“Yeah, thanks for letting me know, Graham.” Those words knock me out of my reverie.
“Is everything okay?” I ask the moment I see Beau putting his phone on the counter.
“Yeah, come here though, please.” His voice is raw, as if he’s choking up.
“Okay, but you’re scaring me, Beau.” My feet move until I’m standing right in front of him.
“You don’t have to be scared, not anymore. Graham just got off the phone with another police station. Seems they apprehended Chad on another warrant, one that was way worse than what Graham had him out on him. Seems you weren’t the first or even the second, maybe not even the third. He’s left a trail of restraining orders, and there’s a woman who went missing. The evidence is leading back to him.” Beau’s arms are around me, mine around his waist, and my head is where it normally is—right over his heart. Hearing it beat gives me a semblance of peace.
“Oh God, is there anything we can do to help?” My heart is literally aching for the other women, especially the one who’s missing.
“No, Graham has all the evidence from you. The only thing we can do is sit and wait. I’m really hoping they won’t have to bring you in for a deposition of some kind, but it may come to that.” Beau holds me a little longer until my cell phone that I left in the bathroom keeps going off.
“Are you ready to go see what all three tests say?” I’m trying to break the heaviness for the both of us. I know I’ll be saying an extra prayer for the other women involved in what has happened. I wish they all had a man like Beau to protect them. He’s definitely one of the good ones.
“Yeah, let’s go see them.” We walk together, his arm wrapped around my shoulder, mine where it usually is. We reach the entrance to the bathroom in what seems like seconds.
“Ready?” Beau grins.
“With you, always.” I breathe in, then let it out.
“You look,” I tell him at the last minute, closing my eyes.
“Alright, I’ll look and then tell you,” Beau states, but his hand finds mine. Mine are sweaty, but he doesn’t seem to care.
“Look at me, honey.” I open one eye.
“Both eyes, Lil.” I open them, and his eyes are what I’m met with. He’s hunched down, so we’re at eye level.
“They’re negative, aren’t they?”
“No, honey, and even if they were, we’d just keep trying. But, Lil, they’re all positive. You’re pregnant, baby.” Tears are running down my cheeks, and Beau is trying to wipe them away as they continue to fall.
“Oh my God! We’re having a baby. I love you, Beau!” I jump into Beau’s arms, so excited and thankful that we’re creating a life together.
“Love you, honey, and hell yes, we are.” Our mouths collide. Beau carries me to the bed, laying me down, where we make love for the rest of the day, closing out the world and being with one another.
Epilogue
Beau
Nine Months Later
“Hudson, this is what happens when you don’t wrap your dick. You find yourself wrapping a baby instead.” I’m swaddling Hudson after Lily nursed him. It’s clockwork already—eat, sleep, shit, repeat. That’s why it’s me and my boy right now. Lily is passed out asleep. It has been a rough couple of days with him home. Mainly because there’s no routine, which means hardly any sleep for both of us, and our boy is up every few hours all through the day.
“Parenting advice so soon?”
“Better to start him off now than not at all. Besides, it’s not like he won’t have two good parents. We’ll lead him down the right path and pray like hell he comes out a decent human being.” I finish tucking Hudson into his blanket like a burrito.
“I have nothing but faith. We’ll do our absolute best.”
“That we will, honey. That we will,” I reply.
“Is he starting to fall asleep?” Lily says through a yawn. She’s still just as gorgeous as the day she walked into the bar asking for me to be her fake boyfriend.
“Yeah, especially now that he’s all wrapped up, aren’t you, buddy?” I talk to my boy. There’s going to be a lot of fun to be had with him, that’s for sure. Teaching him how to ride, work with the cows, how to hold a door open for a woman. I could go on and on.
“Well, when you’re done your man-to-man talk, your parents are on their way. They didn’t care that Hudson was asleep, so I told them we’d feed them while he napped. That way, they won’t sit around twiddling their thumbs.” It wasn’t long after we found out Lily was pregnant that we had a small ceremony in our backyard, surrounded by both of our parents, Vince, Graham, and somehow, Lily roped Faith into letting Logan be our ringbearer. Though I’m not sure we needed one. Lily must have had something up her sleeve. It didn’t do much good when Faith stormed out halfway through the reception and Logan asking why, wanting to hang out with Graham instead. Who knew what Graham did to piss her off this time?