Page 92 of Safe and Sound

As I thought of Shannon, I ducked my head. “It worked before.”

But I wasn’t being honest with her or myself. It was months after Shannon before I could even entertain the thought of being with another woman. Maybe it was because I was older and jaded that allowed me to partake in the threesome last night. Basically all I did was partake. I sure as hell didn’t enjoy myself. I came because I had one girl riding my dick and the other riding my face.

With a sad shake of her head, Caterina replied, “I have a feeling you’re lying to me and yourself.”

“As usual, you’re right.”

“Please make sure to tell Callum that,” she teased.

Chuckling, I replied, “I’ll try my best.”

Caterina cupped my cheek. “It’s good to smile on your face again.”

“Don’t get used to it.

As Julianna stirred in my arms, Caterina smiled. “Your Kavanaugh girls will see you through this.”

“I know you will.”

And that was the truth. My family might’ve cost me Ava, but they were the balm to heal my fractured soul.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Ava

Eight and a Half Months Later

As an agonized scream tore from my lips, pain charged like a locomotive through my abdomen. Fuck my epidural that had worn off about two hours ago. This agony wasn’t how I saw things going when I made my birth plan. But like everything with this pregnancy, nothing happened like it was supposed to.

Somehow I blinked and the months flew by. It seemed one minute I clutched the pregnancy test results in my hand in the bathroom at Taverna by the Sea, and the next my water wasbreaking while I was on a conference call. That life-altering moment had been followed by frantic calls to my parents and Nick. Despite all the craziness, I’d managed to get to the hospital safe and sound and in record time.

Now twelve hours since arriving, I was emotionally and physically overought. I collapsed back against the pillows as tears streaked down my cheeks.

“Just one more push, Ava,” the doctor said from her place between my legs.

My energy was completely spent. I didn’t think I could raise my head again, least of all push a baby out of me. “I can’t,” I choked out.

“Yes, you fucking can,” Nick’s voice assured me from my left side.

“Easy for you to say,” I argued feebly.

Before he could utter a comeback, Mom’s face appeared in my line of sight. With a reassuring smile, she said, “To écheis aftó gennaío korítsi mou.”

It was rare for her to speak Greek to me. To tell me I had this, and I was her brave girl was everything I needed. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Raising up, I gripped my knees while I tucked my chin to my chest. With a guttural groan, I pinched my eyes shut as I put everything I had within me into that push. And in that moment, one face flashed before my eyes.

Dare’s.

He didn’t wear his usual cocky smirk. It was the one I only saw him give to me. One of worship and adoration.

For an instant, the pain echoing through my chest outweighed the pain in my abdomen. Despite everything that had gone down between us, I suddenly wished more than anything that he was here witnessing his child be born. “What have I done?” I murmured as the contraction began to ebb.

“It’s a girl!”

A sob tore through my chest as my eyes popped wide to stare up at the wailing, bloodied baby in the doctor’s arms. “Really?” I questioned.

Unlike most moms-to-be, I had foregone finding out the gender. Instead, I decided to keep it a surprise until the very end. Although I would’ve loved a boy just as much, I’d often thought over my pregnancy how much easier it would be to parent a girl on my own. Not that a son wouldn’t have had my dad, Nick, and my other nephews for role models.

But somehow I always saw a girl.

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