Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Winter came in a few seconds later, Tai carrying her. Not straining in the slightest. The nurse followed them in with a frown on her face that disappeared as soon as she saw I was awake.
“Mr. Stoker!” She smiled. “I’m glad to see that you’re awake. How are you feeling? Any pain, numbness?”
She wasn’t looking at me but at the monitors as she checked my vitals. Then she moved to the bags that were hanging on the bed, which, in turn, moved the tube that I just realized was shoved in my dick.
Everything was forgotten though when Winter sat on my bed and gave me a shaky hug. “God, I’ve missed you.”
“To the moon and back, baby. I like your cast color.” I teased.
“I like it, too. I figure if I have to wear one, then I at least want it to be pretty. Green was the prettiest.” She laughed and turned her foot slightly away.
“My brother drew a dick and balls on your cast didn’t he?” I asked.
She shook her head and then laughed. “It’s a very good replica, too. Ember helped him.”
“Will you ever grow up?” I asked in exasperation, moving only my eyes in my brother’s direction.
“Never.” He said, then saluted before walking out of the room.
She waited for the door to finish shutting before looking into my eyes. Her brown eyes were shimmering with tears, and her mouth was pinched in a tight line.
“I lost another baby.” She whispered to me.
“Yeah,” I said, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “But you have another one still hanging in there. Let’s focus on that for now. Okay?”
“They would have been fraternal.” She whispered heartbrokenly.
He remembered her telling him. She’d spoken to him for hours and hours.
“Yeah, baby. I know. I know it’s not okay, but we’ll figure out a way to get through this.”
Finally, she lost the hold on the tears and they started spilling over. Big fat tears. My dad would’ve called them crocodile tears. “Don’t cry.” I whispered against her lips right before I kissed her.
“I’m not crying, I’m leaking.”
“Well you’re leaking all over my chest.”
“Did you know you have more hair on your chest now than you do on your head?” She teased.
“Yeah, I only thought I was done with the buzz cuts.”
“You still look hot. Don’t worry.” She said and kissed the side of my head with the utmost care.
“Love you, Winnie.”
“Love you too, Jack.”
Epilogue
Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.
-Winnie the Pooh
Winter
“You can pat the seat all day long. There’s no way I’m getting on that thing in this dress. Why the heck am I even wearing this anyway?” I scoffed.
Jack was now cane free for two weeks. It’d been eight since the kidnapping and explosion, and he’d been bugging me to get on his bike with him all day.
“I, Jack Kennedy Stoker, do solemnly swear that I will only take you just down the road. And I will not go over ten miles an hour. Scout’s honor. ” He said holding up his fingers.
Rolling my eyes, I decided that he couldn’t get away with the cuteness. “That’s Spock’s sign, not the boy scout’s sign.”
“Balk!” He said, clucking like a chicken.
“Jack,” I said, turning to the side and showing off my baby bump. “How the hell do you expect me to hold on to you if I have this?”
I was now seventeen weeks and most definitely showing.
“Just get on.” He demanded.
Sighing, I did as instructed, and found myself still able to get close to him, even with the baby bump between us. “Where’re we going?”
“Patience is a virtue.”
“Fuck patience. Tell me.” I demanded.
He didn’t. Instead, he started the bike with a roar, cutting off my demand.
The baby did the usual and started doing the fluttering that I so loved. Anytime she heard the bike’s rumbling, she woke. I had a feeling I had a bike lover on my hands.
True to his word, we didn’t go over ten miles an hour. We rode around the garage, and then across the forecourt, until we reached the edge of a field where a tent was set up.
My brows puckered, but due to the noise, I couldn’t ask Jack what was going on. It looked like a party was set up, but it wasn’t until I was closer that I saw that all of our friends and family were there waiting for us to arrive.
He turned the bike off just as we got to the walkway that had recently been mowed. How thoughtful of them.
Jack swung his leg over the bike and stood holding his hand out to me. “Winnie?”
I laid my hand in his. “Yeah?”
“Will you marry me?”
My mouth dropped open, and it was then that I took in the preacher that was standing at the front of the tent. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Every damn day and twice on Sunday!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around his neck.
***
Winter
Five months later
“Hello?” I answered.
“Please, for the love of all that’s holy, turn the bike off.” Ember pleaded.
I grimaced. “If we turn the bike off, she wakes up.”
“Yeah?” Ember groaned. “Well if you turn the bike off, the rest of us can sleep.” Is this Ember or Cheyenne speaking? Are they on three way?
“Is Gabe awake?” I asked.
Hesitation.
“No.” She finally admitted.
“The kids?” I asked.
“No.”
Honestly, after a truly god awful labor of 43 hours, zero sleep in the hospital, followed by two days of non-stop crying when somebody wasn’t constantly bouncing or letting her listen to Jack’s bike, I needed the peace and quiet. They’d slept, I hadn’t.
“Well, then you’re on your own. I haven’t slept in sixteen hours. I need a nap.” I said before I turned the phone on silent and went back to sleep.
Hours later, I woke to a quiet house.
Unease rippled through me when I realized that it’d been hours since I’d heard Cat cry. I jumped out of bed and ran to the living room only to stop dead when I saw the most heartwarming vision of my life.
Jack was on his back, in the recliner, fast asleep, with a sleeping Cat on his chest, scrunched up with her legs and hands underneath her body. A little puddle of drool...or was that spit up... pooled on his chest where her mouth lay open on top of him.