I take my time answering. It hasn’t been long since Jeanie told me, but for the first time in six years, I feel like I can breathe, and the weight that I’ve carried around is lifted from my shoulders.
“I am, Mom.” I reassure her.
“Well then…” She smiles, reaching for me. “Congratulations.”
As my mother enfolds me in her arms, the last of the tension I didn’t even realise I was carrying leaves me.
“I like her. There’s no airs and graces about her,” Mom whispers, and I chuckle.
“There aren’t,” I agree. Letting Mom go, I join the rest of the table. Jeanie makes herself right at home. Coal catches my eye from the head of the table as we watch Jeanie and Thea chat comfortably, like they’ve known each other for years.
It’s clear as day that the Tin men have a type.
Strong, beautiful, take no shit women are our kryptonite.
Breakfast is a loud affair filled with laughter, and once the shock of our news wears off, there’s the teasing I expected. I fucking loved my family, and Jeanie fit in seamlessly like she’d always been there.
***
Later that afternoon, as I watch the heartbeat of our baby fluttering on the screen, I give thanks to whoever is listening for bringing Jeanie into my life.
She blazed into my life like a guiding star and banished away all my sadness and darkness. She is everything that I didn’t know I needed. My Christmases have all come at once this year.
CHAPTER 6
JEANIE
As I stare at the screen where the heartbeat of our baby flutters, I can’t quite believe how everything has fallen into place. And as I watch the awe on the face of the man who is gripping my hand tight with all his attention on the screen in front of him, I can’t help but think it is a Christmas miracle.
We met on the saddest day for him, the anniversary of what should have been his first baby’s birthday. We clicked right away, and even though we did everything right in preventing pregnancy, somehow, it still happened.
Fate definitely stepped in because the little heartbeat fluttering on the screen was conceived on the same day that its sibling should have been born. And this baby is so wanted by both its parents. Once my family finds out, they’ll be just as thrilled as Bolt’s family is.
When I look away from the screen and back to Bolt, my heart hurts when I see the tears on his cheeks.
“Hey…” I squeeze his hand gently. Immediately, he brings his gaze to meet mine. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he chuckles wetly, wiping at his cheeks before bringing my hand up to his mouth and kissing my knuckles, and my belly flutters a little at the move. His eyes dart to the technician, who is doing a great job of ignoring us while we have our moment. “Thank you,” he whispers.
“No thanks necessary,” I assure him. “I’m happy and I believe what’s meant to be, will be. And our baby was meant to be.” I hold his gaze for a beat longer until the technician clears her throat, and we both look at her.
She removes the transducer from within me and disposes of it before stripping off her gloves. The memory of the look on Bolt’s face when she brought it out has me biting back a chuckle. I knew they’d have to do an internal scan, as I’m not that far along. He didn’t, and I think the length of the wand shocked the hell out of him.
“Everything looks wonderful, and your dates match what I could see. I’ll let you get dressed, and I’ll have the images and the link for the digital report ready for you at the reception desk when you leave.” She smiles at us. “Congratulations to you both.”
“Thank you,” I reply because Bolt still looks choked up, but he nods his thanks. She leaves us, and I sit up, taking the hand that Bolt holds out to me. I swing my legs over the bed and go to hop down, only for him to stop me.
“Stay, sweetness,” he murmurs as he gathers my clothes from the chair where I left them. He slips my panties on first, then my jeans. Then, he helps me down from the bed. He pulls them up, fastens them, and finally sinks to his knees to ease my boots on.
Men who care for their women and put them first aren’t foreign to me. After all, I’m an O’Shea. I grew up and lived with men who put their women first and treated them like queens.
But it hits you differently when it’s the man that you are hoping will be yours doing it for you. Tears prick my eyes, and I sniffle a little.
Bolt lifts his head from his task of putting my boots on for me. He takes one look at my face and rises to cup my cheeks in his palms. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I laugh, choking back a sob. “It just hit me that I’d hoped that I’d meet a man who would treat me the way my dad treats my mum and my uncles their wives. The way that Sam iswith Ally, and then you did. I’m not sure why it’s made me want to cry. I guess I never thought it would happen for me.”
Bolt’s face softens as he looks into my eyes. “Ah, sweetness. I’m a Tin. We don’t know how to treat our women any different. When we meet the one who we know is ours, she’s treated like the queen she is and, baby, you are a queen from the top of your head to your toes. I promise, that while you are with me, you’ll always be treated as one.”
