Page 99 of Dearly Betrayed

“Uh, yes, that’s how it works.”

“Wife, my bliss, my heaven, my little fox, my baby, you are having mychild!” He grabs me in his arms and lifts me up, my enormous, very naked husband, and hugs me so hard I think he might break my ribs.

“I’m happy you’re happy,” I croak, grinning. “But you’re smothering me.”

His grip loosens enough so I can breathe, but he doesn’t let me go. He’s laughing and dancing around and pulling me along with him—freaking Jayson Costa giddy with joy—and my heart swells a thousand sizes too big.

I hoped for a happy reaction but this is a little much.

“I am beyond happy. This is the best news I’ve ever gotten in my life. You are perfect, my wife, and I am going to pamper you and take care of you forever.”

“You can start by putting me down.”

He grunts and places me gently onto the bed then drops to his knees. He takes my hands and presses his face to my belly. I laugh, cradling his head.

“I can’t wait to hear our baby kick and move around in there,” he whispers, closing his eyes. “I’m going to stay right here, just like this, for the next nine months.”

“God, I hope not. It’ll make showering really hard.”

“Is this why you asked about London?” He glances up at me, frowning. “You want to have the baby over there?”

“I don’t know what I want, but I was thinking it was a possibility.”

“How about this. We stay here for the pregnancy. You’ll give birth surrounded by the best doctors in the world. Then we’ll go to Dublin.”

I tilt my head side to side. “That could work.”

“Casey will be here to help you along, and I’m going to dote on you. I promise, your pregnancy will be as comfortable as it possibly can be.”

“Then home?”

“Then home,” he agrees.

“Alright.” I lean forward and kiss him gently. “Now, my beautiful man, shall we celebrate? I was thinking you’d get me off one more time then we’d have a nice meal.”

“Works for me,” he says, pushing me back onto the bed.

Chapter45

Jayson

One Year Later

I watchthe sun rise from the balcony with my baby daughter in my arms, a bottle in her mouth, her little hands on either side. She feeds slowly, mostly finished at this point, but drifting in and out of sleep.

I let her go. There could be a dozen nurses here watching over my beautiful daughter, Neve, but this is my favorite time of the day. Fallon’s getting some extra sleep and everything is quiet, the world’s starting to wake up, and I’m alone with my daughter.

“You’re going to learn to ride a bike,” I whisper to her, smiling to myself. “You’ll walk for the first time. You’ll run for the first time. You’ll meet a boy, he’ll break your heart, and I’ll break his knees, all for the first time. I’ll kiss you every day. You’ll get annoyed with my kisses for the first time. You’ll get so angry at me you scream for the first time, but I’ll always forgive you, and I’ll always try to do right by you.” This is my little ritual: I whisper to my girl everything she’ll do, the story of her life in a litany of firsts.

First car, first date, first school day, first bus ride, first broken bone, first bloody nose, first skinned knee.

“You’ll have so many cousins,” I tell her. “Brothers and sisters too. A big family of people that love you on both sides of the Atlantic. An Irish family and an American family. So much love for you.” I kiss her and she stirs, still in Neverland. “You’ll have a big, protective father, but you’ll get used to me, I promise. I’ll always keep you safe, no matter what. That will probably get annoying. I’m sorry in advance.”

The sliding door opens.

“You’re still doing that, huh?”

I turn around as Fallon steps onto the balcony wrapped in a blanket, two mugs of coffee in her hand. She places one down at my elbow as she sits in the chair next to mine.

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