Chapter 40
Vee
Iwake slowly; the morning creeping through the curtains.
It’s been two months since I was taken and my life went to hell.
I thought I was never going to come out of it alive.
But here I am, and I’m doing okay. I’m surrounded by two men who love me.
At times they are suffocating, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Each morning there’s coffee on my doorstep along with my favorite pastry of the moment. I asked the guys if it was them and they both said no. That leaves one person, but surely it isn’t him. Luke and Josh don’t seem concerned though, so I’ve settled on not worrying about it.
I wanted to go back to work right away. Sitting around the apartment, being watched every second, makes me feel weak.
Broken. Like I am some fragile thing they have to guard so she doesn’t break.
All they could say was I needed time. What they didn’t understand, until I told them, was that I was okay.
I needed to move on and not dwell on what happened. I needed to live.
Somehow it sank in for them, and three weeks to the date of my rescue, I went back to work.
So now I’m back. Mostly. I’m not back working my full shift, but it’s a start.
Which is probably a good thing. I’ve noticed I’ve become a little dizzy at times.
But I know it’s because my body hasn’t acclimated back to working.
If I told Josh he’d have me getting a full workup which I know I don’t need.
“How’s work been?” Luke asks as he rolls over and kisses me.
“Good,” I tell him. It’s not a lie it has been, but it’s been weird too.
Hank is always there, somewhere in the room, but he won’t look at me. Won’t talk to me. Won’t come near me. He’s doing exactly what I asked and leaves me alone. Yet, I hate that he’s listening to me.
The one thing that does bring me joy is knowing that Jennalyn was fired the night I was kidnapped. She showed up at the club one night after I returned, and my heart thrummed with anger and hurt. I didn’t want to see her and Hank curled up together.
What I didn’t expect was for him to publicly tell her to fuck off.
That she was never anything to him and that no matter how much she tried, nothing was going to happen between them.
When Bash saw she was there, he banned her from the club.
He even told her that if she showed up again she’d be arrested for trespassing.
“Where’s Josh?” I ask, noticing he’s not in the bed with us.
“He hasn’t got home yet. He had to work late, but he should be on the way.” Luke kisses me again. “I’m going to grab a shower before I go to work. You have coffee and a pastry on the kitchen counter.” Luke winks, before getting up from the bed and heading to the bathroom.
I lay there for a few more minutes before the lure of coffee waiting has me sitting up in bed. I push the blanket off me and swing my legs off the side and stand as soon as my feet hit the floor.
“Ugh…” The movement is too fast, and the room tilts slightly. I drop back down onto the bed and squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for it to pass.
It doesn’t. Instead, a wave of nausea crashes over me so suddenly my stomach lurches.
Oh God. I’m going to throw up. I’m off the bed and running toward the bathroom, barely registering the sound of the shower running and not really caring either. Luke seeing me throw up may be a game-changer in our relationship.
The door flies open and I drop to my knees in front of the toilet just in time to flip the seat up before everything in my stomach comes rushing out. I dimly hear the shower shut off behind me. Water splashes on the tile as the curtain is shoved aside.
“Vee! Fuck, are you okay?” Luke asks.
I gag again, clutching the toilet as another wave of nausea hits.
I see Luke, out of the corner of my eye, pull the towel off the rack and wrap it around his waist, then he crouches down beside me. He takes my hair in his hands, holding it back out of the way.
“It’s okay, baby,” he murmurs softly as he pats me on the back with his other hand. “Get it all out.”
My stomach heaves again. God, this is misery.
He moves his hand from my back and places it on my forehead. “No fever,” he mutters quietly.
The nausea finally eases off, leaving me shaky and weak. I fall back onto my butt, the cold floor seeping through the thin fabric of my sleep shorts.
Luke is already moving, grabbing my toothbrush and quickly squeezing toothpaste onto it before handing it to me.
“Here you go,” he says gently. “Stay right there. I’m gonna get you some water.”
He closes the lid and flushes the toilet before disappearing out of the bathroom. I sit there on the cool tile, brushing my teeth slowly and think.
Sick. Okay. But other than the nausea, I don’t actually feel sick. No fever. No aches. No sore throat. Just nauseous.
My stomach drops.
Suddenly my heart starts pounding.
No... I can’t be.
But this is exactly how Ash was.
I stand up slowly and spit into the sink and slowly reach into the cabinet under it. My hand trembles as I pull it open. Inside sits the unopened box of tampons. The same box I bought two months ago. After my last period.
My stomach twists again—but this time it isn’t nausea.
“Oh, God…” I gasp.
The bathroom door opens as I glare at the box as if it personally wronged me.
Luke steps into the room holding a glass of water and his phone to his ear.
He freezes when he sees me standing frozen with the box in my hand.
“Baby?”
I look up at him, my heart racing.
“I…” My voice cracks. “I think… I think I might be pregnant.”
His eyes widen slightly. For a second he just stares at me, and I’m afraid he’s going to take off running out the door, far away from me.
Then he sets the water down and steps into me, wrapping his arms around me.
“Doc,” he says, forgetting he was on his phone when he came in. “You might wanna bring a pregnancy test with you.” That’s all he says before hanging up.
He sets the phone down and cups my face with his hands, tilting it up so he’s gazing into my eyes.
“It’s okay,” he says calmly. “We’ll figure it out.”
I shake my head slightly, panic rising. “But I’m on the pill.”
“Sometimes it happens anyway,” he says gently. “I’m sure Doc knows how it could.” He kisses my forehead. “And even if you are… it doesn’t change anything.” His voice softens. “You’re here. And if there’s a baby… that baby’s ours too.”
Something warm spreads through my chest at his words.
He leads me out to the living room, easing me down on the couch with a warm, cozy blanket and a glass of ginger ale, before rushing off to the bedroom to get dressed.
About forty minutes later the front door bursts open.
“Where is she?” Josh says frantically before his eyes land on me on the couch. He rushes across the living room and straight to me, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug.
“Hey, hey,” he murmurs into my hair. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”
I cling to him for a second before pulling back.
“How?” I ask quietly. “I’m on the pill.”
Josh rubs the back of his neck thoughtfully.
“You could’ve missed one.”
I start to shake my head because I never forget. I take them every morning, religiously.
Then I pause. I didn’t when I was taken.
“Oh,” I whisper. I missed more than one. I swallow hard. “I… I missed a few days. When…”
Neither of them says anything for a moment. They know when I’m talking about.
“Only one way to know,” Josh says as he holds out the pregnancy test to me.
My hands shake slightly as I take it.
I walk back to the bathroom, following the instructions. A minute later I return to the living room, holding the little stick. I set it carefully on the coffee table in front of us.
The time crawls by painfully slowly as we sit and stare at the box. No one talks. No one breathes.
Finally, the timer on Josh’s phone goes off. We all lean forward at the same time.
Two pink lines.
Pregnant.
My heart flips violently in my chest.
Fear rushes in first. Then something else. Something warm. Something bright. Excitement. I press my hand over my stomach, still trying to process it.
I’m going to be a mother. A tiny little human is growing in my belly. The only fear I have is if I’ll be doing this alone. A kid, this soon in our relationship is something I know none of was expecting.
Luke suddenly lets out an excited shout. “We’re gonna be dads!”
Before I can react, he wraps his arms around me and Josh, pulling us both into a tight hug.
And for the first time, I feel like maybe everything really will be okay.