Mercy
Present-Day—Six Months Later
M ercy smoothed her dress over her expanding waistline. She had hidden her pregnancy from everyone including her two closest friends, Emily and Regan. knew that she wasn’t going to be able to hide the fact that she was growing a human being inside of her for too much longer. Every time she felt the baby flutter inside her tummy it was like a constant reminder that she was carrying a ticking bomb inside of her womb and in about three months, time was going to be up.
She was afraid to tell work about the pregnancy considering that she needed to keep her job. Since they let Emily go, word had gotten around the hospital that the real reason they fired her wasn’t that they were overstaffed but because some of the board members were stuffy, old know-it-alls who couldn’t mind their own business. Emily and the guys knew that their unconventional relationship was the real reason behind the hospital letting her go but they decided not to pursue the issue. Emily’s grandfather had left her enough money that she didn’t have to work if she didn’t want to. wasn’t that fortunate.
When her parents passed away a few years back was left to fend for herself. Her grandmother took her in and tried to help her, but learned to take care of herself not wanting to be a burden to her gram. She put herself through nursing school and worked two full-time jobs to pay for it. When she graduated, the hospital wasn’t hiring nurses, and she was forced to move back in with her grandmother. Gram was thrilled to have her around and enjoyed spending time with her and being there to help take care of everything, giving her peace of mind. Gram was still spry for a seventy-year-old. She loved going to the senior center and especially loved her bingo night. didn’t have the heart to move her gram into a nursing home and really, there wasn’t a need for it. Even after she was hired on at the local hospital, agreed to continue living with Gram. It was the best for her grandmother and if she was being honest, she loved the way her gram doted on her.
leaned against the barn wall watching Emily, Travis, and Jackson dancing in the middle of the barn, so completely in love that the site of them nearly took her breath away. For a moment she wished that she could find the person that would look at her the way that both Emily’s new husbands looked at her. cupped her belly and tried like hell to hold back her tears. There was no way that she was going to be caught bawling at Em’s wedding, but she was a complete sap with the pregnancy hormones.
Her friends and Gram had hinted at knowing about her pregnancy and knew that they were smart enough to figure out that she wasn’t just overeating. All the extra trips to the bathroom and the morning sickness were enough to give it away. She even traveled to a doctor two towns over trying to stay off Emily’s radar. But felt that if she admitted out loud that she was pregnant, it would become all too real. She wasn’t ready for that yet. The longer she could pretend that she wasn’t pregnant, the more time she had to figure her shit out.
The first thing she needed to get her head around was figuring out who the father was. internally beat herself up daily for being so stupid. She got caught up in Emily’s happiness and found herself between two very sexy men of her own for one crazy night. Emily and the guys took her to Manholes a little over six months ago and the rest was history—or the future if she counted the fact that her baby hadn’t been born yet. She lost all her senses when the bar owner, Cash, and the lead singer in the band, Callan, offered to share her for the night. They admitted that they had never shared a woman before and had to admit that being in a threesome appealed to her, especially being friends with Regan and Em. Memories of that night swept through her mind, the way that both men used her body and gave her so much pleasure in return, had her clenching her thighs together trying to stave off the desire that felt like a punch to her gut.
But when the night was over, so was the fantasy. Cash explained that he didn’t like to share his women and that if she was going to be his, he wouldn’t want her with another Dom. Cash and Callan were both Doms and the two wanted nothing to do with sharing a woman long term. knew the score before she jumped into bed with them but now, she was the one paying the price.
She didn’t see either of them again, steering clear of Manholes and coming up with some lame excuse every time Regan or Em would ask her to go out with them and the guys. Besides, the fact that she couldn’t drink she didn’t want to stand the chance of running into Cash or Callan at the bar. She wasn’t sure if she was going to tell them about the baby, it would be easier to just do the single mom thing rather than deal with two sexy, dominant, bossy men. She had enough on her plate while having to raise a baby on her own. Still, it felt wrong not telling the father so, she was going to wait until the baby was born and request a paternity test be done. That way, she would only have to deal with one bossy man, not two. There was no use dragging both men through her pregnancy. In the end, only one of them could be the father.
Seeing Cash at the wedding today threw a wrench into her plans of avoidance. Every time she turned around she was practically thrown together with him. She had to walk down the aisle with him since he was Jackson’s best man. When Cash touched her, she felt those same damn sparks that brought her body to life all those months ago. She hated that she still reacted to him that way. Her traitorous body almost gave her away a few times, wanting to press herself up against him but she was hoping that she would be able to walk away from Emily’s wedding with her secret intact. When they had to share the first dance, she made up some excuse about hurting her ankle and having to stay off it. Cash didn’t seem to buy her lie but he also didn’t push. Now, it was the last dance, and they were about to wave the happy threesome off on their honeymoon. Then, she could escape back to her grandmother’s house and eat the four pieces of wedding cake that she shoved into her little purse.
Cash watched her from the other side of the dance floor and from the determined look on his handsome face, she was sure that she wasn’t going to be able to escape as easily as she had hoped. His intense green eyes felt as if they were boring into her, realizing her deepest secrets and she couldn’t have that. She tried to cover her belly with her arms but doing so only made her seem more awkward. Cash had his long brown hair pulled back for the wedding, making his features look harder. wanted to run and hide but she wasn’t a coward.
Cash sighed and pushed off from the wall that he was leaning against, making his way across the barn to where she stood. Her heartbeat faster with each step that he took until she was sure that it was going to explode right out of her chest. He stopped directly in front of her and reached down to cup his hands over her belly.
“When were you going to tell us, ?” His question had her whole world spinning off-kilter. She wasn’t sure if any coherent words came out of her mouth. Her knees gave out and she knew that she was about to hit the hardwood floor. Before she knew what was happening, Cash had her in his arms and was making his way across the dance floor and out of the barn.
“I’ve got you, little one,” were the last words that she heard before her world went black.