by Mia Ford
I had a good job that was tremendously kind when they found out my condition when I started the job. They kept me on and offered the insurance sooner so I could see the doctor as needed. I was given as long as I needed in the condo until the baby was born and I had some idea of where I wanted to go. I was saving a lot of money that way with the lack of rent, money that could help me buy a place if I felt brave enough to go to Perry to get it.
I left in a rush, not really thinking about the strings that connected us. There was the trust fund that my parents set up for me when I was born that was still doing very well. They had put away money for college, and Perry handled all of that for me while he supported me during school, giving me anything I could need or want. Perry was generous before we slept together, and I told Lana goodbye as I headed to my office.
I thought about the nights that we spent together a lot, wishing that it had ended differently. I got scared the moment we came home, too spooked to try to make it work. I had the perfect excuse to avoid it with the emails about jobs, something that happened much faster than expected. When I started to feel a bit off before I was scheduled to fly out, all my ignorance hit me like a ton of bricks as I knew I had to face reality.
That was why I took the pregnancy test in California. I could just be alone and cry my eyes out, so lonely and scared that it was tearing me apart inside. I sobbed most of the night, showering in the morning, and cleaning up for my interview. I wasn’t feeling the confidence that I projected but nailed it, and I was stunned when they offered me the job on the spot. It made sense to take it. I could fly home as planned and just come running back without Perry knowing about the baby. I didn’t have the heart to tell him, imagining his face as he offered to take care of us because it was the right thing to do. That wasn’t what I wanted.
I took a seat at my drafting desk and hung my purse up before setting the coffee cup on the table beside me. I had done a good job since being hired, in part because I started the job pregnant and felt like I needed to prove myself more than some of the others. It was also the way that I was and always had been. My supervisors were happy with me and assured me that I would be here for a long time to come.
It was a generous offer, but I still missed Perry. I slept because being five months along wore me out. It was a restless sleep, but I seemed to me able to nod off every time I sat down at home. I worked hard to stay alert at work, and it made me smile when my coworkers told me not to work too much since I had someone else to take care of.
I was finding out what the baby was in three days and I was so nervous. Finding out that it was just a single baby was a big relief to me since twins as a single mother sounded so complicated. I’d made some friends, but they weren’t close enough that I’d ask for a lot of help just yet. I didn’t get to go out and drink with everyone with the baby, although that was an excuse more than anything. I was always too tired from pretending how happy I was here. I loved the ocean but didn’t think any beach would be the same alone again. It just reminded me of everything with Perry.
Every kiss played through my mind when I tried to sleep at night, and the way that he felt inside of me was something that I’d never forget. It was the best feeling I’d ever experienced, and I knew that even with my hormones going insane with the pregnancy, I wouldn’t sleep with another man for some time to come. I had a lot on my plate right now, and I was just trying to sort through the confusion of being a single mother.
I missed Mom so much right now. She wouldn’t be happy that Perry was the father, at least I didn’t think so. She would still be here for me, though, helping with everything that I needed. I smiled as the other people that shared the large, open office joined me and we slipped into the comfortable routine. I worked steadily through until my break when I had a quick snack with Lana while she got another coffee. We went out for lunch a couple times a week as well, as I discovered what the baby liked as well as what they didn’t like. That was uncomfortable.
I left for the night, walking across the courtyard towards the garage when I thought I heard my name. I looked around, through the groups of people that were leaving for the day as well and didn’t see the man that I swore said my name. I barely knew any here. “Caroline.” I froze as the voice spoke again, all too familiar with it as I turned slowly to my right. Perry was there, walking towards me as I rested my hand on my stomach and whimpered to myself. He looked angry, and I pressed my lips together as he strode over with a scowl on his face. “I had to come here to find you. What the…” His voice drifted off as he glanced down to see my hand resting over my clearly pregnant stomach, and I watched as the color drained from his face. “Is it mine?” Perry lifted his eyes to my face as he searched it rapidly, reaching out to cover my hand as I stood frozen. “Caroline. Is it my baby?”
“What do you think?” I shot back as tears slipped down my cheeks. I was far too hormonal to act like this was all right, and he reached his hand around my back to pull me against him.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Why were you hiding it?” His voice was filled with pain as I started to cry harder, breathing in his scent. “You’ve been alone all this time. Have you been taking care of yourself? Have you been eating well?”
“That’s all I’ve done besides work,” I told him as he led me to the side of the large fountain and held my face as he stared at me. He looked angry, sad and relieved all at once before he kissed me.
“I was so fucking worried about you when you never called. Is this why?” Perry asked me as I nodded. “Why would you do that?”
“I didn’t think that you would want us,” I admitted as he shook his head before pressing his lips to mine firmly as he seemed to take everything in.
“You’re crazy. I wanted to tell you when we were away that I was falling for you, but I thought I’d wait until we got home. Then you pushed me away, and all the jobs came up, and you were here, interviewing. Then, gone. You just left me, Caroline, when you mean everything to me.”
“You were falling for me?” I asked as I choked on my sobs, losing control of my emotions.
“I fell hard. I love you, Caroline.” I looked at him before I wrapped my arms around his waist and cried into his green t-shirt. “I want you and the baby. I don’t want to be apart. Should I start looking for something here?”
“What?” I asked as I stepped back to look at him. “Your company!”
“I’ll sell it. I’ll run it from here. Anything to be with you, Caroline.” He kissed me hungrily again before pulling away. “What is it? A boy or a girl?”
“I find out in a couple of days. Want to come with me?” I barely got the words out before he was kissing me again, his tongue slipping against mine as I tried to breathe.
“Yes. Are you kidding me? I am never leaving your side,” Perry told me as I pulled him down for another kiss. “Where is your condo?”
“How do you know I live in a condo?” I asked as he laughed. “You had someone look for me, didn’t you?”
“I was worried, heartbroken and bordering on crazy. I had to know something. Let’s get you and my baby some food and go there. I want to know everything about the pregnancy…every detail.” Perry said as my stomach growled, making us both laugh. “Come on. What are you craving?”
We got some Indian food, a new phase for me. Perry paid for the four bags and drove me back to the condo, unlocking the door to walk inside and look around carefully. I made my way to the fridge for some cold water for both of us before he brought the bags to the small bistro table. We did it like we used to, with just forks as we passed the containers back and forth.
I was crying again when I finished telling him everything. Perry looked devastated as he pushed the food away and ran a hand through his growing hair. “I am so sorry. I was scared, and everything happened so fast.” I took a deep breath. “I was never on the pill, Perry. I just wanted you.”
“We were meant to create this,” Perry told me as I raised an eyebrow at him. “We were meant for all of
this, just like you said.” He cleaned up as I watched, then took me to the couch as he cleared his throat. “I brought something from the house for you.”
“What?” I asked as he drew close and kissed me softly.
“I planned this before I saw you,” he assured me as he reached into his pocket and drew something out. “I like that you’re wearing the necklace, Caroline. I have something to match it.” Perry looked into my eyes and held something close for a moment. “I realized that I loved you when we were on the island. All of you. I have never felt that way with a woman before in my life. It was magical.” He showed me a box that clearly held jewelry, flipping up the lid to reveal the diamond wedding set that graced my mother’s left hand every day of her life with me. My eyes widened as I looked into his eyes. “I want you to marry me, Caroline. I will do anything I need to be with you and our child. I just know that I never want to be without you ever again. To hell with what people think.”
I threw myself into Perry’s arms, crying as I told him that I would marry him. He slipped the ring on my hand and kissed me hard as I moaned, knowing that I could have him now. “You know the worst thing about being pregnant?” I had whispered before I kissed his neck. “The hormones. I have been getting myself off every night since I am kind of crazy about this particular man. Want to help me with that?”
“Fuck, yes,” he told me as he claimed my lips hungrily. We stripped on the couch, and he made me come with his finger against my clit before he carried me to the bedroom. “You’re taking tomorrow off,” Perry told me as he dropped me on the bed and lowered his mouth to mine.
“I can’t. They have been so nice to me,” I protested as Perry lowered his lips to my neck. “I’ll take the day off for the appointment the next day.”
“I am going to find us a house on the beach then. Something with room for us and the baby,” he murmured in between kisses as I laughed. “Do you want to stay here?”
“I don’t know. I am still wondering if this is a dream,” I whispered as I arched my back and offered him my breasts. He cupped them gently, telling me how beautiful I was with his baby growing inside of me. I knew that I was bigger and I cried out as his mouth covered my nipple, sucking gently. He slowly kissed down my body, his lips pressing gently against my swollen belly as he told our baby that he loved them.
He was between my legs after that, his mouth rough and hungry as he tasted me. I tugged on his hair as I rocked against him, screaming his name as I came all over his lips. Perry moved right up and over me, slipping his cock inside of me as we both groaned together. “I love you so much,” I told him as I stared into his eyes for a long moment. It felt like forever since I realized my feelings and a weight was lifted once I spoke them aloud.
“I love you. I can’t wait until we see our baby and find out what we’re having,” he told me as he kissed me again, driving himself into her hard and deep as I cried out his name.
We came together in a rush of heat, our bodies toppling together as he rested gently against my body.
We made love again before I fell asleep in his arms.
I took the next day to think about what I truly wanted. I knew that I wanted to be with Perry, and I imagined all our years in Colorado with a wistful smile. That was home. “Are you okay?” Lauren asked as I looked across our office at her.
“I think I’m going back to Colorado. Am I crazy?” I asked as she laughed, knowing everything about Perry and me. We’d celebrated with donuts from the corner bakery after I showed her the ring.
“Not at all.” Her smile was bright.
I told Perry the following day after we saw our daughter, both of us reduced to tears. He said that he never looked for a place to begin with before he kissed me. I went to talk to my boss that afternoon with him to tell him the bad news, not surprised when they supported me wholeheartedly. They even offered to give me a letter of recommendation, making me thank them tearfully. I hadn’t been there long enough to ask any of that, in my opinion.
We decided to marry at a local chapel since there was no family to invite. We’d both lost too many people and just wanted our new life to start, so we said our vows on a balcony overlooking the ocean as the man performed the ceremony while his wife and daughter watched with tears in their eyes.
He packed up my car the following day after we’d spent the night in the bed at the condo, promising me a wonderful life filled with babies as I came repeatedly. We took his rental car back to Avis, and he took the driver’s seat for our ride home.
Perry stopped a hotel halfway through the drive. He told me that I needed some proper sleep but undressed me once we were in the suite, making love to me in the big bed as if he hadn’t seen me in weeks. “Is every time going to be this good?” I asked as I rested in his arms afterward.
“It might be more of a quickie when the baby comes along, but you’ll always be the best thing that happened to me,” Perry assured me as he smiled at me. “Do you think that they’re looking down at us?”
We’d seen a gorgeous sunset right after we were pronounced husband and wife, so I knew it for a fact. That was her sign to us.
It seemed like time flew by once we were home and getting ready for the baby. Mila Delaney Adams was born at the end of February, named after her grandmothers. She had his eyes and my hair. Perry and I took her home to the house in the woods, holding her as the fire roared in the fireplace. Her nursery was in the room beside Perry’s that was never used before since it was his floor. Now it was her little place in this house.
We were married for two years when we gave Mila a brother named Brandon, happy to welcome another member into our family. I was staying home with the kids and helping Perry at the office as needed. We had two dogs by now from the local rescue as well as three cats running around the house. It was chaos, but it was ours, and we loved every moment of our lives.
I can’t say that everyone in our life accepted us as a couple. There was a handful that found it disgusting as well as disrespectful to my parents, but we just had to leave them behind. We had our own life to carve out with our new family. We had each other.
We had love.
The End
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Cowboy Romance
BILLIONAIRE COWBOY
BILLIONAIRE COWBOY
Celia shielded her eyes against the glaring Texan sun with the palm of her hand, this sun was going nowhere. She had just stepped off the train that had carried her from the Austin airport, and after a two-hour journey in a small cramped seat, she could feel her bones aching and her legs needing a stretch. How long would she have to wait here in the heat?
Two stuffed-to the brim suitcases lay at her feet. She had packed everything she could, everything she would need, although she wasn’t quite sure what she might actually require. She had never been to Texas before, and definitely never to such a small town.
Celia took in a deep breath and sighed. She had been standing there for over fifteen minutes now, and there was no sign of her ride.
Her grandfather had written a letter to her a month ago. Initially she had smiled when she found the letter slipped under the door of her tenth floor apartment in New York, by the postman. Who hand wrote letters any more? Clearly her grandfather did. But when she eventually read the letter, the smile on her face had disappeared. He was sick, very sick, and he was her only remaining family. She had to be there for him in his hour of need, there was no other choice but that.
So Celia quit her job, not that it was much of a job. It was an internship at a fashion magazine, but it was also a stepping stone towards the actual job that she wanted. Sure it would have taken time, a few months, maybe even a few years…but it would all be worth it. Now, quitting her job, moving to a small town in Texas to care for her grandfather was g
oing to be a major setback. But what other choice did she have? She couldn’t simply allow her grandfather to wither away by himself.
She had written back to him, probably her first handwritten letter in several years, telling him her plan. She would quit her job and move in with him to care for him, for as long as he needed. He was her only family, she had to do this for him and for the memory of her parents who had brought her up to care for those in need.
The roar of an engine nearby distracted Celia from her thoughts and she whipped around to find a red battered truck making its way towards her, sending dust clouds up in the air in its trail. Her grandfather had mentioned a ride, but this wasn’t what she was expecting.
The truck came to a sudden halt, right in front of her feet and Celia took a few steps back in surprise. It looked like an old dusty thing, with the red paint chipped in several places, the rearview mirror broken and dangling on the side. The engine made such a great sound that it was clear that it needed major maintenance.
Celia still had her face shielded with her hand when the driver’s door creaked open and she saw the back of a man who jumped off the truck. She still didn’t know what to expect, was this definitely her ride?
“Celia Ferro?” The man banged the door shut behind him and turned to look at her, placing his hands on the burning hot hood of the car engine. There was steam rising from it, it was so hot. But he didn’t seem to notice, he kept his hands on it.
