Lead Me Home: A Fight for Me Stand-Alone Novel

by A. L. Jackson

Us.

  I grinned. “Let them get all the ideas they want.”

  I angled to the side so I could fumble with the lock on the front door. I was still carrying her when we got inside.

  It was late when she’d been discharged from the hospital this evening.

  Her attending doctor had told her the exact thing Kale had told me.

  The most important thing she needed was rest. To give her body time to recuperate from the trauma. I took her straight to my bedroom.

  Strike that.

  Our room.

  I laid her on the bed, and she giggled again, just as I was crawling right up with her, unable to leave any distance between us.

  Needing her near.

  I propped myself on my elbow, making sure to keep my weight off her, and ran my fingers through her hair. “How are you able to keep smiling after everything you just went through?”

  It wasn’t an accusation.

  It was awe.

  Pure. Fucking. Awe.

  This girl.

  Goodness and light.

  With a shaky hand, she reached out and ran her fingers through my beard before she let them drift up, moving across my cheeks, my eyebrows, my nose.

  Closing my eyes, I sighed and relished the sensation.

  Her touching me.

  So freely.

  “How could I not be?” she whispered.

  That aura she wore rolled through the room.

  Thunder.

  Colors and strobes.

  I eased back so I could look at her.

  She caressed along the line of my hair, head tilting as she spoke softly. “My sister is home. Safe with Penelope and her husband.”

  She stroked across the shell of my ear.

  So tender.

  So sweet.

  It sent a chill trembling through the middle of me. “My mama is safe. My grandma is safe.”

  Her brow pinched as she moved to trace down my jaw. “I’m here, with you.”

  Her fingertips plucked at my bottom lip, her words turning to wonder. “And we’re gonna have a baby.”

  One side of my mouth pulled up, twisting into a smile. “I can’t believe it.”

  She searched my face. “I know you question it, Ollie. But I want you to know I trust that you are going to be the best daddy this baby could have.”

  Overcome, I kissed her, long and deep.

  Who could blame me?

  I was just a man loving on his girl.

  I threaded my fingers through her hair, our gazes locked.

  I was entranced by that energy.

  The girl a spell.

  The best kind of magic.

  Caging her in, I pushed onto my hands and knees. I dove in to kiss across her bright, bright heart, and then I worked all the way down until I made it to her stomach.

  “Thank you, Nikki, for trusting in me,” I mumbled at her flat belly.

  I sucked in a deep breath and made a promise that I would never, ever break. “This baby will always know that her daddy will be there for her. No matter what. No matter what mistakes she might make. No matter what life throws our way. For all my days.”

  Nikki’s fingers were in my hair, and she was nudging me up. Eyes glistening with adoration in the muted, dancing light. “You want this? With me?”

  I finally settled my weight between her thighs.

  Carefully.

  I wrapped her up.

  Held her close.

  Because I was never going to let her go.

  “There’s nothing more I want than to get to have a family with you, Nikki Walters. Nothing I want more than to spend all my days loving you. Nothing that makes me happier than you loving me back. You are my home.”

  Because I finally got that life was worth living.

  It was worth cherishing.

  And I had everything to live for.

  Nikki stared up at me, her words so soft. “You have it all wrong, Ollie. I always trusted you. You just had to figure out how to trust yourself.”

  I pulled back and gazed down at her, running my thumb across her temple. “Forever and ever, you and me.”

  I felt it.

  The spirit that fluttered through the air.

  And I knew that Sydney would always be there, too.

  Free.

  Watching over us.

  A smile forever on her face.

  Epilogue

  I peeked out into the hall, frantically waving Hope and Jenna in where they had parked in the back lot. “Do you have it?”

  Giggling, they both bustled inside, slinking through the big metal door.

  “No, Nikki, we totally don’t have it,” Jenna said with all kinds of sarcasm dripping from her smart mouth as she lifted the huge pink cake box a few inches higher, waving it in my face.

  “Stop that,” I swatted at her. “I just want this to be perfect. Goodness, I’m nervous.”

  “You’re bein’ ridiculous, Nikki. Ollie is gonna love it,” Hope told me in her sweet way. She was two months further along than I was.

  Excitement blistered through my veins, and my hand was caressing over the tiny mound growing in my stomach, my skinny jeans still fitting but just barely.

  Goodness, I couldn’t wait to be a mommy. The proof that the world really could be a better place. That good things were still granted.

  Blessings and joy.

  Jenna let go of a loud laugh. “That, or he’s going to go all savage ogre on our asses and kick us to the curb for throwing him a surprise birthday party. I’m not sure which one to put my money on.”

  “I’m putting all my money on my man,” I told her, lifting my brow as they passed by.

  “Oh, someone has it bad,” Jenna sang as she started down the hall toward the main area of the bar.

  “Well, if thinking about someone twenty-four seven and missing him like crazy all day while he’s gone is having it bad, then so be it.”

  I might have it bad.

  A damned fever when it came to Oliver Preston.

  Rex and Kale were supposed to be keeping him busy today. A guy’s fishing trip for his birthday.

  It really was just to give me the time to set up.

  Streamers and balloons and twinkle lights had been strewn across the entire space, and one big area had been sectioned off just for our friends and family.

  The Italian caterer was already setting up at the back of the roped off area.

  We rounded the corner, and Cece was setting up the private bar next to the caterer. “Made sure to stock you two some ginger ale,” she said with a wink as she tossed a few bottles of it into the big ice bucket.

  Turned out, she wasn’t so bad after all.

  I laughed. “Oh man, I do miss my wine.” Tenderly, I ran my hand over my belly. “But she is definitely worth it.”

  Yep.

  She.

  Just like Ollie had insisted since the day we found out.

  He may have been a bear before, brash and protective and nothing but a brute, but he’d taken it to all kinds of new levels. Watching over us so carefully, love shining so bright in his blue eyes.

  Sometimes I still woke wrapped in his arms and thought I was dreaming, having wanted this for so long, tied to a man in such an intrinsic way, that it didn’t seem real.

  Then he’d tuck me close, and it’d all come rushing back.

  He was mine, and I was his.

  “Is there a cool place we can put the cake?” Hope asked Cece.

  Cece grinned. “Tell me that cake is complements of A Drop of Hope.”

  Hope laughed a light sound. “Well, of course it is. As if I’d trust anyone else to make the cake for Ollie’s big day. I mean, unless he wanted a pie,” she teased.

  Sometimes I wondered how there wasn’t a baking war going on between Rynna and Hope.

  “And it doesn’t even have sticks with pictures of Ollie on it.” Sadly, Jenna shook her head. “What a shame.”

  “Don’t even remind me of you going and pulling that with Kale. P
utting pictures of my man on cupcakes for all the girls to devour. That’s sacrilege.”

  “Um, those cupcakes were delicious,” I told her. “Everyone needs a little sex on a stick.”

  She shooed me. “You’ve got your own man, Nikki. Don’t be licking on mine.”

  “But I don’t have one,” Jenna whined.

  “Me, neither,” Cece called.

  “Y’all are ridiculous.” Hope was laughing when she took the cake from Jenna as if she no longer trusted her with it. “Where to?”

  Cece lifted her chin. “Go through the swinging door there. Cleared a spot in the refrigerator.”

  “Thank you.”

  Hope waddled her way back there just as the band was striking up.

  Ollie’s favorite.

  Carolina George.

  One of his oldest friends was the guitarist, and it only made sense for me to invite them.

  I rubbed my palms together. “Am I missing anything?”

  Cece squeezed my shoulder as she strutted by. “You’re good, Nik. Ollie’s gonna love it. Relax.”

  “Thank you.”

  Didn’t mean I wasn’t totally nervous. This was his first birthday that we’d really been together, and I wanted him to remember it forever.

  What life was like when it really started.

  Guests started showing up at a quarter to six. My mama and then my grandma in her wheelchair, which just made my heart sing.

  Sammie and her husband were next, Penelope at home with a sitter. Even though we were in Alabama, we definitely didn’t need any babies hanging out in the bar.

  Lily and Broderick walked through the door with Rynna.

  Some of Ollie’s friends, guys from the bar and the shop that he had a partnership with came as well.

  My heart stammered when I saw who warily came through the door, nervous as her gaze jumped around the bar.

  Ollie’s mama.

  I eased that way. “Margaret, I’m so glad you’re here.” I gripped both of her hands between mine.

  “Thank you for inviting me.”

  “Of course.”

  Their relationship had a long way to go, but when Ollie had started counseling to work through his lingering guilt over Sydney, his therapist had urged him to make peace with his mother.

  Even if she didn’t accept it, he had to seek it.

  Come to terms with it.

  Forgive himself.

  She’d broken down when he’d reached out, also haunted by their separation.

  Sometimes forgiveness took time, but they were well on their way.

  Ten more minutes passed, and we all gathered together when Hope got a text from Kale that they were almost there.

  I held on to Lily and Hope’s hands when we saw the guys walking up the sidewalk, laughing and joking, Ollie thinking they were coming in to share a beer before they went on their own way.

  They opened the door and stepped inside, and everyone yelled surprise.

  But they weren’t looking at Ollie.

  They had all of a sudden all turned to look at me.

  They made a circle around me, a gap at the front as Ollie slowly approached me.

  He tipped me up a cocky, gorgeous smile. His beard was a little shorter, hair neat, definitely not wearing the jeans he’d been wearing when he left this morning.

  Instead, he wore a fitted button-up with the sleeves rolled up his forearms, flashing the ink that danced above his muscle like the beat of the song that was quietly playing.

  A tremble of something rippled through the air.

  Something so big.

  And I didn’t know why, but a tear slipped from my eye.

  “Ollie,” I whispered, looking around at everyone who was grinning.

  “Nikki.”

  He started moving my direction, a grin on his striking face but the world in his eyes.

  That’s what he was.

  My great big world.

  “It’s your birthday,” I whispered like I was issuing some kind of plea, trying to catch up to what was happening.

  “You’re right, Nikki, today is my birthday. Call me selfish, but I had a certain present in mind.”

  All the voices had gone quiet, and Carolina George eased out of a song in the middle and struck up another.

  The lyrics filtered through the mic.

  Richard’s voice was so rough when he started playing the cover from Train. It was a song about how forever could never be enough.

  My fingertips went to my lips.

  Ollie took another step forward. “Nikki . . . you were my first love. My only love. The one who was always supposed to be at my side.”

  He inched forward and set those big hands on my swelling belly. “You’re the mother of my baby girl. You’re my life.”

  He dropped to both of his knees, pulling the silver box with a black ribbon from his pocket. A present in the palm of his hand. “So, for my birthday, I want you to tell me you’ll be my wife. Tell me that forever you’ll be my home.”

  I dropped to my knees with him, tears streaming free, blurring my eyes, but I was sure I’d never seen so clearly.

  I saw the future.

  I saw joy.

  I saw love.

  I saw my life.

  “Yes. Oh, Ollie . . . yes.”

  He cocked a smirk. “You haven’t even seen the ring yet.”

  A soggy laugh pilfered free. “Give me that ring, you bear.”

  “You sure you want it?” Mischief danced around his face.

  Happiness. The pure, innocent kind we used to share.

  “Yes, Ollie. I am sure. Let me see it.”

  “Someone’s eager.”

  I swiped under my eyes with the back of my hand.

  Yes, yes, someone was eager.

  He tugged at the little bow and pulled off the lid.

  A gift.

  For me.

  For us.

  The ring appeared antique.

  Vintage.

  Unique.

  Encrusted in diamonds, a purple solitaire in the middle.

  I breathed out between the tears that kept streaming down my face, eyes flicking between him and the ring. “It’s gorgeous, Ollie.”

  “It’s different, I know. But I saw it, and it reminded me of you. Not close to being traditional, and still so beautiful it stole my breath.”

  My spirit rumbled, a whisper from the deepest part of me. Where I’d always held this man. Ollie took the ring out of the box. “Marry me, Nikki.”

  “Yes.”

  I just caught a glimpse of it. What was etched on the inside of the ring at the base.

  A dragonfly.

  Everything soared.

  Flapped in a flurry of emotion and memories.

  And I swore I could hear Sydney’s voice echo through the bar.

  Whisper in my ear.

  “Fly, fly, dragonfly.”

  Ollie slid the ring onto my finger. It fit so perfectly.

  He pulled me into his arms, kissing me wildly, both of us on our knees while our friends and family shouted and cheered.

  Carolina George continued to play “Marry Me.” The song so profound.

  As if it’d been written for us.

  We finally climbed to standing, and Ollie was holding my hand as everyone came up individually to give us congratulations.

  Hope was there, the lid off her cake, congratulations written in curvy letters, a field of purple blazing stars as the decoration.

  I choked over a laugh. “You sneak.”

  “Hey, you were trying to sneak the party in on Ollie. Don’t blame me that he one-upped you.”

  He turned to me before he started backing away, dragging me along with him, right up to that gleaming, carved bar.

  He hopped on top of it, staring at me. He lifted his arms up and shouted toward the high ceilings. “Nikki Walters is gonna be my wife!”

  Like he needed the world to know.

  That he was proclaiming it to the heavens.

 
My attraction to him was so intense I wondered how he didn’t taste it in the air.

  Well, I guessed he did. Because he was watching me as if he was lost in it, too.

  Bristling and brimming and begging.

  Chemistry.

  Bigger than life.

  Somehow even bigger than the man that was this hulking tower of muscle and brawn and intricately drawn ink.

  Every inch of him was rugged and rough and commanding, all dressed up in black fitted pants and a button-up, his body dripping sex.

  An enigma.

  A veiled mystery.

  A cliffhanger waiting to be written.

  And we were getting ready to write the rest of our story.

  He hopped down and picked me up and spun me around as if I didn’t weigh anything at all.

  “I love you, Nikki Walters.”

  “I love you, Oliver Preston.”

  I love you.

  My beautiful beast.

  THE END

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