Chapter 28
. . .
Silas
Kane
Let me know when you’re next around. We need to talk.
Kane’s text arrives just as Vesper and I step into the room where we’ll meet our baby for the first time.
I haven’t heard from him in weeks, although that’s not altogether surprising. He only ever contacts me when he needs something, and my best guess is, he’s after cash this time too.
Shoving that asshole to the back of my mind, I take a seat next to Vesper as she climbs onto the sonographer’s bed and adjusts her clothing, getting ready for the scan.
“Today would make you exactly eight weeks based on the date of your last period, right?” the sonographer asks.
Because I’m way too fucking excited, I chip in before my girl gets a chance to answer, “That’s correct, a whole eight weeks today.”
Vesper turns to look at me while the sonographer begins prepping the ultrasound probe with jelly. “I think you keep better track of my gestational period than I do.”
Taking her right hand, I delight in the way her palm fits so effortlessly into mine. “I downloaded an app. Each morning, it sends me an update. It also tells me how big our baby is.”
Her eyes soften, pupils dilating. “Could you be any more perfect?”
I won’t lie; Vesper’s last sentence is food for a man’s ego.
“Little one is around the size of a raspberry right now.”
She looks down at our joined hands. “Can I be really honest with you?”
Like that even needs to be a question. “Always.”
Her eyes flick to the screen, where our baby will appear for the first time.
“I’m scared, Si. Up until this moment, I’ve been apprehensive about being a mom and excited about starting a family.
But right now … I’m scared. What if the baby isn’t okay?
What if we’ve come this far and there isn’t a heartbeat? ”
Briefly glancing at the sonographer, who looks to be in her mid-fifties and very experienced at her job, I squeeze Vesper’s hand tighter.
“And what if I said that it would all be okay? No matter what happens in life, today, tomorrow, next week, even years from now, Ves, it will all be okay.”
She presses her lips together when the sonographer applies the probe to her stomach. I know that jelly shit is cold—the article I read last night mentioned it would be.
“Is that because you won’t let anything go wrong?”
I lean down so my lips coast the shell of her ear. “Well, that part is definitely true. But in the end, good things happen to good people. And you’re the best person I know.”
She doesn’t respond, our eyes doing all the talking. I can see the way my words have relaxed her shoulders and smoothed out the lines in her forehead.
“And there we have our heartbeat.” The sonographer’s voice cuts through our moment with the best fucking news I’ve ever heard.
She pauses the screen on the smallest dot, and a tiny heartbeat fills the room.
I push a hand through my hair, trying my best to hold it together. “Is, uh … is that our baby?”
The sonographer just smiles at me. “Yes, Dad, that’s your baby. Also, based on the images I’m seeing today, I would estimate you to be around a week earlier along than your OB-GYN initially confirmed. Your new due date is August 4.”
Overwhelmed, I rise to my feet and hover my lips over Vesper’s, totally ignoring the fact that we have company. “You hear that, Knockout? Everything is going to be okay.”
A bubble of laughter bursts from her throat, and I seal my mouth over hers, swallowing down her happiness.
“Fuck, this is all I’ve ever wanted, right here in this room,” I declare between kisses. “And I want to scream about it to the whole world.”
“Are we taking a different route back to your place?” Vesper asks from the passenger seat in my truck as I take a left away from town.
“We aren’t going back home just yet,” I reply, glancing down at the baby scans in my lap.
With a confirmed due date of August 4, it feels borderline torturous, waiting so fucking long to meet them, and these images will live in my wallet to help me get through it.
“Give me a small clue about where we’re going,” Vesper pleads as I continue driving and take the ramp onto a freeway.
I smile over at her as the winter sun shines through the windshield. She’s wearing the cutest red-framed sunglasses and a sweater dress with black ankle boots.
“Okay …” I tease, switching lanes before I loop my hand through hers and rest them in her lap. “Your current outfit won’t be suitable for where we’re going.”
She pulls off her glasses and glares at me. “You do realize that what you just said is every woman’s worst nightmare?”
I burst out laughing, remembering the way my mom would always stress over what she was wearing. Whether she was too overdressed or wouldn’t be warm enough.
“I do, yeah, and that’s why I have everything you will need in the back seat.”
Turning over her shoulder, she narrows her eyes in question, and I can’t help it when I slide my hand from hers and rest it over her stomach.
Vesper’s eyes fall to where I’m holding her.
My thumb moves in small circles over her dress. “I think I’m starting to feel a little bump.”
“Or maybe I just ate too much for lunch. I’m way too early to be showing, and the sonographer just set our due date back a week,” she counters.
I shake my head, convinced she’s talking bullshit. “Nah, our baby is already popping up to say hi.”
Taking a right, we travel down a gravel track for half a mile before I pull into a parking lot outside a large white building and kill the engine.
Vesper stares out of her window and then at me. “A spa? You brought me to a spa?”
I wink, unclipping my belt and climbing out of the truck.
She does the same, gasping when I open the back passenger door and she sees the Chanel bag sitting inside.
“And you also bought me a designer swimsuit, didn’t you?”
I scrub a hand over my mouth, delighted with myself for planning this whole thing to perfection.
While I was bored and scrolling social media from my hotel room in Vegas, I saw a mom-to-be spa afternoon advertised at this place and immediately called the hotel, hiring exclusive access to the entire spa for the next three hours.
“Why don’t you take a look for yourself?”
Rising onto her tiptoes, she peeks inside the ivory-and-black Chanel bag. “Holy shit, you did, didn’t you?”
Before she can insist that I return the gift, I take her hand and guide us to the back of my truck, lifting her onto the tailgate and stepping between her legs. With the leisure facilities being hired out by yours truly, there aren’t many cars around, and we’re definitely alone.
Just how I like it.
“Before I take you inside and spoil the shit out of you for the next few hours, I need you to tell me something,” I say, pushing a piece of loose hair behind her ear.
I love it when Vesper wears her hair in a messy bun, especially when it falls around her face like this. It’s cute as fuck.
She loops her hands around the back of my neck, our noses almost touching. “Shoot.”
Swallowing down my nerves, I know there will never be a better time to ask this question. Before I left for Vegas, she confessed that she was falling, and now I need to know where I stand.
“Are you mine, Ves? If someone asks me if I have a girl, can I tell them yes, or do I have to wait a while longer?”
The December air circulates in the trees, the sound of birds chirping from the branches. The setting for my question couldn’t be better.
She toys with the hairs at the back of my neck, and it feels like they’re all standing on end when a grin overtakes her face and her eyes sparkle with joy.
“You want me to be your girlfriend?”
Crouching down, I know we’re taking a risk of being seen when I peel up her dress and trail open-mouthed kisses up the inside of her thigh.
She sucks a breath through her teeth, hands diving into my hair.
“Be my girlfriend,” I whisper against her pebbled flesh, gliding my tongue toward her apex. “Have my baby, be my girlfriend, and let me love you both forever.”
“Silas,” Vesper moans, pulling on my hair.
Planting my hands on either side of her on the tailgate, I stand back up and kiss across her jawline.
She tips her head back and groans toward the blue sky.
“Be my girlfriend,” I repeat, although it sounds like more of a plea now.
“I’m yours …”
My mouth stills, and my whole body freezes.
“Can you repeat that for me, Vesper? Because I fucking loved the way it sounded, falling from your lips.”
She giggles and takes my face in her hands, resting her forehead against mine. “I said that I’m yours. You desperate, needy man. To hell with trying to be friends and taking things slowly.”
“You fucking adore me when I’m needy,” I volley back, dropping my nose into the side of her neck, inhaling her scent like a wild animal. “You make me want to do crazy things.”
She whimpers, “Like fuck me on the back of your truck, in broad daylight?”
I growl into her neck, “Don’t tempt me, woman. I’ll have your panties pushed to the side and my cock inside you within seconds.”
Desire echoes in her chest.
“Maybe we could spend all day tomorrow in bed? I have the whole day off work,” she suggests.
I release a long sigh when I remember the text message from Kane.
“I think Kane might be stopping by tomorrow. He wants to talk, and we both know he won’t take no for an answer. I don’t want you anywhere near him when he comes over.”
Vesper stiffens in my hands, brows pulled together. “Did he say what he wanted?”
I shake my head. “No, but I’ll hazard a good guess and say money.”
When my girlfriend’s eyes drop to the ground, I tip her chin up with my finger.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask softly.
Perhaps it’s a sin to think this, but I fucking hate my brother at times. Although I hate the discomfort in Vesper’s expression even more.
“I know I should’ve said something sooner, but I didn’t want you to worry. I planned to handle it myself if he showed up again, but I haven’t seen him since.”
A chilling breeze whips around my truck, and I grab a jacket from the truck bed, wrapping it around Vesper’s shoulders.
I try to remain calm. “Handle what, Ves?”
She chews on her bottom lip, eyes casting out to the side. “Kane. He knows I’m pregnant, and he thinks the baby is his.”
My mood turns from fucking awesome to sour as hell.
“How did he find out?” I sound incredulous, and I don’t mean to.
Vesper starts twisting her hands together, and I hold them in mine to stop her fidgeting.
My girl doesn’t need to be anxious or afraid.
“Just tell me what happened, and I’ll sort it out.”
She clicks her tongue, thinking. “Even with the greatest will in the world, Si, I think there are some issues or people you will never be able to eradicate.”
“That’s not true; every problem is solvable,” I point out, pressing my mouth against hers. “What happened?”
Her single laugh is dark and not at all humorous.
“While you were in Vegas, he showed up at Riley’s.
At first, it was during my shift, and he left and then came back when I was closing up for the night.
He found a leaflet from the OB-GYN in my bag and started asking me questions.
When I didn’t answer him, he made an assumption that the baby was his and demanded that I get an abortion. ”
“Fuck!” I yell into the parking lot, anger bubbling over like a shaken-up Coke bottle.
Vesper recoils, and I pull her back into my arms.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whisper into her hair. “I lost it because who the fuck does he think he is?”
Her fingers play with the black toggles on my hoodie.
“It’s none of his business, and I have no intention of saying anything to anyone beyond my sister and our friends until after I hit twelve weeks.
” Blue eyes stare up at me. “When he discovers the baby is yours, he’s going to want blood.
It isn’t worth war breaking out if the pregnancy fails. ”
I want to tell her that even if this pregnancy doesn’t go the distance, I fully intend to make her the mother she’s always wanted to be. But I hold back my words because I know that’s not what she needs right now.
“I get it.” I speak into her hair, kissing the top of her head.
“Did he hurt you?” I ask, closing my eyes at the thought of how scared she must’ve been.
Alone in a bar with that fucker looming over her and demanding answers to questions he had no right to ask.
Going through her fucking things like the sick bastard he is.
The irony is, I’ve hardly seen my brother in the past few weeks, yet the more time I spend with my girl, the better I get to know the monster he really is.
“I need you to promise me you won’t lose it or let this conversation get out to anyone else. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve held out telling you about this until now.” Vesper’s voice is small, almost hesitant.
I squeeze my eyes shut, willing away thoughts of Kane’s hands on her. “Okay.”
“Mason showed up and stepped in.”
I pull back, not expecting that information at all. Mason hasn’t breathed a word about anything when I saw him, and we haven’t talked about Vegas, other than how much we missed him in defense since the series was a fucking disaster.
“He was in the bar earlier that night when Kane first arrived, and he hung around for a while. When Kane showed for a second time, I thought Mason would be at home, but he was still in town, wanting to make sure that I got home okay.”
I fall silent, processing my thoughts.
“Please don’t be mad at him, Silas. I know he should’ve been at home and not in a bar when he skipped out on the team, but I think the guy is going through a lot, and to be honest, things with Kane could’ve ended very differently if Mason hadn’t been there.”
How Vesper could think I’d be mad at my teammate is crazy. All I want to do is shake his hand for being there and protecting my girl.
“I’m not mad at him,” I reply, smiling warmly at Vesper. “But I do need to talk with my brother.”
She blows out a defeated breath. “If you have to talk with him, then fine, but I don’t want him to know about the baby being yours. I can’t handle any more stress right now. I need peace while we get through the next few weeks.”
“And peace is what you will get. Whatever you need,” I repeat what I’ve always told her, pulling her into my chest.
She collapses against me, and I make a silent promise that I won’t immediately punch Kane the second I lay eyes on him.
Looping my hands beneath her ass, I pick her up, and she wraps her legs around my waist.
“Let’s go have some fun in the spa I hired out for the afternoon.”
Her eyes bug out, but I can tell she fucking loves being doted on.
“You have more money than sense—you know that?”
I kiss her again because I’m apparently addicted to her taste. “Oh, Knockout. When it comes to me dropping money on my girlfriend, I’m just getting started.”