Unclaimed (25 page)

“I’ll never leave you again.
I’ll never break your heart again.  I promise,” Lincoln swore between kisses.  “You are mine.  I’ll make sure you never regret this.  I love you Pru.  God, I love you.”

“I know
.” More tears escaped my eyes.  These were happy tears.  I let him carry me back up to my room where we lock ourselves away.  Breakfast forgotten.

Epilogue

Lincoln

I had never been happier than I was now.  Pru was mine.  She was the best part of me.

We got married in Vegas when
she was five months pregnant.  Pru had worn a short, ivory dress with giant heels in true Pru fashion with a combination of classy and trendy jewelry.  I wore nice jeans and button up white shirt.  It was perfect.  It was us.

She gave me a simple titanium band and I gave her my grandmother’s vintage diamond wedd
ing ring.  When I showed it to her she cried.  She did that a lot lately and hated it.  I found it highly entertaining, which she also hated.

Neither of us
were interested in a big wedding, so we planned on eloping.  It didn’t work out to well my entire family followed us.  We told our close friends who had then passed the word on.  Jonas, Maggie, Skyla, all the guys at the shop, all of my estranged siblings, whom I was getting to know, showed up.  Even my mother and father.  My stepmother had not made an appearance.  I think I was grateful.  I had heard horror stories about that woman from my siblings.

My mother had smacked me upside the head when she stormed into the chapel angry because I was leaving her out of such a monumental event in my life.

I was talking to my mother again.  I hadn’t quite forgiven her for keeping my father from me but I understood her decision and I saw the wisdom behind it.

I was also talk
ing to my father occasionally.  I had met all of my siblings and learned that none of them had a stellar relationship with him.  He was there and then he wasn’t.  He cared but wasn’t real involved.

Pru
called her parents and left a message but they never showed I knew it hurt her but she refused to let it ruin our wedding.  I offered to postpone it until they were on better terms so they could be a part of it but she refused.  I was thankful.  I didn’t really want to postpone it.  I wanted our baby to be born with my last name, our last name, which I had changed to O’Neil-Kole.  My father had offered to give it to me after all these years so after talking it through with Pru I added it on.  Why not?

My baby, our baby,
Arabella Penelope O’Neil-Kole, was born at 8:43 pm on December 1
st
.  She was a little early but perfectly healthy.  36 hours of excruciating labor and I was the proud father of a beautiful baby girl.

Today was the day that I was getting to take my girls home.

Arabella was two days old.  They kept them in the hospital just as a precaution because Arabella was early and Pru had lost a lot of blood but the doctor had deemed them good to go.  I was glad.  I needed them home.

I picked up the largest bouquet of tiger lily I could find,
Pru’s favorite, and headed to the hospital.  Pru forced me to spend the night at home claiming I needed sleep.  I hadn’t wanted to leave my girls but she insisted.  I finally caved.  I couldn’t deny her anything.

Maggie
stayed with her.  Knowing she wasn’t alone was the only reason I was able to go.

When I got home I discovered I was actua
lly more tired than I thought.  I passed out.  Apparently I had reached my no sleep limit.  I had expected to not get any sleep without Pru in bed next to me or on me but I was too tired for my body to care.  I never even made it to bed.  I was out cold on the couch.

Everyone and their brother had
been to visit at the hospital.  All of my siblings had made at least one appearance.  My mother was a constant presence at the hospital.  She had to be forced to leave.  She was already in love with the idea of being a grandmother.  My father had yet to show but he was on tour in Europe.

Pru
’s parents were unsurprisingly absent.

She
called them and they hadn’t even bothered to pick up.  I had called them too and left a not so friendly message with her father’s secretary that she didn’t know about.

I pushed open the door to
Pru’s room and found her already up and dressed.  She still looked like my Pru: long wavy hair, big brown eyes, fairy like features, with a few freckles that I found adorable and loved to kiss even though she hated them with a passion.  She was in a knee length black dress with knee high boots.  I couldn’t help but laugh.  Only Pru would be rocking heels days after labor.

She turned and smiled
when I set the pink, cherry blossom car seat down.  My heart melted a little more.  She was my everything, my past, present, and future, my family, love of my life, mother of my child.

I walked over and kissed her softly on the lips and desperately wanted to deepen it but the doctors
had said no sex for six weeks.  As much as it was going to suck I refused to do anything that was going to hurt her.  I could survive six weeks, right?

I set the flowers on the table next to the bed and she smiled at them then kissed me again.

“Thank you,” she said quietly and I pulled her up next to me completely forgetting the penis in my pants policy ready to ravish her right here when a small cry came from the bassinet.

I stepped away from Pru and headed for the little girl that already had me wrapped around her little finger.

Arabella was tiny.  Six pounds, two ounces but healthy with a full head of wild, brown hair and big brown eyes.  She was like a mini Pru.  I’d never tell Pru but I hoped she’d get a few freckles too.  I kissed the top of her head and just smiled down at her.  Never in my life did I think that two woman would make my life complete.  One, the love of my life, my soul mate, my everything.  The other, a tiny bundle of pink, the spitting image of her mother.

Prudence

Lincoln loved that little girl.  That much was obvious.  She was going to be spoiled rotten.  He had gotten everything a little girl could possibly need from the moment he found out we were having a girl.  I tried to explain to him that an infant would not need dolls but he got them anyway.  He even painted her room to look like a meadow with little fairies hiding about.

Watching him stare down at her with all the love in his eyes just
made everything more perfect.  Every time I thought I couldn’t love him more, there he was proving me wrong.  Our family was complete.

Only a few months ago I thought I would be do
ing this alone but here he was.  We couldn’t be more in love.  Our world seemed so complete, so perfect.

“What is she wearing?” Lincoln asked suddenly, slightly panicked, as he started pulling the blanket a
way from Arabella frantically.  Apparently, he just noticed her change of clothes.

She was in a black
onesie that had a picture of a cherry on it that read,
Wanta pop my cherry? Cherry Picker, Euro Tour
.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the onesie but I let it go.

“Your dad came by this morning,” I said as I walked up beh
ind him and rubbed his back as we stared down at our baby girl.  “He changed her into that,” I explained.

Lincoln didn’t say anything. 
I knew it meant a lot to him that his father was taking an active part of his life even if he wasn’t real sure about it yet.  It sure surprised me that his father had flown all the way out from Spain when he heard that she had been born.

“He couldn’t stay long but he held her and took a few pictu
res with his phone and changed her.”

Lincol
n was quiet for a few minutes.  I got it.

“You ready
my lovely?” he finally asked.  I saw his eyes were a little misty.  Mine were too.

I ju
st nodded and leaned into him.  He wrapped his arms around me and held me while we stared down at our beautiful baby girl.  Then he loaded her up into her car seat, finished out-processing, and headed home.  All of the guys had moved out and we had turned the house from a bachelor pad to a family home.

I had been expecting a quiet homecoming for Bella but like everything else in our lives it didn’t work out that way.

The street was lined with cars.  I recognized several of them, including Putty Tang.  As soon as we pulled up the door burst opened and every one poured out.  Maggie, Skyla, Jonas, Prat, and Guy.  Russell, Lincoln’s father, and Dora, his mother.  Along with all his other siblings, Talon, Jax, Ryder, Wulf, and Mackenzie.  I couldn’t have been more surprised.

I greeted everyone I passed and they stopped to coo at the baby
in her car seat as we made our way to the house.  This was our family.  These were the people that loved us, that mattered.

Everyone came in the house and took turn
s passing the baby from one loving relative to the next.

After several hours it was just
the three off us in the house.  Before Skyla left she handed me a large box explaining that it arrived at the apartment this morning.  I set it aside until everyone had left.  It was from my parents no doubt.

Lincoln and I were standing in
the kitchen.  Arabella was fast asleep in a little bassinet that we were keeping downstairs.

Lincoln kissed the top of my head while he stood behind me waiting
for me to open the stupid box.  He didn’t rush me.  He just waited patiently until I was ready.

It was just like every birthday all over again.

Had they put any effort into this?  Did they care?  Did they sign the card?  I wanted to toss it in a corner and forget about it but the curiosity was too much.  I couldn’t kill the little niggling of hope that stirred.  They had sent something.  That meant something right?  But I knew better then to truly get my hopes up.

I tore open the box. 
Best to just get it over with.

Inside was thousands of dollars
of baby clothes, all designer.  I pulled out the card that lay on top.  It was addressed to the O’Neil-Kole Family.  At least they were acknowledging we were a family.  I opened it and a stack of money fell out.  I read the message about what a joyous occasion Bella’s birth was.  Then let out a deep sigh when I saw the signature.

Congratulations, with all our love, Mother and Father
.

My father’s
secretary had signed the card.  Some things never changed.  I guess you can’t teach old dogs news tricks.  They are what they are.  I was just going to have to accept that.  I wanted them to accept me for who I was.  I needed to accept them for who they were.

“I’m sorry, Lovely,” Lincoln said as he
pulled me tighter against me.  I didn’t have to tell him I was disappointed.  He knew.

I just shrugged. 
It was what it was.  I guess it was a step up from being ignored but I realized that I was no longer craving their attention.  I had a family now.  A real family.  We might be an odd collection but we were a family nonetheless.

Bella was tucked into the bassinet in our room and Lincoln
and I were crawling into bed.  He reached out and pulled me onto him.  I nestled into my favorite spot with my head on his chest, my legs between his with his arms wrapped around me running his fingers through my hair.

His artwork
on his chest had changed some.  He had gotten a tattoo of a gargoyle perched up on a pillared with a tiny fairy stretched up on her toes kissing him.  It was his interpretation of us.  I loved it.  He told me that he planned to add something for Bella too.  He said he wanted to keep us close to his heart always.

“I love you my lovely fairy,” he said as
he kissed the top of my head.  I shifted so I could get his lips.

“And I love you,” I said before kissing him again.

Lincoln just chuckled against my lips.  “Hey now, we have to keep this PG, doctors order,” he teased.  I groaned.  “But only for a few weeks and then we can make up for lost time.  We have the rest of our lives, after all.”

I was counting on it.

Off Limits

Jonas and Skyla’s story

COMING SOON!!

About the Author

S. Brent is a California native but currently lives in Germany with her husband, two kids, and crazy cat.  When she isn’t spending time with her family she can usually be found reading or writing.

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