from the photograph.

  “Ben,” Aurelia said, “look at this picture. She must have had a nurse or someone at the hospital take it for her.”

  He looked at the picture, and tears glistened in his eyes. He showed her another picture he’d found in the bag. A selfie. Caroline was lying in bed with Bea snuggled beside her. Caroline’s eyes were at half-mast, but once again the love in her smile told of her joy despite her fatigue.

  Ben took the pictur
es and Aurelia’s hand and led Aurelia into Bea’s nursery. They were staying at Ben’s tonight, too exhausted to pack up and go back to Harmony Pointe. He set the picture of Bea and Caroline lying in bed on Bea’s bookshelf and said, “I think this one should go in her nursery in our apartment.”

  “Our apartment? I like the sound of that so much more than ‘my apartment.’”

  He set down the other frame and gathered her in his arms. “There is no more mine or yours, babe. There’s only ours.” He lowered his lips over hers, taking her in a deep, seductive kiss. His hand slid down her back, cupping her bottom as he said, “And right now I’d like to get our sweet little ass into bed, so I can love our sexy little body into tomorrow.”

  They stumbled down the hall to the bedroom in a tangle of limbs and hungry kisses, stripping off their clothes—and the sadness of the afternoon. How did he know that this was exactly what she needed? His strong arms around her, his love filling her up?

  “Just tomorrow?” She pouted as he nibbled on her neck.

  He pulled her against him, his hard length pressing eagerly, temptingly, against her belly. His chest hair tickled her skin as she said, “I was kind of hoping you’d love me into at least next week.”

  “Fuck next week, babe. I want forever.” He lifted her onto the bed, coming down over her. “I’m thinking about putting my house on the market.”

  In his eyes she saw more than the pulsing heat between them, and his words finally registered. “You’re moving?”

  “There’s that y-word again.” He kissed her smiling lips and said, “You need to be near the shop, and Bea and I need to be near you.”

  “You want to move in over the shop? For good?”

  “Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of for better or for worse.”

  Her heart leapt. “Ben . . . ? Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  “Aurelia, baby, I have loved you my whole life, and I will love you long after my last days on this earth. I don’t have a ring, and I’ve never claimed to have good timing, but my love for you is endless. Marry me, Relsy, and I promise I’ll give you the world. And I’ll try to work on my timing.”

  “Oh, Ben! It’s our timing, and it’s perfect.” She hugged him tighter, clinging to him like a monkey to a tree as she kissed his lips, his cheeks, and his lips again.

  “Is that a yes?”

  “Yes!” She couldn’t suppress her smile, or the urge to tease him, as she said, “If you make me come once before our baby girl gets up, it’s a yes. Twice, and it’s a hell yes.”

  “Oh, babe,” he said, pressing the head of his cock to her entrance. “Don’t underestimate your man.”

  He pushed into her slowly, and she felt every inch of his thick length filling her body with the same intensity with which his love filled her heart, and with a glimmer of promise in his eyes, he asked, “What’ll four times get me?”

  “Eternity . . .”

  EPILOGUE

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE it’s finally happening,” Aurelia said as she looked in the mirror for the hundredth time in the last half hour, fidgeting with the ribbons in her hair, which was pinned up, with a few sexy tendrils framing her face.

  “You’ve worked hard for this, babe, and it’s going to be magnificent.”

  Ben hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her all morning as she rushed around their apartment, dressing and preparing for the grand opening of Chapter One. She was adorable, and beautiful, and she was his. It had been a month since Ben had proposed, and three weeks since he’d moved into the apartment above the bookstore. Thinking of visits with Flossie, holidays with Ben’s big family, and adding to their own family in the future, they decided to hold on to Ben’s house in Sweetwater. They’d had to delay the grand opening of the bookstore because of a broken water pipe and then had delayed it again when Caroline passed away. But his beautiful, bighearted fiancée hadn’t complained. She’d said if she’d learned one thing over the last several weeks, it was that life was full of unexpected obstacles and celebrations, and their plans needed to be fluid.

  Aurelia twirled in her Empire-waist dress.

  “You’re stunning,” he said, stepping behind her. His arms circled her waist, and he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. The charms on the necklace he’d given her shimmered in the lights. “Are you sure you don’t want to wear a necklace that’s more appropriate for the era?”

  She smiled at him in the mirror, touching the silver charms. “I’ve never taken this off, and I never plan to.” She turned in his arms and looked at his frilly shirt and black tailcoat. “Mr. Darcy has nothing on you. Thank you for dressing up.”

  She’d decided to do a reading from Pride and Prejudice for the opening. Everly, Lazarus, and Hollis were also dressing up as their favorite literary characters. Ben and Aurelia had bought the cutest Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland dress for Bea, who had blessed them with an extra-long nap this morning. She kept them on their toes, making them late in the mornings with dirty diapers or puke on their clothes, but neither of them minded. Jane Bea Dalton was legally his, which meant she was theirs, and they adored everything about her.

  “Anything for you, Relsy.” He ran his hands down her hips and said, “The guys will give me hell for dressing up as Darcy, but you can make up for that later.” He put his mouth beside her ear and whispered, “After Bea goes to sleep tonight, maybe we can act out your favorite scene from Charlotte Sterling’s latest erotic novel.”

  She’d loved listening to the tape of Ben reading so much, he’d begun narrating her favorite passages from books and leaving recordings on thumb drives in unexpected places with sexy love notes. She’d found them in the diaper bag, in a cup in the pantry, and in her underwear drawer.

  Her eyes sparked with heat, and she said, “Thanks, Ben. Now I’ll be thinking about that all day.”

  “Good.” He pressed his lips to hers, and then he tilted his head and said, “Do you hear that?”

  Her brow wrinkled. “What?”

  She followed him out of the bedroom and into the living room. He pulled his phone from his pocket and turned on Lukas Graham’s “Love Someone.”

  Aurelia had never heard this song before, and as she listened to the lyrics about opening up her heart and making room for someone she loved, Ben reached for her hand and began slow dancing.

  “Ben . . . ?”

  He gazed into her eyes, singing about how he pinched himself because he couldn’t believe she loved him. Every word found its way into her heart.

  “We have more than an hour before anyone will be here,” he said as he dipped her over his arm.

  When the song ended, he took a step back, and “Born to Be Yours” by Kygo and Imagine Dragons came on. Ben’s expression turned sinful, and in the space of a second he morphed from romantic to holy-fuck hot, hips thrusting to the beat, eyes locked on her. Adrenaline soared through Aurelia’s veins as Ben gyrated to the beat, his shoulders rocking as he strutted closer and dropped his coat to the floor, making her temperature spike. He danced around her, singing about how he’d never known anyone until he knew her and how he was born to be hers. She could barely contain herself, grinning like a fool and moving to the beat as he danced seductively around her, leaning in close with every move. He brushed his lips over hers as he grabbed the two sides of his shirt and tore it open, sending buttons flying across the room. She couldn’t contain her squeals and bounced on her toes as he sang and stripped, his hips moving so seductively, so manly and confident, she could practically feel his thick thighs pressing against hers.

  “You wanted a striptease,” he practically growled. “My girl gets what she wants.”

  “You remembered that from Claimed by Love?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Yeah, but I don’t do other guys’ moves.”

  He grabbed the front of his pants and yanked—hard—and the front panel separated from the back, leaving him in a very well-filled-out G-string. She squealed again and covered her gaping jaw as he dr
agged his slacks over her chest and said, “Stripper pants . . . Thank you, Derek.”

  “Oh my God!” she whisper-laughed, trying not to wake Bea, but she was cracking up and so turned on, there was no hiding it!

  She reached for him, and he ground his hard heat against her, lavishing her with dizzying kisses. He tore his mouth away and said, “I was born to be yours, baby, and you were born to be mine—”

  The front door flew open, and Piper barged in, arms flailing, yammering about something with Willow, Bridgette, and Talia on her heels, all talking at once.

  “Holy Christ,” Ben ground out as he shoved Aurelia in front of him. “What the hell? You’re not supposed to be here for another hour!”

  The girls turned as if they hadn’t noticed them before.

  “What the . . . ?” Piper stepped closer and peered around Aurelia, who was giggling and snort-laughing uncontrollably.

  Willow spotted the clothes on the floor and said, “Ben’s stripping!”

  Laughter burst from his sisters’ lungs, and they all started talking at once again.

  “Ohmygod! I can’t!” Talia turned away, covering her eyes.

  Piper circled Ben and said, “Is that a G-string?”

  “Bodhi so has to do this!” Bridgette said, laughing hysterically.

  “Shh!” he and Aurelia warned, both looking at the bedroom.

  The front door flew open again, and Remi ran in yelling, “Hide me!” She ran behind Ben and said, “Those burly apes won’t leave me alone! I think Aiden really did have me chipped—Ohmygod! Ben! You’re naked!”

  His sisters and Aurelia doubled over with laughter. Ben glowered at them all, and Bea wailed.

  “I’ve got her!” Willow ran into the bedroom.

  Ben looked at Aurelia, and the laughter in her eyes pushed away his annoyance, even as he noticed Piper videoing the chaotic scene. He didn’t care that he was in a G-string, or that Remi was going on about hiding from her bodyguards—or that two enormous men dressed in black suits barreled through the front door and froze as they took in the scene. Ben strode confidently to the table and retrieved the diamond ring he’d hidden beneath an open children’s book.