Page 126 of Unbound

“Oh?” I asked.

“Um, I think I either peed myself or maybe my uh… my water just broke.”

Oh shit.

Epilogue

Two Weeks Later

Pop was who he was and because of that, and because of all I’d seen and done, I am the man I am today. It meant a lot of things, some of it bad, but not all of it. But I was also who I was because of the way I lost my ma. I was the sum total of my experiences, I guess. But Pop being who he was and Greg O’Connor being who he was? The sum total of that meant that I met and married Tia. And made a family with her.

Maybe I’m a little more like my father than I’d wanna admit, but I could’ve been my pop in so many other ways. He fell in love with Tia’s mother and she couldn’t take his darkness. In the end, he lost her. In the end, he lost everything. I wasn’t gonna let that happen. I counted myself lucky that he did, or I wouldn’t have Tia. I counted myself lucky because not only did I have her but she was also able to withstand my shit. Not that I wanted to keep testing her like that.

I somehow escaped karma for the shit I pulled by getting the most beautiful girl in the world to fall in love with me and put up with all my bullshit. Or maybe karma gave her to me to make upfor who I was born to, watching my ma die, what I put up with as a little kid.

But karma clearly ain’t done with me yet. God saw fit to punish me for my sins by making me a father to a beautiful baby girl that's as breathtaking as her mother.

My eyes. Tia’s cupid’s bow mouth. Chubby cheeks and skin like peaches and cream. This tiny little baby? She takes my breath away. She makes my chest hurt. Strong little fists that clock me on a regular basis and she also has a strong set of lungs on her that keep us up half the night.

We named her Carina, which Tia wanted after finding out it means beloved. No, I never had a Carina in the past and even if I had, I wouldn’t say a word about it. I wouldn’t make that mistake twice.

She didn’t get a middle name. With a name like that, she doesn’t need one. I didn’t want her to have to live up to anyone else’s ideals by being named after anyone we know.

Some people name their kids for their loved ones out of respect. Or, like my father, they name them after themselves with some high hopes that their kids will live up to. We just want her to be who she is gonna be.

And I pray that she’s gonna wanna be a nun. My karma? She’ll be a drop-dead gorgeous race car driver or stunt woman so that I live out the rest of my days downing antacids and drowning in stress.

Tia said she doesn’t even wanna think about when she’s old enough to date. I’ll probably drop dead. I said I’d hang the first fucker that came sniffing around from a tree on the front lawn as a warning to scare the others away.

Where was I with my demons? My existential crisis?

I'd given up my birthright as heir to the dirtiest parts of my father’s not-so-legal empire, but I was still a man and had cometo the conclusion that, yes, I wanted to be a man my daughter would look up to.

I would never put my kids in the position Pop put us in. I’d never put Tia in the position Greg put her in. But the man I am, it meant holding onto just enough of the world Pop bequeathed to make sure I wasn’t powerless. I had enough power to take down my enemies and protect what belongs to me.

The cradle in our room was empty. My heart dropped but then my gaze moved to the bed and I could see Tommy cuddled up with our sleeping baby on the bed. He was on his side, shirtless and sockless, wearing a pair of track pants. She was cradled against his chest, his hand supporting her back. He was looking at her little sleeping face, an expression on his face that I couldn’t describe other than to say that seeing his face like that? I was growing more and more in love with him than I had ever been.

Seeing him, gorgeous with that messy hair, five o’clock shadow, and whisky eyes, how he looked at our newborn daughter who was held close to the tattoo he’d inked on himself to promise to keep trying to be worthy of love? I felt so lucky. He looked at her like she was a miracle. She was. Our miracle.

Babies were born every single second around the world but this little girl was our world. He’d wrap her up in pink blanketsonly, even though we had so many others. He’d stare at her for hours. He would give her anything in the world she wanted. I knew that last part just by watching how he was with her.

And since bringing her into the world, he looked at me with more light in his eyes, more love and yet even more possessiveness than ever.

We had a very hard time with my labor. My water broke, but twenty-two hours later I still wasn’t dilating and they were worried about infection.

Tommy was a wreck because they’d given me an epidural, but then my labor went on so long that it wore off and they didn’t get me another one before the pain started.

They’d been inducing me for many hours so my pain was extreme. He hated to see me crying and he was very verbal about this to the nurses and doctors until a nurse that was built like a bodybuilder crossed with an army tank got in his face and threatened to remove him from the maternity unit with security. He was about to freak out some more but I pleaded with him to just hold my hand and stay close.

“I can’t bear to do this without you.”

Our seven-pound baby girl was delivered by C-section as Tommy held my hand and sang Etta James to me to calm me down when I had a flip-out because I couldn’t feel my legs due to the spinal block before surgery.

He had decided I was his as soon as he laid eyes on me, but it was as if his emotions deepened with each milestone. More love came at me from my possessive alpha dominator husband on a daily basis, especially since the baby came. He treated us both like priceless artifacts.

I carefully climbed in behind him, my C-section scar aching a little, and put my lips to his naked back. He carefully turned onto his back and put his arm around me so that he had her cradled on one side, me on the other, both of us wrapped up in his arms.

“My girls,” he whispered, and he had such a peaceful smile on his face.

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