13. Sterling
STERLING
Aweek later, I catch Eden staring at the sealed envelope from the doctor. She’s showing more every day, but she’s still tiny, and she looks more like she ate a big meal.
The next day, I take the envelope to a bakery and tell them to make her a gender reveal cake. After work, I stop back by and pick it up, along with a few more items, suggested from a video I saw about how to throw an intimate gender reveal.
When I walk through the door, she’s scrubbing the kitchen countertop. She’s going at it so intensely that she doesn’t even see me walk in. She finally looks up when I set the cake down on the island.
Her cheeks are flushed red.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey,” she replies before returning to the task.
The counter is already spotless. I walk up behind her, pressing a kiss to her cheek. We’ve been sharing a bed ever since what happened with Michael. We’ve had sex a few more times, but I’ve mostly spent the time holding her close while she sleeps.
“Are you okay?”
She nods, continuing the task.
This has to mean something.
I feel the urge to call my older brother, Holden. He’s married, and his wife is a redheaded spitfire who gave him hell before he finally got her to fall in love with him. I only have one sister, who I generally avoid when I can tell she’s in a mood.
I don’t want to avoid Eden. I want to figure out what’s wrong and fix it.
“I have a surprise for you.”
She looks up, and I can see in her eyes that she’s interested.
“You have to get your shoes on and come with me.”
Her eyes narrow on me before dropping to the cake. “It’s not my birthday.”
“I know.”
“Then what’s the cake for?”
“It’s a surprise.”
She purses her lips, tossing the sponge into the sink. “Okay.”
After she gets her shoes on, I grab an old quilt of my mom’s out of the closet and take her outside to the truck.
We drive down to the beach in silence. It’s a nice day, but it is a little chilly. After parking the truck, I walk around to her side and open her door before grabbing the cake, the quilt, and the reusable grocery bag out of the back seat.
“What is all this stuff?”
“We’re having a picnic.”
“Oh.” She takes the blanket from me since I can barely hold it all.
We walk down the cobblestone path to the sandy area.
The waves are crashing against the shore, and the sun is starting to crawl down toward the blue water.
We find an open area where there aren’t many people wandering about.
She spreads out the blanket while I set the cake and the bag down.
I kneel down in the sand, still wearing my camouflage pants and green T-shirt from work.
I set out the tray of deli sandwiches, fresh fruit with strawberry dip, and the two wineglasses I bought for us to scoop out the side of the cake with.
She takes a seat on the blanket, sighing heavily. She’s wearing a pair of black leggings and my black Redford Ranch hoodie.
“You want a sandwich, or should we dive right into the cake?”
She laughs, shaking her head. “Were you just craving cake?”
“This is a special cake.” I hand her a wineglass.
“Special how?” She raises a brow.
I pop the clear plastic lid off of it.
“Just wait and see. Now, close your eyes.”
She obeys. I guide the rim of her glass to the side of the cake before putting mine beside it and closing my eyes.
“All right, on the count of three, we’re going to push it down and scoop off a big piece, okay?”
“Okay.”
“One, two, three.”
We push down, pulling our cups back and flipping them over.
“You ready to look?”
“I guess?”
“Okay, open your eyes!”
We both do, seeing the blue cake in the glasses at the same time. She gasps, suddenly realizing why we’re doing this with the cake.
“Oh my gosh … it’s a boy.”
I grin at her, lifting the cake to my lips to lick some of the icing.
“You were right.” I lean forward, kissing her nose as tears flow down her cheeks. “Are you okay with this?”
She nods, laughing despite the steady flow of tears. “I’m glad. I wanted to know. I just … I’ve had a hard time facing this whole situation, but you … you being here with me and making this special and doing so much is just …”
The tears start really falling then, in buckets. She’s fully sobbing now. I set both of our glasses down, wondering if I made a huge mistake with the whole idea of the surprise gender reveal. I scoop her up onto my lap, cuddling her close.
“Shh, baby. You’re gonna be okay. You hear me? I know this is hard, but I’m right here. I’m not going to leave you to deal with this on your own.”
My stomach cramps because I know my words are only a partial truth. I have no choice but to deploy soon, in less than a month.
Eden nods against me, mumbling something I can’t understand. I let her cry it out for a few more minutes, brushing my hand over her hair soothingly.
Finally, she lifts her head up, wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of my hoodie she’s wearing.
“I just, I never imagined my first baby to go this way. I always thought it would be perfect. I thought I would get the white-picket-fence life, with my family around me to celebrate becoming a mom, to throw me a baby shower, and now … now they don’t even know about the baby.
I’m running from everything and everyone.
I’m in a fake marriage to use someone’s insurance, which just overall really sucks.
He … he deserves better. He deserves a better mom than me. ”
“Oh, baby, no. Don’t ever say that. Don’t ever let yourself believe a lie like that.
You’re already an incredible mom. Look at what you’ve been through.
Look at what you’ve done to protect him, to provide for him, to keep him safe.
You’re one of the strongest women I know.
He doesn’t even know how lucky he is to have you as a mom. ”
She searches my face with her big green eyes. The golden glow of the sun bathes her skin in an angelic light, making her look ethereal. I have to focus on my inhale so I don’t forget to breathe.
“You’re stunning—you know that?” I whisper. “Normally, I would’ve asked your dad for your hand, just so you know. I was raised right.”
She smiles, looking out toward the ocean. “You could ask my older brother, Adam. I’ve decided I want to reach out to him and Dan. I’m ready to face them and tell them what happened. I know they’re probably worried about me, and I’ve been … I was selfish to run off and not tell anyone where I was.”
I release an exhale, slowly nodding. “Okay, well, in that case, I have something to tell you.”
Her eyes widen. She gets off my lap, sitting across from me. She’s still holding my hand, squeezing tightly.
“What?”
“A couple of days ago, I saw a post about you being missing. And I reached out to the person who’d posted it.”
She claps a hand over her mouth.
“I’d been monitoring the situation with the loser who had come up here and kidnapped you, to see if anyone realized he was gone. I was periodically checking the local news groups from your hometown, and that was when I saw someone posted about you being missing. It was a woman named Harley Wesson.”
Eden’s lower lip is trembling. “That’s my sister-in-law.”
I nod. “I reached out to her, and I spoke to your brother as well.”
She looks over toward the sunset, where the orange and pink are bleeding through the sky. “Are they angry with me?”
“No, baby, not at all. They were worried sick about you. It took some convincing because they thought for a minute that I might have kidnapped you, but I was able to reassure them that you were safe and sound and scared to come home.”
“Do they know I’m pregnant?” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“No. I didn’t tell them anything except that I was helping you and that you’re safe. I told them I would try to get you to contact them to talk. Adam threatened to come up here and kick my ass, but I didn’t tell them where we were.”
Eden sighs, dropping her head between her knees. I scoot over to sit beside her so she can use my shoulder to lean on if she needs it.
“I don’t know where I would be without you.”
“Good thing we don’t have to think about that because you’re right here with me, exactly where you’re meant to be.”
After the sun is nearly gone, the temperature drops substantially. Eden shivers, sliding closer to me. I wrap my arm around her shoulders.
“We should have them meet us at Redford Ranch, whoever you want to see. I get a week off before I leave, and I want you to meet my family before I go.”
She blows out a breath before nodding. “Okay.”