Bittersweet Catastrophe (Second Chances #2.5) (2 page)

“Well I-I’ll let you get back to fishing. Sorry again.”

I reached my arm out and tried to stop her, but before I had the chance to get any words out, she spun on her heel and sprinted back down the beach in the opposite direction. I couldn’t do anything other than watch as this beautiful stranger quickly bolted away from me. Fuck, I didn’t even know her name, but I prayed that I would find her again. I had to find her.

Her auburn hair whipped around as she turned her head for just a mere second, and I bore my eyes into her, silently begging her to come back. Her gaze slipped away from me, and she continued to run alongside the waves bubbling up onto the sand until her slender figure faded into the distance and out of my life. Some way, somehow, I knew I’d be seeing her again, and I’d make damn sure of that.

I might’ve given up on a lot of things in my life, but of one thing I was sure…

I wasn’t ready to give up on her.

“Babe, are you ready to go? Your appointment is in ten minutes.” I leaned against the frame of our bedroom door and couldn’t help laughing as I watched her scurry around the room, looking for God knows what.

“Almost! I just need one more thing,” she huffed out breathlessly, bending down on her hands and knees to peek under the bed. A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, knowing how much she’d hate it if I wound up and spanked her right then and there.
Although, she wasn’t complaining last night.
My girl had a wild side, one that I soon discovered after we first got together, and with the way she was waving that sexy ass around, she seriously was asking for it.

As I stood there waiting for her, I thought back to how different things had been before we met. To say that I never envisioned my life going in the direction that it had was the biggest fucking understatement of the century. Before, I’d made it my goal to live every day as if it were my last because, let’s face it, tomorrow was never guaranteed, and if I were to die tomorrow, I wanted to be able to say that I spent the last few minutes of my existence doing what I did best: drinking to numb the pain and screwing to alleviate the ache…
both in my heart and in my pants
. I wasn’t proud of who I’d become, and my mother would be rolling over in her grave if she knew half of the shit I had gotten myself into, but I was done with all of that. I was ready to bury the reputation I’d earned for the careless choices I’d made.

It didn’t take long to open my eyes and see that the world would continue to revolve around the sun and people would carry on with their lives, regardless of the fuck-ups I made.
Who was I to them?
No one. Just another walking hard-on willing to get my dick wet for a moment’s reprieve. I wasn’t anything to anyone, other than my father, who continued to turn his cheek the other way every time I got caught up in my own shit. I wanted to be a man my mother would be proud to call her son, and the day I called it quits on my fucked up ways, I cut ties with nearly every person who continued to drag me down further.

From that point on, I devoted all of my time and energy to working on my father’s deep sea fishing boat, learning the ropes – literally – and getting my act together. But just because I had put forth the effort to change my ways, didn’t mean I went full on celibate. Fuck, I wasn’t about to let my dick shrivel up and fall off! Luckily, Vanessa, my on-again off-again hookup, was the perfect distraction, and she knew I wasn’t looking for anything more. I just…needed the release, and she gave me exactly that.

That all changed, though, the moment Liberty fell into my life. She was the missing piece to a puzzle I never thought could be made whole again…until
her
. I’d never forget the way she pegged me with her beautiful brown eyes as she came crashing into my arms with a mind-awakening blow that hammered its way straight through my heart. Love was never something I was looking for; in fact, it was usually the furthest thing from my mind, but somehow it had snuck up and found me in the form of this gorgeous woman. Just her smile alone jolted me back to life, and I knew from that moment on my life would never be the same. It was only a little over a year later that I made her a permanent part of my life, and I now had the pleasure of calling this incredible woman my wife.

My wife.
God, I would never get sick of saying those two words. I had officially made her mine, and I couldn’t remember a single time in my life where I had been happier than when I heard her say the words “I do.”

Until now.

Even before I slipped my mother’s ring on Liberty’s finger, we had openly discussed starting a family of our own one day, and the second she became Mrs. Thompson, I swept her up in my arms and carried her straight to our bedroom to get right down to it!

We had spent nearly a year trying to get pregnant with no success, and I knew how frustrating it was, especially for Liberty. She wanted so badly to have a baby of her own, and seeing her best friend Maddie, happily married with her own newborn, didn’t help the situation any. It killed me in the worst way imaginable to see her upset over it. I had promised her the world, and here I couldn’t even give her the one thing she wanted most…to be a mother.

After several doctor visits and fertility drug trials, it seemed all of our prayers had gone unanswered, but just when we were about ready to give up, my beautiful wife said the two words I’d been waiting so patiently to hear her say. “
We’re pregnant.”
God, I’d never felt so happy and so scared in my entire life, and I knew hearing those words would change everything.

Now, here we were, running late for Liberty’s first Ob/Gyn appointment, and as much as I tried to keep it hidden beneath all of my excitement, I was a nervous wreck.

“Got it!” She jumped up, dangling a ratty, old rabbit’s foot from a key ring around her finger.

“What do you need that for?” I eyed her curiously. She’d had that mangy looking thing since she was a little girl, and it was missing patches of fur all over. I tried to get her to throw it out, but she refused to, claiming it brought her this far and its luck hadn’t run out yet.

She smiled up at me sweetly and pressed her lips against my cheek. “For good luck, silly.”

“Sweetheart, we already know you’re pregnant. I don’t think we need any more luck.”

“You never know. What if they were all false-positives?”

“All ten of them?!” I cocked a brow, laughing at the thought of her not being pregnant.
Impossible.
It might’ve taken us longer than we had anticipated, but I knew without a doubt that she was carrying my child. Call it father-to-be intuition. “You have nothing to worry about.” I kissed her nose and spun her around, swatting her behind.

“Well, regardless, I’m bringing it with me. I could use all of the luck I can get.” She clutched it against her chest and made her way into the living room, where her purse was perched on the end table.

“We don’t need luck, baby. We make our own luck.” I wrapped my arms around her waist, splaying my hands over her flat, toned stomach. “And this right here is one lucky baby because he or she is going to have some kickass parents.”

“I won’t disagree with you there,” Liberty chuckled and swung her purse over her shoulder as we headed out to my Jeep. We made it to the doctor’s office with a minute to spare, and I plopped down in the nearest empty chair while Liberty signed in at the front desk.

Sweat beaded my brow as I watched women enter and leave the waiting room; some alone and some with their men by their sides. Something in me must’ve snapped because the reality of what was happening and why we were here had finally kicked in. A woman who looked to be in her early thirties sat across from us with a newborn wrapped up in her arms, and I envisioned myself in just a few months sitting in that very same spot with our child.
Our child.
Was I even ready to be a father? Shit, was it too late to change my mind?

I shook the thought away as Liberty sat down beside me, beaming with happiness, and began filling out page after page of paperwork. That beautiful smile got to me every time, and I knew there was no way in hell I’d ever change my mind. I only hoped that our baby was born with that same gorgeous grin, soft auburn hair, and those big brown eyes, or maybe my brown hair and green eyes. Either way, I’d be happy as long as our kid was healthy.

I continued drumming my fingers against my bouncing knee until Liberty reached across and slipped her fingers between mine, bringing my hand over to her lap.

“You doing all right over there?” Her sweet voice broke through my racing mind.

I leaned over and pressed my lips to her forehead. “Never better, sweetheart. I just wish the doctor would hurry the fuck up. Do they always take this long?”

“Shayne, it’s only been ten minutes. It shouldn’t be too much longer. Why don’t you grab a magazine to pass the time?”

I looked over at the magazine rack beside us and cringed when I saw there wasn’t a single issue of Sports Illustrated or Men’s Fitness. What kind of doctor’s office was this? I grabbed the first magazine I could without looking, and the first page I opened up to was an article about stretchmark creams. I turned the page, only to find an article showing what babies really looked like right after they were born, and…
What the fuck?!
I slammed the magazine back in the rack and went back to drumming my fingers rapidly against my knee. Seriously, how much longer was this going to take? I was beginning to wear a hole through my jeans.

“Liberty Thompson, we can take you back now. Will your husband be accompanying you?”

“Damn right I will be!” I flew up from my seat, heedless of the other people around me.

“Shayne…”

“What? You honestly think I’m going wait out here while all of the action is happening back there?” I pointed toward the door where the nurse was not so patiently waiting for us.

Liberty shook her head as I glanced over and gave her a knowing smirk. She knew how much I loved to stir shit up, and it drove her absolutely crazy. I placed my hand against her lower back, ushering her through the door, and dipped down next to her ear. “I can’t wait to get you back home and in our bed. Knowing you’re pregnant with my baby makes me want to bury myself so deep inside you.”

“Shayne, please.” Her cheeks grew flushed. “I’m just as horny, if not more, but can you please keep your dirty mouth shut until we exit the building? How can you possibly be thinking of anything else but the baby right now?”

“Sweetheart, when it comes to you, there is only one thing on my mind, and I’m sure you can guess what that is. It’s really not that hard.”

Her gaze drifted down toward the waistband of my jeans and continued to travel a tad bit lower. I was already halfway there just thinking about being inside her, and I reached down to adjust myself. “Not that hard, huh?” The corner of her mouth pulled up devilishly.

“I’ll just have you two come sit in exam room eight. In the meantime, I’ll measure your weight and take your blood pressure. You already had blood work done earlier this week I see.”

“Yes, Dr. Staebler recommended that I get it done beforehand.”

“Excellent. Well, your blood pressure is right where it should be, so the doctor shouldn’t have any concerns there. Why don’t you undress from the waist down and drape this sheet over your lap. He should be just a few more minutes.”

After the nurse stepped out and Liberty began to slide her pants down, I slowly turned back to my wife. “
He
?”

“He who?” She said nonchalantly as she kicked her shoes off and pulled her pants and underwear down.

“Your doctor is a man.” I stated matter-of-factly.

She slowly looked over her shoulder with her brows pinched together. “Yeeeah. Is that a problem for you?”

“Another man seeing one of the most beautiful parts of your body that only I should be seeing? Uh yeah, I have a problem with that. Couldn’t you have requested a woman doctor?”

“Shayne, it’s really not that big of a deal. I’ve been seeing him for yearly checkups since I moved to Savannah. He probably knows my vagina about as well as you do.” She laughed, but I wasn’t finding anything funny about it. If it weren’t for her beautiful, glowing smile, I would’ve gone ape shit hearing that another man has seen my wife.

I stepped up behind her before she could sit up on the exam table and ran my hands down her thighs, cupping her smooth mound. “You just remember who this belongs to and who put that baby there.”

“Like I could forget.” She laughed softly and wiggled her juicy, round ass against the front of my jeans. “Now help me up.”

I grabbed her tiny waist and lifted her up onto the exam table. It was at the perfect height where I could sit comfortably and devour her sweet pussy for hours on end, and with those leg stirrups…oh, I was getting wicked ideas already.
Very wicked indeed
. I might just have to get one of these tables for our own personal use at home. Then I remembered the doctor would be situated in that exact spot, drinking in the view I was seeing, and I growled possessively at the thought.