Chapter 8 July 3031
I GUESS I’M IN LOVE by Clinton Kane · Wildfire by Cautious Clay · A Thousand Years by James Arthur
Asher
I finish seasoning the burgers right as there’s a knock on the door. “Hold on!” I wash my hands quickly. I told these motherfuckers not to come until later, but they don’t listen to any command ever, including when to show up for dinner.
“What happ—” The words die in my throat, because on the other side of the door is a wish come true. I rub my eyes to make sure I’m not seeing the wrong thing, that it’s reality and not a dream.
“Well, are you going to let my giant ass in, or are you going to stand there with your jaw on the floor?” Hailey says, holding multiple bags with a smile. She’s so beautiful—she always is, but standing in front of me, outside my door while carrying our baby, she’s breathtaking.
I pick her up, holding her close. She fits perfectly, belly and all. “Put me down!” she shouts, and I smile with a mouthful of her hair.
“You’re here.” My words whisper the longing I’ve felt deep in my soul. Is this reality? She didn’t mention this at all, and we talked, what? A few days ago? I have so many questions. I put her down, kissing her softly before I lead her inside, carrying her bags with me.
I help her sit and pull her shoes off. She must be tired. It’s not easy to get here. How did she get here?
“I’m pregnant, not incapable, Ash.” She laughs. Her laugh . . . I’ve missed it. I’ve wanted to hear it live, near me. I’ve wanted to be in the same place where her laugh is. I’ve wanted to be the one to make her laugh.
“Let me." I look at her, waiting for permission, one she doesn’t grant. “Please.” She nods and I slide her socks off too.
I sit across from her, quietly massaging her feet while she sinks deeper into the couch.
We talked about seeing each other soon. I requested leave, but shit kept happening here.
It’s not as easy as just taking off and showing up somewhere when you live in the middle of nowhere, but I guess where there’s a will, there’s a way, because she is here.
“What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you,” she replies.
My heart. My whole heart.
“I wanted to see you too, but this is so far.” Far is an understatement. She either flew here from Anchorage, or she took the almost ten hour ferry. Or a float plane. All of those are inconvenient. At least it’s summer and not stupid cold right now.
“It is, but I had nowhere else to be.” She shrugs nonchalantly.
“I thought your family hosts a Fourth of July party or something.” I switch feet, grabbing and massaging the other. She moves her bangs out of the way, but they return to their stubborn spot. It’s a habit she has that I love. The hair won’t stay off her face, but she does it anyway.
She closes her eyes and smacks her tongue. “Yeah, well, I’ve participated in those for almost thirty-seven years, but I’ve never spent a holiday weekend with the father of my child, so coming seemed like a good idea.” I kiss her foot, and she startles. “Ew, don’t do that.”
My laugh bounces off the walls and fills the space. “Not a foot person?”
“No, and I didn’t think you were either.”
I shake my head. “I’m a you person.”
I smile, taking it all in: her in here in my space, in my house, in my quiet room. Suddenly, the entire place is filled with color and meaning. All because she’s here. She’s my whole world, how have I not seen this before?
“How long are you here for?” I ask—the question I really want to know the answer to. I want to know if I should cancel the dinner tonight and get lost in her for hours.
I need to know if I need to call work and tell them nobody better need me for the next forty-eight hours.
I want to know.
I need to know.
She rises to her elbows and loses the playfulness she’s been sporting since she got here. “A month—if you’ll have me.”
“Don’t play with my feelings, because you know if it were up to me, I’d want you here forever.” I mean every word.
She waves. “Forever sounds good.”
What does she mean by that? “What?” I’m destined to be confused by this woman forever, I guess.
“Living with you forever and not doing this once a year bullshit we thought was a good idea sounds better than anything, to be honest.” She pauses, and I hope she’s not lying. I really hope she means it.
I’ll put a ring on her finger right now if that’s true.
“You said you were afraid of asking me to move here, so you don’t have to.
I’m here if you want me . . . but I figured a month would be a good time for us to figure our shit out.
” She lays her head back down and closes her pretty eyes, her eyelashes kissing her cheeks.
“I also think your son would love to kick his daddy too, not just me.”
My son?
She’s having a boy?
We’re having a boy?
What is happening?
“We’re having a boy?” I ask, my voice breaking.
She nods, and all the air leaves my body. I can’t find words to convey what I’m feeling right now, so I don’t say anything. I just sit and look at her.
She’s so beautiful. She always has been, but her carrying my child has to be the best view.
Not clear, pristine waters or the highest peaks, not moss covered trees or the dramatic coastlines I see every day.
Not salmon in streams or majestic bears.
Not glaciers or midnight sun. None of them compare to her flawless beauty.
“Let me see,” I whisper.
Gray eyes meet mine, and with a wicked smile, she lifts her white shirt, revealing the most perfect bump I’ve ever seen. She shows me when we video chat and I’ve seen pictures, but nothing compares to seeing it right now. She’s so beautiful. So perfect. And she’s here.
“Permission to touch,” I whisper, echoing the words she said all those years ago when I was afraid of her touch, when I didn’t know someone else touching you could be because they wanted to make you feel good, not because they wanted to harm or use you.
Back when I didn’t know life could have this precious meaning.
She nods, and I slide my hands up her leggings, lowering the band over her belly, finally seeing it all in its glory. Round, with a dark line in the middle leading to my favorite place on Earth.
Perfect, just like all of her.
My hands immediately gravitate toward it, as if I was metal and she and that baby are the strongest magnet.
But it’s not enough.
I bring my lips to her belly, kissing it gently. She tenses at my touch but relaxes instantly. Sensitive. Got it.
“Did your doctor say it was okay for you to come here for a whole month this close to your due date?” She nods.
“What about work?” I pause in confusion. My stomach knots. “What about your mom?”
I avoid looking at her eyes, afraid at what I might find.
Going no contact with my parents was the choice I wanted to make—the one I needed to make— but Hailey’s relationship with her parents is nothing like mine.
If she left them because she thinks this is what I need, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.
“Eyes here,” she says. “My siblings are stepping up to help with my mom, and she’s stable. She has therapy and stuff, but she can be away from me for a while.” She smiles reassuringly.
“I took the PTO I’ve been accruing for years.
I guess when you feel guilty about taking time off, you don’t realize how much you actually work until you go to use your PTO and the head nurse is surprised.
” She flashes me an alluring smile. “It was time for me to do something for me for once.” She yawns again.
She’s trying to mask her exhaustion, but I know better.
I can’t stop touching her bump. It’s smooth and perfectly round. She must be exhausted, though, and as much as I don’t want to let her go, she needs to relax.
“Let me run you a bath and you can relax. I have some friends coming over later, but I can cancel.” I’m not letting her or our baby out of my sight, but she shakes her head.
“You have friends, Asher Hunter?” she sasses, completely derailing my thoughts.
I let out a harsh breath. “Very funny. Come on. Bath. Rest. Now.”
I help her up and guide her to the bathroom, where I massage her back as the tub fills. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect temperature for my perfect girl.
She’s so stunning. Even with small bags under her eyes, she’s glowing while growing the life inside her.
The urge to keep her captive and take care of them invades all my senses.
The bathroom light showcases every inch of her, and I want to touch and kiss and explore her body the way it looks now.
I want to see all the things that have changed while she’s been growing our baby, all the things that have stayed the same.
I want to know this body as I know mine.
I trace her back with my hand, brushing her hair away just like I did that first night we met.
I pepper kisses all the way up to her neck, my hands rounding her bump as my breathing speeds up.
Damn, I love her always, but like this? Wow.
It’s like my brain forgot words and my world has no meaning beyond her, him, and us.
She shivers and squeezes my thigh. “Mmm. No. We’re not doing anything. I need you to relax; you just traveled for so many hours.” I kiss her neck again. “I’m taking care of you.”
She moans when I massage her shoulders. “But you can jump in the water with me and make me feel good, no?”
“Behave,” I grunt.
“I thought you were a water boy.” Her breathy sounds bounce off the walls in the small bathroom.
“Prove it to me,” she whispers, dragging her hands down her breasts, and over her belly.
Goddammit, I’m supposed to be doing the noble thing here, but I guess giving her an orgasm while she soaks in the water is technically taking care of her.
I strip and carefully sit us both into the tub.
I slide her in as she rests against me. I massage her shoulders, and she groans, my dick moving to attention.