“Sage, I love you. I’m in so fucking deep, I can’t imagine a world where I don’t love you.”
I lift my hands from her stomach and cradle her face. “I don’t care if you can’t say it back yet, but I can’t keep it in any longer. You and our daughter are everything I never knew I needed in my life. And I love you both so much.”
Tears spill down her cheeks and I wipe them away gently with my thumbs.
“I love you, too,” she whispers before flinging her arms around my neck. “I love you, too. So much. You’ve given me the only life I want to live, now and forever. With you.”
My lips crash into hers, claiming her with a kiss that I feel down to my soul.
Standing, I take her hands and pull her up, the move reminding me of that very first time I saw her pregnant, when I pulled her up to stand outside of the grocery store.
Grinning, I say to her, “Remember the day you told me you were pregnant? I predicted I’d be doing a lot more of this.”
She laughs, leaning into my arms. “Yeah, but I bet you didn’t predict I’d fall in love with you.”
I shake my head. “No, but I definitely fantasized about it.” I start to walk backward, toward the hall leading to our room. “Just like I’ve fantasized everysingle day since about all the things I want to do to you now that you’re mine to love.”
“And what might those things be?” she says teasingly as we enter the bedroom.
I turn her around so her back is to the bed, then drop to my knees before looking up at her.
“How ’bout I show you instead of tell you?”
33
SAGE
“Areyou sure you want to do this? You really don’t look that comfortable.” Fiona winces as I waddle along beside her.
“Yes. Exercise is good for me and the baby. I just have to move a little slower.”
It’s early September, and I can safely say fall on the West Coast is stunning. We’re walking the trails along Cedar Creek today. I’m down to just a handful of weeks before my due date, with only a few more shifts to go at the hospital. Thank God for that, work is getting harder and harder. I get out of breath so easily and have to sit down and put my feet up every chance I get. The exhaustion at the end of the day has me passing out before 8 pm most nights. Poor Brady is at a loss as to what to do. I don’t have the energy to spend time with him or help at all around the apartment.
I envy women who make pregnancy look easy, because for me, it sure as hell is not.
“Okay, but if you go into labour, I am not delivering my niece in the woods.”
I grin and shake my head. “Trust me, I don’t want that, either.” I rub my stomach. “She’s got to stay put for a while longer. Brady leaves tomorrow for his last set of away games, then he has two final home games before the season is over. Then this little one can make an appearance.”
What I don’t admit is how I wish time would speed up just a little, so I could be done with all this discomfort, and best of all meet my daughter.
“I’m surprised he’s still going on the trip with how he hovers over you like an anxious mother hen.”
“Trust me, I’ve had to talk him out of bailing on the team more than once.”
“He loves you.” Fiona comes to a stop. She takes my hands in hers, and when I look at her face, I see emotion brimming in her eyes. “I’m really happy for you. And at the risk of sounding like a mother hen myself, I’m proud of you, Sage. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like you’re settled here in a way you never have before. Like you’ve found yourself.”
Her words sink into me, stirring up emotions of my own. “I think I have. I belong with him. He makes me feel safe and loved. I haven’t felt like this since Mom died.”
My own tears spill down my cheeks as Fiona pulls me in for an awkward hug, my giant baby bump between us.
“She’d be so proud of you, too,” Fi mumbles into my shoulder, making me cry harder.
“I wish she was here.” I hiccup in between sobs. It’sthe first time I’ve admitted it out loud, and it sends a fresh wave of tears rolling down my cheeks.
Fiona holds me tight, whispering comforting things I barely register as I let the grief flow out of me. So much of my life has been spent holding myself together, thinking I had to do it alone, that if I let anyone in close, all it would mean is one more person to lose.
And now I’ve found myself making a life in a town I love, with a man I love, with my best friend close by, and a baby on the way.
