Only One Regret (Only One 5)

"Fine," she concedes. "Then I’m paying rent."

I put my hands on my hips. "Is that so?"

She stands up and puts her hands on her hips. "I suggest you pick your battles, Mr. Grant."

My cock gets even harder when she calls me Mr. Grant. "And why is that?"

"Well, I went to the doctor today," she shares, and I look at her weirdly as she walks out of the room with the girls' luggage.

"Okay. Are you okay?" I see she has tears in her eyes. "Why would you go to the doctor?"

"Well, I was feeling a little sluggish," she explains, and my heart sinks, thinking the worst. "And I felt sick for like that whole month you were in the playoffs. I thought it was my nerves," she reminds me and then walks back into the bedroom. I follow her and see all the little changes she’s made. The picture of us by the bed, the chairs that she brought from her house. The throw pillows with a matching blanket that gets tossed to the floor every night. She turns. "I’ll tell you, but you can’t freak out."

"Okay," I agree, and she holds up her hand.

"And you keep the money." She walks over to the white envelope on the bedside table.

"Erika," I grit out between clenched teeth as she hands me the envelope, and I can see tears in her eyes.

I grab the envelope from her and open it, taking out the small piece of paper inside. My heart goes to my throat as I look up at her. "We’re having a baby," she announces, looking up at me. I look down at the ultrasound picture.

"How?" I ask, my heart feeling so full in my chest it’s making it hard to breathe.

"Well, if you pull the goalie and then shoot

a million pucks at it, one is bound to score," she jokes. Three months ago, she took out her IUD and decided to go on the pill in case we wanted to start trying. If truth be told, I started trying that night. "Plus, it takes a month for your body to get used to the pill, and well, your pull-out method sucks."

The only thing I can look at is the picture. "We’re having a baby," I whisper and look down at her. This woman, who is my best friend and has been by my side through thick and thin, is making all of my dreams come true.

"We are having a baby," she confirms, putting her hand on her stomach as the tears stream down her cheeks.

I grab her face and kiss her softly. "Well, just one more thing to do," I declare, and she looks at me. "We’re getting married."

Epilogue Two

Erika

Five years later.

"Your daughter just said ‘I will cut you off at the knees,’" I tell Cooper when he walks into the house. Our daughter is sitting on the stool with her brown hair and blue eyes, looking all angelic, but with her father's smirk.

He looks over at her as she tries to hide the smile, knowing that. "To who?" he asks, smirking.

"To a little boy at daycare," I inform him, and he shrugs.

"Serves him right," he replies, and I just shake my head. "Maybe he went into her bubble."

"He did, Daddy," she says, and I just glare at my husband. He was not kidding. When we got to Mexico, he told his father that I was pregnant, and then I swear within a week, I was walking down the aisle. I really didn’t care as long as he was by my side, and I walked down the aisle with Emma and Mia holding my hand. "He came into the bubble," she states, her hands around her head.

"Go wash your hands," I say. She nods and gets down, running to the bathroom. "Last time she was with your father, she went to school and told the boys to keep their penises in their pants."

He tries to hide the laughter, but he can’t. "That was bad."

"For the whole vacation, he was like when you have a boy, you worry about one penis. When you have a girl …" I start to repeat what Matthew said.

"You worry about every penis out there," he finishes. "He’s not wrong."

"Cooper Grant," I scold, putting my hands on my hips that have grown so wide with this pregnancy. "Do not test me right now."

He sets his glass down and comes over to me, grabbing my face. "I’m sorry. I will talk to him."

I let the kiss linger. "I already called him," I explain, waddling to the fridge and grabbing the plate of strawberries. "He said he would have a talk with her." I look at him. "That is not going to happen. The last time he did that, she called the boys predators." I close my eyes. "Why is he like this?"