PROLOGUE
“Shh,” I TellHer. “Just trust me.”
I lift Ellie up, helping her over the wrought iron gate, listening for the slight thud on the other side of the darkness. “Come on!” I hoist myself up and over to the other side where she is waiting for me. Taking her hand, I lead us down the moss covered steps we have walked up and down hundreds of times over the course of our lives. “It’s so dark in here at night,” she says, breathlessly.
“Are you scared?” I ask, tickling my fingers against her side.
She playfully elbows me in the gut, followed by a sarcastic scoff. “No, dummy. But, what if there are animals or something?”
“I’ll protect you,” I tell her, wrapping my arm tightly around her shoulders.
“What would I do without you?” she laments. “My knight and shining Hunter.”
With no response necessary, I place a quick kiss on her temple and continue down the steps. As soon as we reach the flat ground, I pull my flashlight out of my back pocket and illuminate the path leading to a bench and group of thick oaks. Fear seems to have seeped away and Ellie has now fallen into a fit of quiet giggles. “Ell,” I tell her, bringing her up to the closest tree.
“Yeah?” she says through her continued laughter.
I point the flashlight to the ground and grab the sharpest rock I can find. “I’m about to do something totally lame,” I tell her.
“Don’t even tell me you’re going to carve our names into the tree,” she says in a way that tells me she loves this idea—corny and lame, or not. I place the flashlight down on the bench and loop my arms loosely around her neck. With a break in the branches, a slight glow from the moon is illuminating her face. She smiles that smile, the one that has always been just for me since we were five years old. With the crickets chirping around us and the slight chill in the May air, I kiss her, the girl who has always been mine.
When our lips part, I take her hand and slip the rock between her fingers. With my hand squeezed tightly around hers, I press it up against the tree, tersely dragging the rock in straight lines, etching our names into the soft bark before encircling it with a heart. “If anyone on the football team hears about this…”
“Our secret forever,” she whispers into my ear.
“You know what isn’t a secret?” I listen for a response, a cue for me to continue what I’m about to say, but there is only silence. “I am so in love with you, Ellie. I have loved you as my best friend all of these years, but now, getting ready to graduate high school and head off into the big bad world, I need you to know how much I really love you. It’s the kind of love that makes a guy want to carve his girl’s name into a tree. It’s the kind of love that I hope never goes away.”
“I am yours forever, Hunter. And this will always be our tree.”
CHAPTER ONE
DECEMBER 26th
- Seven Years Later -
“I can’t believewe’re finally going to be parents,” Ellie says, still breathing heavily from her last contraction. While I run around the house like a loose chicken, she’s clutching the armrest of the sofa so tightly her knuckles are turning white.
Overnight bag…got it. Baby bag...check. What else? “There was something else. What am I forgetting?”
“The baby’s blanket. The one I knitted,” she yells from the living room. Ellie spent the last seven months knitting a tiny, pink blanket. She didn’t know how to knit, but she said it was a rite of passage into motherhood. She figured it out. I’ll give her that.
“Got it, baby.”Baby. In the next few hours, I’m going to be someone’s dad. We’re going to be a family. The thought is still both terrifying and thrilling at the same time. “Okay, one more second. Let me warm the car up.” Our little miracle isn’t due for another two weeks, but evidently she’s decided that the day after Christmas would be a good time to arrive. I couldn’t agree with her more. I can’t wait to meet her.
I run out the front door, nearly slipping on the freshly fallen snow before reaching the car door. I duck inside the car and turn the ignition on to blast the heat.Come on. Warm up. This little girl is not waiting for anything tonight.
When I get back in the house, Ellie is standing in the same spot, still holding onto the couch for support. Her eyes are squeezed shut, her teeth clenched together. Drops of sweat are forming on her forehead, and her breaths are quick and loud. I gently wipe her brow with my fingertips and smooth her hair back away from her face, trying my best to soothe her as I wait for the contraction to subside. When it lets up, I take her by the arm as she grabs her purse from the side table. Slowly helping her outside, I hold her up as best I can so she doesn’t slip on the snow. “We’re doing this, Ell. We’re really doing this!” I tell her. She smiles and nods at me, focused on trying to catch her breath and slide into her seat before the next contraction begins.
I settle Ellie in the car and skid across the driveway until I climb into the driver’s seat. As I close the door, I pull in a sharp breath and look over at her briefly—the smile on her face and the tears in her eyes. “I love you,” she says, placing her hand over mine. “This is going to be the best day of our lives.”
“Just the first best day. There are so many best days ahead of us now,” I reply with a smile.
Although it feels like forever, it takes us less than twenty minutes to pull up to the emergency room’s sliding glass doors. “You’re not leaving me, are you?” Ellie asks. It’s the first time I’ve seen any fear in her eyes during this entire pregnancy. She’s kept her calm through everything while I’ve been doing my best to hide my nerves.
“I don’t want to make you walk across the parking lot, Ell.”
“I’ll be okay. I just—don’t leave me.” Without another thought, I press on the gas and pull into the parking garage, thankfully finding an empty spot on the first floor and fairly close to the front entrance. Another contraction is moving through her, and she’s beginning to groan from the pain. “Four minutes apart now,” I say, looking at my watch.
When the contraction ends, I take the opportunity to jump out of the car and help her out. I place my arm under hers and walk with her as fast as she can move. Once inside the door, I spot a wheelchair and help her into it. I’m trying to remain calm for Ellie’s sake, but inside...Oh God. I’m freaking out.
