Beautifully Undone (The Beaumont Brothers #3) (15 page)

Melody

I was rocking, gently. Lying on something, drifting with the current. No. No. Asher had found me. I was safe. I think. Dreaming maybe? A child’s voice called to me. “Mommy!” That was impossible. My baby wasn’t born yet. I wasn’t even very far along. “Mommy!” My eyes shot open. I looked up to a ceiling I didn’t recognize. I glanced around. The room was dark, and I struggled to move, but my legs were weighed down with something heavy or secured somehow. Panic took hold and I thrashed my arms to try to free myself.

“Hey,” Asher whispered close to my face and grabbed my arms, gently tugging them down onto the bed. “I’m here. It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”

“Asher?”

He smiled at me and I swallowed. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital. You were so cold and lethargic; the doctors wanted you to stay overnight.” I looked at the blue mittens on my hands and pulled them off. I didn’t know why I had mittens on, and I wanted to see my fingers, to make sure they were all there.

My palm instantly went to my abdomen as I thought of the baby. “The baby? What about the baby?”

“Our baby is fine.” He smiled. He’d said
our
baby. Had I heard him correctly? Okay, that did not slip by me.

I closed my eyes with relief.

“Asher, I…”

“Shhhh. Rest.”

“Is it tomorrow?” I asked, not wanting to stay in that bed any longer, but all I got was a puzzled looked from Asher. “You said overnight. So is it morning?”

“Almost.”

“You stayed here all night?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that all you can say is, ‘yeah?’”

He laughed. “Yeah.” He placed his hand on top of mine and looked down at our hands.

“I’m just so glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to you. I know this isn’t the best time…”

“No, don’t. I’ve been stupid.”

“Maybe.” He chuckled. “But let me finish. I’ve been sitting here all night thinking about things. Thinking about you, about
us
. I thought I’d lost you, Mel, and I couldn’t bear it. So, though this might not be the best time, I need to say this now, because I’m learning that you need to live life as if it’s your last day, last hour, last minute on earth, making the most of it, living it moment by moment, because you never know when it’s all going to be over or someone you love is going to be taken from you. Ever since you and I made love that first time, I’ve had trouble getting you out of my head. I mean, you’ve always been there, but it became different for me after that night. You had me completely undone. I became jealous about Alex to the point where I couldn’t think straight. After you’d gone to the concert with him, I saw the way he treated you the next night and I knew he’d hurt you.”

“He did, but not the way you think.”

I shook my head. “I know that now. I should have known then, but love has a way of blinding you sometimes.”

Did he just say
love
?

“And it makes you do and think things that you normally wouldn’t. The last time you and I made love …before we found out about this”—he splayed his fingers gently over my stomach and smiled—“I wanted to keep you there in bed with me forever and never let you go. I realized then how much I needed you in my life. I didn’t just say I needed you, I meant it. That night after we’d talked to Jackson and Brodie and revealed who I was, I had planned to tell you that I loved you, but then, when we found out about the baby, it just seemed like the wrong time and I didn’t know how to deal with it. The thought of Alex touching you turned me into a green monster, and I had horrible thoughts, to the point of forgetting that
I
was the one you slept with first. I hadn’t even taken into consideration the fact that you had the good sense not to be with Alex. I should have realized that when I knew you were home early from your date with him, but the news of Ted made things all messed up, and I didn’t even think about it. Then, when I saw him in the club, I knew he was crass, knew he didn’t give a fuck about the women he’d been with. But the more I remembered about watching him that night, the more I realized that I never saw him look at you, which if he had slept with you, he would have. So, I should have realized then that you turned him down. So, I’m sorry for acting like a jealous imbecile. I love you, Mel. Can you forgive me?”

I wiped the tears from my cheeks. The three little words coming from Asher’s lips were so unexpected. I knew he cared for me, we were very close, but love? He actually loved me? Only in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined hearing those words come from his mouth. Words I’d dreamed of hearing so many times. I bit my bottom lip.

“Mel? Do you forgive me?”

I nodded. “I’m sorry, too.”

“Baby, you don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

“Yes, I do. I’m sorry I treated you like shit all week and never let you explain your feelings to me. I was so hung up on my own that I forgot about yours and that’s inexcusable.”

“It’s very excusable after how I reacted.”

I sighed and propped myself up on my elbows. “I want to get up. I’m feeling better and I want to get out of here.” I sat up in the bed and swung my legs over the edge.

“Wait. I’m not finished.”

“What?”

“I’m not finished. I have more to say.”

“Okay.”

He reached into his pant’s pocket and pulled out a tiny black box then knelt down on one knee in front of me.

“Asher, what are you doing?”

“I’m asking you to marry me. I love you. I know this isn’t the most romantic place to ask you to marry me, but I don’t want one more second to pass by before I know the answer. Melody Grace Stevens, will you be my wife?”

He opened the small box and inside was the most beautiful ring I’d ever seen. A rather sizable diamond surrounded by a frame of smaller diamonds set in a gold band.

“My God, Asher, where did you get the money for that?”

“Don’t worry about the details, Mel, just answer the question.”

I looked up into his soft, green eyes and nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. I’ve always loved you, Asher.”

“You have?”

“Yes, my whole life, and I would love to be your wife.”

I threw my arms around him, and he stood, pulling us both up to a standing position before crushing his mouth to mine. The kiss started heavy, then went tender as he placed his palm over my stomach again. He eased back so that his face was an inch from mine. “I love this,” he said, smiling. “I’d planned to tell you that I loved you the night we found out about the baby. I had every intention of asking you to marry me that night—with or without a ring—but I held off. I didn’t want you to think I was asking because of the baby, though, because I think it’s nothing short of a miracle, and I’m so fucking stoked that you’re going to have my child, Mel. I just want you to know that I’m not asking you to marry me because of it. You have to believe that. I loved you way before that.”

“Me, too. I love you, too.”

Asher

“All packed?” I asked Mel.

“Yep.” She stood in front of her suitcase with a bright smile on her face. God, she was beautiful.

By the grace of God, her morning sickness had seemed to subside. Good thing, because we were leaving in the morning. It had been four days since Mel had gotten out of the hospital, and like her, I was ready to head home. We dreaded telling her mom about the unplanned pregnancy—despite how happy we were—but knew we needed to. We decided to wait until after we told her about that and the engagement to plan a small wedding.

“I think it would be a good idea to have a plan set before we tell your mom,” I suggested.

“You’re probably right. We have the entire car ride home to figure it all out. I don’t need a big fancy wedding or anything.”

“What?” I scoffed. “Of course, we do. I mean, I do. I want it all, Mel, all the bells and whistles. The music, the dancing, the flowers, the flower girl, the ring bearer, the cake, the people. Not everyone, but some.”

She laughed. “I don’t know any little girls that could be a flower girl or boys for a ring bearer.”

“Well, maybe we could rent them or something.”

Mel didn’t think that she needed a big fancy wedding with all the bells and whistles, but I put my foot down on that. We didn’t need a big wedding, but it could still have all the fancy-schmancy bells and whistles. No way was I going to marry her and have her regret anything. I supposed that went both ways. I was a guy, and guys didn’t usually care about elaborate weddings, but I must have been slapped by the frilly fairy because I wanted it all.

Brodie and Jackson decided to throw a party at the bar for our last night in Turtle Lake. Calling it an engagement party for Mel and me. She looked radiant, standing there in a pink dress. It had long sleeves and a rather low-cut bodice, which showed off her slightly larger than normal breasts. I guessed that was a baby thing. I liked it. They weren’t actually bigger, but they were plumper. I’d been reassured by my brothers that they would get even larger as the months went by.

“How the fuck do you know?” I asked Brodie.

“I read about it.”

“It’s true,” Jackson chimed in. “Lena has mentioned a few times that she can’t wait to get pregnant so her boobs get bigger.” He shrugged. “Though, I’m fine with the way the are.”

Mel and I didn’t know most of the people at the gathering, but everyone was full of congratulations and well wishes for us. Everyone oohed and ahhed over Mel’s ring. I’d picked it up in Redding the day I went with Brodie and Jackson. The day I’d almost lost the love of my life. They’d offered their vote of approval at the jewelry store.

After a couple of rounds of shots, all except Mel, we went up on the small stage with the rest of the band and performed a couple of numbers. It would be my last time playing my brothers, and it was a bittersweet feeling of joy and sorrow. It was amazing to me how much alike Jackson, Brodie and I were. Even with different mothers, it was clear that our father’s genes definitely dominated over our mothers’. We all had his green eyes, his dark, curly hair, even though Jackson’s was a bit straighter and his nose was straighter, too. We all loved spicy foods—the spicier, the better—and we all wore the same size shoes.

Though Brodie and Jackson told me that it wasn’t necessary to do the paternity test, I did it anyway. I figured they’d brought it up; I might as well do it. I didn’t have the results back yet. They said it would take about four weeks. I wasn’t worried about it. I knew.

Mel and I were sitting at a table with Brodie and Gabby, talking about nothing important. Brodie had told me about a faster way home through some back roads if I wanted to take them. Mel sipped on some sparkling cider and chit-chatted with Gabby. Jackson and Lena were sitting at the end of the bar, seeming very intense, as if they were talking about something very serious. Jackson smiled and kissed her then picked her up and swung her around before placing her back down.

He clinked his glass to get everyone’s attention. “Yo, everyone. I have some news. I’m going to be a dad!”

“What about me?” Lena giggled.

“Oh, yeah, my wife, she’s going to be keeping the little guy warm for eight more months.”

“Congratulations!” many shouted.

“So, it’s a boy?” I heard one lady ask. I couldn’t remember her name, but she’d been helpful when we were rescuing the women from the lake. She stood by Doc and grabbed his hand. I guessed they were a couple.

“Hell if I know. Do we know that, Lena?”

She giggled. “No. We don’t know yet.”

Jackson and Lena walked over to us. “Congratulations,” I said.

“Looks like my little brother won’t be the first to pass on the family name after all.”

“You were worried about that, were you?” I asked, sort of joking.

“Not really, well, maybe a little.”

“Typical,” Brodie said. “Jackson’s always had to be the first to do everything.”

“Not by much,” Lena offered and winked at Mel. “My due date is June 10th. Mel’s is June 30th. If your baby comes early or mine comes late, we could possibly go into labor at the same time. That’s why I had the pregnancy tests available. I was taking one almost daily, but they kept coming out negative until yesterday. I went to the doctor this morning and they confirmed it.”

Lena and Mel embraced then Gabby wrapped her arms around both of them. “It’s your turn now, Gabby.” Lena laughed.

“Whoa, wait a minute.” Brodie put his hands up with his palms facing out, shaking his head no. “Are you?” He looked at Gabby.

“Don’t worry, Brodie. You’re safe.”

“I’m not worried, babe.” He draped his arm around Gabby’s shoulders. That would just be too weird if all three of you were pregnant at the same time.”

We left the party early, well, earlier than most. I feigned a headache. I needed some serious alone time with Mel before we headed back to San Francisco tomorrow.

When we entered the cottage, I saw that the bed was down. Mel must have put it down earlier and left it. We’d been pretty good about putting it up in the wall. The place was so small, and when it was down, there wasn’t much room to maneuver.

She seemed different. Relaxed. Beautiful. Very beautiful. Maybe it was being pregnant. They say pregnant women are radiant, maybe it was just the way she looked at me now, or maybe it was just the way I looked at her.

“C’mere,” I said and grabbed Mel around the waist, pulling her in tight so that her breasts pressed against my chest. I’d been extremely cautious about touching her or prompting any type of sexual activity the past couple of days. I wanted to make sure she was fully recovered from the boat ordeal. But enough was enough. She was fine. I was fine. I tilted her head up to mine and brushed my thumb over her bottom lip.

“Remember the shower?” she whispered.

I gave her a crooked half-grin. “I’ll never forget it.”

“Well, I’m feeling sort of dirty right now.”

“You are?” I feigned shock, but couldn’t contain the grin.

“Yeah. Real dirty.”

“Right now?”

“Mmmm hmmm. I am. I think I should take some time and get cleaned up.”

“That’s probably a smart idea.”

“It’s going to take a lot of work. I want to make sure to get every single nook and cranny.”

“I could help.”

“I’m counting on that.”

I pressed my lips over hers.

“You’re going to need to take these off,” she said, tucking her fingers inside the waistband of my pants and grinning against my mouth.

I liked this new Melody.