Page 103 of Lose to Win: Lost Trilogy: Part 3
He finally lets go, and I almost laugh when he walks in front of me to make sure that I’m not about to trick him and continue to the back yard like originally planned.
I turn around and stomp my feet up the stairs. I am so mad at this man.
“I got a surprise for you too, Puck,” I mumble to myself just as I open the door to our large master bedroom. We moved into a larger house when the twins were born. It was obvious that we needed more bedrooms than the old house could offer us. Puck’s business with his brothers really took off, and we could afford it. Besides we had all that money that I had transferred into Puck’s name…
I smile at the memories. When Puck got a call from dad’s attorney for him to go in and sign the necessary documents, I thought he was going to have a coronary.
“What did you do, woman?” he yelled at me. “Why would you do that?”
I shrugged and smiled shyly at my husband. I was still in my sweet and innocent phase of my life.
“The plan was for the money to be transferred to you, then from you to…”
I stopped talking because I didn’t want to say Steve’s name out loud. It was cursed, and I was convinced it would bring us bad luck.
“Anyway, once the money was transferred to you, I wanted you to have it,” I chocked out, so ready to cry.
Puck’s eyes became soft when he walked and took me in his arms. He lifted me up and buried his nose in my hair, holding me for the longest time.
“Why, babe?”
My chest hurt from the effort I was making not to lose it at what I was about to tell him.
“I thought I was going to die. And I wanted you to have that from me. I wanted you to be okay and not have to worry about money.”
“Em.” He sounded just as emotional. “I would’ve died with you if anything had happened to you. Please don’t do this to me ever again.”
“I promise.”
And it was an easy promise to make. All our enemies and ghosts of the past had been put to rest. Now, it was just us. We were about to become parents for the first time, and we wanted our focus to be on that.
And now, it is so many more years later, and I…
“Are you gonna stand in the doorway all day, babe?” Puck’s amused voice reaches me through the memories. My head snaps to attention when I turn it to stare at him. “Everything okay?” he asks, sounding worried now.
I continue staring. I am so mad at him, I can’t think.
“Puck,” I start, but my voice sounds shaky, not threatening at all. Besides, I can’t think when he’s standing there naked, with just a towel wrapped around his still slim hips and another around his neck.
Puck looks delicious, just as always. And me, not so much. I look down and take inventory of my body. I was never able to lose much of the baby weight I gained with Tommy. Missy came so fast on his heels, we blinked and she was here. I tried really hard again in the couple of years I had before getting pregnant with the twins, but I failed. Then again before getting pregnant with Tyler. And now…
“I’m pregnant,” I say before promptly bursting into tears.
The happy smile taking over Puck’s face should make me happy as well. But I am worried. Tyler is six. He was supposed to be our last baby. I’ve been so careful with what I ate and I’ve been following a strict workout regimen. I’m not skinny, but I am toned, and I was finally starting to like myself.
“Babe,” Puck cups the back of my head. “I hope you’re not about to tell me that this baby ain’t mine…”
“What?” I slap at his chest. “How could you even say that, Puck Stewart?”
His grin gets bigger when I use his full name. He is still Lucas on any legal papers. But he is definitely Puck Stewart at home. And I know my dad was never happier than when Puck asked for permission to use his last name. It’s weird to think that I will be forever known as Emily Stewart, but in a good way.
“Well, you’re a mess,” Puck now points out. “If this baby is mine and no one else’s, why the tears?”
“I’m scared,” I confess. “I’m older now, Puck. What if my body never recovers from this?”
His eyes get a suspicious glint in them.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
