My child.
Sophie was carrying my fucking child.
Chapter 14
SOPHIE
When I’d lost consciousness, it wasn’t really so scary. The place I went to was serene and wholly familiar and comforting. I opened my eyes to a bright white light and I could see my surroundings clearly. The blue sky above and the white clouds that traveled gently in the wind. Gabriel’s arms were around me and he was holding me. As long as he was there, it was as if the pain and the fear couldn’t touch me.
“What song is your happy song? One that takes you away and puts a smile on your face?” he asked. He was younger, more fresh-faced, less built and burly. “Oh, and it has to be an easy one because I can’t sing along if I don’t know the words.”
I searched his face and felt this pull from something terrible behind me. When I tried to turn my head, he held my cheek and looked deep into my eyes.
“Just think of one and we’ll sing it together,” he said. He smiled and his face was so warm that I felt the fear slip away again.
“Three little birds,” I told him.
“Is that a nursery rhyme? I don’t remember it,” he said.
I shook my head and tried not to focus on the black spot that kept appearing in my vision. “Bob Marely,” I said. I tried to smile up at him. Everyone knew that song. Everyone. Everyone. Even this guy who’d appeared out of nowhere.
“Don’t worry?” he asked me.
I nodded as the light went out on one side of my world. I brought a hand to my eye, but saw nothing but blackness.
“Don’t worry, about a thing,” he started in a low and shaky voice.
“Cause, every little thing, is gonna be alright,” my voice cracked as I sang back to him.
Then more blurred faces were leaning over me. Shouting. Sirens. But he kept holding on to me.
“No, I bypassed the traffic because I was on my bike. I pulled her out. Right after I got her to the curb, the fire started.”
He raised his hand to explain and it was covered in blood. The last thing I saw before my world went dark was the cosmic blue of his sympathetic and intense eyes. He’d seen horror before and he understood. Every little thing was going to be alright.
I woke up to the beeping of monitors and the bright fluorescent lights of the ER.
“My baby?” I scratched the nurse who was beside me. She had her head focused down as she inserted an IV in my arm.
“Her heartbeat is strong. She’s stable from the tests we’ve done.”
I put my hand on my heart and relaxed, closed my eyes to the glaring blur.
“Thank you so much,” I said. I fell asleep with my other hand resting on my small bump to protect her.
…
When I opened my eyes a second time, Maverick was beside me in a chair. I smelled the fire on him before I even opened my eyes.
He was holding my hand so tightly it felt like he’d cut off my circulation.
“You were there?” I asked him.
He put his head on my chest and I stroked his hair.
“Sophie, forgive me,” he said. I could hear the ache in his chest. His tortured soul was so wound up, the tension in the room was palpable.
“Did you save me?” I asked him.
“Sophie, you saved me. I fucked up. And I’ll do it again. But you mean the whole fucking world to me and I don’t even want to live if you’re not going to be here with me.”
“I’m having a baby,” I told him. It came out in a whisper. He had to know. He had to man up and handle it.
“I know. I’m so relieved the baby is okay. I’m sorry I walked away from the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“She doesn’t know you left yet. But I do and it hurt, Gabriel. I hate when people leave.”
“She will never know that pain. I’ll be there every step of the way until the day I die if you let me. She’ll never be alone, Sophie—over my dead body.”
“She needs a dad. We both need you here with us.”
“Marry me, Sophie. She deserves a family and I want to make it right for both of you.”
“Slow down, Maverick. If you go too fast, I’ll tip.”
I smiled at her, leaned in and kissed her nose and then her lips.
“Will you sign up to do the birthing classes with me?” I asked him. I knew Gabe needed to take it slowly even more than I did. I knew this process would be excruciatingly painful but also liberating for him.
“Anything. Everything. I want to make it up to you both.”
“How did you go from where we were last time to this level of acceptance?”