Holding on Tighter (Wicked Lovers 12)

“Is that why you’re going to DNA test the baby?”

That hadn’t been the plan originally.

“Yeah. She made some good points. We need to know the father for legal and medical purposes. Beyond that, we don’t care. He or she belongs to all of us.”

Sean squeezed her hand and looked at her as if Callie was his moon and stars. Thorpe brushed the hair back from her face and snagged her gaze, his full of silent promise.

Just then, another contraction hit.

One turned into another, and the next few hours slid by. Nurses changed shifts, and the doctor came by at lunch to check on Callie, who had dilated to a seven. When they told her to walk while they prepared to break her water, Jolie meandered up and down the halls with her friend, stopping to help her bend and breathe through the discomfort.

“How are things with Heath?” Callie asked between contractions.

Exhilarating. Complicated. Uncertain. “Fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I have to. He looks like he wants to beat back anyone who would dare to look at you, then gobble you all up for himself.”

Jolie flushed. “He’s been really . . . amazing so far. Helpful and reasonable.”

“Then you must have some magic elixir because he’s usually taciturn and remote—unless he’s picking up a random woman.” Callie cocked her head. “But he’s not doing that anymore, is he?”

“He can’t exactly slip away to exercise his sex drive when he’s busy bodyguarding me.”

But that wasn’t the whole truth and Callie saw through her answer. “I’d bet my entire bank balance he doesn’t want to anymore. He looks at you like he’s hooked.”

“I think maybe . . . yeah. It’s not one-sided. I don’t know what to do.”

“Let it happen.” Callie shrugged.

“The timing is lousy.” Well, that wasn’t her only objection. Would she have ever thought the timing was good? Probably not. “I wasn’t looking for love. I never have been.”

“I know you like order in your life, prefer to plan where you’re going so you know what tasks to tackle next. Love isn’t like that. At first, it’s more like . . . grabbing a fast-moving train. The track can be wild and harrowing and a little slippery, but once you get some traction and figure out where you’re going, it’s the most amazing ride of your life. I know you’re a results-driven woman, but there’s no bottom line in love. Don’t think about the destination, doll. Focus on the journey. That’s where you’ll find the beauty of love.”

Yeah, Jolie was beginning to understand that, and it was a completely foreign way of thinking to her. Still, she suspected Callie was right and no amount of trying to filter romance through any pre-existing experience was going to work. “Thanks. I don’t know if it’s love or anything close . . .”

She nodded. “I have a sense about these things. Or maybe it’s just pregnancy hormones. Everything makes me cry now.”

Callie hugged her. Jolie held on to the other woman in return and felt herself tearing up, too. She never had many female friends. She’d always been too ambitious for slumber parties, makeovers, and gossip. She couldn’t have cared less about boy bands and crushes or cheerleading skirts in high school. The girls on the academic decathlon team had all been socially awkward, not to mention enthralled by sci-fi and gaming in a way she never would be.

Karis might be the sister of her blood, but Callie was the sister of her heart. And despite the belly bumping between them, Jolie was thrilled to be here for her on the day she would become a mother.

As they rounded the nurses’ station and wandered back down the hall, Callie looked Jolie’s way. “I heard through the grapevine that you had dinner with a potential investor last night.”

“In other words, Heath said something about it to Sean?”

Callie laughed. “Yeah, Heath wanted some local connections at that restaurant to make certain he talked to the people who could get security things done. How did it go?”

“Richard Gardner is a manipulative manwhore.”

“I could have told you that.” Callie tsked.

“I’d hoped that the desires of his bank account would outweigh the desires of his penis.”

“Nope. He made a pass at me once. I thought Thorpe and Sean were going to kill him in the middle of a cocktail party. Honey, if you were looking for an investor, why didn’t you call me? I would have—oh!”

When she gripped her belly and squatted with a gasp of pain, Jolie dropped down beside her. “What can I do? Should I get a nurse?”

Callie didn’t reply for a long moment, just breathed through the pain. “They’re coming quicker now, getting more intense. I don’t think it will be much longer.”

Jolie agreed as she helped Callie back to her feet. “Let’s get you back to bed.”

“In a minute.” Her voice sounded strained. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I didn’t want to risk our friendship. I couldn’t guarantee your funds.” Jolie teared up. “I could find another investor but I couldn’t find another best friend.”

Callie didn’t even try to hide her tears. “Oh my god, that’s so touching, even if you’re being a silly bitch.”

Together they laughed as Jolie helped Callie down the hall. She looked up to find all three men watching protectively from the end of the hall. Thorpe and Sean jogged toward Callie, concern all over their faces. She took another halting step to reach them when a splash of clear liquid unexpectedly doused the floor between her feet.

“My water!”

That brought nurses running, had the men worrying, and Jolie panicking. She knew how to handle a company that grossed nearly ten million dollars annually. She had no idea what to do with a woman in active labor.

Thankfully, Callie was soon back in bed and fighting the first urge to push.

In between contractions, she held out her hand to Jolie. For the first time, she looked afraid. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but since my mother and sister aren’t alive anymore and can’t be with me today and I . . .”

Callie wanted female comfort. Though Jolie had never been in Callie’s shoes, she couldn’t imagine going through such a momentous event without her mom and sister. Husbands were all fine and good, but sometimes only a woman understood what another woman was going through.

Jolie squeezed her fingers. “I’m here for as long as you need me.”

“Thank you. That means the world to me.” Callie looked slightly sweaty but a bit more at ease. Love glowed from her eyes.

After that, things progressed quickly. Callie’s men took over the duties of holding her hand, wiping her brow, feeding her ice chips, and encouraging her progress. The doctor, a competent woman in her forties, checked Callie and declared her nearly ready. The nurses filed in. Jolie drifted to the back of the room, near Heath. Together, they watched mutely.

One minute bled into the next until the contractions seemed never-ending. Callie panted, trying to regulate her breathing. Sean worked through the pattern with her. Thorpe took up position behind her. The three of them had an almost wordless communication. The men understood that her happiness and comfort came before all else and never spoke unless it furthered that cause.

For the few seconds between contractions, Sean brushed a kiss on her damp forehead. Thorpe patted her with cool cloths and stroked her hair. They both told her they loved her and were proud of her every single day.

When the next contraction seized her petite frame, Thorpe braced himself behind her. Sean counted breaths. Callie grunted and bore down.

“The baby is crowning. A few more pushes!” the doctor announced.

Moments later, another contraction grabbed hold of Callie’s entire frame, this one seemingly on top of the last. She grabbed Sean’s hand as Thorpe supported her. A grunt became a scream as she struggled to give her baby life.

“Just a bit more . . .”

“I can’t.” As the contraction let up, Callie flopped back, exhausted. “It hurts so much . . .” S

he burst into tears. “I gained too much weight and my body looks like something even a whale would be ashamed of.”

Sean repressed a smile and kissed her again. “You’re perfect, lovely.”

Thorpe scowled. “He’s right. You wouldn’t have to beat us off with a stick so often if we didn’t find you completely, stunningly beautiful.”

The doctor regarded Callie with compassion. “You’re not the first mother to feel this way. You won’t be the last. Right now, you’re hormonal and don’t recognize your body. But you’ll recover after the baby comes. Give it time.” She checked Callie’s progress again. “Now, c’mon. I think you can do this in one more push.”

“I’m so tired.” But she nodded.

“It was all that ‘nesting’ last night,” Sean said, gently chiding.

“Next time you climb the kitchen cabinets to rearrange every pot and pan we have, make sure one of us is there to help you.” Or there will be hell to pay. Jolie heard that subtext in Thorpe’s voice. Then his stern tone softened more than she’d imagined possible. “You needed rest. We worry.”

“I know . . .” she said miserably. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Jolie had never seen her friend anything less than bubbly and optimistic, and a potent combination of hormones and exhaustion probably drove this weepy mood. Still, Jolie’s heart went out. “You can do this. You’ve got gumption, woman. And you’re about to have a baby who needs its mommy. We’re all here for you.”

“See?” Sean murmured. “We’re almost parents now. You can’t give up, lovely. We’ve been waiting for the day our three would become four. Just a bit more.”

“Dig deep, pet,” Thorpe encouraged.

As another contraction gripped her, she looked to her men as if she needed them to be her pillars. Wordlessly, they gave their support, stalwart and strong, as she worked up her energy and courage to give one more mighty push. Then the wailing cry of the baby filled the air.

Jolie couldn’t see much around all the people and equipment, but she could feel the miracle in the air. A new life began. Hope. Future. And as the doctor set the baby on Callie’s chest, tears streamed down her rosy cheeks.

“Meet your son,” the doctor said to the trio softly.

Instantly, Callie held the boy against her body. Thorpe and Sean both looked on, stroking his little head, soothing his cries with a glide down his chubby leg. To her shock, both men cried openly, too.

“He’s beautiful.” Callie’s voice shook. She was unable to stop looking at the boy with a thatch of pitch-black hair and blue eyes.

“Amazing,” Thorpe whispered.

Sean smiled. “Welcome to the world, Asher Daniel Mackenzie-Thorpe.”

The doctor took the baby. Nurses weighed and cleaned him. After a swaddle, they presented him to Callie again. “Seven pounds, eight ounces. Nineteen inches. Congratulations.”

The threesome didn’t speak for long moments, just held one another as they marveled over the life they had created together.

Jolie’s perspective tilted on its side. This was love in its purest form and she felt it charging the air, closing up her throat.

For the last thirty years, she’d valued all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons.

Life wasn’t about work or balance sheets or making it from one day to the next. It was about savoring every moment of precious existence and sharing her most profound moments with loved ones. For so long, she’d strived to be as insular as possible, figuring that if she never let anyone close, she would never have to feel the pain of disappointment, sorrow, or hurt. Now she saw that her life had been empty because she’d been too afraid to truly live it. She’d devoted her existence to proving herself worthy of a father who would never love her, in walling herself off so she could never feel crushed again.

But without pain, she couldn’t feel joy or amazement, hope or true love . . . Nothing that made life worth living.

Suddenly, her world turned blurry. She wiped at her cheeks, weirdly stunned to find them drenched with tears. Beside her, Heath looked choked up, too. Then he slipped his hand in hers.

Chapter Twelve

Rule for success number twelve:

Make plans . . . but always be ready for change.

IT was nearly ten P.M. when Heath let Jolie into the darkened house that Axel owned in Dallas. On a quiet street in an older, eclectic neighborhood, the Craftsman cottage fit the man—wide, open, almost an extension of nature—Heath noted absently, as he flipped on the lights and locked the doors behind them.

Jolie had been too quiet on the drive from the hospital. He didn’t have to guess what she was thinking. The miracles of birth, of love, had hit her as profoundly as they had gobsmacked him. Now he wasn’t certain what to say. Or do. Something about watching a life emerge into the arms of adoring parents had been overwhelming. That baby represented their deep devotion, the circle of life at work. Yes, he knew people had babies every day, but experiencing Asher’s birth firsthand filled Heath with emotions now clamoring to be heard, even as logic fluttered in a dizzying whirl of circular thoughts before vanishing into disarray.

“I doubt Axel has anything in the refrigerator. He’s been gone for months,” he murmured, standing beside the gleaming appliance without much interest. “Shall I call for food?”

Jolie set her purse on the counter beside him and stared, looking a bit lost. “I’m not hungry.”

In truth, he wasn’t, either, at least not for food. He wasn’t merely hungry for sex, per se. But he craved her—her touch, her tenderness, her open arms, her willingness to receive him in every way a woman could accept a man.

Bloody hell, he sounded like a mad sap, bleating on about the tripe of his feelings. But wishing he didn’t have them hardly made them less real or insistent.

He pocketed the house keys. The powerful hush of the moment seemed too sacred for words. Just above it, he heard her breathing. The soft sound made him so aware that Jolie stood close and vulnerable and female.

For reasons he couldn’t understand or explain, he knew unequivocally that she belonged to him now. The moment he acknowledged that, new, positively mad desires frothed in his brainpan, loud, insistent, urgent.

“Jolie?”

She froze as if she sensed his next words could change everything. “Yes.”

He heard more than mere acknowledgment. Her voice resounded with total acceptance. “You don’t know what I’m going to—”

“I do,” she argued. “It’s the same thing I’ve been thinking. And yes, I want what you want.”

Did she realize he meant to start their future now? “Are we allowing the remarkable moment we witnessed to carry us away?”

Jolie hesitated for such a long moment, he wasn’t certain she heard. But he needed her reply. He couldn’t be alone in this irrational yearning for connection and sharing and the future.

“I think watching Asher’s birth simply made things clearer to me. I’ve spent my entire life hating a man who isn’t worth my energy and fearing that I’d become a woman I can’t respect. I’ve devoted all my thoughts and waking hours to things like contempt and revenge. And after today, it seems so . . . petty. I don’t need to prove to Carrington Quinn that I’m worthy. I simply need to be the best person I can be and live my life in whatever way fulfills me.”

“That’s insightful.” And Heath was so proud of Jolie for figuring that out. “And you’re utterly right.”

“If I only worry about beating my father at his game, what sort of empty victory have I achieved if I win but I’ve forgotten my dreams along the way? Betti is mine. It’s for me. Because I wanted to accomplish something I believed in and I love what I do. But today I also realized that life isn’t work. Karis tried to tell me that. I’ve intentionally pushed people away so they couldn’t hurt me.” She sighed. “In some ways, I haven’t lived at all.”

“I stopped living years ago. Losing Anna was . . .” He frowned and hung his head to hide his face, to conceal his guilt. Ever

y day, he still felt as if, by failing to avenge her, he’d wronged her.

Jolie stepped closer. “I’m sure it’s the most difficult thing