Page 91 of Accidental Vegas Vows

For a second, I let my gaze drift out the passenger window. I didn’t want to see Sophie’s face as she said her words, but as quick as I’d let it happen, the nausea from carsickness started to grow and I was forced to bring her into my field of vision again.

“Have you guys talked about that at all? How is he going to split custody with you if she needs her mother and you won’t be in the same room as him?”

“We’ve had a bit of back and forth through Ethan about it,” I sighed. “We haven’t been able to come to an agreement.”

Her turn signal popped on again, and she took a right where I wasn’t expecting. Maybe there was traffic.

“He wants to be there when she’s born,” I added, my voice barely above a whisper. “I haven’t decided if I can handle that yet.”

An unexpected left, and I started to wonder if maybe she wasn’t taking me home. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but if you want my opinion, you should let him be there. It’s his daughter, too. I know it will be hard for you and that will only potentially make it harder, but I think he deserves to be there.”

The backs of my eyes burned for what felt like the millionth time that day. I’d been so overly emotional since getting pregnant. “I know he does.”

“Why are you worried about seeing him?” Another unexpected turn.

“Because if I see him, I’ll forgive him,” I choked.

“And you don’t want to forgive him?”

“I do want to forgive him.” I sniffled and wiped the little droplet of snot from my nostril with the back of my hand.

“I’m struggling to see the problem here,” Sophie chuckled, the first instance of a little bit of lightness in what felt like a far too heavy day. “If you want to forgive him and if you miss him, you’re just hurting yourself by not allowing that to happen.”

“But I’d be betraying what I want.”

The car came to a stop in a turn lane, the click of her signal indicating left. Gashouse Cove Marina was plastered on the cement sign in swirling letters on the other side of the road. “You just said that what you want is to forgive him. I think you’d be betraying what you wanted.”

My stomach turned as I realized we weren’t just making a U-turn. “Sophie.”

“I’m not going to apologize for this,” she snorted.

“Sophie.”

“Face your fears head on, Liv.”

Chapter 38

Damien

Her warm brown hair rippled in the early winter wind. It was in the forties outside, and yet she wore only a long sleeve black shirt and a pair of black leggings, not a jacket in sight. Only the basic bits of makeup coated her skin — a little bit of mascara, something she called bronzer, and a smattering of blush. From the front, I could barely tell she was pregnant from the dark clothing, but the moment she turned halfway down the dock to look over her shoulder at the dry land where Sophie stood, I could see the roundness there, could see how much she’d grown since I’d last seen her at the Botanical Gardens three months ago.

She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, and as I drew a shaky breath in, her gaze snapped back to me and what I stood in front of.

She paused, one hand covering her mouth, her other forearm resting just above her bump and just below her breasts. I knew she was reading it. I knew she could see the bold, curling font behind me on my yacht, could read what I’d renamed it to.

I Love You, Olivia.

She wouldn’t move, so I did.

“I love you,” I said, and God, it was so easy, now. I stopped in front of her, some twenty or so feet away from the boat and at least two from her. “I love you, and I’m so sorry that it took me so long to be able to say that.”

She shook her head in what I could only hope was disbelief. “I don’t?—”

“Please, Liv, understand that I only struggled with admitting that because of Noah. The idea of cementing someone in his life like that and committing to you wholly when you had the potential to break not only me, but him as well, scared the living shit out of me. I loved you then, and I love you now, and I love our daughter and everything you’ve done and will do for her.” The words were coming and I couldn’t stop them if I wanted to. But I didn’t want to, not now, not ever, not when it came to her. “I love you, and I don’t deserve you.”

Her glossy eyes glanced behind me at the yacht again.

“What?”

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