As if on cue, the hospital doors opened up and in piled Roger, Callie, Michael, and Liz. Liz was carrying a huge bouquet of sunflowers. “I came to see my new babies,” Liz said, walking over and kissing Rachel on the cheek.
“We finally named them,” I announced. “Emma Charlotte-“ Callie burst into immediate tears. “And Sophie Elizabeth.” Liz began tearing up, a phenomenon I’d never previously witnessed.
“Nice names,” Roger said. “As long as they’re spelled the normal way.”
Callie laughed and Roger seemed pleased at that.
Emma was a tiny, warm bundle in my arms. “You’re next, buddy,” I said to Roger. “You better be careful.”
“Next?” he asked, looking confused.
“To get married. Babies. Engaged. Something. He’s right; you’re long overdue,” Liz said, bending over Sophie and cooing at her.
Michael stepped forward. “Sir, I wanted to let you all know that the event today was a rousing success. The shelter is hoping that it can be repeated soon.”
“Someone else is going to have to organize it,” Rachel said. “I’m guessing we’ll have our hands full for the next few months.”
“I’ll do it,” Roger and Callie said simultaneously.
Roger looked at Callie. She seemed startled by his attention. “Do you know who I am?” Roger asked her.
Callie nodded. “Yeah.” She didn’t sound impressed.
“Are you interested in my money?”
Callie furrowed her brow and rolled her eyes. “I have my own money. Plenty. So, no.”
Roger grinned. “You want to grab dinner sometime?”
“Alright,” Callie replied. She was trying to look nonchalant but I could tell she was pleased by this development.
Rachel yawned. I immediately reacted. “Alright, everyone out. My fiancée needs rest. She just gave birth to two living, real humans.”
The nurse took Emma and Sophie back to the ICU. I watched Rachel sleeping for a long time before I finally drifted off in a drug-induced haze of my own.
My life wasn’t anything like I thought it might be. But it was entirely perfect.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
RACHEL
SIX MONTHS LATER
“Watch it, you’re going to step on your own train and ruin it,” Callie said, swatting my legs away from the twenty-five-foot train of the royal blue wedding dress I was wearing. She was spraying me with one final rush of hairspray. I felt like this was her Southern coming out in full display. You could never have too much hairspray.
She stepped back and took a good look at me. “You look stunning,” she said, tears in her eyes.
I heard Emma crying one room over and panicked. “Oh no, my milk,” I said. “It’s going to stain my dress!” Callie rushed to stuff my bra with more milk pads. Thankfully, Emma stopped crying almost immediately, hushed by Michael who had been charged with their care for the day’s events. “Michael should have a second career as a baby whisperer,” I said to Callie. “He’s like Nanny McPhee.”
Callie reached up to pull a curl of hair off my forehead and I noticed something resting on her left ring finger for the first time all day. “Oh my God,” I hissed, grabbing her hand. “Roger proposed!”
Callie beamed at me. “Last night. I didn’t want to step on your big day.”
I pulled her into a hug. “Step on my big day? Seriously? Sis, I’m the CEO of a company that’s making pharmaceutical giants tremble in their boots, I’m marrying a billionaire, and I have two perfect daughters. No one can step on me right now, not even my perfect older sister.”
Callie laughed. “There’s the false modesty I’ve wanted you to have your whole life. It’s about time.”
There was a knock on the door. Callie nodded at me. “Here we go,” I said.
The ceremony was perfect. I walked under a to-scale replica of Jupiter on my way to the start of the aisle. I knew the second Zane asked me to marry him for the second time that we would do it here at the Adler, with family. With our team around us.
Michael was pushing a dual baby stroller with the girls inside of it, dropping sunflower petals as he went. They were the honorary flower girls, even though they couldn’t walk.
Liz and Roger walked in front of me, arm-in-arm. I grinned thinking about how they would be doing the same thing in reverse soon enough. Everything was working out perfectly.
And at the end of the aisle stood my Zane, my husband-to-be, his dark curls restored to his head, his blue eyes glinting. The Chicago skyline stretched behind him. “I love you,” he mouthed to me.
“I love you too,” I mouthed back, walking as slowly as I could and trying not to trip.
I thought about the enormous leap I’d taken a year and a half ago. I never could have predicted that I would end up here. I had two blue-eyed, chubby-cheeked perfect daughters and a loving, sexy, tattooed husband to boot. I also had another secret. I made it to Zane and he dipped me into a kiss again, just like the first time. The crowd cheered. On the way back up, I whispered in his ear. “I took the test. I’m pregnant again.”
Zane’s smile could have lit the Magnificent Mile. We held hands through the whole ceremony. I saw my mother sitting stony-faced and glowering in the front row. I didn’t care. Callie said she’d handle her all day today. I’d owe her big time.
We said our I dos and Zane gave me the longest kiss of our lives as our friends and family clapped. Zane swooped me up, train and all, and carried me down the aisle away from the audience. He hit the elevator button to go downstairs. “Where are we going?” I asked him. “The reception is upstairs!”
He grinned at me as the numbers dinged downwards. “I need to fuck my wife first,” he explained.
We snuck, whispering to each other in nervousness, back into the main theater where he’d proposed to me the first time.
“Mrs. Rachel Cobb Reid,” he whispered, as my dress fell off my shoulders and onto the floor. “Mother of my children. Light of my existence.”
I giggled. “Stop it,” I said.
He kissed me passionately. “I’ll never stop. You’re the love of my life and I’ll be fucking you until the day we both kick the bucket.”
He kept his promise.
STAY IN TOUCH
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vesper Vaughn weaves her fiction from her backyard writing studio nestled in the sunny, star-studded hills of Hollywood, California. Her interests include: smart-ass, sexy men; romantic comedy movies; gin and tonics, all Shonda Rhimes television shows, and the Hemsworth brothers. She is the author of the reader-adored bad boy romance novels STEP WILDE and HITMAN’S HOOKUP.
MORE STORIES BY VESPER VAUGHN
STEP WILDE: A STEPBROTHER ROMANCE
He’s the hottest movie star on the planet – and he wants me all for himself.
Olivia: After years of hard work and discipline, I’m still a struggling script supervisor. This job in Italy should be my big break … but he’s there. Roman Wilder, aka Wilde, the hottest movie star on the planet. The guy I spent one incredible night with back when he was an impossibly sexy theater student. I can’t avoid him--he won’t let me. Then my mom calls to tell me she’s met a great guy … who happens to be Wilde’s dad.
My life is going off the rails, and it’s my new stepbrother’s fault. So why is a single touch from him still enough to melt my panties?
Wilde: Life is too short to spend it being bored. I may run naked into crowds of paparazzi, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely reckless … except when it comes to Olivia. She broke my heart with that one-night stand. I don’t care if she’s my stepsister. I don’t even care about my ex trying to blackmail us.
I want Olivia back. And this time, I’m not taking no for an answer.
Available through Amazon for purchase or FREE through Kindle Unlimited
HITMAN’S HOOKUP: A BAD BOY ROMANCE
What if the man you hooked up with on a dating app turned out to be an international assassin?
LILY: I’ve always lived for adrenaline. But one night with Cruz has given me more adrenaline than I bargained for.
After being put on a leave of absence from my job as a surgeon, I’m tearing at the walls for an adventure. When I download Pyre, the hot new dating app, all I want is sex with a stranger. What I get is Cruz, the sexiest, most dangerous man I’ve ever laid eyes on. Now I’m on the run from assassins…with an assassin by my side.
CRUZ: I work alone. But for this mission, I need a believable cover – a hot woman on my arm. From the second I see Lily on Pyre, I know she has to be mine. The only problem is that I’m the man who nearly destroyed her career. She just has no idea I was the one behind the destruction.
The truth would kill our relationship; that is, if my assassin ex-girlfriend doesn’t kill us both first.
Available through Amazon for purchase or FREE through Kindle Unlimited
AUTHOR’S NOTE AND SOUNDTRACK
This time I approached my soundtrack mix a little differently. I formed the playlist before I began writing and let many of these songs inspire original scenes. Other songs were just general mood-inspirers but don’t fit with certain scenes.
This mix was on repeat while I typed away!
FOOLS by Lauren Aquilina – Movie trailer song!
ALPHABET BOY by Melanie Martinez – When Rachel and Zane have their first date and she hates his rudeness towards Michael.
CHEYENNE by Jason Derulo – Zane’s thoughts toward Rachel.
TUNNEL VISION by Justin Timberlake – Office sex! Sex everywhere.
NATIONAL ANTHEM by Lana del Rey – When Rachel can’t believe the chemistry between them.
ELECTRIC TWIST by A Fine Frenzy – When Zane is wooing Rachel with dates and roses and lingerie.
THIS IS WHAT MAKES US GIRLS by Lana Del Rey – Rachel becoming a sexy, badass business woman.
BLOODSTREAM by Stateless – Sex. All the sex. So much sex. Must make a baby.
UNIVERSE & U (ACOUSTIC) by K.T. Tunstall - When Zane proposes to Rachel in the Adler Planetarium.
COCONUT SKINS by Damien Rice – When Zane hides his secret from Rachel.
BLOODSTREAM by Ed Sheeran – Zane’s song on repeat when Rachel calls off their marriage and he’s not showering or shaving or taking care of himself.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS by Lifehouse – When Rachel and Zane are broken up.
FADE INTO YOU by Mazzy Star – When Zane takes Rachel on their bicycling date.
IS IT ANY WONDER? by Keane – Any time Zane and Rachel are driving through the streets of Chicago; also a good song as the “credits” roll.
Happy reading and listening,
Vesper
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
STAY IN TOUCH
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MORE STORIES BY VESPER VAUGHN
AUTHOR’S NOTE AND SOUNDTRACK
Baby Love: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 19
