“Okay,” Brendan said and nodded, not taking his eyes off the women. “What’s the plan?”
“We break the glass and get them out,” Jax said.
The time it took for Bennett to get back down to them was pure agony. For Brendan, his life was flashing before his eyes. But Bennett was hauling ass down the hill less than a minute later and he was wading into the water next to him, handing Jax a Maglite.
“Turn away,” he shouted into the car.
Both girls turned and a second later Jax smashed the bottom of the flashlight into the window. Glass poured out over Grace, and Jax continued to run the flashlight around the edge, breaking all of the little glass so that it wouldn’t cut the girls when they pulled them out. Then he handed the light back to Bennett, who threw it to the shore. Brendan glanced back for just a second to see Baxter and Shep tying rope to the guardrail.
“Alright, Grace, you’re first. I’m going to pull you out. Paige, the second she’s out I want you to move as carefully and as quickly as possible to this side of the truck. Brendan will help me guide Grace out, and then Brendan will pull Paige out and Bennett will help guide her. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” they both said and nodded.
“Here,” Shep shouted as he threw three separate strands of rope down to them. All three men tied the rope securely to their waists.
“Let’s go,” Jax said, reaching in and pulling Grace from the seat. Brendan grabbed her waist and lifted her, and when her legs cleared the window, Jax moved out of the way with Grace.
Branches snapped and cracked and the SUV moved, shifting farther into the river, but Paige didn’t let it stop her. She moved over the center console, crouching in the seat and sticking her head out the window. Brendan grabbed her and pulled her to him. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders and he moved back, pulling her from the vehicle. Her legs came around him like a vice. Brendan took a few steps back and watched as the tree snapped and the SUV was swept downriver. He kept moving back to shore but he slipped, both he and Paige going under the water.
Brendan held on to her with everything he had. Praying that they’d make it out. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. All he knew was that Paige was in his arms, and for the moment they were both alive. And then their heads broke the surface of the water and they were both gasping for air.
The rope around Brendan’s waist tightened and Bennett was next to him, pulling him to his feet. They struggled through the water, Paige saying something over and over again in his ear. And then they were being pulled onto the bank.
Brendan was on his side, and Paige was still wrapped around him. And it was then that he heard what she was saying.
“I love you. I love you. I love you,” she sobbed into his neck.
“I love you too, baby,” Brendan said, holding onto her as he broke down, crying harder than he’d ever cried in his life.
* * *
Paige pulled back from Brendan and looked into his face. They were still on the wet, muddy ground, rain pouring down all around them.
“I was looking for you,” she whispered. “I came home last night, but you never came home. Where were you?”
“In jail.”
“What?” she asked. That was the last thing she had expected.
“Shep and I got into a fight with Chad and a few of his friends.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been going crazy without you,” he said, reaching up and brushing back the wet hair that stuck to her face. “I just snapped.”
“I shouldn’t have left,” she said, shaking her head. “I was stupid. You didn’t do anything wrong. You did everything right and I punished you for it. I’m so sorry, Brendan. So, so sorry.”
“Please don’t ever leave me again,” he said, bringing his mouth to hers and hovering above her lips.
“Never,” she said.
He kissed her, his tongue sliding into her mouth and finding hers. His mouth was hot and eager, and she welcomed the intensity. She’d missed him so damn much and his mouth on hers felt better than anything in the world. But she forced herself to pull back. She cupped his jaw in one of her hands and looked into his eyes.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered.
He stared at her, stunned. “What?”
“I’m pregnant, Brendan. We’re going to have a baby.”
Panic flooded his face. “We have to go to the hospital. We have to get you checked out. We have to make sure everything’s okay,” he said, sitting up and pulling her with him.
“Calm down. We’ll get there.”
“Paige,” he pleaded.
“Brendan,” she said, putting her hands on either side of his face. “Everything will be okay,” she said as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.
* * *
Brendan was going out of his mind. Paige needed to be on her way to the hospital now, and Grace…he had no idea what was going on with Grace.
Brendan pulled Paige to her feet and they walked over to where Grace and Jax where. Shep and Bennett were standing next to them, and Baxter was at his truck, presumably calling the accident in.
Grace and Jax were sitting on the ground, Grace leaning against Jax’s chest crying. Jax just held her against him, whispering into her ear.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
Jax looked up and nodded before he put a kiss to Grace’s temple. “She will be.”
“Pretty sure her shoulder’s dislocated,” Shep said.
When the ambulance got there, the paramedics came over, and when they tried to pull Grace away from Jax to set her arm, she clung onto him with her good hand.
“Just set it,” he said to them.
One of them nodded, and as they got into place, Grace pressed her face into Jax’s throat. They pushed her shoulder back and Grace screamed before she started sobbing, gasping for air.
“Just breathe, Grace. Just breathe. The worst is over. It’s okay.”
When she finally calmed down, they pulled her away from Jax and loaded her into the back of the ambulance. It was when Grace was no longer in Jax’s arms that Brendan saw it. Jax was shaking.
“You okay?” Brendan asked.
“I’m fine,” he nodded, looking away.
“Jax?”
Jax looked back at Brendan, the full shock of the last twenty minutes had finally hit him. “We almost lost them,” Jax whispered. “Bennett and I were right behind them on the road. We saw the car go off into the river. If we hadn’t been there, this whole thing could have ended so differently.”
“I know,” Brendan said and nodded. “Damn, do I know.”
* * *
Paige and Grace were going to be fine. Paige had a bruise across her chest and shoulders from the seat belt and both girls had sustained a few minor scrapes and bruises. Grace’s arm was in a sling and it was going to take a couple of months for it to be completely healed. An OB/GYN came to do an ultrasound and make sure that the baby was okay. It was too soon to hear the heartbeat, but the doctor pointed to a tiny flutter on the screen and said, “This is your baby.”
“He’s so small,” Brendan said, staring at the screen.
“He?” Paige asked.
“Or she,” he said and smiled at her. He’d been holding one of her hands in both of his and he brought it to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. “We’re going to have a baby,” he said, looking back at the monitor, amazed.
They went home and Brendan had an overwhelming sense of relief at finally being back there with Paige. The second the door was closed he scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the bathroom. They undressed and got in the shower, washing off all of the river water and mud. They held each other as the hot water rained around them. Brendan’s mouth was on hers, his hands all over her body, reassuring himself that she was there, that she was back in his arms and safe.
It wasn’t until the water started to turn cold that they got out. Brendan wrapped Paige in a robe before he carried her into the bedroom. He put her down on her feet and sat on the edge of the bed. He pulled her between his thighs and opened the robe, gently running his hands over her still flat stomach.
“Brendan?” she whispered, putting her hands on his head.
He looked up at her, tears streaming down his face. “I almost lost you,” he said, his voice cracking. “I almost lost everything,” he said, shaking his head.
He brought his mouth down to her stomach, placing soft kisses around her belly button. He straightened and pushed the robe off her shoulders before he pulled her back onto the bed. He settled her on top of him and looked up at her.
“I couldn’t do it without you, you know,” he said, brushing her hair back. “If I’d lost you, I would’ve never made it through.” He rolled her beneath him, and she moved her legs so he could settle between her thighs. “I wouldn’t have been able to survive without these arms of yours,” he said, running his hands down her shoulders and all the way to her fingers. “Without these eyes,” he said, looking at her. “Without these lips,” he said, pressing his mouth to hers. “Without you,” he said before he kissed every inch of her, loving her body with his mouth. He lingered at her stomach again, kissing her abdomen before he worked his way back up to her mouth. He kissed her as he slid inside of her and made love to her slowly, knowing just how lucky he was.
T
hey slowly started to adjust to life without Trevor. Denise had started coming to the Thursday afternoon gossip fests at Café Lula. She also started working part time at the Atticus County Health Clinic. Brendan and Paige went to her house multiple times a week to have dinner. She was doing better, but it was still hard. It would always be hard without Trevor.
Paige and Brendan were having a little boy. Trevor Oliver King was due the end of May. When they found out the gender, Brendan painted the nursery a light blue so that Paige could paint a mural on the walls. She was painting sea turtles swimming through the ocean with a brilliant sunset over the water.
Brendan found a box of children’s books that Claire had read to him and Grace. Paige and Brendan started a new routine every night. Paige would settle in with her back against the headboard, and Brendan would lie down by her stomach and read the baby a story.
One night, Brendan crawled in next to her without a book.
“No story tonight?” she asked, more than a little disappointed.
“No, there will be,” he said and smiled, propping his head up on his arm. “This one just isn’t in a book,” he said as he slid his hand underneath Paige’s T-shirt and rested it on top of her stomach. She loved the way he touched her belly. Loved the way his calloused fingers would slowly move across her skin.
“Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful fair maiden,” he said, looking up at her with twinkling eyes. “She’d been sent to this faraway land that she’d never been to before. She didn’t like it very much either. It was filled with ogres and dragons, and while the ogres and dragons weren’t necessarily dangerous, they were mean, especially to the fair maiden.
“Now, one day, as the fair maiden went on a journey, her carriage broke down on the side of the road. She was already having a bad day, as she’d dealt with the biggest and meanest dragon of the land.”
“Hmm, this story is getting good,” Paige said, reaching up and running her fingers through his hair. “This is where the white knight comes to her rescue.”
“Shhh,” Brendan said, trying to frown at her. He failed. “This is my story.”
“Okay, I’ll be quiet.”
“So, as I was saying, her carriage broke down on the side of the road. And who should come along but her white knight on his faithful steed.”
“You forgot to say how handsome the knight was, or that he had an incredible smile.”
“Are you telling this story or am I?”
“You are,” she said and grinned. “But it’s vital to the story. You can’t leave out his smile.”
“And why is that?” he asked her, raising an eyebrow.
“Because that’s when I started to fall for you,” she answered simply.
Shannon Richard grew up in the Panhandle of Florida as the baby sister of two overly protective but loving brothers. She was raised by a more than somewhat eccentric mother, a self-proclaimed vocabularist who showed her how to get lost in a book, and a father who passed on his love for coffee and really loud music. She graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s in English literature and still lives in Tallahassee, where she battles everyday life with writing, reading, and a rant every once in a while. Okay, so the rants might happen on a regular basis. She’s still waiting for her Southern, scruffy Mr. Darcy, and in the meantime writes love stories to indulge her overactive imagination. Oh, and she’s a pretty big fan of the whimsy.
Learn more at:
ShannonRichard.net
Shannon Richard’s sexy small-town series continues!
Jax has been protecting his best friend’s kid sister, Grace, since they were young. Now that they’re all grown up, they insist there’s nothing between them—until one night changes everything…