Forsaking Gray (The Colloway Brothers Book 1) (38 page)

“Thanks, babe. We still on to see your mother next weekend?”

“Yep. She’s going to go into meltdown when she finds out you’re pregnant. You know that, right?”

I laugh. “Yes.”

“Two thirty tomorrow right?”

“Two thirty. Are you still able to come?”

He cups my cheeks. “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away from seeing my babies growing in your belly, Livvy.”

“Babies? You think I’m having twins?”

“No, I don’t think. I know.”

Chapter 56

“Livia Kingsley?” a female voice calls from the open doorway. We stand and, hand in hand, dutifully follow our guide to one of the exam rooms. The nurse hands Livvy a gown and instructs her to take everything off, making sure the ties of the thin garment are in the back.

After she leaves, I stand and cross the small room. When I grab the bottom of Livvy’s shirt and begin to drag it over her head, she asks breathlessly, “Gray, what are you doing?”

“Helping you disrobe.” Our eyes lock and her bright smile slays me, as it always does. Once I have her in her bra and panties, I make her turn and I unhook the lacy material that keeps her full breasts and sensitive nipples from my view. My fingers follow the path down her arms as I push it to the floor.

Protesting, but not very hard, she mutters, “She said I could keep my bra on.”

“It’s obstructing my view,” I breathe against her skin. I palm her round globes while I feather kisses along her shoulders and neck and she arches to give me better access. Her breathy moans make me want to unzip, bend her over the table and take her right here. I run my hands down her bare torso and slip my fingers under the waistband of her panties, which are now drenched with want and need. My name is a breathy entreaty, falling from her lips to my ears.

Kneeling, I palm her full cheeks before dragging her panties to the floor to join the rest of her clothes. I make sure my lips don’t miss an inch of her thighs and ass as I slowly stand. Grabbing the robe, I guide her arms through the sleeves and tie it closed.

After she’s seated on the exam table and thoroughly kissed, she quips, “That’s probably the most exciting exam prep I’ve ever had.” Her cheeks are flushed with desire and I’m hard as fucking stone.

Chuckling, I pull her close. Her arms circle my waist. We cling to each other, as we often do these days. “I wanted it to be memorable, angel.”

“Mission accomplished.”

For the past three weeks that we’ve been back together, other than work, we haven’t spent one single second apart. The floodwaters that had threatened to wash away our very happiness have receded. Every day our relationship grows stronger and feels more secure. Permanent. I love this woman more than life itself. She’s my everything.

The day after Livvy and I reconciled, I sent Addy a gift certificate for an all-expenses paid seven-day vacation to paradise for two. Maui. Extravagant? No. Not nearly enough for all of her help and faith, even when I didn’t deserve it.

There are things that happened to Livvy that are hard to swallow and accept. She’s opened up a little about her life, or lack thereof, with the fiend that kept her from me, and my soul aches for all that she’s suffered. We’ve wept together a lot at the loss of our baby. That was a tough day, and I’m still struggling to accept how very different our life would have been had all of this not happened.

Livvy was right when she said I was also a victim in this. We’ve both suffered untold losses, but our love is strong. It’s impenetrable and it’s everlasting. Livvy suggested counseling for me, for us, and she continues to see her therapist separately. I started therapy last week and I think maybe talking about what happened with a disinterested third party may help me put a lot of this shit at least into perspective. I’m not sure it will ever be behind me, or us, because it happened. It’s part of our lives and can’t be forgotten. The events of our past shape our future, the people we become and the lives we live, whether we want them to or not.

There are so many things in my past that I would change if I could. But the one constant would be to have met this vivacious, beautiful woman at Rocky’s Pizza in downtown Detroit on December 28, 2007.

My everything.

There’s a cursory knock on the door right before it opens, and whom I assume is Livvy’s doctor steps through. I release Livvy, move to her side, my hand palming her bare thigh.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Law.” We exchange pleasantries and she moves around the room, readying for her exam. Finally, she stops and smiles. “Well, are you two ready to see your baby?”

Because of the history of multiples in my family and Livvy’s severe morning sickness, they wanted her to come in at eight weeks for an ultrasound. The doctor takes what looks like a slim dildo, puts a condom on it, along with some gel and gently glides it between Livvy’s legs, which are now resting in stirrups.

I smile to myself because I am quite sure the gel is unnecessary. And I have to admit, I’ve never been more jealous of a piece of medical equipment than I am right now.

“You okay, angel?” I ask softly, squeezing her hand.

“Yes.”

We watch the monitor, anxiously waiting to see signs of life inside Livvy’s womb. Then suddenly I see them.
Both
of them. Two clearly separate sacks that will protect our babies while they grow. They don’t look like much of anything right now, but lima beans with budding hands and legs, but they couldn’t be any more perfect to me.

I feel Livvy shake and when I look down, she’s watching me watch the monitor, and water streams in rivulets down her face, into her hair. When she told me what that vile creature tried to do to her after he murdered our baby, I lost it. I have a hairline fracture in the top of my right hand from punching the wall. Now we’re staring at a miracle that I prayed with everything in me would happen every time I was inside of her, even though I had no idea at the time she didn’t think it ever could.

“Tell me you love me.”

“I love you,” she whispers.

I bring my lips to hers. “Not half as much as I love you, angel.”

I can honestly say that I’ve never been happier than I am at this very moment. I stare at Livvy, my best friend, my very soul, the mother of my children, and I know that after the heartache we have both endured, we’re right where we’re supposed to be.

With each other.

Epilogue

Two weeks later…

“Angel, it’s time to go.” Gray’s tugging on my hand before his mom stops us.

Gray and I came back to visit his mother for the weekend, in part because we wanted to tell her about the babies in person, but also because I’ve just missed her. When we told her, she spent all last night crying and hugging us. Then we thumbed through Gray’s baby book, which was the first time I’d seen it. There were a lot of pictures of Luke, which I thoroughly enjoyed seeing too. Barb Colloway has no shortage of pictures of her boys.

“Oh, hang on dear. Just one minute,” Barb says before rushing out of the room. Less than a minute later, she’s back with a package wrapped in pastel
Congratulations
paper.

“What’s this for?”

“For my firstborn’s firstborns.”

“Barb…” I look at Gray and he just shrugs his shoulders, smiling.

“Now, now. No tears. Go on, open it.”

Sitting, I slowly tear off the thin recycled paper and open the package to reveal two of the most beautiful light blue handmade quilted baby blankets that I’ve ever seen. Intricate diamond patterns decorate the thick fabric and the trim is silky blue a couple of shades darker than the threaded material. I notice a couple of darker spots on the cloth, which I initially think are stains, but I quickly realize is wetness from my tears.

“They’re beautiful, Barb. Where did you get these?”

“It was Gray’s from when he was young. My grandmother made a quilt for each of the boys one year for Christmas and I had it repurposed into baby blankets, so it could be passed down to the next generation.”

“But…we just told you yesterday. How…?”

She just winked. “Mother’s intuition.”

I hug her and let my happiness freely flow. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“I’m glad you like them, dear.”

“I love them.”

I look up at Gray and I can hardly breathe with the love I feel for him. It’s surreal. I still have to pinch myself some days wondering if I’m lost in a dream or if this life I’m now living is actually real. If it’s a dream, I hope I never wake up. When he mouths
I love you
, I can’t get help but go to him, wrapping myself in his embrace.

“Ready?”

“Do we have to go, Gray? Can’t we stay here?” I ask softly. For some reason he’s insistent we go out to dinner, even though we came home to see his mother.

“It’s okay, Livia. You two go and have fun. I have plans anyway,” Barb says, winked.

“Okay. Only if you’re sure.”

“Pshaw. You two have a good time. If I’m not here when you get home, I won’t be late.” I give her a quick kiss and hug and then we’re on our way.

We’re silent in the car, but it’s a good silent. Gray’s hand is threaded through my own and I’m replaying these last few weeks slowly, unable to help the smile that spreads.

“Have you talked to Asher?” I ask. He’s still holding a grudge against Asher for firing me. I’ve been trying to convince him to let it go. Asher was just doing what family does. Protecting each other.

“Yes. We’re cool.” He picks up our entwined hands, kissing mine.

“What are you thinking about?” I ask.

His smile is blinding. “I’m thinking about how happy I am.”

“Me too.” Happy…and horny. I lean over the console, licking a path up his neck to his ear and grab his hardening cock, giving it a little squeeze. “Screw dinner. Take me somewhere and fuck me,” I whisper against the shell of his ear.

He groans but stops my stroking hand with one of his own. “Food first, angel. You need to take care of my babies.”

“Your loss,” I pout.

Minutes later Gray pulls up outside of Rocky’s Pizza and shuts off the car.

“Why are we here?” I ask, walking through the doors of the place I once worked. Where Gray and I first met. The memory of his proposal and telling me to suck him harder back in the employee lounge is one of my best and most used ones for the past several years.

“Can’t a guy want to take his girl for the best pizza in town?”

“That’s debatable,” I laugh. I ate so much pizza all those years I worked here that I ended up almost hating it, but the smell wafting outside the minute we opened the door now actually has my stomach rumbling, which is a nice change from the nausea.

We take a seat and the waitress quickly brings us menus. I sit back against the cracked, red vinyl-covered booth and admire Gray, who is apparently very engrossed in figuring out what type of crust and toppings we’re going to order.

I watch his mesmerizing eyes scan the list, wishing they were raking over me instead. I watch his lips move slightly and I remember the wicked things they were doing to me just hours ago in the bathroom of his mother’s house. And I watch the brilliant smile break across his face when he feels my gaze, firing every neuron and cell inside my body.

His eyes rise to catch mine and he sets the menu down. “Do you realize this is the same exact place I was sitting when I first saw you?”

Suddenly all the oxygen seems to have left the room. I can barely breathe. I shake my head, not able to form words.

“You were so beautiful, Livvy. God, you literally took my breath away. I’d never wanted anything as much as I wanted you. On that day, do you know I told my brothers that I had just met my wife?”

My eyes mist.
No
. He never told me that. The restaurant is noisy, but all I can hear is Gray and the quiet, reverent words he speaks. Each one feels like another layer of love he’s wrapping around my heart. He leans forward, taking my hands in his before he continues. “You breathe the very
life
into my soul, Livvy. I didn’t even know I wasn’t living until the day I laid eyes you. Without you, I’ve been lost, adrift, without purpose or meaning. With you…I’m finally whole. Christ, I can breathe again for the first time in years.”