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I stopped quickly at the pharmacy to pick up some last things before heading home, including an extra KitKat. As I headed up the hill, I thought back over the last two years and everything that had happened to change my life.
A few months after I’d moved in with Dillon, we’d talked about potentially splitting our time between Singer’s Ridge and LA, where I’d already established connections and a practice, particularly since Dillon could work from anywhere. But a few weeks of me making calls had quickly made me realize just how many people I’d been right in leaving behind. Most of them had believed Alex when he’d told them about my supposed “psychotic break,” and even his subsequent trial and sentencing for kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon hadn’t done a lot to change their minds.
It had been a hard pill to swallow, but after that, I’d realized that there wasn’t much for me left in Los Angeles other than painful memories. The few friendships I was able to salvage all understood what had happened once I’d FaceTimed them and explained, and they’d all been thrilled for me when I’d told them that I’d met someone and would be staying in Tennessee.
After that, Dillon had immediately gone into research mode to find out what we needed in order to set up a private practice for me in the Ridge, and right around when I hit my second trimester, he’d taken me to the office that he’d found—that had been perfect—and told me that he was ready to give me everything I wanted.
Then, he’d gotten down on one knee and presented me with a perfect, lovely engagement ring: an oval diamond between two sapphires that sat on a platinum band. I’d said yes, but on the condition that we didn’t wait. And the other condition was that we would not have a large wedding.
He’d agreed to both conditions, and we’d called my mom and asked her to fly out the next weekend.
Since our tiny wedding, my practice had taken off; I’d even gotten a contract to consult with some of the local schools, and I’d started painting again on my own. My stipulation for my practice was that it have an additional room for me to paint in, and somehow, Dillon had known to find a space that met those requirements.
I pulled up to the front of my home, which was much better lit and warmer-looking than it had been before. It was also bigger, since we’d built a new addition onto it right after we’d gotten married. I felt myself relax as I saw it and walked up to it thinking about how warm and comfortable I always felt when I saw my house. It was like a physical relaxation ran down my spine when I walked up to my home. I fitted my key into the lock and opened the door, edging it open with my bag of groceries.
“Mama!” I heard and felt a strong pair of arms somewhere around my leg. I could barely see around the market bag, but I reached down to run my fingers through my son’s hair.
“Hi, Nicky,” I said, putting the bag down on the floor and reaching down to lift him up so I could look at him. I knew I was biased, but I personally thought that there was no better kid on the face of the planet.
Well, Patrick came pretty close.
“Are we happy to see Mommy?” I heard from behind me, in that voice that, despite a child and almost two years of marriage, never failed to set the butterflies fluttering. I turned around, grinning, and leaned up to kiss my man.
Even though we held our son between us, we still took the time to indulge in each other, the way we always had and had promised each other we always would. It had actually been in our wedding vows—that we would cherish and value each other at every opportunity.
I didn’t know if everyone at the wedding really understood the significance of those words, but they’d been everything to us. Dillon, who’d been abandoned by his father and then left behind by his mother—regardless of whether or not she’d meant to do it—needed to know that he would always be loved. It had been part of why I’d agreed to marry him, despite my own hesitancies around it. The last man who’d asked me to spend my life with him had done the very opposite of cherish and value me; he’d done everything in his power to break me down. And it had only been by the grace of fate and the man before me that I’d been able to put myself back together.
Now, as I stood in front of him, I was amazed to think about how I could love him more every day. The only thing that could possibly compare was my love of Nicholas but seeing how much Dillon adored our son only served to make me love him more.
I broke apart, biting my lip at the taste of Dillon on my lips, and blushed a little bit as I turned back to my little boy. “Did you have a good day with Daddy?”
He nodded, his bright blue eyes sparkling with excitement. “Yes!”
Dillon reached down and picked up the bag of groceries, taking it to the kitchen. “We had a busy day,” he said, unloading and immediately started chopping the onion for the pasta I’d decided to make for dinner.
“How did you read my mind?” I said, kissing his shoulder as I came around him and started peeling carrots.
“It’s a gift,” he said, grinning as he leaned forward to whisper in my ear. “It comes from being able to read your body so well I can spot you coming from a mile away.”
I smacked his arm, pointing to the black-haired head of our son, who now sat on the floor with Bucky.
“Oh, come on. First of all, he didn’t hear anything, and secondly, he wouldn’t understand it even if he did.”
I still shook my head, moving him off to the side. “Get out of my way, you rogue, while I finish dinner.”
I pushed him out of the kitchen anyway, maneuvering my way around the stove as I made the Bolognese sauce, pasta, and salad. It had quickly become one of his favorite dishes that I made, and Nick loved it too, taking after his dad in yet another way.
I got everything ready, setting the sauce to reduce and pulling the pasta out of the pot as Dillon told me about his newest gig, and I told him about some of the newest clients I’d gotten from some neighboring towns. Finally, everything was ready, and I had to pee like a racehorse. “Hey, babe? Will you come here and keep an eye on the sauce while I go to the bathroom?”
“Sure.” He came over behind me, kissing me on the shoulder as he stirred the sauce while I went over to the bathroom.
I shut the door and pulled out the package I’d gotten at the pharmacy, feeling a new kind of fluttering in my stomach. When I’d found out that I was pregnant with Nicky, the only things I could feel were overwhelmed and terrified, and not just because I had no idea how Dillon was going to react to the news. I’d known Alex was still out there, and the thought of bringing a baby into the world while I was being hunted had been such a horrifying thought that I couldn’t even feel excited about the news, even though underneath it all, I had been excited.
I’d always wanted to be a mom, and as shitty as the timing was, I’d just found out I was going to be one, but Alex had stolen that feeling from me along with everything else he’d taken.
Now, things couldn’t be more different. Dillon and I had talked about having another baby for a while; we didn’t want there to be too big of an age difference between Nicky and his sibling. And even though we’d only started really trying a few months ago, I was already late enough for it to make a difference.
I knew that Dillon wanted a girl, but personally, I didn’t care. I just wanted the baby we were meant to have.
