Until Series: Box set (30 page)

“I’m taking her to the hospital. It will be faster if I drive her,” he says to his dad, but it feels like a dream. This cannot be happening.

“I’m driving. Get her in the cruiser,” Mr. Mayson says quietly. I feel us moving but I’m numb. No tears, nothing. I don’t even know if I’m breathing. All I can think about is our daughter.

I awake to the sound of beeping and my eyes flutter open. I can see the white of the hospital ceiling and everything that happened yesterday comes back to me.

When I got here my dad and grandmother arrived ten minutes later. He was ready to go down to the local jail and kill my mother. My cousins and uncle had to physically restrain him so he didn’t get arrested. The police still had to come in to take our statements, but from what I understand from Asher’s dad, my mom had been trying to find a way to get the money my grandparents left for a very long time.

My ex-fiancé was her boy-toy long before I met him. She said they had been sleeping together for two years when she came up with the plan that he would date me, get me to fall in love with him, ask me to marry him, then something else. She didn’t say what that something was, but it would happen to me. He would get the money and they would start a life together. Unfortunately for her, that plan fell through when I found out they were sleeping together.

Apparently, my grandparents left strict instructions that, if I was to die before I had any heirs, the money was to be donated to different charitable organizations. My mother had been scheming for a long time trying to get me out of the way. I guess she was on a roll during her questioning and told the police that she set up the attack in New York with the hopes that I would be in a coma when it came time for me to receive my inheritance.

She figured that if I was in a coma, she would automatically be granted power of attorney and would have access to the money when it became available. Then she could transfer it to herself. She also admitted that she sent the flowers to me and paid the kid who dropped them off a few hundred dollars to get my signature on the transfer papers that she took to the lawyer.

I move my head to the side and look over to where Asher is sleeping. He always looks peaceful in his sleep. His mom brought him another pair of sweats yesterday when she showed up, so he could get out of the one’s that were covered in my blood. His ankle is crossed over his fleece covered knee. He has on a black thermal that is so tight, I can make out every detail of his chest. His hands are intertwined and laying on his abs. His sleeves are pushed up, the tattoos on his arms on full display. His jaw is darker than normal. He never shaves over the weekend and since he worked from home yesterday, he’s extra scruffy.

Over the last few weeks, his skin has turned the color of caramel from working out in the sun. I bet a lot of women drive by his job sites just to see him without his shirt on. I know he takes it off to work, at least, occasionally. His tan is everywhere. He’s always beautiful, but asleep, he’s stunning. I wonder if I will ever get tired of looking at him.

My hand absently moves to my stomach. When I feel a slight flutter, I say a silent prayer that my daughter is okay. They were worried yesterday when they saw how much blood I lost. After lots of tests, the doctor found out that my cervix was bleeding due to the way I fell when I went for the gun. When I continued to bleed, they decided to keep me overnight for monitoring and put me on bed rest for a few weeks.

This morning when they came to check on me, the bleeding had stopped and her heartbeat was stronger. The night doctor said that everything should be fine as long as I don’t push it. He also told me that I could be released as soon as my doctor showed up to sign me out.

“You awake?” Asher asks softly and I smile.

“Yeah,” I say, looking over at him. His eyes have dark circles under them from being awake most of the night, harassing anyone who came into the room with a million and one questions.

“How are you feeling?” he asks, sitting up and placing his hand over mine.

“Better. Tired, but much better.”

“Good.” He smiles and kisses my hand.

“Why don’t you go get a coffee?” I ask him.

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Babe, seriously, you look exhausted. Go get a coffee, walk around, and see if you can track down my doctor. This bed is really uncomfortable and I would like to go home.”

“I don’t know. We don’t have that machine at the house,” he says, pointing at the monitor for our daughter’s heartbeat. I look over at the machine and watch as her heartbeat thumps away. Then, I look back at him and can tell that he’s still worried.

“The doctor won’t let me leave if he thinks it’s too risky,” I tell him softly.

“I know, baby,” he says, bringing my hand to his mouth and holding it there after kissing my fingers. “I could have lost you both yesterday,” he says so quietly that I almost don’t hear him.

“You didn’t. We’re here and we’re safe.”

“When I heard that gun go off outside, I thought that my life had ended. I thought I was never going to see your face again, or be able to see our daughter take her first breath. And I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive without you here with me. I would take my life in order to go wherever you were.”

“Don’t say that,” I whisper, shaking my head. “Don’t ever say that.”

“It’s the truth.”

“No, it’s selfish,” I cry. “Other people love you and count on you, not just me. No matter what happens to me, promise that you will never give up on life. That you will always fight to be happy. I’m not your only happiness.”

“No, you’re my bliss,” he says, smiling, but I can’t smile back. This is too serious.

“Promise me that you will never give up on life, no matter what, Asher. Promise me right now, because we have a daughter that is going to need you no matter what happens to me.” His eyes look so lost, but I won’t let him say stupid things like that. I wouldn’t be happy without him either, but I would still fight to live because I know he would want that for me. “Would you want me to follow you?” I ask quietly, knowing the answer.

“No.”

“So don’t say things like that,” I beg.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he says, pulling me into his arms. “I just don’t know what I would do.”

“You don’t have to worry about it. We’re here and we’re safe. Just promise that no matter what, you won’t leave our daughter behind if something happens to me.” I start to cry uncontrollably.

“I promise,” he finally says, and I curl into his side and fall asleep.

I’m sitting in my hospital bed waiting for my doctor to show up and discharge me after he decided to keep me for one more night. Asher went to the house to get me something to wear and to drop off Beast. I hear the door open and look up.

“November?” Chris is standing at the door of my hospital room.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, scooting back in the bed.

“I heard you were in the hospital. I wanted to check on you.”

“Who told you I was in the hospital?” He doesn’t answer, but just walks into the room, shutting the door behind him. I press the call button for the nurse.

“You were supposed to come back to me,” he says, looking sad.

“You slept with my mom.” I will never forget that. Seeing them together was burned into my brain forever.

“Yes, and I’m sorry about that, but once I started to fall in love with you, I left you clues so that you would catch us.”

“What?”

“I wanted to have a clean start with you. I just didn’t know that after you caught us, you would ignore me completely.”

“I repeat: you slept with my mom. That’s not something that is easy to forget.”

“I know,” he whispers, looking at his shoes.

“The police are looking for you,” I tell him and pray that one of the nurses comes in soon.

“I didn’t know about the attack in New York. I didn’t know she was going to do that to you,” he says quickly.

“Okay,” I say. My pulse speeds up when he looks at me again.

“I’ve been watching her.” He looks around. “She’s been in town for a while now. I wanted to warn you. I tried to scare you into going back to New York, but instead you decided to stay here with that guy.”

“How did you try to scare me?”

“Broke into your apartment and left you notes.”

“The poetry?” I ask, just to clarify.

He nods, looking around again. “We need to leave soon.”

“No, you need to leave.”

“I can’t leave without you.”

“I think that you need help,” I say as I see Kenton looking through the crack in the door.

“I love you. We were getting married.”

“Please just leave. I’m happy now. Can’t you be happy for me?”

“Weren’t we happy?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Chris,” I say softly, “we were a lie that you and my mother cooked up. You were my first everything, and it was all a lie so you both could collect money that I didn’t even know I was going to receive.”

His eyes close like he’s in pain and his head tilts toward the ceiling. I watch out of the corner of my eye as Kenton steps into the room, gun drawn.

“I loved you though.”

“Love isn’t like that, Chris. I’m sorry. I hope you get help so that one day you will know what love is but that isn’t love.”

His eyes meet mine and I can see the sadness in them.

“I want you to put your hands on your head and turn around slowly,” Kenton says. Chris’s head swings in his direction.

When he registers the gun in Kenton’s hand, Chris’s hands go to his head. Then his gaze comes back to me.

“I’m sorry.”

I nod my head and watch Kenton pull cuffs out of his pocket and attach them to Chris’s wrist.

“What the fuck?” Asher’s voice cracks through the room like thunder. He looks me over and takes a step towards Chris. Kenton blocks him.

“See to your girl,” Kenton says quietly.

I can tell that Asher’s having a hard time not beating the crap out of someone. I think anyone would do for him right now after everything that happened. I being in danger today is playing havoc with him.

“Are you okay, baby?” he asks, taking a step towards me.

“Yeah,” I nod my head as he pulls me into his arms. “It’s over,” I whisper into his chest.

“Yeah,” he agrees.

“A
gain, again!” Emma
screams as Asher picks her up again, tossing her through the air and into the pool. He’s been doing the same thing for the last ten minutes. I look around for someone to help my eight-and–a-half-month pregnant self. It’s hard to get my ass out of our lounge chairs unless I roll out, get on my hands and knees then stand. There are too many people around for me to do that today without really embarrassing myself.

“Need some help?” I look up to see Kenton standing over me.

“God, yes.” I moan. “I swear, this little girl is going to be a dancer,” I tell him and watch as he smiles.

“The pool turned out awesome,” he says once he pulls me up. I look around. He is not wrong. The pool is amazing. It has a hot tub that is connected to it, along with so many flowers and plants that you would think we were in the jungle.

“Yeah, Jack did an amazing job,” I say and look over at him. “So, where is Christen or Tina or Lisa or—”

“Very funny,” he says, cutting me off.

I start to giggle and feel my belly bouncing with my laughter then I feel a kick that’s so hard, I stop immediately and grab Kenton’s hand and pull it towards my belly.

“What?” he starts to say. Then, his eyes get big and drop to my stomach. “Holy shit!”

“Yeah, now imagine that on your bladder.” I laugh.

“That’s so amazing,” he says and his hand starts to rub my belly.

“I know that it’s obvious by the huge ring on her finger that she’s taken, but if you happened to miss that, you definitely can’t miss the fact that she’s obviously pregnant.”

I laugh and see Kenton looking at Asher with something that looks a lot like envy in his eyes. I know he doesn’t want me, but I think deep down he wants his own family.

“Yeah, both those are hard to miss,” he says, smiling.

“How’s it going, man?” Asher asks him while pulling me into him.

“Good. Busy. I’m seeing someone and things are good.”

“Just one someone?” I ask, knowing his history. Since I’ve been around, there has been someone different at each event.

“Yeah, just one.” He smiles and shakes his head.

“That’s great,” I whisper, laying my head on Asher’s chest. He doesn’t look like someone in love though, so I wonder if he’s just trying to settle down because he is lonely. “You should invite her next time we all get together.”

“Baby, leave the man alone. He just said he’s seeing someone, not that he is picking out a ring.”

I scrunch up my nose at my husband. “Fine,” I grumble. His eyes go soft and he puts his mouth to mine. The kiss is sweet and soft. “I’m going inside then. I’m going to find Miss Alice,” I whisper, biting his lower lip.

Once, I’m done in the bathroom, I track down Miss Alice. She’s sitting in the baby’s room. It was finished yesterday with the help of Nico, Cash and Trevor. They were there most of the night, laying carpet and touching up the walls. I look around and can see all the love that went into making this room special for our daughter. I know that she’s going to have more love than she will know what to do with.

“It’s so beautiful,” Miss Alice says and I agree. It is beautiful. The walls are a very light blue with flowers that shoot up from the base with clouds and butterflies. Meg and Liz spent a week coming over every day when they got off work to paint every flower and butterfly on the walls.

Asher and his brothers sanded down every piece of furniture that we picked up from Miss Alice and stained the wood a dark brown. The quilt has pink and white checkers. It looks like a fairytale baby room. What really means the most to me is that everyone helped to make it beautiful. “You know that I never had a girl and Asher’s mama didn’t have a girl either.”

“I know,” I say softly.

“I’m excited that this house is going to have a little girl in it. I think all those boys needed this.”

“What do you mean?”