Keeping Their Love (Griffin Brothers #7) (7 page)

“Please do.”

I spend the rest of the
night keeping that promise. I wear the robe to answer the door for
our breakfast, and then we go pick up our boy. We take pictures with
Buzz, Woody, and everyone else we can find. Even the princesses. He’s
little enough to not think girls have cooties yet. I am truly the
luckiest man alive, and no one knows that better than me.

Luke

Well, this is awkward.
The rehearsal dinner has ended, but I’m still sitting here in the
almost empty room, where just a few of us are left. It’s just me,
Jade, Ellie, and my soon to be ex-wife. Oh, and let’s not forget
her sister, who’s the maid of honor at the wedding, and won’t
stop glaring at me. Or her doctor, whose wife has become good friends
with my mom and has also been giving me strange looks all night.
Probably because I’ve been drinking non-stop.

It’s the doctor who
finally speaks. “I know things are hard, Luke. But as I’ve told
Olivia, the two of you still have time to make choices.”

“Choices?” What the
hell is he talking about?

“There’s no choice.
I’ve told you that, over and over again. It doesn’t matter what
he wants. I’m having this baby.”

“What the fuck,
Olivia?” I ask.

I may have been
drinking, but I’m not drunk enough to ignore that there’s
something going on here. Something he thinks I know about. I’d like
to know, though, and I realize that one way or another, I’m getting
the answers I need tonight.

“You haven’t told
him?” he asks, his eyes wide.

“It’s not his
choice.”

“So, the baby really
isn’t mine. Good to know,” I say as I stand up.

“Of course the baby’s
yours,” Rose tells me, standing to face me. “How could you even
think my sister would cheat on you?”

“She didn’t tell me
she was pregnant, and now she says I have no choice in whatever the
fuck’s going on. I think it’s pretty clear that it’s not mine.”

“Olivia, you promised
me that you would tell him. He has a right to know.”

“I can’t, Doc. I
just can’t. Because I won’t change my mind. And if he tries to
change it, I’ll hate him forever.”

“You won’t know
until you tell me, now will you?” I’m being a surly bastard, but
I really don’t give a fuck.

She looks at me then,
the woman I love more than life itself. I see the tears in her eyes,
and I just want to hold her and tell her we’ll be okay. But I can’t
if she won’t talk to me.

“Can we go somewhere
and talk?” she asks in a small voice, running her hands over her
stomach.

“Yes.”

“You can use the
house. We didn’t cancel anything, so it’s all set up,” Jade
tells me.

“The house?”

“I was planning on us
having a romantic night at the house here. Before I found out what
was upsetting you. Or at least the part of it you finally let me
know. I thought maybe I could make you love me again.”

The alcohol is making
me a little more honest than I want to be, but it is what it is. I’ve
laid myself bare for her before. I can do it again. Because I love
her. And nothing will ever change that. Not even if this baby
belonged to someone else. I’d hate what she did, but I could never
hate her.

That realization sends
a shudder through my body and makes me realize that there has to be a
way to fix this. Before I knew she was pregnant, I was willing to do
anything I could to keep her. Yes, she lied to me and is in fact,
still lying to me. But I still need to try and keep her.

“I’ve never stopped
loving you Luke. Never. Do you still want me to go there with you?
You may not like what I tell you.”

“But I’ll love you
no matter what, Ollie.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve been a
dick the last couple of days because I was hurt. But even if the baby
was someone else’s, I’d raise it if that’s what you wanted.
Because I meant my wedding vows. Both times I said them. For better
or for worse, I’m yours. I screwed that up once, but I’m not
going to do that again.”

“It’s your baby. I
promise. And we’ve both screwed things up. I don’t want to do
that again, either.”

“Then we definitely
need to go talk.”

I hold out my hand, and
she takes it. I pull her to me and kiss the top of her head. We walk
out to the waiting car and make the hour long drive to the house. We
don’t talk, or even look at each other. We just hold hands.

I lead her up the
stairs to my room once we’re inside. The interior is flickering
with the light of electric candles everywhere. There’s also stuffed
animals covering almost every surface, and a plate of macarons from
Drago Sisters Bakery back in Vegas. The bed is covered in flower
petals, with a sexy lace nightie in the middle.

“It’s beautiful.
And perfect.”

“Still?”

“Always.”

She grabs a bigger
version of her Ollie octopus, and clutches it to her chest as she
sits on the floor. She pats the space next to her, and I join her. I
know why she ignored the bed, but we could’ve cuddled in the chair.
Then again, maybe it’s not time for cuddling again yet.

“You can tell me
anything, Ollie. In fact, I need you to tell me everything. Even if
it’s bad. I can handle it as long as I know you won’t leave.”

“I won’t,” she
says, taking a deep breath. “When I found out I was pregnant, I was
so happy, but also so scared.”

I want to ask her why,
but I sense that she needs for me to let her say it all before I
speak. So I remain quiet and just place my hand over one of hers.

“I should’ve told
you this before we got married. Or stayed married, but I couldn’t.
My parents almost had a third child. They found out the baby had Down
Syndrome and chose to terminate the pregnancy. Although it’s not
very often that it’s inherited, I knew I carried a gene that could
make it more prevalent in a child.”

I’m breathing as hard
as she is as she continues. “I didn’t want a test, because
there’s no way I would ever terminate a pregnancy. I’m totally
pro-choice, but I couldn’t do it myself. And I don’t care if my
child has special needs. I wouldn’t love my baby less for it.”

“But you did have the
test, didn’t you?” I ask, remembering the doctor saying that we
had options.

She nods. “Doc
convinced me that either way, I needed to be prepared. That’s when
I decided I was going to wait until after the test to tell you. I
wanted you to have a chance to leave if you couldn’t handle it.”

“You think I would
leave you, and our
child
,
because he or she would have special needs?”

I remove my hand from
hers and just stare at her in shock. My anger’s coming back now,
too. How could she think that about me? I volunteer with Special
Olympics and Opportunity Village in Las Vegas.

“No. Yes. Maybe. No.
I let Doc get me freaked out, but I know you’ll love him even
though he’ll need some extra help with things.”

“Him? It’s a boy?”

“Yes. It’s a boy.
The test told us that, too.”

I push her hands out of
the way so I can cup her stomach with my hands. Then I lean over and
kiss that little bump. It’s not enough. I’m not close enough to
my son. I want to crawl inside her womb and tell my little boy how
much I love him. Just the way he is.

“Have you had a
sonogram already?”

“No. I-I couldn’t
do that without you.”

I look up into her eyes
and see remorse there, along with fear. She went the wrong route with
all of this, but I know she thought she was doing it for the right
reasons. What’s most important is that she would’ve never even
thought of giving up our child. She was ready to go to battle with me
to protect him. She knew deep down that she didn’t have to, but she
would’ve.

“You’re not going
to be doing any of this without me, Ollie. I love you and I already
love our perfect little boy, too.”

“I’m so sorry,
Luke. I knew it wouldn’t matter to you, but the doctor had me so
scared.”

“I know Mom’s
friends with his wife, but I think you need a new doctor. I’m
seriously pissed that he was still talking about options to you
tonight. We need someone who’s with us all the way.”

“You’re right. I’ll
start looking for a new one when we get home.”

“
We’ll
start looking. Together. Always together.”

“Always.”

I lean over and kiss my
wife for the first time in a long time. She deepens the kiss, and is
practically tearing at my shirt when I pull back from her. “Ollie?”

“This pregnancy has
made me so fucking horny. All I want to do every time I see you is
tear your clothes off.”

“It’s okay for us
to—“

“Yes. God yes.”

“Then tear away.”

Buttons are flying as
she rips my shirt open, and I almost come with how hot it is. How hot
she
is. I help her
with my pants as she pulls her thong off and throws it to the side. I
try to take her dress off, but she pushes my hands away. “Later. I
need you now.”

I laugh as I pull her
on top of me on the bed. The lingerie is forgotten, and so is all the
rest of the romance, as she rides me hard. I let her take her
pleasure, and then I’m getting mine. I only take her two more times
that night because the mother of my child needs her sleep, whether
she wants it or not.

When we get back to the
hotel in the morning, I move her bags into my room, and Ollie gives
me my Valentine’s Day presents. And I know that she meant it when
she said that she didn’t doubt me. There’s a baseball cap,
t-shirt, and hoodie that all have an “F. D.” on the front inside
a shield like Superman, and say “Best Future Dad Ever” on the
back. She also got me another signed hockey stick for the collection
that’s growing in my home office.

I take out the box I
bought Thursday. We weren’t talking, but I knew I wanted it for
her. She opens the box and starts crying. “Luke, you got this for
me even though you were mad at me?”

“Yeah. We’re going
to get mad at each other. It happens. But you’re my baby’s mom,
no matter what.”

I help her put on the
necklace, which is silver and has a mother and child reaching for
each other, with a ruby heart below them. “I love it, Luke. Thank
you.”

“No. Thank you. For
carrying my child and protecting him, even when you thought you might
need to protect him from me.”

“I never really
thought that.”

“I know. Just another
thing for me to thank you for.”

I take her into the
Disneyland for a Dole Whip because she says she really wants one. We
browse the shops at both parks and buy pretty much every baby item we
see. When it’s time for her to start getting ready for the wedding,
I kiss her softly and remind her that I’ll always love her. Because
I will.

Miles

This is it. The day
I’ve wanted and hoped for since I was eighteen. Alex is about to
walk down the aisle and become my wife. At Disneyland. The only place
that would’ve been better is Disney
World
,
but the travel time would’ve eaten up too much of our time. This is
the first place we spent time at as a real couple, so it’s a great
substitute.

Alex has been with my
mom and Rose all day, while I’ve been hanging out with my brother,
Matt, and his friends Aiden and Nate. None of them are even close to
having a steady girlfriend so it worked out perfectly for me. We rode
all the roller coasters multiple times. The only thing that would’ve
made the day better would’ve been if I could’ve woken up with
Alex by my side and spent the day with her. She insisted on being
traditional, though, and as history has shown, I’ll do pretty much
anything for her.

I’m standing at the
entrance to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle with Matt, Aiden, Nate, Zane
Wilson, and the Griffin brothers beside me when Cinderella’s Coach
pulls up. The door doesn’t open, and all I can see is Rose. Yasmin,
Chloe, Candi, Olivia, Quinn, Erika, and Sam walk down the aisle in
their dark turquoise beaded gowns first. The coach door opens and
Maggie, my Mom and my Gram help Hope, Erin, and Dave out. The girls
flank Dave and start down the aisle, tossing white rose petals in the
air. We’re all laughing at how cute they are. But then things turn
serious, for me at least.

Rose gets out of the
coach and walks down the aisle, then Gary helps Alex out. She’s so
beautiful that I almost fall to my knees right then and there. Her
wedding dress is sheer with lace over her shoulders and breasts. It
has a full beaded skirt that skims the ground. She has a tiara on
with a long veil attached. Her bouquet is white roses tied with thick
turquoise ribbon.

She takes Gary’s arm
on one side and Mom’s on the other. My Gram and Maggie walk beside
them. This is what she wanted, both her family, and mine, because
they’ve all been an important part of her life, and are perfect
stand-ins for her parents.

We smile at each other
as she walks to me. I want to rush over to her, but I don’t. I know
she’ll want me to wait for her. I’d wait forever for her if
that’s what she needed. Thankfully, she’s by my side in less than
a minute. Alex give her bouquet to Rose, and then I take her hands in
mine.

We chose traditional
vows, but also wanted to say one thing to each other that expresses
how we feel about each other. “I’ve always felt free to be happy
when I’m with you. Both when I was younger and now. Thank you for
that,” she tells me, as she tears up.

“I’m much more me
when I am with you. You set me free.”

We both have tears
falling down our cheeks as we’re pronounced man and wife. I’m not
ashamed. Because real men
do
cry. I kiss her when I’m told I can, pouring all my love and
gratitude into that press of lips. I feel it right back from her.