Taking Chances

“You can find another way to support them. Do you want her to always be worried that you won't come home one night from this?”

“No.” Brandon took a few deep breaths in and out, “Seeing her like that tonight, I felt like someone stabbed me and kept turning the knife. I hate that I put her through that.”

“Yet you still told her you weren't going to stop fighting?” Konrad challenged, “If you love her like you say you do, you'll take care of yourself so you can take care of them.”

“I love her more than my own life.” Brandon growled.

Konrad sighed, “I know you do man, I shouldn’t have said that. You both mean a lot to me, I love you like family. I don't want to see either of you hurt.” He took a couple steps toward the door and stopped. “Listen, she messed up with you once, and she's paying for it. She'll pay for it every day for the rest of her life. But she would never do anything again to hurt you. Think about that.” Konrad stepped through the door and shut it behind him, he jerked back when he saw me. “Hey Kid.”

I hugged him tight and cried on his shoulder.

“Did you uh, did you hear that?”

“Most of it.”

“Aw hell. I'm sorry Kid, I didn't mean for you to hear that.”

I wiped my cheeks and stood up straight, “It's fine. Thanks for talking to him, I really appreciate it.” I traced some of the scars and his body started shaking when he looked down at them as well, “I appreciate everything you’ve ever done. And I love you too Konrad.” I smiled and after another quick hug from him, waited until he rounded the corner before knocking and walking in.

“Hey sweetheart.” Brandon's voice was thick with emotion, he could barely tilt his lips up in a smile.

“You feel okay?”

He shook his head slightly, “Not really, no.”

“No?” I asked alarmed and rushed to his side. “What's wrong?”

“No, no. Nothing like that, I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you,” he sighed heavily, “again.”

I pulled the chair back up towards his bed so I could still touch him. “I heard you and Konrad.”

“You did?”

“Yeah.” I breathed.

“Harper, I hope you know how much I love you.”

“I do, trust me I do.”

“I'm so sorry for putting you through this tonight. I didn't know how bad it had been. I didn't know how it all had gone down for everyone that was still awake.”

I smiled and ran my hand over his buzzed hair, “You scared me. I thought I was going to lose my best friend and the love of my life.”

“I know Harper, and I'm so sorry. I can't say that enough, you can't imagine how sorry I am. I shouldn't have gone tonight, and I won't go anymore. No amount of money is worth putting you through that.”

“You and I, we've had too much loss in our lives already. Do you think we could attempt to not add to that?”

He nodded and pulled me to him, “I'm not going anywhere. I promised you forever, didn't I?”

“Forever.” I agreed.

“Come here,” He scooted to the far right side of the bed and rolled onto his left side, “you're still on bedrest, and I haven't been taking care of you tonight.”

I lay down on my back and sighed at having Brandon's warm body pressed against mine and finally relaxing. Dr. Lowdry may have a point to this whole bedrest thing, my entire body had been aching to lay down.

Brandon kissed me softly and placed a hand on my belly. “Are you two doing okay? Physically?”

“Yeah, he went to sleep right before I came in here the first time.”

“Good, I want you to sleep too. I'll wake you up when we're going to go home.”

I couldn't even protest, it had been a long day anyway, and what happened tonight had exhausted me to the point where I thought I could fall asleep standing. I felt Brandon's lips on my forehead and heard his whispers of his love for me, but I was out before I could respond.

17

“How are you feeling sweetheart?” Brandon asked popping his head into the bathroom where I was finishing my make-up.

“I feel great! I’m so excited to get out of the house again, you have no idea.” Not that it had been long since we were out, we were just out Thursday night, the night of the fight, and it was only Monday. But I’d had so much energy the last two days, Brandon promised if I took a shower, got ready and was still feeling fine, he would take me out to di

He wrapped his arms around me and brushed his lips lightly against my neck, I almost groaned from the heated pleasure that instantly zinged through my body. “You look incredible.”

“Not so bad yourself.” I said a little breathless, remembering our first date and he laughed against my throat.

“Are you about ready to go? Because if we don’t leave soon, I’m not sure we ever will.” He pressed his body closer to mine and tightened his arms.

“I kind of hate Dr. Lowdry right now.”

Brandon laughed and released me, “We’ve made it this long, we can wait a few more weeks. Go get changed, I’ll be in the living room.”

I pouted but left the bathroom and walked to the closet. I chose one of the shirts Bree had gotten me for my Birthday. Those things had definitely lasted the entire pregnancy. I plucked the dark blue one and a flowy knee-length white cotton skirt from their hangers and walked back out of the closet. Hooking my thumbs into the waist band of my sweats, I started to pull them down when I felt something pop and my legs instantly got warm and wet. Oh my God I just peed myself! You have got to be kidding me, I’ve made it this far in the pregnancy without having an accident, and I get all cute for a date and I freaking pee on myself? I didn’t even have to go. Frustrated, I threw my sweats into the hamper, walked back to the bathroom and hopped into the shower, being careful to keep my hair and face away from the water. I reached out to turn the water back off and froze. Oh. My. Word.

“BRANDON!” I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me, “Brandon!”

He came bursting through the door less than a second later, “What’s wrong?!” His eyes were wide and panicked. “Are you okay?”

I laughed and nodded, “My water just broke!”

“Are you serious?” His face fell for a few beats then broke out into a wide grin. Closing the distance between us he kissed me until my knees were weak. When he pulled back, he cupped my cheeks tenderly and smiled. “So he’s coming?”

“Guess so, you ready for this?”

Brandon suddenly gasped, “Wait, we have to go! That means we have to go!” He turned around and took off into the bedroom. By the time I dried myself off, I could hear him on the phone with either my family or his.

I felt strangely calm as I pulled on the dark blue shirt, and searched around for a clean pair of sweats. Brandon rushed out of the room with the hospital bag, I heard the front door open, close, open and close again before he came ru

“Harper, we have to go. Come on sweetheart, is there anything else you can think of?”

“Phone chargers.” I watched as he yanked both ours from the wall. “Headphones, can you grab me one of your sweatshirts?” I didn’t care if it was September, the nights were cool, and when we’d been in that hospital last week, it was freezing.

“What else?”

“I need you to kiss me, then calm down and drive us to the hospital.” I smiled against his eager lips as he gently pulled me to my feet and led me out of our house.

As soon as we were driving, he was back on the phone calling the rest of our family. He was so excited, his smile stretched across his face farther than I’d ever seen it, and all I could do was sit there and stare at my favorite dimple. I reached out and ran my fingers over his buzzed hair and he looked over quickly before looking back to the road.

“Are you okay?” He asked as he set his phone down in one of the cup holders, “You’re really quiet.”