Easy Sacrifice (19 page)

“Honey, breathe.” She stands in front of me and smiles down at me. “Dad knows how much you love him. He’s not going to scare him away, okay? If anything, he’s going to try and make him feel welcome.”

“He’d better.” I absently rub my belly. “’Cause Ty’s going to be around for a really, really long time.”

She smiles, and I hop off the stool then make my way to the living room. Ty holds his arms out for me, and I sit on his lap then bury my face in his neck. Dad clears his throat and then I hear him walk away.

“What’s the matter, baby?”

“Promise you won’t ever leave me again.”

“Hell, no. I’ll be with you for as long as you’ll have me. I fuckin’ love you so much, Jessa. Nothing and nobody will ever take me away from you ever again. I promise you that. Fuckin’ promise, baby.”

Chapter 23

Jessa

“We really don’t have to go tonight if you’re not feeling up to it,” Ty says again, as I grab my purse.

“I’m fine, honey. It’s your birthday.”

“But you’re due in three weeks. You haven’t been sleeping well. I don’t care—”

I shush him with a quick peck. “I care. It’s your birthday.”

He locks his jaw and nods, then opens the front door. He’s irritated with me for making him go out for dinner on his birthday. It’s an important day. I want to celebrate the day this incredible man was put on earth just for me.

He’s going to be even more irritated when he finds out I’ve been having contractions all day. But this is the first birthday I’ve gotten to celebrate with him, and I’m determined to make him feel special.

He wraps an arm around my waist and helps me down the front steps, then lifts me into my SUV. After he buckles me, he kisses my belly and then me. His lips linger on mine and I grab onto his arm. When he slants his head and deepens the kiss, I squeeze his arm harder. Because a contraction is coming. He growls against me, his tongue diving deeper, and I whimper at the pain in my belly.

Immediately he pulls back. “Did I hurt you?”

I shake my head and try to breathe, but instead let out a moan.

“What’s wrong?”

My fingers throb from how hard I’m digging into his arm, and when the contraction begins to fade, I finally let him go. Damn it, I really wanted to do this for him tonight. He’s been so selfless since everything went down a few months ago… Hell, he’s been selfless the entire time I’ve known him.

“Contraction,” I squeak out.

“What?” His eyes widen and he slams my door, then runs around to the driver’s side. “Are you okay?” He starts the car and peels away.

A sudden rush of moisture leaks out from between my legs, and I press my lips together before telling him, “Yeah, I think so.”

“What do you mean, you think so? Does something not feel right?”

Another contraction hits me… Shit, they’re like thirty seconds apart. “I’ve never had a baby before. I don’t know how it’s supposed to feel, but it fucking hurts!” I scream at him.

“Sorry, baby.” He reaches over and grabs my hand. “If I could take it away, I would.”

I bite my bottom lip as another contraction seems to roll right on top of the last one. “Fuck!”

“Jesus, they’re really close.”

“I’ve been having them all fucking day, but I wanted to do something nice for you since it’s your—”

“Jesus, fuck, Jessa. I told you I didn’t give a shit about my birthday!” He yells.

He never yells at me, and from the combination of the pain and my feelings being hurt, I cry… sob, actually. When another contraction rips through my stomach, I scream, and his fingers flex on mine.

“Shit, baby. I’m sorry. I hate seeing you in pain.”

I can’t even talk, I’m in so much pain, but thankfully we arrive at the hospital. Everything is a blur as soon as Ty rushes me into the hospital. Sweat drips down my forehead and the pressure between my legs is unexplainable. “I need to push,” I whisper to him as the nurse helps transfer me from a wheelchair to a bed.

“Okay, baby. Just hold on a second.”

“I can’t.”

“You can, Jessa. You’re strong, baby. You can hang in there.”

My head shakes and I try to squeeze everything down there together so this baby doesn’t come out, but when I feel something sliding out, I scream. “I can’t!”

A nurse yells something out about crowning, and I press my chin to my chest and push. And push. I had no idea something could hurt this bad. I just want it to be over.

Ty chants encouragements and praise, but suddenly nothing hurts anymore and the only thing I hear is the cry of a baby. My baby…
our
baby.

“Holy shit,” Ty whispers. “Baby, you did it.”

He wipes some hair off my sweaty head, and I look to see the nurse cleaning off a little… “Is it a boy or a girl?”

“It’s a girl.” She smiles, and sets our daughter on my chest. Her head is practically bald, but she’s got some peach fuzz that I hope will stay dark. Her eyes are pinched shut, so I can’t see the color, and her nose is the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. I never knew a baby could be this small, this wrinkly. But she’s perfect.

“She’s beautiful, just like her momma.” Ty kisses her forehead, then mine, and I breathe a huge sigh of relief and finally look up at him.

“Did this just happen?”

He laughs and kisses me again. “Yeah, baby. It did.”

“Holy shit.”

Ty

Jessa sleeps, and I hold our daughter as tight as I can without squishing her. She’s so small. I run my finger along her soft cheek and smile at the slight upturn of her lips.

“I’m gonna be a good daddy, little girl. I promise you that. I’ll keep you safe. You and your momma. You two are the only things I care about.”

I never thought in a million years this would be me. That I’d be a dad. Or have a woman as good as Jessa love me and give me this chance.

“Hey.” Jessa’s bright eyes are on me and I smile at her.

“Hey, baby.”

Jessa reaches over and touches the baby’s little foot. “She’s so cute.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“I was afraid my mom wouldn’t leave,” she laughs. “Thank god visiting hours ended or we’d never get rid of her.”

“She was just excited. Your dad was, too.”

“Yeah. And Landon’ll be a good uncle. Even if he was too freaked out to hold her now, I know he’ll come around.”

I nod in agreement. “I don’t blame him. She’s so small, I’m afraid I’ll break her.”

With a small grunt of pain, Jessa sits up and scoots over. “Come here.”

Carefully, I hand her Sadie and sit down, wrapping my arms around both of them. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Giving me the best and only birthday present I’ve ever gotten.”

Jessa gasps. “You’ve never gotten a birthday present before?”

“Nah. Mom never had money for one… If she remembered, that was always what she said.”

“Oh my God, Ty. That’s awful.”

“It’s fine. I really don’t care, baby. Sadie makes up for all of it. You guys make up for every single thing I didn’t have growing up. For all the birthdays forgotten and the gifts I didn’t receive. This makes up for it all.” I kiss the top of Jessa’s head and then my daughter’s.

“I did get you a different present. Not sure it’ll top her, though.” Jessa raises a brow, and even though she doesn’t have a stitch of make up on, she’s never been more beautiful.

“You did?”

“Yes. It’s in my purse, can you get it?”

“I will later. I don’t wanna let you go yet.”

“Ty.” She laughs.

“Serious, baby. Let me hold my girls for a little bit.”

She sighs. “Fine.”

We sit like this for about a half an hour before Sadie fusses. Jessa changes her diaper and has to have a nurse come in to help her get Sadie to latch on so she can nurse, but when she finally gets it, Jessa demands I open my present.

I reach into her purse and pull out a small box with a blue bow on it. “What is this?”

“Open it.”

After untying the bow, I open the box and see a ring. A black band. “Thanks, babe.”

“Do you even know what it is?”

“A ring. I like it.”

“Ty,” she huffs.

“What?” I look up at her. She has tears in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“It wasn’t supposed to go like this.”

“What are you talkin’ about?” I close the box and toss it on the bed by her feet.

“It’s an engagement ring!”

“Come again?” I ask.

“I was going to propose to you at dinner.”

My heart clogs my throat, and I get a little dizzy before I sit next to her. I get distracted for a second by the beauty of watching her feed Sadie, but then focus. “Baby, I was gonna propose to you tonight.” I dig a ring out of my pocket and hold it up to her.

She gasps, and the tears she was holding back fall onto her cheeks. “You were?”

“Yeah. I thought that you agreeing to be my wife would be the best birthday present ever, but then you had to go and one up me by having our baby early and trying to propose to me.” I chuckle and she laughs too. “Love that sound, Jessa.”

“I love you.”

“So will you?”

She nods and I slide the princess cut ring on her finger. “Of course I will. I want it so bad, and I didn’t want to wait any longer; that’s why I bought you that one.”

“Well I’ll wear it on our wedding day, how about that?”

“Okay. Now kiss me.”

I smile before pressing my lips to hers. When I pull back and rest my forehead to hers, I find her eyes. “Best birthday ever.”

Epilogue

Jessa

thirty-two years old

I pull into the shop at closing time and slide out of my car. After pressing the button to lock my car on the key fob, I go right inside and ring the bell on the desk.

Ty, my handsome husband, comes around the corner, wiping his dirty fingers on a rag. “Hey, baby.” He smiles bright and leans over the counter to kiss me. He learned a long time ago that when he’s all greasy and nasty with oil, he’s not supposed to touch me.

Except if he’s going to help get me clean. Then he can touch me all he wants.

“Hi. So my car’s making a funny noise.”

He raises a brow at me, because he knows damn well that he’s meticulous about keeping it running smoothly. “What’s it doing?”

“It’s clunking. I dunno? Thought maybe you’d want to check it out before I pick up Sadie from daycare.”

His eyes light up at the mention of his daughter whose eyes look so much like his. He’s such a good daddy. I knew he would be, but he broke through any and all of my expectations. His love for his little girl is something fierce and beautiful. He’s fierce and beautiful.

“Yeah, sure. Keys.”

I toss my keys at him and walk into the bay while he pulls my car in. I admire him while he bends over the hood; his strong, muscular body has only gotten bigger over the years.

“Stop checkin’ out my ass.” His voice echoes from under the hood.

“It’s a nice ass.”

“I know, but unless you want my face between yours, you’d better stop lookin’ ‘cause you know what happens—”

“Okay, I’ll stop!” I laugh and walk around his shop, slapping his firm butt as I pass him.

After everything that happened four years ago, it took a little time to adjust and get used to a normal life. I went back to work twelve weeks after Sadie was born, but Ty wasn’t ready to leave her just yet. I think he was still worried about some kind of retaliation, and honestly, I think he was just enjoying normality for once. He ended up staying home with her until she was almost two years old before he went back to work.

He’d already dropped out of the undercover gig and decided not to pursue law enforcement any further, but finally opened up his own mechanic shop. All the money he’d been paid from the government was virtually untouched, and Ty used that to buy the shop.

He fiddles around under the hood as I run my fingers across the shelf where he has pictures of Sadie and me. I laugh as I look at the one of us from the beach last year. Ty let us bury him in the sand, and I gave him a pair of boobs and a little penis when Sadie wasn’t looking. Of course, that’s not the picture he has up, but it’s what I remember from that day.

We have so many memories over a lifetime. Some of them years apart, but each one no less special than the next.

“How the hell did this get loose?” he mutters to himself.

I want to tell him the truth, but I bite my tongue. Perfectly timed, my phone goes off with a text. “Hey, my brother’s in town, and he picked Sadie up from daycare. Wanna go to my parents for dinner?”

“Yeah, baby. That’s fine with me.”

He loves to go to my parents’. Loves the dynamics of a loving family. He and my brother get along well, even though it was a rough at first because Landon is a little protective of me. But when I delved further into our past and told them of all the times Ty was there for me, I saw a bit of understanding in Landon’s eyes.

After some more tinkering and filling up oil or something, Ty washes his hands and follows me to my parents’ house.

As soon as he walks in the door, everyone screams,
Surprise
, and Ty’s face pales. I try to hide the moisture from my eyes, but when he squeezes his hand around my hip, I can’t hold it in.

My parents, brother, our mutual friends, Jay and Rico, the guys who work for him – Perry and Tom, and Sadie clap and start singing “Happy Birthday” to him. Sadie wiggles out of my brother’s arms and runs to her daddy. Ty scoops her up and buries his face in the top of her head, hiding his emotions.

When he told me the night Sadie was born that he’d never had a birthday party, I knew I’d change that just as soon as I could. He refused to do anything for himself on their birthday since she was born, only wanting the focus on her … my selfless man.

He turns to me and raises a brow.

“I had Perry mess with the car to buy some time,” I explain.

Ty shakes his head, kisses his girl, and then puts his arms around me, pulling me close. His lips brush over my ear. “Love you so much, Jessa.”

“Love you too, Ty. Always have.”

“Always will.”

Ty

I hold my wife as my daughter clings to my leg and I ignore the voices around me. I don’t care what it cost me or how much time I lost. I’d do it all over again to have this moment … one that I didn’t even know could exist for a punk like me. I don’t question how I got here, or why I was one of the lucky ones who was able to pull myself out from under the thumb of the streets.