Last Minute Fiancé

Chapter 17

Addison

Two months later

I tiptoed across the living room floor, doing my best to not make a sound. Although I could hear soft breathing over the baby monitor, Keeley did not sleep hard enough for me to be stomping around the living room and making noise.

And while I did my best to do things like vacuum or dishes while she slept so she would get used to it, she had been cranky and sniffly all day, so I wanted to make sure that she got her beauty rest.

Of course, that meant I stepped on a stuffed animal that had a squeaker inside, and as I gently released my foot and the squeak echoed in the living room, I cringed.

But there were no additional sounds from the nursery, just soft baby sleeping noises.

I sighed in relief and continued on my way back to the bedroom.

It had been two months since our lives had changed. Two months since everything had changed once again.

Luca had never moved back home. He just stayed, and I was never going to let that man leave.

I hadn’t meant to fall in love with him, hadn’t meant for him to be by my side and to be with me, but there was no going back from that.

Because, he had wanted to stay.

The short-term rental of his place was now over, and we were slowly moving some of his furniture over, which in some cases was better than mine. Blending two households wasn’t easy, and it was something I’d never done before. But I was really enjoying the process.

He had his armchair over in the corner near mine, although I was pretty sure I wanted to burn mine, as I had spent most of my pregnancy in that damn thing. But it was still nice and comfortable to rock in while watching TV with Keeley on my chest.

I didn’t know what we were going to do with all of his furniture, since this house wasn’t big enough for the additional office that we would eventually need. We had enough space for now, as long as we used the storage unit for some furniture.

We were going to put his house on the market soon, but we didn’t really have time to deal with that right then.

Paisley had already offered to take care of it for us, because her and Devney could seriously just take over the world together, and I was so excited to get back to work and help do that.

My maternity leave was almost over, and soon I would be taking baby Keeley into work with me. Devney was still on maternity leave as well, and baby Hayleigh was the most adorable cousin that Keeley could ever ask for.

Soon Paisley’s company would have two additional babies under its roof during the day.

Heath didn’t work each weekday, and I knew he was changing his hours so he could have weekends off completely to match with Devney’s. They had hired more team members so Heath and his family could really enjoy their time. Plus, they were expanding by opening an additional business, this one more focused on food, and I knew Paisley had a hand in that because that woman could seriously do anything.

I wasn’t sure how Heath and Devney were doing it, but they were.

Just as Luca and I were.

While I wasn’t working, because I was actually taking time off, I could work from home if I needed to, but I really was excited to go back to the office. I liked being around people.

And while we had occasional animals in our house because of Luca’s job, we did get our own puppy named Puddles, who was currently out on a walk with the man that I loved.

Puddles was a mixed breed, though Luca did say that some chocolate lab was involved.

He was an adorable little mess and I loved him. Even though he came by his name honestly. Hence the long walk.

Why we decided to take home an abandoned puppy and the baby all at the same time I would never know, but who needed sleep anyway?

Luca and his partner had added a new vet to their business, and they had the space for the additional office, so they didn’t have to build on like Heath was doing.

It was a little crazy, and I couldn’t believe that we were all doing so much.

But it was all about working towards our future, something I was truly excited about, truly blessed to have.

I honestly never thought that this was what my life would be. That I would not only be a mother, that I would be living with the man that I loved.

We weren’t engaged and hadn’t actually discussed marriage. It wasn’t that either of us were scared of it, at least I didn’t think so, but we had more important things on our plate than a wedding ceremony.

Just knowing that I loved him and he loved me and that we were raising our daughter together was enough for me for now.

Maybe one day I would get on one knee and surprise a proposal on him. That might be fun.

I stepped into the nursery where Keeley slept and smiled over at our daughter.

She was so cute, Cupid-bow lips and long eyelashes. She looked just like Luca, but he kept saying she looked like me.

All I knew was that she was my everything. Our touchstone. And I would do all in my power to protect her and be worthy of her.

I left her to sleep, aware that the moment she woke up she would probably be hungry and our evening plans would shift.

I made my way back into the bedroom and started to get ready for Luca’s return. He was currently on a walk with Puddles, but when he came back, it would be time.

It had to be.

It had been months since we had touched.

And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to. Okay, sex had been the furthest thing on my mind recently, but still, I could count on one hand the number of times that Luca and I had slept together, because of circumstances outside of our control. But the doctor gave me the all clear, and I was going to lean into that with every ounce of anticipation I could possibly have.

So I slathered myself with lotion, a dab of perfume here and a dab of perfume there. I put on a silky little number that I had never worn before—a gift from Paisley and Devney and I was grateful that they had gone one size up because my breasts were freaking huge.

They had gotten big during pregnancy, but now that I was breastfeeding? Ridiculously huge. As soon as Luca untied that little bow, I’d pop out, breasts going everywhere.

Though I was pretty sure he’d like that.

The dress went down to mid-thigh, and I had little boy short panties on that were just made of lace. I wasn’t really into thongs, but I figured he’d have fun unwrapping me.

I slid on the robe that came with it, which wasn’t see through, and was almost a little modest until you realized how short it was.

I was ready for Luca, so I just needed the man to get home.

And as if I had thought him into existence, the back door opened and I heard Luca whispering to Puddles.

“Okay, we have to be quiet. Be quiet.”

“Yip yip yip.”

I smiled, then groaned as Keeley made a whimpering sound.

I quickly ran to the door, but then realized she was back to sleeping, as Puddles had quit his tiny little barks.

“Okay, we’re going to go into your play area for a minute, hopefully maybe more than a minute. However, it has been a long while.”

I put my hand over my mouth so I wouldn’t laugh out loud as Luca set up Puddles with playtime and water, and I knew I probably wouldn’t last a minute either.

For two people who had accidentally fallen into each other multiple times, the fact that we had scheduled this moment? Oh, how our lives had changed.

Luca turned the corner down the hallway and nearly tripped over his feet, his mouth hanging open in shock.

That’s when I remembered exactly what I was wearing, and blushed.

I tugged at the bottom of the robe, my teeth biting into my lip. “I was going to surprise you,” I said quietly.

Luca’s eyes went dark, and his throat worked as he swallowed.

“Consider me surprised.”

And before I could blink, he was on me, his mouth on mine, his taste exquisite.

We had kissed of course, had been very careful these months to keep it just kissing.

He hadn’t let me touch him over this time, even though I had offered to watch him jerk off.

Now though, it was all I could do not to crawl over him like a monkey and let him devour me.

He grabbed my hips and lifted me with such ease that I let out a shocked breath.

And then my legs were wrapped around his waist and he was carrying me to the bedroom.

“Tell me when it’s too much. Just tell me if you need to stop.”

I shook my head, my feet going to the floor as he set me down.

“Just remember, this is post baby. My body’s different.”

“Darling, love of my life, I have seen every inch of you over the past few months. I know exactly what your body looks like, and I love every ounce of you. I don’t care that you don’t look exactly like you did a year ago. Hell, I don’t look like I did a year ago.”

I raised a brow. “Your arms have more muscles; you look even more built than before and I kind of hate that about you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Because I’ve been jerking off enough that I now have forearm muscles. I have to alternate hands so I don’t end up with one Popeye arm and one skinny arm.”

I put my hand over my mouth again, trying not to laugh and wake up the baby, but then he was undoing the belt on my robe and the fabric fell to the ground.

His eyes looked like they were ready to boggle out of his head, and he licked his lips.

“It’s not even Christmas yet.”

“Well, you should unwrap your present anyway.”

He grinned, and then undid the bow between my breasts. My breasts popped out, full and heavy, my nipples hard points.

He groaned as he cupped me in his hands.

“Your tits have always been beautiful, but right now? I think I’m in love.”

“Oh, we’re going to have so much fun.”

He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss on each breast, before setting me back on the bed, legs spread, as he kissed and sucked down my body and nearly sent me over the edge.

When he finished unwrapping me, leaving me naked, I groaned, tugging on his shirt.

“As hot as it is with you dressed and me naked, I need to see you.”

“As you wish,” he whispered, and then his shirt was off and his hand was between my legs.

I was already swollen, aching for him, and when his fingers found my clit, gently rubbing circles over me, I arched off the bed, coming so quickly I surprised myself.

My toes curled, and he grinned down at me.

“You’re so stunning. Your whole body flushed with that; I love seeing you come.”

“It has been way too long.”

“Then I won’t make you wait any longer for the next one.”

He shucked off his pants and was between my legs, gently teasing me and kissing me nearly to the edge again.

He was hard and ready and when he positioned himself at my entrance, both of us sucked in a breath.

“Ready?” he asked, and I nodded, no words available to me.

Because he was so big, and it had been a long time, and I didn’t care.

As he slid deep inside of me, I realized everything was different. Not because of my body or the way life changed, but because we were different.

This was the man that I loved. The man that I wanted to be with until the end of days.

And this wasn’t just a hard fuck over a fun night. This was what I had been craving. What I’d been missing even though I hadn’t realized I’d been missing it at all.

At least not until it was almost too late.

I wrapped my legs around him as he pumped in and out of me, slowly at first and then harder. I raked my nails down his back as he plunged into me.

And when I came again, he followed me, quick and fast and both of us sweating and panting.

He rolled to the side, still deep inside of me, as we just looked at each other.

“I was not expecting to go that quick,” he said with a laugh.

I kissed his shoulder, holding him close.

“We’ll just have to keep practicing. I’m a little rusty.”

“Oh no, you’re fucking great. So great that I came way too quickly.”

“No no. I just had two orgasms. We’re not trying to set records here.”

“We’ve got a lifetime to keep setting them.”

My eyes filled with happy tears as I smiled at him.

“That sounds like a plan.”

We cleaned each other up, laughing as we dressed. And then Luca went to go let out Puddles so the puppy could play around the house, and I smiled and made my way back into the nursery.

I frowned when Keeley started to cry because it sounded different from her other cries, her hands outstretched for me.

I moved over to her, putting my hand on her forehead, and my heart froze.

“Luca, I think she has a fever.”

Luca was there in an instant as I picked up Keeley, letting the baby scream against me. She was such an easy baby, so happy all the time. She slept at night and was just so sweet.

These cries tore at me and made me want to cry right along with her.

“I got the thermometer. Let’s see.”

I walked around the room, trying to figure out what to do. I held her in my arms, but she wouldn’t stop crying. She was sweaty and looked so sad.

“101.”

“She was fine less than an hour ago. She was stuffy, but didn’t have a fever. We checked. She was fine. And then we’re over here just taking time for ourselves and our baby is crying.”

“She didn’t start crying until just now. Come on, let’s call the pediatrician and we’ll go in to see them okay?”

My heart stopped as I looked at him.

“We need to go into the hospital?”

“The baby has a fever, so we’re going to go in and get some medicine. I’m sure it’s just a bug.”

“But you don’t know that.”

“Everything is fine. I love you. I’m going to take care of you both. Let me just call my brother so he can take care of Puddles in case we are gone for a while, and then we’re going to grab our things and take Keeley to the doctor, okay?”

“Okay. You’re not panicking. So she’s okay, right?” I asked with my heart racing.

“I’m not panicking because we’ve got this. And me panicking is not going to help you. So grab her bag and get her ready to go, and I’m going to get us there okay? We’ve got this. I love you, Addison. We’ve got this.”

He kissed my forehead, and I reached out to grab his hand.

“Thank you for being steady.”

“Always. I get to panic next time though, okay? Like if I stub my toe? We can take turns.”

My lips twitched, but I nodded.

Because all along this path, even when I’d had to lie to my former boss about my relationship, or when we had first found out we were pregnant, I had been scrambling for control. But Luca had always been steady. He had gone through hell before, and found his way out of it, and I was learning that he was going to be panicking deep inside, so I would be there for him when it finally burst out.

Because yes indeed, we would be taking turns. Struggling as we figured out the next step.

It only took a few minutes, and the pediatrician did want us to head to the hospital with that kind of fever, so I sat in the passenger seat, looking in the mirror we set up so I could see our baby’s rear-facing car seat.

Her red face was all scrunched up as she cried, and my heart broke.

“I should have sat in the back with her. Why am I up here?”

“I can pull over if you want to go back there, but we’re only ten minutes away, okay?”

“Okay. This is fine. You’re okay baby,” I whispered, knowing that she could see my eyes between the two mirrors.

I had no idea how my parents or their parents had ever dealt with babies in cars and in life without so many mirrors and apps.

I just wanted my baby to be okay, and I didn’t like not knowing what was wrong. It was just a cold, probably, but what if it was something worse?

“I texted Devney, and she’s making sure that Hayleigh’s okay. They had a play date a couple of days ago.”

A play date with two-month-olds didn’t actually mean a play date, but we wanted them to be best friends and would see each other often.

But now I was so afraid that I’d gotten their baby sick.

“And?” Luca asked as he took a turn.

“And Hayleigh seems to be fine, but they’re going to keep an eye out. And they want updates. The group chat’s going insane.”

Between Greer, Ford, Noah, my parents, Paisley, Heath, Devney, and August, there were more than enough people in the chat. The fact that we had separate chats for nearly everybody in random groups just meant that my phone was blowing up, but I ignored it for now.

I didn’t have any updates for them.

“Okay, we’re almost there.”

Luca stopped at a stop sign, and when it was time to go he moved forward, when suddenly a horn blasted out of nowhere.

I turned to the left as Luca cursed, slamming the brakes, but it was too late.

The sound of metal screeching echoed in my ear, and I shouted for Luca, for Keeley.

All I knew was that someone had just hit us, running a stop sign, and my baby was crying.

“Is everyone okay?” Luca asked, as he turned around, his eyes wide.

We hadn’t even been going fast enough for the airbags to deploy, but I scrambled out of the car, Luca following me.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” the teenage boy shouted as he started to get out of his car, but I ignored him, running around the car and opening up the door to get to Keeley.

“Baby it’s okay, baby it’s okay.”

She was still crying even though she didn’t look to be hurt, but for all I knew she had been jostled and now she was hurting even more and I didn’t know what to do.

I reached out and cupped her face, trying not to let my own tears fall.

“Mom is here. Mom is here.”

“I am a nurse. Is there anything I can do?” one of the passersby said as they got out of their car, and I turned to her.

“We were on the way to the hospital because my two-month-old baby has a fever and won’t stop crying, and now this.”

I pointed at the teenage boy, anger in my tone.

He flinched, but I didn’t care.

I would feel bad for him later, because it looked to be just an accident, but my baby could be hurt.

“You’re going to want to stand back,” Luca growled at the kid. “I’m sure you didn’t mean it, but I’m not in the fucking mood right now.”

I’d never loved that man more.

“Okay, let’s see what I can do.”

“I already called 911, just in case,” another woman said, phone to her ear. “How old is the baby?”

“Two months,” I repeated.

Everything moved quickly after that, as people from all over the neighborhood seemed to come over to make sure we were okay.

It was a small fender bender, neither car damaged too much.

The nurse was checking out Keeley, and then the ambulance arrived and took over for her.

I slid my hand into Luca’s and he pulled me close to his side.

“We’re okay. We’re okay.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded, knowing that we had to be.

It was just a little car accident, something that happened every day.

Usually, it wouldn’t even matter, but my family was in that car.

I could have lost everyone today, and I could barely catch my breath.

By the time we got to the hospital I was panicking again, hating myself for it. I could handle almost any high-powered situation at work, and most things in my personal life. But hearing my baby cry? Seeing the fear and anger in Luca’s gaze?

I couldn’t handle it.

“Are you okay?” Luca asked softly as he looked at me in the hospital room, waiting for the doctor to tell us anything. We didn’t have any news about what illness our child had, but we did have an update about the accident. Since we hadn’t been going fast, everybody was just fine. But that still didn’t make it any easier, it was almost too much to deal with.

“I’m okay. Not even sore in the least.”

“I’m just so pissed off at myself for not seeing that car.”

I frowned at him. “It wasn’t your fault. You are not the one who hit us. You stopped and looked both ways and that kid hit you.”

“I’m just happy we were both going slow enough that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I would never forgive myself if you guys were hurt because of me. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you or Keeley.”

I cursed under my breath because I had been so selfish in my panic over losing him and Keeley that I hadn’t thought about what he might be feeling.

I softly touched his face and kissed his chin. “You did everything right. I promise. We’re okay.”

“I thought I was supposed to be reassuring you.”

“How about we reassure each other.”

“We can do that. I love you, you know. I am so fucking happy we have each other. I’m not normally an emotional guy, even though sometimes I feel like it with you.”

“Oh?” I said with a laugh.

“Yes. Oh. I just get so happy sometimes, so happy that we have what we have, even though we didn’t quite ask for it. And I just don’t want to lose that.”

I pressed my lips together, nodding. “Same here.”

“You’re never getting rid of me, Addison. You’re stuck with me.”

“I don’t mind. Not at all.”

I kissed his chin again, while Keeley slept on the little nursery bed beside us.

When the doctor came in to give us an update, I sagged in relief.

“She doesn’t seem shaken up or hurt at all from the accident, and we’re going to give her some medicine for her cold to try to get the fever down. We want to keep her overnight, just in case. But that’s being overly precautious, and you guys are already here, so let’s make sure that we’re all on the same page, and she’ll be right as rain soon. You have a lovely family,” he added at the end, and I wrapped my arm around my best friend’s waist and smiled.

We did have a lovely family.

It wasn’t what we thought we’d have, it wasn’t what we’d planned, but it was exactly what we needed.

I had fallen in love with my best friend, and I had somehow manifested him into being my boyfriend, my fiancé, and the father of my child. And not in that order. I knew that, no matter what, I would forever be grateful, I would forever know that this was what I had chosen, subconsciously or not.

This was my family. My future, my everything.

And I couldn’t wait to make more memories with my best friend.