AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Once I am done with moisturizing, I turn to look at my husband. He is leaning against the door jamb, arms crossed over his chest, and feet crossed at the ankles. He doesn’t say a word, just waits me out.
I take a deep breath and ready myself to break some news to him. News that I am not sure he is prepared for.
“I can’t get pregnant.”
CHAPTER 32
I don’t know
Zach
The look on Hunter’s face when she mutters those words to me absolutely crushes me. The more I try to tie her to me, the farther apart we get. The last three months have been intense in the sense that other than in bed, there is no connection. I don’t even know who to blame it on. Me? Her? Both of us?
“Zach, did you hear me?” she demands to know when I continue staying silent.
“Yeah,” I nod. I uncross my arms and legs, pushing myself off the jamb of the door. I take the couple of steps needed until I have her pinned against the bathroom counter.
“So now what?” she almost whispers. Her eyes are glued to my chest. I put a finger under her chin and press it up so that she can meet my eyes.
“Explain.” I don’t need to tell her what she should explain to me. She knows exactly what I’m asking.
“I go to the doctor every year,” her bottom lip starts quivering, almost beckoning me to kiss it better. “I had a uterine infection about three years ago. They said I could have fertility issues going forward.” She shrugs like it’s all the same to her, but I can tell that it is not.
“Did you go for further testing?” I prod, needing to know all the details. I am making it my business to know everything there is to know about Hunter’s health.
“No, what was the point?” she looks genuinely confused.
“You didn’t plan on ever having children?” I gently ask. The only correct answer here is that she never planned on having kids with anyone other than me.
“Not after…” She chokes on her own words, unable to finish her thought. She takes a deep breath and tries again. “Not after what happened seven years ago.”
The tears filling her eyes undo me. I bring her head to rest on my chest, right over my heart. I haven’t told her yet that I love her, that I never stopped loving her. I don’t even know how to bring it up anymore. Things between us have been strained to say the least. But one thing is certain; my heart only beats for Hunter Montgomery Cavanaugh.
“Your name is quite a mouthful, you know that?” I distract us both with the random thought crashing into my brain.
“What?” She sniffles and turns around to look in the mirror, running a finger under each eye, making sure that she doesn’t have any leftover makeup lingering on her perfect face.
“Hunter Montgomery Cavanaugh,” I say it out loud, and it sounds even more pompous than when I said it only in my head. “And wait, you have a middle name, too,” I snort, remembering her information from our marriage license. “Hunter Alexandra Montgomery Cavanaugh,” I snort. “It’s like you’re in line to the throne or something.”
“That’s just terrible,” she agrees and laughs with me. “My parents never gave me a chance, right?”
I watch in fascination as she takes deep breaths in, then letting them out, putting a lot of effort into calming herself down.
“You want to go?” I ask on a whim.
“No way,” she shakes her head. “Your grandmother hasn’t even gotten here yet. That would be so rude.”
I fall in love with her a little more when I hear the consideration in her voice for Grams. If you want to win my heart, all you have to do is to be nice to my Grams.
I kiss Hunter on the forehead, then softly on the lips. I want to do and say so much more, but this is not the time or the place. I do vow, however, to fix this shit between us.
“My brother hates you,” Hunter chuckles out of nowhere. “Like, a lot.”
“I know,” I smirk. “The fucker has had a hard-on for me from the second we met.” I then proceed to tell her how our first encounter went back when he and Brooke were dating, and I stopped by to say hi to her on one of my visits to see Grams.
The easy conversation seems to relax her enough, and before we both know it, we are back downstairs. Hunter’s parents watch us carefully when we step outside into their back yard, her mother relaxing instantly when she sees the smile on her daughter’s face.
“Grams,” I boom when I see my grandmother sitting at a table with little Emmy Pitt in her lap. “When did you get here?”
