Page 78 of Had To Be You

“You never know. Maybe it could. And if it doesn’t, I will make arrangements to have them flown here as often as you would like,” he says. “You know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

That, I do know. For all life’s uncertainties, I never doubt the strength of Liam’s love for me. He shows me in different ways every day. Like when he sends my favorite soup and sandwich to Bloom because he knows I have a bad habit of working through lunch. Or when he massages my feet at night while we’re watching TV because he knows how much I love it. Or the sinfully sexy text messages he sends, detailing all the naughty things he plans on doing to me when he gets home from work. My reply is always I can’t wait, hurry home.

Home.

It all feels too good to be true. Liam will always be my home and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Of course, things weren’t always this easy, but I vowed every day to earn back Liam’s trust. I’ve learned the best way to do that is by letting down my walls and opening my heart to him, trusting that he won’t break it. In turn, Liam has been opening up to me too - showing me his softer side, letting me in. It means everything to me.

We are meant to be. There’s no other way to explain it. Liam and I were always meant to find one another. He is my future. My one and only - and soon, my husband and the father of this miracle I’m carrying.

I think about our baby growing inside of me, the very best surprise of my life. Of our lives. And I’m positive our little boy or girl was written in the stars. Fate.

I imagine Liam and I in our backyard ten years from now, with our baby, and maybe one or two more. I broaden the image, so that I can picture Parkers and Olivia’s children with ours, playing in the pool. Miles and Jules are there too, and their families as well. Liam’s parents and mine watch their children with their own kids, with pride in their eyes. My chest expands with love as I picture our life together so clearly. It’s a life I am ready for.

Wrapping my arms around Liam’s neck, I slide my hands through his hair, relishing his familiar scent and the feel of his skin against mine. He presses a light kiss to my lips, staring into my eyes.

“Want to know something?” Liam asks, with a far-off look in his piercing eyes. Of course I want to know what he’s thinking, but first I have to tease him just a little.

“I already know. Stella called me,” I joke, playing with the short strands of his hair near the back of his neck.

Liam’s eyebrows raise in mock curiosity. “Is that so? What did Stella have to say?”

“That I’m quite the catch and my fiancé is one lucky man,” I tell him, wiggling my brows in amusement.

“She did, did she? Anything else?”

Tapping my finger to my lips, I go for an award-worthy performance. “She said we will have twelve kids and star in our own reality TV show someday.”

“Really? Was our friend Stella drinking again?” Liam says with a wise-ass smile. I hold back a laugh, continuing on with my theatrics.

“Stella? Definitely not,” I say, upping the ante, spreading my arms wide open over my head. “I believe she’s known all over North America for her exceptional ability to see into the future. People go to her from far and wide.”

Liam shakes his head in amusement, then his fingers inch down my abdomen. I squeal as he tickles my sides, squirming under his solid, muscular body. He keeps going, gently and agonizingly tickling me until I beg him to stop.

“Now, do you want to hear what I was going to say to you, or are you not quite finished with the theatrics?” he asks, sweeping my hair from my face, his hips still pinning mine to the bed. The mood in the room shifts from playful to pensive as he twines both of his hands between mine.

“I’m done. I swear,” I tell him. “What is it, Liam? What did you want to tell me?”

He inhales a deep breath, looking into my eyes. “You are without a doubt the best part of my life. You and this baby,” he says with pure joy in his eyes, gesturing to my belly. My skin pebbles all over in goosebumps. He drops his lips to mine in a slow, heated kiss and I tremble at his intense love for the two of us. “I’m going to spend my life making you happy. Making our family happy.”

This man.

The day I told Liam I was pregnant he was in bed, lying on his stomach, his arms buried under his pillow and the bed sheet pulled down to his waist. I remember my breath catching in my throat at the handsome features of his profile and the sculpted lines of his back. I held the pregnancy test in my fingers. I suspected I could be pregnant when I was six days late. The test confirmed my suspicions that morning with two pink lines. I stood there watching him, excited and scared to tell him, but I knew I couldn’t wait.

I know you’re watching me, he’d said, and that’s all it took for the tears to flow over my cheeks. He nearly jumped out of bed, afraid something was wrong, but then quickly noticed the test in my hand. I nodded through the tears and he smiled the hugest grin. “Say something,” I told him. He asked me how this could be true. I told him I thought he was a little too old for the “birds and the bees” talk then he tugged me into his arms and whispered in my ear how happy he was. It was perfect.

“I know. This baby and I are the luckiest to have you, Liam. You are going to make the best dad and husband.”

“You think so?”

There is no doubt. The fierce love and devotion Liam shows his family and me every single day is proof enough. “I know so. You’ve spent your entire life looking up to your father and he’s one of the greatest men I know. And you are just like him in so many ways. This baby won the daddy lotto. We are going to have a great life together, babe.”

He bends lower, resting his forehead to mine. “Have I told you that I love you yet today?”

“You have, but I’ll never get tired of hearing you say it. But Liam…”

He sits up and nods with an arch of his eyebrow and a look in eyes that’s too damn sexy for words. I almost forget what I was about to say but a flutter in my stomach reminds me.

“I am starving. I could eat a horse. What do you say to making your world-famous chicken Caesar salad and we eat it together on the patio like old times?”

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