Uncontrollable (54 page)

Courtney also quit the bank, and she helps out in
the front and the marketing side. She says she’s not much of a cook, but she is
always in the kitchen eating something, blaming it on the two growing boys who
are in her belly.

Yes, they are having twin boys.   

 She cried and said that she could not live in a
house full of only men. To my surprise, Josh said they would try for a girl.
The rate they’re going, I expect them to have five kids within the next four
years.

 Missy has been around a lot. She is always helping
Angel no matter what it is. Driving her to appointments. Staying late at the
bakery. Putting up flyers. The girl is always working, and I know Angel is
thankful for that.

 She and Tate still haven’t spoken. Well, he tries
to talk to her but she ignores him completely. I catch her watching him talk to
other girls, and she has the saddest look in her blue eyes. But as soon as she
looks away she puts a smile on her face. I know it’s fake. No one else does,
because they are all too busy doing something. But I know she’s still hurting.
She may hurt the rest of her life. I know if Angel were to turn around and walk
away from me, I would never be the same. I would never feel this love for
anyone else.

I also catch Tate watching her as well. I know how
his body stiffens when Braxton kisses her on the cheek goodbye. If you ask me,
it’s sad. Why waste time with one-night stands when the love of his life is
right in front of him?

“You’re lucky you aren’t getting two girls.” Parker
elbows Josh in the side as he speaks.

Courtney is less than two months away from her
delivery date. And if you ask me she looks like she is about to pop right now.
We are all gathered at Courtney and Josh’s house for the baby shower that the
girls are throwing her.

I’m sure baby showers are for the women only, but
Josh wanted to be a part of it. He had to persuade Parker to show up with food
and then when that wasn’t looking like enough, he threw in lots of beer and a
thing of rum. It was a done deal.

“Could you imagine?” Josh shakes his head. “I know
how bad we were in high school.” He points to Tate and then Parker. “I would
kill a boy if he treated my daughter like we treated girls.”

 I nod my head.

 “What about you, Slade? What are you hoping for?”
Parker asks before taking a drink of his beer.

“I’m hoping for a boy.” I smile. Angel and I have
decided to keep the sex of the baby a surprise. We don’t want to know. I keep
having these crazy dreams that it’s a boy.

 “That’s what I would want,” Parker says, and we
all stare at him wide-eyed. He shrugs. “You know, if I ever wanted kids—which I
don’t. I’m just saying.”

“I will never want kids,” Tate says matter-of-fact.
“No to a boy. No to a girl.”

He shakes his head quickly.

 “Why not?” I ask curious.

 He sighs. “Just don’t want them,” he says
carelessly.

I smile. “Courtney once said something similar to
me and then turned up pregnant.”

 Tate shakes his head. “I’m always careful. I don’t
even want the responsibility of a relationship let alone the responsibility of
being a father. Plus, when you have kids with someone that you’re not
physically in a relationship with, the women seem to use the kids as leverage.
That’s not fair,” he finishes before he takes a drink of his beer.

Parker nods. “I’ve seen that in many cases I get
called on. Hell, some have even been married and still try to use their
children as leverage.”

I sit back as I look over at Tate. I wonder what
his childhood was like. I know it wasn’t sunshine and rainbows like most kids
get. His was dark and physical, and it makes me sick thinking that may be one
of the reason he doesn’t want a kid of his own.

“Hey, those are my favorites,” Courtney says
pulling me out of my daze and snatching the blueberry muffin out of my hand.

I look up at her from her and Josh’s kitchen table.
“That was mine.”

“I’m so sorry.” She places her hand over her heart
and sighs dramatically. “Do you want it back?”

“Yes,” I say trying not to smile as Tate laughs.

She places the muffin to her lips and licks the
entire top of it and then places it down in front of my face.

“Yuck. I don’t want it now.” I push it away, and
Josh laughs.

 “Oh, what a shame.” She spins around and waddles
off into their living room, giggling.

“Am I the only one who thought that the way she
licked that was hot?” Parker asks as he eyes her ass.

 “What is wrong with you?” Josh asks placing his
elbows on the table and shaking his head.

 Parker shrugs. “Nothing that I know of. I don’t
know if it’s hanging out with these pregnant women or what, but I have come to
find pregnant women very attractive,” he says with all seriousness.

“You’re sick.” Tate sighs.

 I laugh.

 “No really. They’re always touching their bellies
and their boobs double in size.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “And you can have all
the sex with them you want and they can’t get pregnant,” he adds with
excitement.

“Stay away from my wife,” I threaten him.

 He throws his hands up in the air. “She’s all
yours.” He laughs.

Just then I watch my beautiful wife enter the
kitchen with all of the women following after her. She places a box on the
table and kicks Parker out of his seat to allow Courtney to sit down.

She smiles as she lifts the box up off the cake
that she had made for her baby shower and Courtney screams, making Parker jump
back from the table. She stands throws her arms around Angel and starts crying.

 “Never mind.” Parker sighs. “The hotness bubble of
pregnant women has been popped. Too much crying, I can’t stand to see a woman
cry.” He turns and walks out of the kitchen.

 “Are you sure you like it,” Angel asks.

 “I love it. It’s perfect.”

 “I’m glad you like it,” she says and then turns to
face me.

 I lean back in my chair and look at her beautiful
face. Those bright green eyes are shining, and her smile lights up her face.
Her long dark hair is up in a high ponytail. She’s so fucking gorgeous, and
it’s hard to believe she’s mine.

She walks up and looks down at me with her hand
over her belly. “I have a surprise for you.”

My eyes drop to below her belly. “I have a surprise
for you too.” I smirk. We had to wait quite a while before she was able to have
sex after the accident. Now, we do it more than we ever did before.

 “Gross. Please stop,” Tate growls in disgust.

 “You act like you’re twelve,” I say looking over
to him.

 He narrows his dark blue eyes on me. “Well, you
act like a horny teenager.”

 “Boys,” Angel says getting our attention. “My
surprise is not sex related.” I sigh and Tate smirks.

 “I brought more of your favorite muffins. They are
over there hiding in that red container.” She points to it as it sits on the
kitchen counter. “Go and get them before Courtney sees them.” She then turns
around and laughs as she walks away.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

I stand in Courtney and
Josh’s living room as I watch my husband along with my brother and his friends
sit over at the kitchen table drinking beer while talking about whatever guys
talk about. And I sigh when I see Slade reach up and rub his shoulder. I know
it hurts him from his fight with White. When I woke up alone, I called Slade.
When he didn’t answer, I called Tate. Tate informed me that he was with
Parker—I knew that meant trouble, and I had to get to him. When we found him
sitting on those steps with blood on his face and holding his shoulder. I
flipped.

I slam the door to the cop car and make my way
over to him. “What the fuck were you thinking?” I snap not even bothering to
look down at the body lying on the grass. It might make me puke if I do. And no
one takes a pregnant lady who’s throwing up seriously.

He just smiles up at me as he holds his
shoulder.

 I stop in front of him and place my hands on my
hips. “It’s like five o’clock in the morning. And you just leave me at home
with no note, no nothing?” I snap. “You didn’t even answer my phone call,” I
shout. “I’ve been worried sick you jackass.” I throw my hands up in the air.
“Did you think you could just come home and I’d still be asleep? That you wouldn’t
have to tell me what you had done?” I shout, furious at him for putting his
life in danger.

He smirks and his body shakes a bit as he tries
to hold in his laugh. I narrow my eyes on him.

“Are you done?” he asks simply, and I fist my
hands down by my side.

“Done? No I’m not done.” I state. “You could
have been killed.”

He stands from the stairs and walks toward me
before placing his lips on mine. I wrap my arms around his stomach and kiss him
back, thankful he’s alive.

“We need more ribbon,” Courtney announces getting
my attention.

“I’ll go get some,” I say as I walk out of the
living room and into her bedroom.

 “Oh,” I say jumping when I see Missy sitting on
Courtney’s bed with the ribbon in her hand.

“Sorry,” she sniffs. “I came to get more ribbon but
got distracted.” She wipes her nose with the back of her hand.

“Are you okay?” I ask softly. She has done like a
one-eighty since her breakdown at my wedding. She’s always happy. She went and
had her hair changed toplatinum blond. It makes her blue eyes stand out even
more. She never wears her glasses anymore, and she always takes the time every
day to do her hair and makeup. She looks like a woman who just walked off of a
runway from somewhere.

She nods. “Is it Braxton?” I heard them arguing
yesterday on the phone while we were at the bakery and he ended up not showing
tonight.

 She shakes her head. “No.” She wipes the tears off
of her face and looks up to me. “I’ll be fine. I’m just a little emotional
today.” She lets out a little laugh at herself, and I frown.

 She stands and smoothes out her light yellow
sundress that showcases off her small frame and then holds up her ribbon.
“Let’s go see who can get the closest to guessing the size of Courtney’s
belly.”

“I’m kinda nervous,” I admit with a smile. “She may
cry if I make it too big.”

 She laughs. “Yeah. We should do half of what we
think she really is,” she agrees.

When you first get pregnant
you think nine months is a long time. Then the accident happened and I was in
so much pain I thought that I would never be back to myself by the time our
baby arrived. I was wrong. It took me about six full weeks to get back to
looking and feeling better. My shoulder still acts up every now and then but
other than that, I’m good.

 Our lives have been so hectic. The bakery is
busier than ever. Slade is still trying to figure out exactly what he, Tate,
and Parker are wanting to do with their new business. Parker is still working
at the precinct, and Tate is still working at Missy’s dad’s shop so there is no
hurry to get it going as well.

 Courtney and Josh had their twin boys, and they
are just the cutest things I have ever seen. She had called me to tell me the
babies were coming while Slade was taking me on a tour of our house. I hated to
cut the tour short, Slade was so proud as he showed me everything, but I
wouldn’t have missed my best friend having her babies for nothing. And the way
she was cussing out Josh, as he screamed like a woman in the background, told
me she needed me there.

 We have officially lived in our house for two
weeks, and today is Slade’s thirty-first birthday. It’s our first big
celebration we have hosted and I went all out.

 “Happy birthday,” I start to sing and everyone
follows as I walk out to place Slade’s cake in front of him in the kitchen of
our new house. I smile as I look out the huge windows that shows off the pool
and backyard.

“Make a wish,” I say looking down at him as he
looks over his birthday cake. I made him a strawberry-filled cake this year
with white icing. I kept it simple. I have a few weeks left, and it kills me to
stand for long periods of time but it didn’t stop me from making him something
that I knew he would like. I’ve been having bad back pains since last night but
I figure it’s just from doing more with the busy bakery and being on my feet
more than usual trying to get ready for Slade’s birthday party.

He winks at me and then leans over blowing out his
candles. We all clap and I start to cut the cake for everyone. I give out the
last piece of cake and walk out of our formal dining room into the kitchen. I
reach into the fridge to grab the punch I had made as well. As soon as I shut
the fridge I feel like my heart stops and my breath catches in my throat as a
pain shoots up my back.

I drop the glass bowl and cry out as I fall to my
knees holding my stomach.

“Angel?” I hear Slade yell as he enters the kitchen
skidding in the punch and the sound of shattered glass scrunching under his
shoes. “What’s wrong?” His worried voice rings louder than everyone else’s who
now stand in the kitchen.

 The pain hits me again, and I grab his arm and
squeeze as it takes my breath away. “The baby,” I cry out. “Something’s wrong,”
I say as I feel wetness pour between my legs.

 I look down quickly to see blood covering my white
dress. I look up to Slade as tears run down my eyes.

 “Call the ambulance,” Vivian cries.

Slade picks me up and takes off toward the door.
“No time. Tate drive us,” he calls out, and I scream out once again at the
pain.

By the time we get to the hospital I feel like my
insides have been ripped out. The pain is unbearable. I know labor is supposed
to be painful but this is different. My body knows something’s wrong.

“Please help my wife,” Slade calls out as we rush
through the Emergency Room doors. Nurses jump to their feet and a stretcher is
pushed over to us where he lays me down on it.

 He starts to rattle off how far along I am and
what is happening. I clench my teeth tightly and grab a hold of the bed as the
pain continues. I’m rushed into an exam room in the ER as nurses swarm around
me.

 “What’s happening?” I cry out. “Please,” I beg.
“Let the baby be okay,” I cry.

A doctor comes rushing in and examines me. Within
two seconds he calling out orders about moving me to the OR to perform an
emergency C-section.

A nurse throws some scrubs over at Slade. “Put
those on. We are about to deliver your baby.”

 “What?” he questions wide-eyed. “It’s too early.”
He shakes his head.

“The cervix has dilated, causing the placenta to
separate from the uterine wall permanently. The baby will die unless we get it
now.”

 “No,” I cry shaking my head.

 He’s by my side in a second. “It’s okay, Angel.
The baby is going to be okay,” he says trying to convince us both.

Once they wheel us down to the OR, I’m given an
epidural, and not being able to feel what my body is going through worries me.

“Slade?” I cry as tears run down my face.

He grabs my hands and looks down at me. “It’s going
to be okay. The baby will be fine,” he reassures me before he looks up and
tries to see what the doctors are doing.

It doesn’t take them more than a minute before I
hear our baby crying. “Congratulations. It’s a girl,” one of the nurses calls
out, and I sob knowing I’m hearing our baby cry for the first time.

“Did you hear that?” Slade asks looking down at me
with tears in his eyes. “You did it, Angel.” He looks up and over to the other
side of the room. “She’s beautiful,” he says in awe.

I start to feel tired and my eyes get heavy.
“Angel?” I hear him say before I lose consciousness.

“What’s wrong with her?” I
demand looking down seeing her eyes shut.

Doctors push me out of the way as they work on her
alongside the nurses.“There’s too much blood,” one says frantically.

 “What going on?” I cry out placing my hand over my
mouth.

“Get him out of here,” another one calls out.
Before I even know what’s going on I’m being ushered out and left to myself in
the hallway. I can’t even see our daughter. I have a daughter. That thought
hits me like a fucking semi. No matter how much you try to prepare yourself for
a child, nothing compares to seeing the beautiful little baby for the first
time.

 A nurse walks out and heads straight toward me
with my daughter bundled up in a pink blanket laying in a bassinet that she
pushes. “The baby is doing just fine. Would you like to hold her?” she asks
with a smile.

 I nod my head and hold my hands out to her. I
swallow the knot in my throat as I look down at her sleeping face. “My wife?” I
ask looking up to her.

“They are having trouble stopping her bleeding,”
she says calmly.

 “What does that mean if they can’t stop it?” I
swallow thickly when she looks down to the floor before quickly looking back up
at me. “That she could bleed to death?” I ask terrified.

She speaks as if she’s rehearsed this in front of a
mirror with no emotion. “Sometimes complications happen. The placenta had been
implanted very low in Sam’s uterus, and that she had evidently been having
contractions for a while.”

I think back through the day. She had been
complaining about her lower back.

 “They will do all they can to stop it,” she
assures me. Then she looks down to the baby in my arms and smiles. “Here.” She
gestures to a room behind me. “Let’s go in here.”

She holds the door open for me as I walk into
another room. I find the nearest chair and sit down in it slowly as I continue
to hold our daughter in it. I can’t keep my tears at bay as they run down my
cheeks.

 I can’t lose my Angel. My world. The mother to my
child.

 I wipe my face quickly not wanting the tears to
drop down on our daughter.

“I will give you a few minutes,” the nurse says
softly. “You may stay here with her. The physician will be out to talk to you
shortly.” Then she turns and walks out of the room.