“Let’s go see what they have.” He kissed her quickly and helped her in. Later that night they had their own private ceremony, and when they were able to breathe properly again, they exchanged rings and fell asleep in each other’s arms with a smile on their faces.
EPILOGUE
“Go.” Gypsy laughed as she took the baby from Wanda’s arms. “Little Jake and I will be fine. I’ve watched him before. Go out to dinner and celebrate his birth and your anniversary. I know it’s been six weeks since he was born. I have everything I need over at my place. Remember I told you that before Mick left for his deployment that he wanted to start a family when he returned. And when you two made a nursery for this little guy, you helped me make one for our future children. I know it might be putting the cart before the horse, but I have everything I need for Jake. It’ll give me practice. I’ll just grab a couple bottles from your refrigerator, and we’ll spend the next few hours together next door at my place. Go have fun.”
“I don’t know,” Wanda said as she studied her son in her best friend’s arms. He was asleep, but he was so adorable.
“Babe.” Christopher came up behind her and put his arms around her. “We’ll only be gone for a couple of hours. You spend that time away from him when you’re working, and he’s over at my office. Everything will be fine. We’re only going to The Dragon’s Den, so we’re thirty minutes away. Gypsy has our cell numbers. Everything will be fine.”
“If you’re sure?”
“We are.” He started toward the door and grinned at Gypsy. “We’ll be back by nine.”
“Make it ten, and you have a deal.” She laughed and watched the happy couple leave. She grabbed two bottles and went over to her apartment. After puttingthe bottles in her refrigerator, she took Jake to the nursery she’d set up with high hopes. Once he was down, she went to her office to get some work done.
Two hours later she changed and fed Jacob, and after he was back in the crib, she went out to fix herself something to eat. If taking care of a baby was as easy as taking care of Jacob, she couldn’t wait until she and Mick started a family. When he’d said he wanted to start a family when he got back, she’d thrown all her birth control out so she hadn’t had anything in her system for ten months. Her only concern was that she hadn’t heard from Mick in almost three weeks. He was supposed to have been home a month ago, and she was starting to get scared. She had never gone this long without hearing from him.
Gypsy heard a key in the door and grinned as she continued fixing herself a toasted cheese sandwich and bowl of tomato soup. It had been raining earlier, and she wanted comfort food. “You’re too early.” She laughed as she flipped the sandwich, not bothering to look to see who was entering. Since both Wanda and Christopher had a key, she knew it was someone she knew. “You’re not supposed to be home until nine. It’s only eight. So go and come back in an hour.” When she didn’t hear any response, she turned off the burners and turned slowly. The sight before her shocked her speechless. She put her hands to her mouth and stared, tears running down her cheeks. “MICK!” She screamed and lunged for him. She stopped short when she saw him on crutches. “Oh my god, are you okay?”
“I am now.” He grinned and dropped his crutches and grabbed his wife and kissed her deeply. “I’ve missed you.”
“And I you,” she said and kissed him back. When they broke apart, she stepped back and studied her husband. “What happened? I love you and know you’ll take this with a grain of salt, but you look like hell.” His hair was longer than the military allowed, he had a thick beard, and looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
“I’ll tell you what I can, you know that. But just as we were getting ready to board the chopper to come home, three weeks ago, some insurgents opened fire on us. The chopper was hit and blew up. Several of us were hit with enemy fire. Thankfully no one lost their lives. I took a bullet to the thigh, but it took two days to get another chopper in the area. It finally arrived, and we left. Because of my injury, I’ve spent the last two weeks in a hospital in Germany. I’m fine. I’ll be able to regain full use of my leg. That was the bad news. Sorry I wasn’t able to contact you. I had to wait until I was debriefed.”
“You’re alive and home. That’s all that matters now,” Gypsy said, and helped him over to the table. She quickly dished up the soup and began making more sandwiches. He ate the first one while she cooked more. When she’d made four more, she joined him at the table.
“If your chopper blowing up, and you getting shot was the bad news, what’s the good news?”
“I’m done. Somehow over the years, my paperwork got messed up, and when I thought I had eighteen months left, I had only eleven. With this last deployment and my injury, I’ve been discharged. I got back late last night, but because of what happened, I had to stay on base. I wasn’t allowed to come home orcall you. I had to be debriefed today, then they gave me my discharge papers.”
“Oh, Mick.” Gypsy sighed and stood and went to him. He pushed his food away and pulled her onto his lap. “I want a nice hot shower and to make love to my wife,” he said against her lips, then kissed her. They suddenly broke apart with the sound of a screaming baby filling the apartment.
“Babe, you want to tell me something?” Mick asked in shock. He struggled with his crutches and followed his wife down the hall. At a doorway, he paused in shock as he looked in and saw a nursery done in yellows and greens. What doubly shocked him was when his wife picked up a baby from the crib and quickly changed it.
“Don’t worry.” Gypsy laughed. “He’s not yours.”
“Excuse me?” He frowned and she must have realized what she said because she stared at him in shock.
“I didn’t mean it like that. He’s not mine either.”
“Explain.” He demanded.
“I’m babysitting.” When he relaxed, she had him follow her to the kitchen where she got out a bottle and warmed it, then asked if he wanted to feed the baby. When he did, she placed Jacob in his arms and handed him the bottle.
“He’s a cute little bugger. Who does he belong to?”
“Wanda and Christopher. This is Jacob Randall Chris Evans. He’s six weeks old, and his parents are out on a date. The first one since New Year’s. I know I have to catch you up on a lot, but Wanda had a rough life growing up.” At his frown, she elaborated. “Medically. In a nutshell, she had leukemia when shewas three, on her death bed she married Christopher, he was five.”
“That’s the man that showed up here, and she asked us to come help her? The man that demanded a divorce?”
“Yes. When Wanda was thirteen, she had kidney failure and had to have a transplant. She got it. But every doctor she’d seen in her life said that because of all the radiation, chemo and drugs she had a slim to none chance to get pregnant.”
“Obviously they were wrong,” he said when he picked up the baby and put him to his shoulder and burped him.
“You’re good at that.”
“I told you I had six brothers and sisters. And I want to start a family.”
