Mad Gold (Providence Gold 2)

Yet, there I was finishing the cup of coffee that my wife-to-be had made me, with a big grin on my face. As I took the last mouthful, grimacing as the cold liquid hit my mouth, I saw something written at the bottom of my mug. Swallowing awkwardly, I turned the mug around and everything in me froze for the second time in an hour as I looked at the words.

“What’s wrong?” Jer asked, getting up and walking over. “Hey, are you okay? You’ve gone whiter than milk.”

“Surprise!” Dahlia whispered, wringing her hands beside me.

“What’s wrong?” Jer asked again, taking the mug off me and looking inside. “You are going to be a dad,” he muttered as he read the text written on the bottom of the cup.

My head snapped up, and I snatched it back to check.

“Is that what it said? Oh, thank you Jesus. I thought it said, ‘You’re going to be dead’.” I sighed with relief, not taking in the meaning of the words staring up at me as I grinned at Dahlia.

Then it sank in…

“You’re pregnant?” I rasped, walking over to my world and picking her up with an arm under her ass so she had no option but to wrap her arms around me.

“Yeah,” she whispered, leaning down to give me a peck on the lips. “Surprise!”

It was the best day of my life as I twirled her around, watching her laugh and throw her arms up in the air.“I’m not sure I know how to be a mother,” Dahlia murmured hours later as we lay naked, wrapped around each other in bed. “I’ve been watching Erica and Luna for a while and trying to remember how they do it though, so hopefully that’ll help. I might make some cards so I don’t forget anything.”

“What makes you think you don’t know how to be a mom, baby?” I asked, running my fingers through her hair and gently working out a knot before I moved to another chunk of hair.

“My mom, my luck,” she shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, but her voice gave it away.

Turning her onto her back, I looked down and thanked the big man above once again for how lucky I was. She was everything.

“Baby, you’re not bad luck. You’re also not your mother.” When she went to speak, I placed my thumb over her lips and shook my head. “No, you need to hear this. With everything that has happened to you, you’ve come through it the most beautiful person I’ve ever met. You laugh, you love and you live life to the fullest. People adore you, especially fucking Tate,” I growled the last bit, because he never failed to flirt with her in front of me. Little shit! “You got shot and survived it because out of everywhere that he could have hit, he hit fat.”

The ‘hey’ that she tried to shout at me came out as a mumbled squeal, but I knew what she was saying.

“It’s true. And after everything that your mom and other people put you through, you still have the capacity to love. That blows me away. If people had treated me like that about my mom, I probably would have ended up in a cell by now.” And it was true, this woman had conquered everything and come out of it with a big heart and a big smile. “You’re not unlucky at all. You’re the luckiest person I know and I can’t wait to meet the little human we’ve created,” I slid my free hand down to rest on her abdomen. “I can’t wait to see you as a mother. And I can’t wait to make you my wife, knowing you’ll be mine for the rest of our lives.” I stopped and pulled my thumb off her lips, giving them a couple gentle rubs first. “I need you to accept the facts, baby. So, what do you say?”

There was silence as she stared up at me, absorbing everything I’d just said to her. Throughout it all, her expression never changed once, and aside from a couple blinks, she hadn’t moved.

And then…

“Oh, shit, Madix. How do you do it?” she burst into tears and started sobbing. “That… that…” she gasped, still bawling her heart out. “It was be… bea… utiful.”

“It’s true,” I assured her firmly, trying to wipe up the tears, but they were going faster than I could keep up with.

Unfortunately, those final three words made her cry even harder.

Reaching over for my phone, I picked it up and searched for the question that was bugging me. Did women cry more when they were pregnant? And there it was in black and white – oh yes they fucking did.

So long as they were happy tears, I was okay with that. Even with the snot.