Claim My Baby (Crescent Cove 2)

I started the movie and then I tried Sage’s phone, knowing full well that if I got her voicemail, I was probably going to need a moment alone to rip some shit to pieces or tear some holes in the sheetrock with my fists.

Once my hands stopped shaking.

Helplessness was choking me. And guilt. I’d made them come back sooner than they would have, and for God’s sake, I’d told them to rush. Why? Just so they could see my big gesture. I was a goddamned moron. If she and the baby came back to me in one piece, I was going to spend the rest of my life spoiling them. Every fucking second.

I went into the nursery as the call connected to protect Laurie from seeing me lose it. Alexander was sleeping soundly in his crib and I stepped closer to him, gripping the railing while I waited through one ring, two rings, three.

“Oliver?” Her voice was so far away, snatched away by the wind and the shitty connection. But it was her. It was my Sage.

“Princess,” I rasped, leaning heavily against the crib. I tightened my hold on the railing and marveled that it didn’t snap from the force. “Are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m okay. Accident. We slid off the road and into a ditch, but we’re okay. Oliver?”

“I’m here. Are you sure you’re all right?” I was trying to breathe and not shout at her, not demand she tell me every detail. “How’s Ally?”

“She’s fine. Well, a little banged up, but okay. She dropped her phone in the ditch and we can’t find it. It’s so dark and the snow—”

“Forget the goddamn phone. Get out of the ditch and away from the side of the road. It’s not safe. Sage, are you listening to me?”

I half expected her to yell back. “I am, and you being a jackass is probably the best sound I’ve ever heard.”

She was smiling. I could hear it in her voice. After a car accident. Had she hit her head? Christ, all I could imagine was some asshole hitting them in the storm and never even realizing it.

“Are you away from the road? Where are you? If there aren’t any houses right there, get back in the SUV if you can wi

thout injuring yourselves and wait. Seth is driving the route from the mall to the house.”

“We’re on Fairdale, just past the cemetery. We already called J&T’s Automotive and Dare’s on his way. He’s coming to help us personally.”

“Okay, good, that’s good.” I let up my grip a fraction on the crib. Didn’t want to turn the bed into a pile of broken sticks while the kid was sleeping. Snoring softly no less, even as I railed like a lunatic.

He was his father’s son, all right.

“Seth will be there soon.” I hoped. He would have to pass right by where they were if he took the usual route to the mall from here. I couldn’t stop talking to her yet to text him. Her soft, strong voice was everything. “Are you sure you’re all right? I can call the paramedics, have them meet you there just in case—”

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m fine,” she stressed. “Both of us are. I promise.”

Even knowing she couldn’t be certain, that small bit of reassurance was enough to have me letting out a sound that probably bordered on the inhuman. I simply couldn’t stop it.

“Oliver? Are you okay?”

“No. No, I’m not fucking okay, and I won’t be until you’re here and I can check every inch of you myself to make sure you’re all right. And then I’m going to take you to the doctor’s—like a bag of flour over my shoulder if I have to—so they can run every check known to man on you and the baby. Understand me?”

“Oliver—”

“No, hear me out. Do you have any idea what went through my head when you and Ally weren’t answering your phones and we knew you were out in the storm? Any idea?” I didn’t wait for an answer. “No, I bet you don’t. I couldn’t fucking breathe. Could barely stand on my two feet. I almost ran out of here until Seth reminded me I don’t have any legal hold on you, that you aren’t my wife. He didn’t mean it that way, but it’s the fucking truth. I messed up. I didn’t even give you the chance to say yes or say no. I just decreed it. Well, consider this me asking you to marry me. I don’t have a ring. I don’t have a plan. All I have is that I love you so much I can’t imagine waking up another day without you in my bed and in my life. And I want more than anything to be a father to our child. If you’ll have me. If you’ll both have me.”

The only sound on the other end of the phone was the roar of the wind and voices, so many voices. Seth must be there, or Dare. While I was so very glad about that, if she hadn’t heard me—if I had to say all of that again…

I would do it. I would say it over and over again, as many times as I needed to until she believed me. Until she loved me back even half as much.

“Oliver, Dare’s here, and Seth’s pulling up too. I have to go.”

I nodded, unable to speak. She couldn’t see me, but I still couldn’t find my damn voice. It was as if I’d stripped away everything with that speech, including the power of my vocal cords.

“I heard you, Oliver.” She was whispering, had to be. Or else the wind was so strong that it was drowning out most of her reply. I still heard enough to bow my head to my fisted hand on the edge of my snoozing nephew’s crib. “Heard every word. I love you too. I’ll take you. God, will I ever. You won’t know what hit you, I’ll take you so damn much.”

Even without full usage of my voice, I could manage to laugh. And send up a silent prayer that despite my many, many—many—flubs, I might just be able to make this work.