by K. I. Lynn
“How is she?” I ask, suddenly acutely aware that my body is empty.
“Tiny, but perfect,” he says with a smile. “Very tiny.”
“Very tiny?”
“Four pounds, eleven ounces. She’s strong. They kept her in the NICU for a few days just to make sure. Her bilirubin levels were high, so they kept her under a light to help bring it down. Jaundice,” he says, and I feel completely lost at the information he’s throwing at me. Not understanding any of it, but in awe that he does.
“It’s going to be fine, baby. All is good. From what I was told, it’s not at all uncommon. Trust me, she’s perfect. Your mom is in with her now. They have to give her formula for now.”
“I want to breastfeed,” I say as my hand moves to my now empty stomach. I’d gotten used to the baby inside me, and suddenly, he . . . she’s gone. In what was a literal blink of the eye for me, but days for Niko.
“I know, and you’ll be able to, but not until the meds and shit are out of your system. She’s doing fine on the formula, but they said you could pump to keep the milk supply coming, then when you’re ready, you can try,” he says, and all I want to do is cry.
I’ve missed the first few days of my daughter’s life. I have no idea what she looks like, who she looks like. Tate stole that from me. How I could ever have been with that man for two years and not have seen that he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing makes me feel horrible about myself.
“Hey,” Niko says and turns my head toward his concerned face. “It’s going to be okay, Ev. It’s over. He’s not going to bother you again. You, me, and our daughter will be fine. We have many firsts to celebrate in our future.”
“I know, but this is all my fault. If I had listened to you, Cam, and my dad about Tate, maybe it wouldn’t have gotten to this point. Maybe we could have stopped him before it got to him in the house like a deranged stalker. Maybe—”
“No, Everly. This is not your fault. It’s his. He is the one that wouldn’t take no for an answer. How were you supposed to know that he would go to the lengths he did? There’s something not right upstairs, baby, and there is no way that you could have known he would do what he did. None of us did. Trust me, though, we all know now, and it’s being taken care of,” he says, his tone turning angry.
“I don’t understand.”
Niko slides his hand down my arm and picks my hand up, kissing the back of it. That’s when I notice my other arm is heavy and glance down to find my arm is in a cast.
“Tate broke in again. You called me.” His brow scrunches. “He was talking about taking you somewhere. At the time, I had no idea what was going on, but he claims that he bought a house for you, him, and the baby to live in. Told the police that he was there to surprise you, but that when you were walking down the stairs, you slipped and fell.” Niko blows out a breath through clenched teeth. “I know he’s full of shit about how it happened; he wasn’t giving you a choice but to go with him. I heard you tell him to leave, Ev. I heard everything. Scared the shit out of me. I tried to get to you, but . . .”
The memories circle in my mind, and I know I’m not going to forget this for a very long time. “I forgot to turn the alarm on. I-I fell asleep, and I didn’t set the alarm. When I woke up, he was sitting on the end of the bed and I just, I tried to get away,” I say, trying to think of everything that happened. “He . . . he grabbed me.” I can see it, like watching a movie. “I managed to wrench my arm from his grip, but we were at the top of the stairs.”
Niko swallows. “I’ll never forget seeing you at the bottom of those stairs. I thought you were both gone.”
“Where is Tate now?”
“The police took him. He left you there but apparently came back to your house right after the ambulance brought you here. For now, he’s locked up. They’re trying to throw everything they can at him. Breaking and entering is one and because you were home at the time he’ll get more time. That is just one of the charges, though. They plan to charge him with attempted kidnapping since he tried to force you against your will to leave your home. They’ll need a statement from you, but not today.”
“I don’t have to see him, do I?”
He shakes his head. “Probably not until the trial. I honestly don’t see them letting him go with all that they have on him right now, and from what your brother told me, they have been working with the DA to see what else they can stick him with. He’ll likely go away for a while, so don’t think about him right now, baby. The detective on this case took my statement the morning after you were brought in. That, along with the recording on my phone, and I’m sure he’s done. He can lie all he wants, but I heard him, have proof, and now that you’re awake, you can tell them your side, but not until you’ve rested more. He’s not going anywhere.”
All I can do is nod. I know he didn’t push me. I fell. That was an accident, but he scared me. He wasn’t giving me a choice but to go with him even though I asked him to leave, so I have no sympathy for him right now. He broke in again. I’ll tell the police the truth, but I agree that he needs to answer for what he did. I wouldn’t have fallen had he not broken in.
For now, I just want to see my daughter and spend my time thinking about our future. Mine, Niko’s, and the baby girl we didn’t know was coming.
“What are we going to do with all the boy stuff?” I ask.
A soft chuckle comes from Niko. “Oh, my sweet woman. Have a little faith in me,” he says and chuckles. “Well, okay. I’m lying. It has nothing to do with me. It’s all your mom and my cousin. Your mom already has her social circle on it, with Siobhan helping. Don’t think we need to worry about that, but I know one thing they can’t do for us.”
“What’s that?”
“Name our daughter.” He smiles. I think for a minute about what he just said, and it hits me.
“I think I have one.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I know we were thinking of Nikolas for a boy. I’d like to keep that still.”
“Umm, Ev. As much as I’d love to name our child after me, I don’t think Nikolas is gender neutral,” he says, and I laugh.
“Not Nikolas. Nicole.”
He thinks for a minute before replying. “You want to name our daughter Nicole?”
“Not exactly. I was thinking about something you just said a minute ago, and that made me think of the perfect name for her.” His puzzled look is almost too funny, but I decide not to drag this out before he calls the nurse to medicate me due to my not making sense to him.
“Faith.”
“Faith?”
“Yes. Faith Nicole Callahan. I want to name our daughter Faith because that is precisely what we have in each other. What we need to always have in each other and our family. Mine, yours, and our own. Nicole is after you. Or at least it’s as close to your name as I can come up with. What do you think?”
“I think it’s beautiful, just like her. Just like her mother. I love it, and I love you, baby.” He leans down and kisses my lips. If it were any other time, I’d be on cloud nine after a kiss from Niko, but right now all I can think about is meeting our daughter.
“Can I see her?”
“Of course. Let me go find out how to make that happen. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He kisses my head this time and then takes off out of my hospital room.
“Faith Nicole Callahan. I can’t wait to meet you, baby girl,” I say out loud.
She may not have entered the world as we planned or be the boy we thought we were having, but I love her just the same, and I’m not going to feel complete until I have her in my arms. Her and her daddy.
DUE TO EVERLY’S HEALTH, she stayed in the hospital for over two weeks until she regained her strength and the doctors were convinced she was past the point of infection. Our daughter stayed as well, and I spent every day with them.
Linda made sure the house was ready for us since we were a little ahead of the time frame and therefore behind on the nursery. Per usual Linda style, she went
a little overboard in the decorations, but neither of us minded.
“She’s beautiful, Ev. Thank God she looks more like you than this ugly SOB,” Cam says, and I smack him in the back of his head. I’d like to do more, but he’s holding my daughter in his arms. I hate to say it, but I’m jealous of my best friend right now, because I want to hold my little girl and never let her go.
She’s perfect in every way. Perfect from the wispy brown hairs on her head to her tiny feet. She’s still small, but she gets bigger every day, just like my love for her.
“Okay, time’s up, Uncle Cam. She wants her daddy.”
“No, she doesn’t. She’s sound asleep, you dick!”
“Watch your language around my daughter, asshole. I don’t want her first words to be penis.”
Cam holds the baby tighter to his chest, preventing me from taking her from his arms without waking her, and I want to punch him.
“You do realize that you just scolded me for saying dick and not penis after you called me an asshole, right?”
“That’s because you are an asshole who needs to watch his mouth around my kid. Now give her to me.”
“You two are seriously twisted. Give her to me, Cam. I need to wake her anyway to feed her.”
“Of course! Can’t have my niece being hungry. After all, Uncle Cam is going to make sure she has lots of fun and is spoiled fucking rotten!”
Carefully, Cameron places Faith into Everly’s good arm. She still has the cast on, but is managing better than I thought when it comes to holding the baby.
Fuck, I almost can’t stand how much I love seeing Everly with our daughter.
“Cameron!” I growl at my best friend, and he shrugs his shoulders.
“Deal with it, penis. She’s going to love me more,” he says. I shake my head and decide internally if I want to kick or punch him in his nuts when the doorbell rings. “Saved by the bell. I’ll get that. I don’t want to see my sister’s boob when she pulls it out to feed my princess.”
“Seriously?” I say to his retreating form.
Whatever. God, he’s an asshole sometimes. I take a seat next to Everly on the bed as she nurses our child and the most calming feeling of fullness hits me.
I’m happy.
I love Everly Hayes, and I’m so in love with our daughter that I don’t know what to do with myself.
“I want more of these,” I say as I caress the top of Faith’s head.
“More of what?” Everly says, looking down at our daughter while she helps her to latch onto the other breast to feed. It’s only been a few days since she’s been able to breastfeed her, the drugs finally out of her system, but it seems to be going well.
“More little Everlys.”
Her head comes up, eyes looking into mine. “I think we should probably hold off on more babies for a while. I mean, we just had this one; let’s get used to being parents of one before we start adding little Nikos to the mix, okay?”
“Little Nikos?” I ask with a smile. She doesn’t say no to more, and that makes me happy for right now.
“Of course little Nikos. I thought we were having a boy the whole time I was pregnant with this little angel. I’d mentally prepared myself for a boy. Hell . . . I might have even seen my therapist more than once with panic attacks over the fact that there was going to be a walking, talking smaller version of Niko Callahan with your DNA and some of Cameron’s, seeing as he is my brother. I love our baby girl to death and wouldn’t trade her for the world, but now that I’ve adjusted to the thought of a little Niko, I’d love a son.”
“With me? You want more babies with me?”
She rolls her eyes. “What kind of question is that, Nikolas Callahan? Of course with you! God, Cam is right, you are a penis.”
I can’t help it. I start laughing, and it does nothing to wipe the scowl off Ev’s face. In fact, it makes me laugh harder.
“What is wrong with you? You sound like a hyena. Be quiet. Faith is falling asleep!” she hisses at me, and I stop laughing, wiping the tears from under my eyes. I stop and watch her pull Faith up and onto her shoulder, lightly rubbing her back. I stare at them both in awe.
I can’t imagine my life without them. What I’d be doing right now had Everly not moved home and back into my life when she did. I don’t want to live another day without her and Faith by my side.
“Marry me,” I say, and I mean it. I feel it with every fiber of my being.
“W-what?” Everly stammers out, an insecure expression on her face.
“I said, marry me, Everly Hayes. You are my reason for everything. Until the day you walked through that door at the pub, my life was shit. I just didn’t know it. I was living, but my life was meaningless until you. You and Faith are my life. I don’t want to miss a day in hers. I want to be there every step of the way. From her first tooth, first word, first steps. Hell . . . I want to be there when she goes on her first date when she’s thirty-five. I want to buy a shotgun in preparation for the first unworthy asshole that tries to break my baby girl’s heart, and I want to practice shooting his dick off for doing it. Marry me, Everly Cassandra Hayes. Be my wife. Have more little Everlys with me. Be my family forever.”
She blinks at me, and when she speaks her voice is soft. “You know you can still be there for her, by her side for everything you just said without us getting married. I’d never stop that, Niko. Never.”
“I know you wouldn’t. That’s not what I want, though, Ev. I want you. I want you and her. I love you. I want our family to be a real family. I want the big house, and the minivan and—”
“I am not driving a minivan! I’m also not getting rid of my BMW.” I stare at her for a few seconds. Waiting. Hoping that I’m not wrong about this. “I just don’t want you to feel obligated because of Faith. I’d understand.”
“Everly!” I growl at her. Gently, she manages to put Faith down into her bassinet and turns to me.
“I just want you to be sure that we’re what you want for the long haul. I just—”
I cut her off and slide my hand into her hair as I pull her mouth toward mine. The kiss is urgent, intense, and full of everything I feel for her. I want her to feel what she means to me, and right now, this is as far as I can go considering she just had our baby and is still on the mend.
“I’m so sure about this that it’s all I’ve been able to think about. I’ve wanted to marry you for a long time now, but I knew you wouldn’t believe my reasons for asking you, so I waited. I thought I lost you when I found you, unconscious on the bottom of those stairs. I thought I lost both of you and it knocked me off my straight line. Everly, you’re in my bloodstream, baby. Don’t make me bleed out. Say yes. Say yes, and make me the happiest man alive, because any man on this earth that doesn’t have their own Everly Hayes by their side, well, I don’t want to think about that man because he’s a dead man without you. Make me the lucky one. Say. Yes.”
“Okay,” she whispers and wipes tears from her eyes.
“Okay? What’s that? It’s yes or no, baby. Not ‘okay.’ Christ, you’re a handful!” I smile and look down at her beautiful, tear-streaked face.
“Okay, yes. I’ll marry you,” she says a little louder this time. “But only if you repeat it.”
“Say what again?”
“Say that your life was meaningless without me and that the baby and I are your life.”
“You are my life, baby. You and Faith are everything and more. I’m not letting you go.”
I don’t get to say any more to her as the loud shouting from downstairs interrupts the rest of what I wanted to say. Instead, both Ev and I turn at the sound of loud voices in the hallway, and as much as I don’t want to spoil our moment, it’s already ruined when the tone of my best friend’s voice has me getting up and making my way to the front of the house.
“Stay with the baby. I’ll see what that’s all about,” I say without giving Everly time to respond. I make my way toward the two heated sounding voices, but I stop and listen
where I am rather than making my way to the end of the hallway.
Huh . . . oh, this should be interesting. I have no idea what is going on between the two of them, but I now have an idea. I can’t wait to throw this in his face.
“Turnabout is fair play, brother,” I say to myself and listen for another minute, deciding that they can handle this without an audience.
Turning on my heels, I make my way back to my soon-to-be-wife and daughter. The thought alone has me grinning like a lunatic even when I hear the front door slam shut.
When I get back up to the bedroom, Everly’s snuggling a pillow, her eyes shut as the lack of sleep takes over. I climb up on the bed and pull the pillow form her arms, earning a furrowed brow and some groans before I pull her to me and have her snuggle into my side.
This is how we were always meant to be.
“Are you coming in or not? I don’t have time to stand here all day, sweetheart,” I say, knowing it will piss my sister’s best friend off.
I’ve known Alyson since she was a teen. Alyson and Everly went to high school together, and we have never gotten along. We had a very small window of civility a few years back after her brother died. I thought things between us would change, but I was wrong. My tolerance level for Aly is usually zero on a scale of one to ten, and that’s being nice. I don’t know why the fuck she always pisses me off, but I’m usually delighted to know that those feelings are mutual. I fish, and she gives it right back. Although, something has changed between us, and as much as I want to regret it, I can’t, but that doesn’t mean I have to be nice to her or even like her.
“Fuck it! Stand out there all day if you want. I’m going back upstairs.”
“What’s your problem?” she asks.
“My problem? I don’t have a problem, sweetheart. You have a problem?”
“Whatever, Cameron. Excuse me. I’d like to see my friend and her daughter if you don’t mind,” she says with the haughtiest attitude I’ve ever seen on a woman.
Well, fuck her. “Whatever. We both know running away is what you’re good at. So run along, little girl.”
