TWO WEEKS LATER
I take a deep breath and knock on the door to Toni’s gym. Jax stands beside me, a comforting hand on my back. It’s been three weeks since I last saw her because she’s been on the road. We could have called her, but she’s always super busy, and besides, I wanted to see her face to face when we tell her that we dealt with Foster Carmichael.
The day after what happened in the basement, my mom went back to that old Brownstone she swore she’d never set foot in again and told her mom that her father had packed up and moved to Havana with his long term lover, Ed Sawyer, and wouldn’t be coming back.
Jax and Jessie Ryan set up a trail of emails and correspondence dating back months between Foster and Ed, declaring their love and planning their getaway. My mom said that her own mom actually smiled when she told her, and well, let’s hope Foster Carmichael’s departure from this earth ends up being a good thing for her too.
The same information was sent to Shannon back in Dallas, along with the videos that Ed recorded without her knowledge and an email telling her he had confessed to hurting her dog, Huxley too. I hope that she is able to move on. After all, she is definitely better off without that pig of a husband, and at least now she knows the kind of man he really was.
Jax took Foster’s computers and destroyed them as well as the cloud files with the videos of the two of us.
It all worked out kind of perfectly, but the only person we still need to speak to is Toni. The longer we stand here waiting for the door to open, the lower Jax’s hand slides until it’s resting on my ass.
I look sideways at him. “Do you have to?”
He shrugs. “You’re my wife and your ass is fucking beautiful. So sue me.”
Even though I love that he always seems to have his hands on me, I roll my eyes at him.
“Oh, you’re gonna pay for that, angel,” he whispers just as the door opens and Toni is standing there grinning at us.
“You two are so darn cute,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the door jamb.
“Were you watching us?” Jax asks feigning a scowl.
She shrugs. “I heard you two were into that now?”
“Too soon, Moretti,” Jax says and she starts laughing before stepping aside and allowing us into her gym.
“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about, actually,” I say as she closes the heavy metal door behind us.
“Oh, you find something out?” she asks as she walks to the back room and we follow her.
“You could say that,” Jax says as he looks around the gym. “Where’s Benji?”
I only just noticed that he’s not here either. He trains Toni and looks after her gym. I’ve never known him not be here when she is.
“He’s packing,” she says with a shrug.
“Packing?” I say.
“Yeah. I got a new sponsorship deal, but they want me to move my training to Chicago.”
“You’re going back to Chicago?” Jax asks with a frown.
“I guess so. Bye bye sunshine. But, I got to go where the sponsors want me, so…” she shrugs. “I figure a few more years and then I’ll retire and go live in Bali or somewhere.”
“So you’ll be back in the loving bosom of the Moretti family?” Jax laughs softly and I feel like I’m missing a joke.
“Ha,” she snorts. “Fat chance.” Then she looks at me. “Looks like you’ll need to find a new trainer, princess. Sorry about that.”
“I’ll take over Lucia’s training,” Jax says and Toni arches an eyebrow at him.
“What?” he says with a frown.
“Like you two could do anything involving that kind of close contact without fucking?”
“She kind of has a point,” I mutter and Toni winks at me. I feel a pang of sadness as I realize how much I’m going to miss her.
“So, you wanted to tell me something?” she looks between Jax and me.
I swallow hard. I still feel so guilty about dragging her into the whole video mess. “Only that we found out who took those videos and we made sure that every copy was destroyed.”
“Along with the people responsible,” Jax adds.
“You didn’t keep a copy just for yourselves?” she asks with a wicked grin. “I mean, ‘cause if you did, I wouldn’t mind taking a look myself.”
“No we didn’t,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Shame,” she says with a soft sigh.
“We just wanted you to know it was dealt with.”
“I appreciate that,” she says, her tone more serious now. “That must be a relief, right?”
“God, yes,” I agree.
“Then I’m glad you sorted it. And maybe I’ll see you both at another fight some time?”
“Maybe,” Jax agrees, but I have a feeling this might be the last time I ever see Toni. It makes me feel a little sad, but she doesn’t seem the type of person to ever settle in one place.
“I’ll miss you guys,” she says. There is none of her usual snark or wicked humor present, just a genuine, friendly affection and respect.
“I’ll miss you too,” I tell her.
“You’re one of a kind, Moretti,” Jax says as he pulls her in for a hug. She pretends to fight him off but then she wraps one arm around while pulling me in with the other.
“Don’t you two dare make me cry,” she whispers.
Matthias is helping Jax prepare a sauce for dinner while I chop vegetables. Our son talks non-stop about everything he did in school today and Jax listens intently. The two of them together still make me smile.
I’m still smiling when a sudden wave of nausea washes over me. I hold my hand to my mouth because I think I might just vomit right here onto the kitchen counter, but then the feeling passes almost as quickly as it came.
I glance at Jax and Matthias again, who are still deep in conversation. I’ve experienced that strange kind of sudden nausea before.
“Just going to use the bathroom,” I say as calmly as I can.
“Okay,” they say in unison, smiling at me.
As soon as I’m out of the kitchen, I run to the bathroom. Opening the small wooden cabinet, I pull out the paper bag from inside. I stocked up on a few pregnancy tests when I was at the pharmacy the other day. Jax seems to be on a mission to impregnate me as soon as possible, so it seemed like a good idea to have some in the house.
A few minutes later, I sit on the edge of the bath, staring at the white stick. I don’t dare turn it over yet. My stomach is in knots and waves of nausea wash over me, and I’m not sure if it’s from nerves now or something else.
There is a soft knock at the door. “You okay, baby?” Jax asks.
I draw in a deep breath. He should be here for this, right? I’ll just have to deal with his disappointed face if there is only one line on that test.
“Come in,” I croak out the words.
A second later, he steps inside, his face etched with concern. “What’s wrong?”
I nod to the lid of the toilet.
His eyes grow wide as he sees the test sitting there. “Are you late? What does it say?”
“I don’t know if I’m late. I only stopped my pill three weeks ago. I have no idea when to expect my period, but I felt really sick just before in the kitchen. And also I don’t know what it says,” I say all of that so fast it makes my head spin.
He walks over and sits beside me. “Fuck, Luce,” he whispers.
“It’s probably nothing,” I whisper back as he takes my hand in his and squeezes tight. “Will you be disappointed if it isn’t?”
He stares at me, a soft frown on his handsome face. “No, baby.”
I narrow my eyes in suspicion.
“I will be over the fucking moon if you are pregnant, but we only just started trying. I’ll be fine if you’re not. There’s no pressure here. Okay?”
“Okay,” I whisper.
“Is it time to look?”
“Yeah. You want to do it?”
“Ew, no. It’s your pee,” he says with a wicked grin, diffusing the tension and making me giggle in the way that only he can.
“What? You would drink my pee if I asked you to.”
“Nope,” he shakes his head. “I’ll give you pretty much anything you want, angel, but golden showers are a hard limit for me.”
I snort-laugh so hard that I almost pee again. Damn I love this man and his ability to put me at ease. He is just so freaking perfect. Reaching over, I pick up the test and turn it over in my hands. My stomach does a full one eighty flip.
“Oh,” I gasp for breath.
“What?” Jax asks, his eyes full of concern now as he stares at my face instead of just looking at the damn stick.
I hold it up for him. “We’re having a baby.”
He blinks at the stick and for the longest time he says nothing and I’m wondering if he’s changed his mind about the whole baby thing. But then he stands up, scoops me into his arms and starts smothering my face with kisses as he walks into our bedroom.
“You.” Kiss. “Are.” Kiss. “Fucking.” Kiss. “Incredible.”
“Jax,” I giggle, kicking my legs as I squirm in his huge arms. “Stop. Matthias will hear.”
“So?”
“We can’t tell him yet,” I whisper. “It’s too early to tell people.”
He lays me down on the bed. “Okay,” he agrees as he lies next to me. “But everything will be okay, you know that, right?”
I smile at him in response because I can’t lie. Nobody ever knows that.
He slides a hand onto my stomach. “Fuck, Luce,” he breathes.
“I know,” I whisper.
“I love you so fucking much, angel.”
“Love you too, cowboy.”
