Taking Chances

“I don’t think I’m able to go for another round tonight baby. Besides, I don’t think Mom and Dad’s neighbors would appreciate the show.”

He laughed and rested his forehead against mine, trying to calm down again, “Honestly, I don’t know how I’m not collapsing right now. You wore me out Harper.” He chuckled softly and placed me back on the ground. “Ready to get our son and go home?”

I smiled and pulled him up the driveway and into their house. Mom took one look at my swollen lips, messy hair and red neck from where Brandon’s scruffy jaw had rubbed across too many times, and laughed softly.

She pulled me away from Robert and whispered in my ear, “So I’m guessing you two had a good date night?”

Blushing fiercely, I glanced back at Brandon and Dad talking, then back to her. “Oh my God, you have no idea.” I had been seriously mortified the first time I heard Bree talking to her mom about anything sexual, but soon got over it and was glad to have another person to talk to. I looked around, “Where’s Bree and Konrad?”

“They went to get ice cream, she’ll have to wait to hear the juicy details until another time. What was this…the first time?”

I nodded and bit my lip to hide my smile.

“Oh, no way! I was kidding, I had no idea. You just looked too happy to not joke about it.”

“Mom!” I hissed and shot a quick smile to the guys, “I told you we hadn’t been like that before.”

“Yeah, before, but you’ve been living together for months now.”

“Like we’ve had time before tonight? I was super huge pregnant and Dr. Lowdry told us not to, then we’ve been taking care of Liam. We couldn’t rush through these first few times, we’d waited too long to do that.”

“Few!”

I gri

“Well now that you’ve had those times, I assure you you’ll find time all the time.”

“Ha! Oh I can’t even think about that right now. I’m too exhausted.”

“Well just know, we’re always available to babysit.”

“We’ll keep that in mind.” I laughed softly and pulled my sleeping baby out of the crib. My heart warmed when he was finally back in my arms. “I missed you little Gummy Bear.” I whispered against his head and cradled him in my arms.

“He drank all three bottles you left us, but didn’t sleep much, so hopefully you’ll get a restful night tonight.”

I nodded, hoping that was true. I needed time to recover from the night with Brandon. When we walked out into the living room, my future husband’s smile made my heart skip a beat. I loved this man so much, and I couldn’t believe he was mine. He walked over to us and lightly ran his hand over Liam’s head before kissing him.

Liam yawned and blinked his eyes open to look at Brandon, “Hey little man. We missed you.” After another yawn Liam’s eyes slowly shut again, his mouth popping open slightly. “You ready to take him home Harper?”

I nodded and accepted kisses from Mom and Dad “Are you guys still coming over Sunday?” In order to carry on family day, once a week everyone gathered at either Mom’s, Carrie’s or our house to have family time, and though they’d been skipping our place so I wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning or playing hostess while trying to be a mom, I’d made them promise to let us have our week again.

“We’ll be there, you two have fun until then” Mom said with a smile and a wink. Dad laughed out loud and Brandon actually blushed. I’d never seen him blush before, and I couldn’t help but laugh too.

We got Liam fed, changed and asleep in his crib in record time. Crawling into bed, we kissed soft and slow, clinging to each other.

Brandon brought his lips to my ear, his deep voice making my body burn, “Harper…”

“Round four?” I asked with a grin.

His smile matched mine as he pulled me on top of him.

18

“Brandon?” I asked roughly. His side of the bed was empty, and cold. Glancing around I noted I’d slept for six and a half hours and should probably go check on my little one.

 I grabbed Brandon’s shirt off the floor and slid it over my head before padding down the cool hallway. When I got closer I heard Brandon’s warm animated voice and slowed, trying to hear whatever he was telling our son. I was already smiling to myself when I peeked around the slightly ajar door, he was talking to him about one of his surfing days. No…he was talking to him about one of Chase’s surfing days. And he had the scrapbook of Chase’s life on the dresser below them, pointing to one of the pictures. A soft gasp escaped my chest and I tried to slow my breathing so I could continue to listen without Brandon knowing I was here.

“…he was always doing crazy stuff like that, it’s why everyone loved him, but it got him in trouble more times than not. No one else would have continued to surf after that, and we were all trying to get him to come in. Brad and I rode out to force him to, since he had this huge cut on his eyebrow from where that guy punched him, but by the time we got out there he was already catching another wave and riding it in. I swear he knew how to piss us off too, because those guys weren’t happy we started coming back out. Your dad could out-surf those guys, and I could fight them, but just a warning son, don’t ever try to fight someone while on your surfboard out in the ocean. It doesn’t really work out for anyone, and you look stupid trying to throw punches while treading water. We ended up laughing too hard and inviting them to the party that night, calling a truce.”

Brandon flipped to the next page and chuckled lightly, pointing at one of the pictures again, “Like I said, he was crazy and always doing stupid crap,” flipping the page again he pointed to one and said softly, “but your mom changed that.”

I froze and tilted my head in even further.

“The day I met your mom, I knew she would be in my life forever. There was something about her and I knew I was already falling in love with her that first day. She made you want to be better, to attempt to be worthy of her love. Unfortunately your dad felt the same way; no one understood why he drastically changed, except for me. Even though she was with me, he stopped drinking, stopped sleeping with other girls, it’s like she made him instantly mature into the guy he eventually wanted to be so he could have an opportunity with her. I was always afraid I’d lose her to him someday, it’s like I knew it was a matter of when, not if. But your mom was different, I’d dated plenty of girls, but I hadn’t really cared if they were there or not. It was just someone to try to fill the ache of losing my dad. So when I met her and realized my feelings, I fought to keep her as long as I could. Don’t tell your momma, but Chase and I were constantly fighting over her when she wasn’t around. Hell, we even fought over her when she was around. We knew either of us could have any girl we wanted, but we both only wanted Harper. So of course, being us, words were used and fists flew whenever we were alone. I didn’t tell her this, but I already knew what had happened with your dad before she told me. When I got home from break, and Chase never bothered me again, I knew something had happened. I just didn’t know what yet. But you know what little man? I can’t even be mad about it anymore, because if it hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

He gently kissed our three month old son who was completely enthralled in his stories and pointed to the last picture in the book. “And he loved you and your mom, so much. I’ll always remind you of that, but I wish you could have met him.”

I placed a hand over my mouth to stifle the sob rising in my throat and slowly backed away to our bedroom. Once I was under the covers, I let the tears spill down my face as I mourned the dad Liam would never meet, and my heart grew even more for the dad that was holding him now. I don’t know how long I stayed there after I finished crying, but Brandon eventually got back in bed and stilled when he realized I was awake.