Taking Chances (29 page)

“Are you done?”
He was smiling.

“Yes.”

“Harper, I love
you more than I could ever explain. Meeting you changed my world. Even when I
thought you would never be mine, I couldn't continue to live a life I knew you
hated. The night you told me you loved me was the best night of my life, up
until tonight. I never want to let you go again, I want to be with you for the
rest of my life. I want to marry you someday Harper.” He paused and searched my
eyes, “I would do anything for you. I don't know what to do to make you believe
me, but I'll spend forever trying to show you.”

“You want to
marry me?”

“You have no
idea how much.” He brought me back so I was half laying his chest.

“Not just
because I'm pregnant?”

He kissed me
softly, “Not at all. I gotta admit, it’s a little bit of a shock, but I’ve
always thought about being with you and starting a family. And even though it’s
sooner than I thought it would be, I’m so freaking excited that it’s happening.
When should we be expecting him?”

“Him?”

“Yep, it's gonna
be a boy.”

I laughed and
ran a hand through his hair, “I'm due October fourth.”

He mentally
counted the months and smiled widely when he was done. “So six months, huh? Do
you want to take next year off from classes?”

“I can't go
back to school.”

“Of course you
can, I'll help you.”

“No, not that.
I know you would.” I bit my lip and laid flat on the bed, “I told Sir that I'm
pregnant.”

He squeezed my
hand once, “And?”

“He uh – isn't
going to pay for school anymore and he said I'm not welcome back home.”

Chase cursed
under his breath, “Are you serious? We'll figure it out, if you want to finish
school we'll make it happen.”

I could make it
happen if I wanted to, but Gummy Bear had changed all my wants in life. “Really,
I don't even want to go back after this semester, that's not why I'm sad. I
just hate how he is. I hate how he resents me for being born.”

He pulled me
back into his side and stroked his hand up and down my side, “It's not your fault.
He's a douche and it's his loss for missing out on an amazing daughter.”

“I was afraid
you'd resent me too, for getting pregnant. You wanted to stop and I pushed
you.”

“It's not like
you had to push hard, I wanted you so bad.”

I nodded and
ran my fingers over his chest.

“I don't resent
you Harper, I never will.”

We sat there
for a while longer, just holding each other and sharing sweet kisses. Bree
popped her head in to let us know the movie would be starting soon and left
right after to give us a few more minutes.

“Harper, I want
you to be mine, and not just because we're having a baby, though I'll warn you,
I'm about to tell everyone that we are.” He smiled and kissed my nose, “But I
want to be able to hold you in public, I want to show everyone that you're
taken and you belong to me. That you’ll always belong to me. Are we done
torturing each other by staying apart?”

“Are you done
leaving me?”

He hovered just
above my lips, “I'll never leave you again sweetie.”

“Then I'm
yours.” I closed the distance and kissed him hard.

N
ow that Chase
knew about the pregnancy, and was completely on board, everything was so much
different around the house. Everyone was happy, Chase was there daily and was even
able to drag me to his house a few times so I could hang out with the guys, but
it had been more than uncomfortable. Brandon had been there twice, and he knew
that Chase was now in the know as well. The look on his face when he saw us
together the first time almost killed me. Chase had flipped out when I started
hyperventilating, but I wouldn't tell him what was going on. The second time,
he'd gotten the hint and only took me around when he knew Brandon wouldn't be
there. If that upset him, he never once mentioned it, and he definitely didn't
show it. I think he was so happy we were finally together, nothing could put him
in a bad mood. And I was happy too, I honestly was, I loved Chase and I loved
the expecting daddy role he'd already taken on. Every day I fell more in love
with him, but it didn't lessen the love I still had for Brandon. Instead, it
was like my heart grew to hold both. Well, all three, if you count my Gummy Bear.
Chase never asked me how I'd told Brandon what happened, to be frank, I think
he didn't want to know. Deep down, he had to know I still loved him, and that
was probably the reason for him to pull me in the opposite direction every time
we saw Brandon after that second encounter at the house. I wanted to talk to
Brandon, alone, to see how he was doing with all of this. But I wasn't sure I'd
be able to handle the conversation, so I continued to talk myself out of it.

We were just
getting into the ultrasound room and Chase couldn't stop smiling and was
practically bouncing up and down. Dr. Lowdry had seemed excited to meet him and
updated him on everything that had happened in the first two appointments, as
well as what to expect this appointment and the ones following over the next
few months. When the lights turned off and the ultrasound started, I finally
understood why Mom had told me I'd only want to be here with Chase. This
was...an out of body experience. It was magical. You could practically see the
love and joy flowing through the two of us. Instead of closing my eyes to
listen to the heartbeat, Chase and I stared at each other for a couple minutes
just smiling and listening to our baby.

“I can't even
believe how perfect of a position your baby is in right now! That is unreal.”
Dr. Lowdry laughed as she clicked some keys to snap a few pictures. “Now, did
you
want
to find out the sex of the baby, or do you want it to be a
surprise?”

“I already
know.” I smiled at the screen, there was no mistaking it.

Chase laughed
and squeezed my hand tighter, “I told you baby. I told you it would be a boy.”

We both looked
at Dr. Lowdry, “It is a boy, isn't it?” I asked. I mean, it
looked
like
it was a boy, but I wasn't the professional.

“Oh he is
definitely a boy.” She laughed again and took a few more pictures as he rolled
slightly.

Chase leaned
over and kissed me sweetly, whispering against my lips, “I love you,” He
glanced down to my stomach and back to me, “and our son so much Harper.” He brushed
his thumbs over my cheeks and kissed me again while Dr. Lowdry turned on the
lights.

She handed us
our new pictures and we walked out of the building. As soon as we reached the
parking lot Chase grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him, slamming his mouth
against mine. I giggled and wrapped my arms around him as he leaned me against
his truck.

“That
was...that was absolutely amazing!” He laughed and kissed me again.

“Having you
there made it so special, all I could think about the last two times was how I
wished you were there to experience it with me. I'm sorry it took me so long to
tell you.”

He shook his
head and opened the door for me, “No
sorrys
today, I love you and we're
having a son. Today is only allowed to be an
I love you
day.”

I smiled and
got in his truck, completely blissed out. We stopped to grab some lunch and
started heading home, so I was confused when we pulled into a Ford dealership.
“Uh...?”

“So I've been
thinking,” he started and grinned mischievously at me, “you're going to need
your own car soon, and I happen to know that you want a blacked out Expedition.”

“Chase...”

“I
may
have had one brought to this dealership.”

“No you
didn't.” My jaw dropped and I looked out the windows.

He shrugged, “I
said I may have. Never said I did.”

I smacked his
arm and hopped out of his truck, he met me on the passenger side and pulled me
into his arms. “Are you being serious?”

“I am.” He
pressed a feather light kiss to my neck, “But we can look around and see if
there's something else you want.”

“Babe!” I
gasped, but reigned in my excitement, “I can't buy a car.” Okay that was
entirely untrue. I'd worked at least forty hours a week almost every week for
six years and saved everything I'd made until I moved here, and even then
Brandon had always been trying to pay for things I'd been about to buy. I still
had well over ninety-eight percent of my savings. Even though Sir was cutting
me off, I could have easily finished my school with what I still had, but I was
having a baby, and I didn't work anymore. I needed to save as much as I could
for him and getting a house. Not that Chase knew how much I had, like Brandon I
wasn't usually one to talk about my money.

“Maybe not, but
we
can.”

“You want to
split it?” I asked confused.

He laughed and
his eyes lit up, “Not exactly. Okay you can tell me if this is moving too fast,
but since I plan on marrying you soon,” he raised an eyebrow to make sure I
understood what that meant and I inhaled audibly, “I wanted to put you on my
bank account so you have access to my money.”

“Chase, I don't
need you to do that and I don't need you to buy me a car.”

“I know Princess,
but I want you to have access to it. I make decent money at the shop, but Bree
and I were also given a lot when Dad's parents died. So I have more than enough
in savings to take care of the three of us, and to buy you a car. It's not a
big deal.”

I bit my lip
and shifted my weight, “I know you want to, and to be honest it kind of excites
me that you want to share all that with me. But I'm saying...I
really
don't
need you to. If we're going to share your bank account, then we should share
mine too.”

“Harper that
isn't necessary.” He smiled and wrapped his arms around me, but blanched when I
whispered how much I had in savings. “Are you serious? Just from working on the
base?” I nodded and he let out a low whistle, sounding like his dad, “Well damn
babe. That's great, and if you want to add it to our accounts that's fine. But
I'd rather not touch that money, we can save it for emergencies, just let me
take care of you.”

“Okay.” I
pressed my lips to his and sighed into his arms.

“You ready to
look for a car?”

I grinned and
jumped back, “Nope! No need to look, I already know I want the Expedition!”

Chase laughed
and pulled me into the showroom, after talking to a couple people they brought
my car around and I tried not to squeal. It was black with black rims, black
leather seats and completely decked out. I was in love with this car. Chase let
me do the test driving and I was bouncing up and down as we did paperwork for
over an hour. My jaw about hit the floor when Chase paid for the entire thing
right then and there. I mean, I knew he'd had more money than me, but to just
pay for something like that seemed crazy to me. Even the guy giving us all the
documents to sign raised an eyebrow when Chase said it would all be taken care
of then. When we were finally finished, we drove to the bank in our separate
cars so Chase could add me to his accounts and I could add my savings to our
now-joint savings account. Thankfully I'd already been using the same bank as
him, so it didn't take too long, but I thought I was going to have a stroke
when I saw how much money we had combined. There was no reason a twenty-two,
and nineteen year old couple about to have a baby and still in college should
have that kind of money. Hell, most fifty year old married couples didn't have
that kind of money. I now understood why Bree bought me Coach purses like it
was no big deal. Because apparently, it
really
wasn't.

We drove back
to Mom and Dad's house, and after showing off my new car to everyone, sat down
for dinner and told them our exciting news from the baby appointment this
morning. They were all ecstatic and we pulled out the names book right then and
started going through them, highlighting names we liked, and bursting into
laughter at some of the more ridiculous “Hipster Baby Names”. About an hour
after dinner, Chase leaned over the back of the couch to wrap his arms around
me.

“Can you do me
a favor?” He whispered low in my ear, my body instantly covered in goose bumps
from his tone.

“Anything.” I
breathed and tilted my head away so he could press his lips to my neck.

“Go pack a bag
for a few nights, and meet me down here in ten minutes.” His lips left my neck
to move to my ear, his voice dropped even lower and went all smooth and sexy,
“You won't need many clothes.”

My eyes widened
and cheeks flamed. “Are we going to your house?” I was a little disturbed, we
hadn't touched each other in
that
way since the weekend I got pregnant,
and I didn't prefer to do anything in a house where my ex-boyfriend was.

“Nope, but it's
a surprise, I can't tell you.”

“You and your
surprises.” I laughed and rolled my eyes, “Okay ten minutes and I'll be ready.”

I rushed
upstairs and grabbed a bag stuffing it full of toiletries, and very few
clothes. When I say few, I mean I only brought one extra outfit. And a pair of
sleep clothes, though I knew I wouldn't be using them. I was back downstairs
and in Chase's truck within seven minutes. We drove for quite a while, but the
time passed quickly while we talked about things we had planned for our son's
future. My mouth formed a large O when he pulled into a beautiful bed and
breakfast in Dana Point.

“Oh my God.” I
whispered as I slowly got out of his truck, “Chase, I don't know how you're
ever going to be able to top today. Finding out we're having a boy, buying me a
car, joining our bank accounts, and this?”

“I promise I'll
always try to top this, but I did want today to be perfect.” He grabbed our
bags and I followed him in. When we were in our room, he pulled me into his
arms and locked his dark blue eyes with mine, “I know what I said earlier, but
don't think we have to do anything this weekend. All I wanted was to have three
nights of just you and me, I don't expect anything.”