by Jenna Reed
Shoving my hand down into my pocket, I grip onto the small velvet box. Standing up, I use my foot to kick my chair back a little. It scoots across the floor, making a loud noise that draws far more attention than I want. Great.
Somehow I manage to get out the ring box before getting down on one knee in front of Bailey. My hands are sweaty, and my insides twist into an anxious knot. I see the exact moment she realizes what is going on. Her expression softens, tears glistening in her big green eyes.
“Elijah,” she gasps, pressing a hand to her lips. I force air into my lungs and stare deeply into Bailey’s eyes.
“Since the moment I met you, I knew you were it for me. I loved you then, and I love you now and will continue to with each passing day. You and our daughter are the most important women in my life, and I want to show you just how much you mean to me by giving you my last name. So, Bailey Marie Renshaw, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
I open the velvet box, showing her the beautiful diamond ring I had made just for her.
“Yes! Yes!” she cries, pushing from her chair to stand. Her eyes don’t even go to the ring, instead they stay on me. And then I realize that she said yes, she fucking said yes.
“Holy shit,” I whisper, putting the ring on her finger. “You, said yes.” I lean down, pressing my forehead to hers, relief flooding my veins.
“Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“I… I didn’t know.” Admitting my fears, my insecurities, has been hard for me, but when it comes to Bailey and our unborn daughter, I’ll do whatever I have to do, climb any mountain, fight any fear.
“I love you.” She presses up onto her tiptoes and kisses the side of my mouth. Her lips on me stir a primal need inside of me and I lean down, taking her face into my hands and kissing her until she can’t breathe. Everyone around us hoots and hollers, and when I pull away, I see Bailey’s very flustered.
I’d bet she’s wet with need for me. A huge grin spreads across my face and I have a feeling it’s going to stay there for a long time. I barely register the rest of the dinner, I am so full of happiness that all I can do is smile and think about the fact that she said yes.
She said yes. I can’t believe there was ever a time when I didn’t want this. I was so scared of being in a relationship, and now I’m getting married and have a kid.
Thinking back on it, I realize how ridiculous it was.
We get cake for dessert. It’s vanilla that has some kind of fruit filling inside of it. And it’s fucking delicious.
“Can this be our wedding cake?” I ask after scraping the plate clean with my fork.
“I didn’t think you were a guy who wants to be involved in wedding planning,” Bailey laughs.
“I’m not, I just know what I want and what I like to eat. I want to eat this cake,” I say. Then I lean in and whisper into her ear, “And I also want to eat you, right here, right now.”
Her cheeks turn bright red and all I can think about is tongue fucking her pretty pink pussy. I call for the check and everyone says their goodbyes. Asher, Bailey, and I stay behind and pay the bill before walking out together.
“So who is going to be your best man?” Asher asks as we walk out.
“Not sure, maybe Steve from accounting?” I shrug. Bailey gives me a playful jab in my ribs, which causes me to wrap my arm around her and pull her into my side.
“You fucker, you better make me your best man. I’ll knock Steve the fuck out, whoever the hell he is,” Asher warns and we all break out into laughter.
A moment later, that laughter comes to a sudden halt. As do we. All three of us stop walking and start staring at the man walking down the sidewalk toward us. Only then does he look up and see us, coming to a stop himself.
“Boys?” my father greets us, a look of shock overtaking his features.
When no one says anything for a few moments, he asks, “How have you been?”
Ever since my dad pulled that whole stunt with Kelly, neither me nor Asher has talked to him. He’s tried tirelessly to reach out, but I didn’t want to have anything to do with him after he betrayed me like that. Asher stuck with me, appalled by what our father had done.
“We’ve been great without you, thanks for asking,” I sneer.
“Come on, can’t we just get over this? You’ve been ignoring me for months. I’m your father, not some random chick in your life.”
“And I plan on ignoring you for a lot longer. I don’t want someone like you exposed to my family.”
“All I’ve ever done was to protect you. Protect you from your mother and from yourself. You’ll understand once you’re a father yourself…” He pauses briefly, his eyes flickering over Bailey. “Which I see is going to be sooner rather than later.”
I have the sudden urge to throw something at him. I don’t want him looking at her. Tainting her. Asher must catch onto my hostility because he opens his mouth to start talking.
“Look, maybe you thought you did what was right, but I can assure you it wasn’t right. What you did was fucked up to say the least,” Asher says, but in a calm voice. He has a much better grip on his anger than I do.
“She will betray you.” My father points at Bailey and I almost lose it. “All women do. Your mom would have betrayed you again as well. I shielded you from her, and I will shield you from everything else bad in this world. I’ve always done right by you boys. As your father, that is my job. You’ll realize that, soon.”
I freeze. Would have betrayed you? I don’t know why, but that one single statement sticks out to me like a brightly colored sign.
“What do you mean, ‘mom would have betrayed you?’”
“Your mom told you she wanted to see you back then.” He snorts. “Yeah right. She was going to do something again. I know she would have!”
My heart sinks into my throat. He can’t be saying what I think he’s saying.
“But she didn’t?”
“She would have!” my father repeats, fire in his eyes. “As soon as I found out that she was coming around the house to see you, I knew she was after my money.”
“What the fuck did you do?” I take a threatening step forward, demanding he give me the truth even if I know I don’t want to hear it.
My father’s face doesn’t change, he doesn’t flinch, in fact, he doesn’t react at all really. “I did what I had to, to protect you, to protect your brother. I did what any man would have done.”
Gritting my teeth, I repeat my last question, “What. Did. You. Do?”
“I made her go away before she could do something stupid again.”
“Made her go away? How do you just make someone go away? Did you send her away? Did you threaten her?” I’m so close to throttling him that I clench my hands into fists at my sides to stop myself. I can’t face some type of charge for beating the shit out of my father, not with a baby on the way, not when Bailey needs me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to do it, that doesn’t mean it’s not burning in my veins to punch him square in the jaw.
As if he can see my barely restrained anger, he smiles. “I told her to leave, or I would make sure she ended up in prison for taking my money years ago. The way I look at it, if she really loved you, she would’ve made another attempt to come into your lives. You’re adults now, surely if she wanted to see you, she could.”
“You piece of shit,” Asher spits, and surges forward, his fists flying through the air, and connecting with our father’s face before I can stop him. “You fucked with our heads, convinced us for years than our mother didn’t want to see us. Because of you, we couldn’t even be in a relationship. You fucked up both of our lives and blamed Mom.”
Asher’s lips curl, and I swear I’ve never seen him so angry before. Our father wipes at his nose, blood dripping from it.
“Neither of us want shit to do with you. Don’t contact us, don’t try and come to our homes, leave us the fuck alone. Forget you ever had a family, because I’ll sure be forgetting I ever had you as a father.” Asher pu
shes past our father and heads for the parking lot around the corner. I stand there staring at the man that I looked up to for years, the man that built up every single one of my fears.
He made me believe that love was a trap.
He made me believe that my mother had betrayed me and that every woman I let close would do the same. I don’t even want to know what else he lied to me about. He fucked me over and I have nothing more to say to him. I have the love of my life, a baby, and a fucking future as big as the world ahead of me. Nothing he says or I say today would change that.
“I did what I needed to do, son,” my father says, making a last-ditch attempt to salvage this already broken family.
Taking Bailey’s hand into my own, I shake my head. “Don’t contact me and don’t call me your son. You ruined me, broke me down and built me back up how you wanted, but the joke is on you because while you have to spend the rest of your life alone, I’ll be spending mine with the love of my life, just as I should have all along.”
He doesn’t say anything else as we brush past him and I pull Bailey tighter into my side, needing her warmth and touch above all.
“Are you okay?” she questions once we reach the car, her big green eyes bleed into mine. My eyes move from her face and catch on the twinkling diamonds on her finger.
Am I good?
“I’m not fucking good, Sunflower... I’m fucking amazing... I’m living the dream. Now get in, so we can get home. I know a pussy that needs to be licked clean before bed.”
Rolling her eyes, she opens the door to the car and slips inside, while I stand there for a moment relishing in it all.
I get it all, and I’ll do whatever the hell I can to keep it that way for the rest of my life.
Epilogue One
Elijah
“You can do this, Sunflower…”
Red-faced and angry, Bailey turns her gaze to me. I suppose it’s easier to tell your wife she can push a baby out of her crotch than for her to actually do it.
“I hate you. I hate you so much. Why did you do this to me???” By the time she finishes her sentence, my ears are ringing from the high-pitched tone she’s using.
She’s in pain, beyond pain, and I don’t care if she yells at me, if she says she hates me. I still love her. She could rip my heart out of my chest I would still want her the same. Counting to ten, she grits her teeth and bears down, my eyes go to between her legs, the place that all the doctors and nurses that are in the room are also looking.
Bailey’s been pushing for nearly an hour now, and I know it won’t be long before our beautiful daughter comes into the world. I know it’s expected of me to be afraid, to wonder if I’ll be half as good of a dad as all the others in the world, but I already know I will be. With Bailey by my side to guide me, there isn’t anything I can’t do.
Pressing a kiss to her sweaty forehead, I grab onto her hand, wishing I could take all the pain she is feeling away.
“I love you so much, Sunflower. Our little girl will be here soon. She’s got dark hair… just like you,” I whisper into her ear as she falls back against the bed, her eyes tired.
“One or two more good pushes and she’ll be here, just take a breath and get back at it. Once she’s here, it will be worth it.”
“I can’t…” Bailey croaks. “I can’t, she’s not coming, and it feels like I’ve been pushing forever.” Squeezing her hand to let her know I’m here, she turns her head, her eyes clashing with mine. I know she’s tired. I know she’s in pain, but it’s going to be over soon.
“Come on, baby, we can do this together…”
Tears well in her eyes, and she lets me help her up, my hand cradling the back of her head, while she inhales deeply, before bearing down once more. She grits her teeth and gives it all she’s got. The doctor encouraging her as well.
“One more, Bailey, one more…” the doctor says, and through the exhaustion and tears forming in her eyes, Bailey gives her one more exhausted push, bringing our daughter into the world and making me feel as if I’m a brand new man because of it.
From there, everything seems to go faster. Her first cries pierce my ears, and tears fall from my eyes without thought. I cut the umbilical cord with a shaking hand, and they place our sweet little Rosie on her momma’s chest.
My vision blurs and it takes me a moment to realize why, tears are welling up in my eyes. I haven’t cried in many many years, but I never cried tears of joy and that’s exactly what this is.
Bailey wraps an instinctive arm around her, before lifting her gaze to mine.
“We made this, Elijah… we did this together,” she chokes. “I can’t believe how beautiful she is.” With dark brown hair like her momma, and big blue eyes like mine, she’s a perfect mix of both of us. Her big cheeks take up most of her still swollen face, and her eyes are still partially closed, but she’s the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever laid eyes on. Like a tiny angel, my angel.
“She’s perfect, Sunflower. Perfect in every way.” I press a kiss to Bailey’s head, and then to my daughter’s head, relishing in this sweet moment with just the two of them. My heart so full it could burst at any second. I know fatherhood will be terrifying, but it will be worth it, beyond worth it.
After a short while, the nurses take the baby and clean her up, checking all her vitals and giving her, her first set of shots. While they do all of those things, I slipped out of the room and headed to the waiting room. I find my brother, Bailey’s father, and Erin are waiting very impatiently to hear about the delivery of the baby and while I want to have both of my ladies to myself, I know that’s not going to be possible.
Entering the waiting room, the first person to get up and rush toward me is Bailey’s father. Worry creases his forehead, and relief flashes in his eyes when he realizes I’m smiling. Asher and Erin stride up beside him a second later.
“Rosie is healthy and happy, and Bailey is doing great. No complications at all. Well, except for the part when she told me she hates me, followed by a guttural scream of pain that made my ears bleed. I also think she might have broken some of my fingers, holding my hand.” My words act like a domino effect over the features in each of their faces. Worry turns into relief in a second flat.
Roger is the first to ask, “Sorry about your hand, and you know you can’t listen to anything a woman says during childbirth.” He chuckles. “May I go back and see her?”
“Of course, Grandpa,” I tease. He’ll be the best grandpa Rosie will ever have, and probably her only one since after what my father has done, I’ve refused to have anything to do with him, let alone allow him to see my daughter.
“Congratulations, Elijah.” He gives my shoulder a squeeze before slipping past and out of the waiting room. My brother comes up and gives me a bear hug.
“I can’t believe it. My baby brother is a fucking dad.”
“Yeah, neither can I. It feels like just yesterday Bailey and I got together, and now we’re parents. I’ll tell you this though, when she looked at me, I knew what it felt like for the first time in my life to watch my heart beat outside of my chest. She owns me, brother, she owns me, and she’s only an hour old.”
Asher chuckles. “She’s got you wrapped around her tiny little fingers already. That didn’t take long at all.”
“Just wait till you see her, she’ll have Uncle Ash at her beck and call just as quickly.”
I pull away, and Erin’s bright eyes reflect back up at me. “Congratulations, but I just came here to see the baby.” She sticks her tongue out at me, and I roll my eyes, giving her a light shove. We all head back toward the room together, and I enter quietly, pulling the curtain back to peek inside. When I do, I find Roger leaning over his daughter, who is holding Rosie in her arms.
He smiles down at her, tucking a strand of Bailey’s russet brown hair behind her ear. It’s a picture perfect image, and in that single moment, I realize that I’ve always had a father figure worthy of looking up to... Roger. He might not be my dad, but he�
�s been a good man to me. After all, he gave me the greatest gift of all, my Sunflower.
Epilogue Two
Bailey
I watch as Rosie runs around the back yard while I sip on my tea. My now husband flips the chicken on the grill, his eyes finding mine without thought. They’re so blue, they suck me right in like the undertow of the ocean. I could get lost inside his eyes and have many times since the birth of our daughter. But there’s another surprise coming soon…
“Sunflower, you keep looking at me like that and we’re going to have some real big issues.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me, his eyes darting down to his cock before coming back up to meet my gaze again.
“Oh are we?” I push from the patio chair and saunter over to him. Since having a baby, my hips have widened and my ass has gotten a little bigger, but everything else has stayed the same, except for the love that I have for the man in front of me.
That’s only grown, because there is nothing truly hotter than seeing a man holding a baby. Once I’m close enough for him to reach out and grab me, he leans into me, his warm breath tickling my ear. He still smells like cinnamon and leather, and my pussy throbs because I want him. I want him bad.
“You’re lucky our daughter is here now, otherwise I would have you stripped bare, your pretty pussy exposed and your back against the island in the kitchen.”
Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I bat my eyelashes at him. Reaching for him, I pull his face into mine and press our lips together. Heat fills my belly, and my skin tingles.
Ahh, I’ll never get over the feelings that he ignites inside of me. There is nothing like the man you love touching you, holding you, possessing you in a way no other person can.
“Momma! Momma!” Rosie’s songbird voice fills my ears and I pull away from my husband, twisting around to see her skipping across the yard, Elijah’s mother following close behind.
“Yes, my beautiful Rose?” Smiling down on her, I take in her features. Her plump cheeks, soft blue eyes, and heart-shaped face.
