Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Six Months Later
Simon
I woke to the sound of the ocean. Not an alarm.
Not to traffic fifty-some floors below us.
Not to my phone vibrating on the nightstand with calls that couldn’t wait until a reasonable hour.
Just the soothing sound of the ocean. I opened my eyes and stared through the open doors of our villa as I lay in bed, and the warm, salty morning air drifted into the room. I could get used to this.
I looked down at Bella. She was sprawled across me, one leg tangled with mine, with her left hand resting on my chest. My wife. We’d been married for three days, and those two words still got me every time I thought about it. Bella Castle, now Bella Montclair was my wife.
She stirred when I ran my finger lightly across her collarbone. A smile crossed her lips as she opened her eyes.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” I grinned.
“Good morning. What time is it?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. We don’t need to worry about time. That’s the entire point of a honeymoon.”
“So, what are we doing today?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Wait a second. You’re telling me that Simon Montclair doesn’t have a plan in place for today?” she smirked.
“Nope. No plans. We’re winging it, baby.” I smiled.
“I like the ‘winging it’ Simon.” She grinned.
Suddenly, she cupped her hand over her mouth.
“What’s wrong?” My brows furrowed.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” She jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom.
I followed her and held back her hair as she hovered over the toilet and vomited.
“Shit, Bella.”
“This can’t be happening!” she said in between puking.
After a few minutes, when she was done, I handed her some tissues. I placed my hand on her forehead.
“You don’t have a fever,” I said. “That’s good, at least. I’m sure it’s probably something you ate.”
“We ate the same thing last night,” she said. “You didn’t get sick.”
“Maybe something just didn’t agree with your body. Get back in bed, and I’ll make you some tea.”
“I feel better now.”
“Are you sure?” My brows furrowed.
“Yeah. Whatever that was, it just had to come out. Let’s make some coffee and take it to the beach.”
“Your wish is my command.” I kissed her lips. “You might want to brush your teeth,” I smirked.
“Good idea.”
Later that afternoon, we went for a swim in the ocean, went back to our lounge chairs, and ordered cocktails. A thought occurred to me as I sat there staring at her. A thought that I’d never thought about in my entire life.
The server walked over and handed us our drinks. I immediately grabbed Bella’s from her hand and set it down.
“What are you doing?” She looked at me through her sunglasses.
“I had a thought.”
“A thought that involved taking my drink away from me?”
“Yes. What if you’re pregnant, Bella?”
She burst out into laughter. “I’m not pregnant, Simon.”
“It’s possible, though,” I said.
“We’ve been very careful,” she said.
“Do you recall that one night about a month and a half ago after Daisy’s party? We were really drunk, and you forgot to take your pill.”
“That was one time, Simon. I doubled up the next day.”
“Correction. You doubled up at midnight because you forgot you’d forgotten to take it. You need to take a test to be sure. Until then, no more alcohol.”
She lowered her sunglasses and stared at me. “We’re in St. Lucia, on our honeymoon. You want me to take a pregnancy test when I’m 100% positive I’m not pregnant?”
“When was your last period? Cause, honestly, I don’t recall you getting it last month.”
“Yes, I did. I specifically remember because it was the day of my dress—oh shit.” She took off her sunglasses.
“Exactly. With the wedding, work, and everything else going on, I’m sure you didn’t even think about it.”
Bella
How could I have been so stupid not to realize that my period was late? The last month had been chaos, trying to finish up my work before the wedding and make sure everything was set. There was no way I was pregnant. I was sure I was late because of all the stress.
“Come on.” He extended his hand.
“Where?”
“To the gift shop. I’m sure they have pregnancy tests in there.”
“Then they’ll know,” I said.
“Who cares.” He chuckled.
I put my cover-up over my bathing suit and took Simon’s hand as we walked the long path from the beach to the gift shop.
“Over here,” Simon said.
I walked over to where he stood and saw two boxes of pregnancy tests sitting on the shelf.
“It says early detection,” Simon said, grabbing one.
He took it over to the cashier. She scanned the box and looked at me.
“For you?” She smiled.
“Yeah.”
“Congratulations.”
Why was she congratulating me? She didn’t know if I was pregnant or not.
We walked out of the shop and headed back.
The second we walked into our villa, Simon handed me the box.
I took it from him, and suddenly it felt like it held the answer to what the rest of our lives might look like.
We’d never talked about kids. My plan was to at least be married for a couple of years before I brought it up.
I headed toward the bathroom, and Simon followed. I stopped and looked over my shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m coming with you,” he said.
“You’re coming into the bathroom while I take it?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t need to watch me pee on a stick, Simon.” I laughed.
“I need to make sure you do it right.”
“Do it right? I stick it under my stream of pee. How hard can it be?”
“Bella.”
“Simon.” I stared at him.
“I’m your husband.”
I smiled, set the box on the bathroom counter, and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I love when you say that.”
“So do I. Now get peeing.”
I removed the test from the box, tore off the wrapper, sat on the toilet, and stuck it under the stream of pee that desperately wanted to escape.
Thank God I had to go and didn’t have to wait to take the test later, because Simon would have driven me nuts.
I set the test stick on top of the box while Simon set the alarm on his phone.
“Three minutes.” He smiled.
Three minutes was all it would take to change the course of our lives forever.
“What if it’s positive?” I looked at Simon.
“Then it’s positive,” he said.
“That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?” I washed my hands in the sink.
“Yes. Because you’re trying to make me predict how we’re going to feel about something that hasn’t happened yet.”
“I need you to be more helpful,” I said.
He wrapped his arms around me. “I can tell you what I do know.”
“What?” I stared into his eyes.
“That no matter the outcome, I’ll love you even more.”
“But will you be happy if I am?”
“Bella, listen to me. I love you. I married you because I want to share my life with you. If there’s already a baby becoming part of that life, then yeah, sweetheart, I’ll be fucking happy.”
My nerves calmed a tiny bit after he’d said that. His alarm went off, and we both froze.
“You ready?” He smiled.
“No. You look. I can’t.”
He reached over, picked up the stick, looked at it, and then looked back at me. For once, I couldn’t read his expression.
“Congratulations, mama.” He grinned.
My heart raced out of my chest. “Give me that.” I grabbed the stick and saw two pink lines staring back at me.
“We’re having a baby?” My eyes widened.
“We’re having a baby.” He smiled and pulled me into him.