“Hot damn, I just won the lottery.”
I tug her behind me to my bedroom, passing the room that she’s been staying in. I still can’t believe I got her convinced to move in. If there’s anything positive that came out of the damn near heart attack I had after hearing that she was in the accident, I suppose that’s it.
“You’re not staying in there anymore,” I tell her, motioning to the spare room. The minute she agreed to move in, I wanted her in my bed but knew I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, as my grandmother used to say. Be grateful we made that step. And I was grateful for it. I needed the reassurance that she was healthy and happy. That she wasn’t going to experience any late trauma or whatever from the accident. She gave me the gift of moving into my home and I could return with a gift of patience.
But my patience has run out. Hearing those three words from her sent me into overdrive. Slow mode is gone, replaced with pressing on the fast forward button. I don’t want to rush our time together, but I’m so damn eager for the next steps I can’t seem to tell my brain to relax.
“I’m not?” She’s amused. Happy. Seemingly on board and I’m going to cling to that.
“Fuck no. You’re in my bed from here on out.”
“So bossy.”
I spin around and wrap my arm around her, walking backward. I’d love to pin her against the wall, take her right here, but first of all, that’s not necessarily conducive to her current state, and second of all, I finally have her as mine, not just the two of us needing to scratch an itch or giving into our desires. We’re going to take our time together and I’m going to learn every inch of her body that I haven’t taken the time to explore yet. “Only bossy when it comes to the fun stuff.”
She smiles and the sight of it takes my breath away. “I like the fun stuff.”
“Me, too. We should get to the fun stuff more often.” I pause in the threshold of my bedroom. “I lied. I’m going to be bossy about a lot more than just when we’re in the bedroom.”
She slides her hands up my sides and around the back of my neck, playing with my hair. “Oh?”
“Yeah. Like wanting to keep you safe.”
“Kind of experienced that already with the accident.”
“Oh, trust me, I was holding back. You have no idea how much.”
“That was you holding back?” she asks, her eyes wide. Makes sense. I was a complete basket case for a few weeks. I’m still holding back, though. She doesn’t need to see how anxious it makes me.
“It was. I’ll probably boss you around about letting me take care of you,” I tell her, quieting my voice. Her eyes soften a little. “I’ll boss you around when I feel like it’s time for us to have a break together, even if it means we have to leave the baby with my sister for a few hours. Because there will never be a time that I won’t put us first. And, this is a big one,” I warn.
“What is it?” she asks, her chin trembling.
“I’m going to be very bossy when it comes to the fact that I want to marry you. Sooner rather than later. I want you and the baby to have my last name, to sign a paper that legally bonds us together for the rest of our lives. I want us to have more babies once this one is old enough and we’re ready again. I want to take family vacations and also mommy and daddy only vacations where I drag you to the airport and you’re sad until we arrive on a Caribbean island for a week of you and me and sex and sand and sun and you realize that I was right and being away from the kids is okay. I want us to visit your parents, but not on Christmas morning because that’s reserved for our family. I want us to burn dinner together and watch terrible movies and fight over finances and whose turn it is to change a dirty diaper and for you to get annoyed with me when you have to take the kids to all their appointments and demand I step up. I want all of it. The good and the bad in between because the good can’t be good unless we know what the bad is like. Then we’ll appreciate the good even more. And our kids will appreciate the goodness that we have in our house.”
“Oh my gosh,” she whispers. “Nik…”
“I love you. When I said those words earlier, they weren’t for show or said without me thinking it over. I meant them with every single fiber of my being. You need to know that I am completely in love with you. If you’re not totally there, I’ll wait. I’ll wait as long as you need for us to be on the same page.”
“I’m there.”
“You’re…” My heart beats double time as I stare at her for one beat, two beats, three before I close my eyes and lean my forehead against hers, breathing her in.
Guiding her to the bed, I have her sit down then go to my dresser, digging through the top drawer.
When I find what I’m looking for, I walk back to Ashley, and drop to one knee.
“Ashley.”
She gasps and I smile.
“Ashley, you know I’ve done this a few times. Thank goodness the last one didn’t stick, huh?” I tease and we share a smile. “There are a lot of things in my life that I would do differently. I wish I’d have saved it for you — that I would have followed my gut and trusted that you were out there for me. I just had to be patient. I hate that this isn’t the first time for both of us, but the feelings I have for you are a first for me. I’ve never connected with someone the way I have connected with you. I fell in love with you when I wasn’t even trying. It just happened. Because that’s the way it’s supposed to be, you know? Nothing forced or pressured. It’s just us. And him.” I lean over and kiss her stomach. “The three of us… together. I love you, Ashley.”
Her hand trembles in mine. Tears glisten in her eyes. “Oh my gosh. I love you, too.”
“This is probably sudden to you because we only just now told each other how we truly feel, but for me, this has been building for months. Eight and a half months, to be exact.” I pause and she wipes a tear from her cheek, a watery smile firmly in place as she gazes down at me.
I take a deep breath before saying my next words because this will be the last time I ever say them. Well, unless she says no, then I’ll keep saying them until she says yes. And now I’m nervous. Holy crap. I’m the worst proposer in the entire world! The first time I just asked my friend because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. The second time I asked someone who didn’t even love me. Now I ask the woman I want to be bound to the rest of my life, and know this without a doubt, but I only told her this five minutes ago. I told myself I wanted to hit the fast forward button but this is extreme, even for me.
The look on Ashley’s face is one of confusion now whereas moments ago it was full of love and excitement. “Nik? What’s wrong? Why aren’t you saying anything now?”
“I want you to be my wife,” I blurt out. “But I’m rushing things. I’m rushing us. I don’t know why I can’t get this right, but this time will be forever so the proposal needs to be perfect. I shouldn’t have just dropped to my knee because I was eager to keep moving forward. I need to give you time. Give us this time. For me to woo you and for us to go on dates. Find out more about each other.”
“You are not taking back your proposal. For real?”
“No. I’m not. But… I need to do better. I needed to wait. This isn’t…”
She holds up a hand to stop me from continuing to speak. That’s fair. I’m not doing this right. “Tell me… am I going to find out that you have an aversion to watching Netflix at night? Or not watching an entire season of whatever show I’m obsessed with at the time in one weekend?”
I scoff. That’s the definition of a perfect weekend with her. “No.”
“Am I going to discover that you actually don’t like cheese, which, as you know, is a definite deal breaker?”
My lips twitch. “No.”
“Are you addicted to cocaine or chewing tobacco and spitting it into the bed or that you were previously a porn star?”
“Absolutely not. That’s disgusting. And hell no.”
“Are you going to tell me I can’t drink ice water out of a coff
ee mug anymore?”
“Clearly not if I haven’t said anything about it yet.”
“Okay, final question. Are you going to be an asshole about me losing the baby weight or will you still love me — all of me — even if I have a little bit of extra to love?”
“Baby. I don’t care about that as long as you’re happy and healthy.”
She shrugs and wipes away another tear that’s rolling down her cheek. “I don’t need time, Nik.”
“We deserve more...”
“Stop using the word time or I’ll flick your earlobe,” she warns, glaring at me. “We don’t need more time. We know each other. Maybe you didn’t realize it, but you’ve been wooing me since you found out I was pregnant. Every day you’ve showed me the kind of man you are. I’ve never felt this way about anyone else, either. I don’t care that you were a dumbass and asked Stacia to marry you.” We both chuckle. “I don’t care that you married your friend because you thought that’s what you both wanted. What I care about is that we survived those past messy relationships and came out stronger because of it. And now we’re here together, against all odds. We made it through the junk, Nik. It doesn’t matter if the entire time we’ve known each other has been unorthodox or that our dates haven’t really qualified as traditional dates, so much as just spending time together. If life has taught me anything lately it’s that nothing is guaranteed. I could have died in that accident and we wouldn’t have had the chance to tell each other how we feel.”
The reminder of how close I came to losing her and the baby makes me sick to my stomach. “Don’t even talk about it.”
“It’s true, though. And if you hadn’t been there for me, not only helping me to heal but making sure I was taken care of, I wouldn’t have discovered the truth about you.”
“Truth?”
“That you’re that guy.”
The corner of my mouth twitches. “That guy?”
She stares straight into my eyes, licks her lips, places a hand on my cheek, and proceeds to wreck me in the best possible way. “The guy everyone else is jealous isn’t theirs.”
I don’t think she knows how much those words mean to me. No more hesitating, for lack of a better term, it’s time. “What do ya say, Ashley? Will you marry me?”
“Tomorrow works for me,” she responds with the best words she could have.
“That a yes?”
She shakes her head but smiles so wide I don’t think I’ve ever seen her smile so big. “That’s a heck yes.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nikolas
“Honey. Wake up.”
“What? What? Is it time?” I jump out of bed and spring into action.
“It’s either time or I just peed the bed.”
“God, I’ve never wanted to not have someone pee the bed so badly in my life. For more than one reason, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Ashley mocks me. “We need to go, I think.”
“Yeah. Let me…” I point to our bathroom and slam the door shut behind me. “Don’t go anywhere!” I holler.
“Not planning on it,” she says as if I’m ridiculous. I know I am, but that’s beside the point. She’s about to give birth to my baby boy and I’ve never been more ready for something to shake up my entire life than I am in this moment.
When I get done in the bathroom, I wash my hands and open the door to see her squatting like a frog.
“What the fuck?”
“I’m trying to keep it moving along. If I sit down, isn’t it just going to push everything back inside? He’s been in there a week longer than he was supposed to be anyway. I’d say it’s time to keep this moving along.”
“Is that really what you’re supposed to be doing?” I ask, seeing her bounce up and down with her legs bent and spread wide. Her balance, given the extra weight in her stomach, is actually really impressive.
“How the heck am I supposed to know? But doesn’t it seem logical?”
“I’m afraid all logic flies out the window when you’re trying to push a baby out of your vagina for the first time, babe.”
She keeps bouncing but a strained look crosses her face. “Babe? I might need help. I can’t stop bouncing,” she says, out of breath, “or I might fall down, but if I fall down, I’ll never get up. And I don’t want to sit on the floor because my ass is still wet from my water breaking.”
“You…” I’m not even going to go there because I have a feeling I’m dangerously close to meeting volatile Ashley, someone I haven’t had the displeasure of being introduced to yet. I extend both hands down to her and help pull her up.
“Thanks. I’m not sure but I think it probably helped.”
I bark out a laugh. “You think bouncing like a frog helped?”
“Had to. I feel like he’s lower now. I’m ready.”
“Don’t you want to change out of your wet clothes first?”
She shakes her head and marches toward the door. “No time.”
I chase her down and turn her around by the shoulders, guiding her to our bathroom. “We’ve got time. Trust me. Go change your clothes and whatever else will make you feel good about leaving for the hospital and I’ll make sure the bag is in the car. Want me to call your parents?”
“Yeah, that’d be good. And Josie. But tell them not to tell my sisters yet. I’m not ready for everyone.”
She stands beside me looking at her stomach. “You okay?” I ask her.
“This has gone by so fast,” she whimpers. “And everything happened in the last year. I’m exhausted.”
“It’s been a hell of a year for sure, but we have a few more steps to go before we can take a nice long nap, okay? Like maybe eighteen years before the nice long nap happens.”
She begins to cry. Oh shit. “I’m so tired!”
I kind of laugh and pull her to me. “I know, Ash. I know. We’ve been through a lot in nine months but I promise that it will all be worth it soon.”
“Yeah,” she agrees in a whisper. “Okay. Yeah,” she rallies and throws her shoulders back, walking toward the door. “I’m ready now. Let’s do this.”
Once again, I guide her to the bathroom. “Change first. We’ve got plenty of time.”
“Oh! Right. Duh. Yeah, we’ve got plenty of time.”
We were wrong.
We didn’t have plenty of time.
Not even enough time to drive the fifteen minutes it takes to get to the hospital because her labor is progressing too fast. I have no idea how things changed so quickly but she went from walking to the bathroom to full-blown contractions in five minutes time. I was on the phone with her parents, letting them know it would be a while when I heard her yell my name.
“Holy shit!” she groans. “That frog thing really works, huh?”
“Are you actually having him? Right now?” I shout, panic setting in.
“Uh, yeah! What the hell do you think is happening?”
“Well, I thought we had time!”
“We clearly don’t! I’m freaking out so you’re not allowed to, okay? Only one of us is allowed to be dumb right now.”
I try to get her to the car but the labor pains have increased ten-fold. She screams out my name and I wish with all my might that I could somehow take the pain away from her.
Each new contraction doesn’t give her a moment to breathe before the next one hits her just as hard. She might be handling it like a champ, doing her breathing exercises while I cradle her from behind. But when the contractions begin to hit her less than a minute apart, I decide enough’s enough. I call for an ambulance because I’m not equipped to drive her to the hospital while she’s this far along in active labor.
“I’m going to suggest something that neither of us want to do but this is where we’re at in life right now. I’m not looking forward to it, either, but I think you have to get into the bathtub.”
“Why would I do a thing like that?” she asks through a low voice.
“Because there’s a very good chance that you�
�re about to give birth in our house and I would prefer that to happen in the tub rather than on our floor.”
“I am not giving birth at home. I need drugs. And doctors. And nurses. And a lot of sanitization! This isn’t happening. No. I’m willing it to go away,” she says, determined. She pushes against me, trying to stand up but there’s no point.
“Come on. Let’s go! No time to waste!”
Luckily the doorbell rings, interrupting her objections.
After making sure she’s settled, I rush to the door and let the medics in. They look a little familiar but I can’t place them, not that it matters.
“She’s back here. She’s… decided that she’s not having a baby at the moment and will wait until she can be at the hospital.”
The woman gives me a knowing look and the guy grunts, “Great.”
“Pretty much.”
When we get to our room, she’s on her hands and knees, crawling toward the bedroom door.
“Ash?”
She looks up. “Oh hey! See? I’m on my way. Just maybe help me get up and I’ll be right with you.”
“Medics are here to help,” I tell her.
“Hi there. I’m Ashley.”
“We’ve met,” the woman says, getting on her haunches in front of Ashley. “Sarah, you may not remember me, though.”
Realization dawns and Ashley cries out in a contraction. “Accident.”
“Yes. I helped you at the car accident. Good to see you still have that strong determination we saw from you then.”
“You ready to go to the hospital, babe?” she asks, breathing heavy with her eyes practically bugging straight out of her head. It’s kind of a scary look on her, I gotta admit.
“Maybe we can try something different?” I suggest, looking to Sarah for backup. Luckily, the other medic, this one a man, steps in.
“Ashley, do you remember me?”
“Cart-er.”
The young medic grins. “Yeah. That’s me. I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”
Ashley nods rapidly, her lips puckered when she says, “Mm hmm.”
Together: A Surprise Pregnancy Romance Page 24
