Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
He shook his head. “Keep an eye on her,” he said quietly as her light snores began to fill my room. “I’m trying to pack the clothes she’s going to need up there.” He shot our woman a small smile. “She’s hopeless when it comes to packing anything.”
I snorted. This, I did know. We had both been trying to get her to start packing for the last two weeks, and come to find out, on the day that we were supposed to be leaving, she hadn’t packed a single item of clothing.
She was one of the biggest procrastinators I had ever met.
But it was one of the things I loved about her, no matter how frustrating it could get for both me and Julian.
He slipped from the room, allowing me to return back to my assignment. I glanced back over at the sleeping beauty next to me. Whatever her reaction to the news, Julian and I would both be there to hold her together. She wasn’t alone anymore. Not only did she have both of us, but so would her child, and that would never change.
* * *
✶ ✶ ✶
* * *
Meghan’s face scrunched in distaste when she looked at the blueberry muffins in front of her, her face paling a bit. They were even from her favorite bakery.
Fuck. The signs of her pregnancy were becoming more and more noticeable.
“Please close the box,” she begged as she clamped her hand to her mouth.
Julian quickly closed the lid to the bakery box, but it made the scent of them waft thicker through the air. She jumped out of her chair and rushed to the bathroom. “Shit,” Julian swore as we both took off after her.
She was violently throwing up when we entered the bathroom. I grabbed her hair and pulled it back out of the way as Julian ran his hand up and down her back. She dry-heaved before she violently vomited again. Tears were running down her cheeks. “We’re here, baby girl,” Julian soothed.
Once she was sure she wasn’t going to throw up anymore, Julian leaned back against the wall and gently pulled her with him, sitting her sideways across his lap. I stood and crossed over to the sink to grab her mouth wash. I poured some into a cup, listening as he talked softly to her, trying to keep her calm.
Blueberry muffins were her absolute favorite, and the fact that they now made her sick was leaving her confused.
“What’s wrong with me?” she asked. I knelt in front of her and held the mouthwash out to her.
Julian nervously flickered his eyes to me. I drew in a deep breath. Julian didn’t get nervous over shit, but I knew he was lost and didn’t know how to break this to her.
Which is where I came in, to be the soothing balm over the freshly healed wound that I was possibly about to rip back open.
She rinsed her mouth out and spit it back into the cup. I flushed the mouthwash down the toilet and threw the cup into the trashcan before I turned back to face her and grabbed her hands in mine, knowing my touch would ground her to the Earth.
“Meghan, how late is your period?” I asked her, trying to ease her into it.
“It’s not—" But then she stopped. Her eyes widened in horror; tears sprang to her eyes. Julian tightened his arms around her and buried his face against her chest, trying to hold her together. “Oh, no.” Tears began to slide down her cheeks. “I’m on birth control. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Birth control is only so effective, sweet girl.”
She burst into tears as the most painful wail I’d heard in my life ripped from her soul. Julian tightened his arms around her as her shoulders shook. “I’m not ready for this,” she sobbed. “I’m not ready to replace him.”
My heart broke for the beautiful woman in front of me. “Sweet girl, you’re not replacing him.” Her beautiful green eyes met mine. They were filled with so much pain that it tore at every fiber of my soul. “It’s okay. We’re both here for you. Neither of us are leaving.”
“What if it happens again?” she cried.
“No,” Julian growled, pain lacing his words at the mere thought of her losing another baby. “We won’t let it happen, baby girl. I won’t let it happen. I’m not walking away from you again. I don’t give a fuck how hard you push. I’m prepared to push back.” He gripped her face in his hands. “Things are different now; we are different, baby girl. And you have more than me now. You have Axel, too.”
“But you’re about to be gone so much,” she whimpered.
“You have Axel, baby girl,” he repeated. “And you and he will both be traveling to every game that I have away from home. You’re never spending a night without me, baby.”