Page 19 of Forever, Finally

Catherine continued to stare at him. “I don’t understand. What are you doing with a minivan? You always said you hated them.”

Rob ruffled his son’s hair, then pulled his wife close. “You always say how you need one. I traded in my sports car for this. For you.”

Catherine started to blink very fast, as if holding in tears. “But you love that car.”

“No. I love you.”

Catherine gave in to tears as she hugged Rob tight. The whole family gathered around the new van and urged her to step inside. Lily felt her own hormones kick in and had to sniff a couple of times.

“That was so cool,” she whispered.

“Yeah, it was.” Jake shifted the baby to his other arm and looped his arm around Lily. “Rob’s a good guy.”

“Uh-huh.”

Lily watched as Anne Marie cuddled with her husband and Teresa smiled at her spouse. Jake’s mother stood surrounded by her grandchildren. It hit Lily that she and Jake were the only two adults here who hadn’t experienced a life-changing love. She was thirty-four years old. What if it never happened? What if she lived the rest of her life alone?

She told herself that getting married didn’t matter. That she was thrilled about the baby, and delighted to be a mother at last. That given the choice between a child and a husband, she would choose a child. The thing was, she wasn’t sure if she believed it, nor did she understand why she had to chose.

* * *

Jake came in a little after seven in the evening. He usually worked twenty-four hours at a time, but today he’d worked twelve hours to cover for a buddy at the station. They’d had four runs, one to a serious house fire. He was tired, but content. He liked the days when he made a difference.

As he pulled off his boots and stepped into the kitchen he was surprised to find the room dark. While he didn’t really expect Lily to cook for him, she usually had something started for dinner.

“Lily?” he called as he walked toward the hall.

He heard a sound he couldn’t recognize. Visions of her having fallen, or doubled up in pain because something was wrong with the baby gave him speed.

“Lily?” he called again, fighting the frantic worry. Dear God, she had to be okay.

“In h-here.”

Her voice was muffled, as if she’d been crying. Panic turned to temper. Had that rat bastard been back in touch with her? He wouldn’t put it past Michael to dump her publicly, then try to make things right later. As if Lily would ever go back to a man who’d lied about being married then left her at the altar. He walked into the living room and paused. She wouldn’t, would she?

Lily sat curled up on the sofa—at least, as curled up as her pregnancy would allow her. She’d been crying, although when she saw him, she swiped her hand across her face.

“Is it seven all ready? I didn’t notice the time. How was your day? I’ll get started on dinner right away.”

He crossed to her and settled on the sofa. “Are you okay? Is everything all right with the baby?”

“What?”

She was still in her scrubs, with her hair pulled back into a braid. Her lashes were spiky from crying and her cheeks flushed. She looked amazing and it was all he could do not to pull her close and kiss her. A real kiss, not one of those brief pecks they often shared.

She cleared her throat. “The baby’s fine. I’m okay.” A tear spilled out of her right eye. “Well, maybe not completely okay, but there’s nothing physically wrong.”

Sweet relief flooded him as tension fled his body. If Lily and the baby were all right, then they would deal with whatever the other problem was.

“Then tell me what else is wrong,” he said gently.

“Nothing.” She shook her head. “It’s stupid, really.”

“Stupid is one of my favorite things.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “I used to be really together and normal. Lately I feel fragile, like I could snap in two.”

“Don’t you think that some of that has to do with the hormones?”

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