Before You

With each word Andrew spoke, Honey’s tears began to drip faster, and he continued to catch each one.

She loved him with an intensity she hadn’t known existed.

A feeling that went beyond words.

“Then, give us a baby,” she whispered. She clung to him with a strength she had to dig for. “Making you a father is the only thing I want.”

Andrew pulled his forehead away and placed his hand under his wife’s head, carefully laying her down on the couch. With a tenderness a husband only had for his wife, Andrew’s hands slowly moved across Honey’s abdomen, caressing the scars from her surgery before he took her clothes off.

Honey did the same with Andrew’s, unable to get close enough, her fingers touching every inch of his skin.

When they were both nude, they made love.

For the first time since they had decided to get pregnant, there wasn’t any pressure. Honey could enjoy his lips on her body and remember why they were there. She could feel a pleasure she hadn’t experienced in a long time.

And that night turned into one of the best she’d ever had.

FIFTY-EIGHT

JARED

I RETURNED to Manhattan two days before Billie came back from Maine. My plan was to spend the entire time in the office. Work had suffered since I turned all of my attention on her. I had been delegating a lot of my responsibilities, putting off trips I needed to take just so she could spend the night in my arms.

It wouldn’t last forever. One day, picking her wouldn’t be an option.

But right now, she was mine.

And that was what I told myself every time I chose her over work.

With her gone, it gave me a chance to catch up. I wasn’t more than two hours into my day when an email came across my phone. It came from the account that had its own special notification, a sound that caused me to look at the screen, no matter what I was doing.

This time, the email was from the credit card company, letting me know my statement was ready.

It was a card that served no purpose anymore.

Since the network at my office was the most secure, I used my desktop to log in. With the card not having a balance, I went into Settings and found the button that terminated the account. Then, I returned to my email.

Saved in the inbox were all of the monthly statements that had come in since the card was opened. They showed a zero balance, except for one month.

Embassy Jets, $876

The total cost I had paid for seats 14A and 14B.

Really, it was the cost Marcus had paid because the card was in his name.

Except Marcus knew nothing about any of this.

And after today, I was going to wipe the history from his credit, ensuring he would never find out. Not that he ever monitored it or needed access to his credit. I was the financial backer to Basil’s, which was the window I’d needed to set all of this up.

I cleaned out the rest of the inbox, leaving just the twenty-six emails from Billie. They were messages between the two of us where we discussed her services, the new ad she was promoting after the crash, and the reports she sent to show the results of the campaign.

All were addressed to Marcus.

Each reply I sent, I made sure to sign his name.

He didn’t know about a single one.

For now, the email account would stay open, but it was only a matter of time before it would get deleted too.

My life with Billie Paige … erased.

As though she could sense I was thinking about her, my phone lit up with her picture on the screen. It made me smile every time she called, the same way I was doing right now. I’d taken the photo last month when she was staring out the window in the backseat of my SUV, the sun just starting to kiss her face.

Now, it was a piece of time I was going to hold on to forever.

“Good morning, gorgeous,” I said, holding my cell to my ear.

“Mmm,” she yawned. “It’s so early in LA, and you don’t sound groggy at all.”

I ground my teeth together and got up from my desk to walk over to the window. “I’ve been up for hours. You know I can’t sleep when I’m away from you.”

“I didn’t sleep well either. Maybe it’s just nervous energy about today. I don’t know.”

I pressed my palm against the cold glass and looked out across the city. “Talk to me about it.”