Chapter 49
“I am not going out there looking like this!”
I make a face at myself in the bathroom mirror. Maternity swimwear is so not a good look on me. My belly is huge. You would think that I was carrying twins or something. Which I’m most definitely not. I groan out a whine.
Hailey and Meredith stick their heads through the open bathroom doorway, and Meredith gives me a wolf whistle.
“You will be the hottest pregnant lady out on the beach,” Hailey tells me, barely able to hold in her laughter at the ugly black monstrosity covering my body.
“Forget this. I’m changing into the two-piece.” I shut the door on them and yank the bathing suit off me—which is really hard to do because I can’t bend over or touch my toes anymore.
“Help!” I call out, and Hailey immediately hurries in, giggling at my predicament. She was probably waiting right outside the door, knowing exactly what would happen. I’m just a riot of laughs for everyone today.
“I can’t get this tied,” I complain.
Hales helps me secure the tie in back and straighten the other straps that crisscross over my shoulders.
“The guys are already out there,” she tells me.
The baby gives me a few solid kicks and I rub my hand over the area, wincing.
“Oh, oh. I want to feel!” Meredith rushes in and nudges my hand away and grabs my round belly.
She is like a Basset hound with the way she always knows the baby is being active.
Maybe she can actually hear him or her kick.
I decided not to know the sex of the baby.
I wanted to be surprised. Jayson, Julien, and Fallon, however, do know.
I catch them hush talking all the time and it drives me crazy, because then I want to know, too. But I have stayed strong.
The three of us stand there for a few minutes and watch as it looks like an alien is trying to punch itself out of my abdomen. I will never be able to watch that movie ever again.
“That is still so freaky to see,” Meredith says in wonder.
My due date is quickly approaching. I can’t believe how quickly the months have flown by. So much has happened since Ryder had his transplant in February.
He's back home now, but for obvious reasons, couldn’t join us for our summer beach vacation this year. The only thing we all care about is that he’s getting better and has been in remission. But I miss him and wish he was here with us. We’ll video with him later tonight though.
After coming in second place numerous times at the state championships, Fallen Brook finally won the trophy for the first time in ten years.
I tell everyone it was all thanks to the two goals Julien scored.
Jayson broke another state record for freestyle in swimming and was offered the coveted CU scholarship he had always dreamed about.
And I had two proms this year—Highland and Fallen Brook—and two prom dates for each one: Jayson and Fallon.
Julien and Elijah went as a couple to each, but we all rode and left together.
Graduation was bittersweet. Since I transferred to Highland High after the start of the mid-year, I couldn’t be Valedictorian like I would have been at Fallen Brook.
It was okay. I was sad most of the day anyway, missing Mom and Dad and wishing they were there.
I still haven’t made a decision about college.
I know what everyone else wants me to do, I just need to decide what I want to do.
However, my first priority is this baby.
Classes at CU start up right after Labor Day, so the twins, Meredith, and Trevor will be moving into the dorms at the end of the month.
All freshmen are required to live in the dorms their first year, unless you apply for an exemption.
Elijah is flying out to California to Stanford next week.
Fallon was able to procure a permit so we can have a bonfire on the beach for the party we’re going to throw for Elijah on Friday before he leaves to go back home and pack.
Fallon is sticking around Highland, saying he wants to continue interning with his father and gain more experience.
But I know better. I know he’s staying to be near me.
Jayson comes bursting into the bedroom, scaring the crap out of us. “Okay, slowpokes. The water is calling, and the waves are good. Let’s go, ladies!” He snaps his fingers, and we glare at him.
“We’re not dogs, Jayson,” Hailey chastises him, and he grins.
I’m a lot slower with eight pounds of baby weighing me down. As the girls go on ahead, Jayson helps me wobble-walk the endless number of stairs that lead from the beach house to the beach access.
“I put the humpback whales to shame,” I complain when I have to stop halfway and catch my breath. I grab my side when I think the baby kicks me again because, ouch!
“You are more beautiful as every day passes,” he replies, and I give him an inelegant snort that clearly says, yeah right, but I appreciate it all the same.
Jayson, Fallon, and Julien have been absolutely wonderful.
Fallon and Jayson attend every single birthing class with me, and sometimes switch with Julien so he can come.
I don’t think I could have handled this pregnancy as well as I have without them.
All I know is, this baby is definitely going to be loved. And spoiled. So very, very spoiled.
Once Ryder came home from the hospital, he was more open about the baby.
I guess, maybe, since he had come through the surgery with flying colors, he could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
And now he’s as excited about the new addition to our crew as everyone else is.
Since being forced to stay at home so he doesn’t expose himself to too many germs, he’s been assembling all the baby furniture.
He and Randy even built a baby crib by hand.
It’s beautiful. Ryder painted it a pale-yellow color, saying it was a neutral color, but also that the color reminded him of my blonde hair.
He also said it was a lot like putting an engine together, with the exception of all the sanding of the wood that had to be done
“Last step, princess,” Jayson relays since my view of the ground is obscured by my enormously protruding abdomen.
Loud clapping and cheering erupts as I step onto the white sand of the beach.
I give everyone the middle finger which only makes them howl with laughter.
I take a deep breath and inhale the saltiness of the air.
I love coming to the southside of Topsail Island.
The beaches are flat and pristine. Absolutely perfect.
There are tidal pools scattered up and down the shoreline that I am eager to dip my toes into. It’s just gorgeous everywhere you look.
Fallon gave me another bucket list item.
Before we arrived, he took us on his family’s yacht for a four-day cruise along the Intercoastal Waterway.
We docked in Wilmington this morning and had a car service drive us to Topsail, which is a short thirty-minute trip northeast. We’re going to spend the next seven days here.
Fun. The sun. And the beach for days and days.
It’s our last hurrah before college starts and, of course, before I go into labor.
I stop for a second and dig my toes under the hot sand. I can’t wait to bring baby gummy, who I now call Pumpkin, to the beach. That’s what he or she feels like now. A giant, hundred-pound pumpkin
Shielding my eyes, I spy that the guys have put up a canopy and a few umbrellas just outside the high tide line.
I laugh when I see the inflatable flamingo chair waiting for me under the shade.
A large cooler and a bucket of sand toys sit off to the side.
There are also a frisbee, a football, a volleyball, a paddle ball set, and boogie boards.
They’ve thought of everything for us to spend the entire day out here.
Elijah yelling Julien’s name has me looking out into the surf just in time to see Julien jump on E’s back and dunk him.
Trevor is with Hailey walking along the beach and collecting seashells.
They’ve gotten close and have become good friends over the year since she returned.
He’s good for her. Trevor is kind and protective and exactly the role model she needs to see that not all guys are abusive assholes.
Fallon pops out of the water like a Baywatch montage of yummy bare-chested man. Jayson takes that moment to pull off his shirt and toss it under one of the umbrellas, and my hormone-overloaded brain fritz’s out. It is so not fair that they look that good while I look like a blonde blueberry.
“Finally!” Fallon says, sauntering over and dripping seawater everywhere. My tummy does a flip and a cartwheel, and another ouch.
Not ready to sit down yet because my back is killing me, I ask them, “Walk with me?”
Two, strong male hands each grip mine, lacing our fingers together.
“Happy?” Fallon asks me
Humming, I nod. “Very.”
As we slowly stroll along the beach, Fallon and Jayson banter back and forth. For two guys who used to hate each other, they have become good friends. Like I said to Jayson before, it was a bromance just waiting to happen.
It truly is amazing how we’ve come full circle from where we began. And those choices I’ve always worried about? I think it’s time I make one. The best one. The one that will make me happy.
Just then I’m distracted by a pod of dolphins riding the short breakers. One jumps up into the air, and I gasp.
“I know. Incredible, aren’t they?” Jayson comments.
This time my gasp is very loud. Fallon and Jayson both look down at me, but I’m looking down at my feet. At the trickle of liquid pouring down my legs and soaking into the wet sand, tinging it a light pink
“I think my water just broke,” I shakily whisper.
“Oh shit,” they both say the same time.
Okay, Readers. You get to choose who Elizabeth gets her HEA with. I’ve written three alternate endings: Elizabeth and Ryder, Elizabeth and Fallon, and Elizabeth and Jayson. So, keep reading and choose your very own happy ending.
In the back matter, I’ve also included the first chapter of The Boyfriend List: A Sweet YA Romance, which releases on November 1, 2022. You’re going to laugh out loud and fall in love with Maegan Murphy, her best friend Noah Ramsey, his older brother Grayson Ramsey, and Christian Alexander.
I hope you enjoy the alternate endings and the sneak peek of The Boyfriend List!