Page 20 of Hard To Love

I didn’t need a vacation, not ever, because the blue of his eyes gave my heart enough peace and calm to last me a lifetime.

“I love you, Auggie,” I whispered as he did quick work of wiping away my errant tears.

“Good.” He winked, and my lips tipped upward. Only August Nolan West could make me smile after feeling so emotionally overwhelmed. “Tired?” he asked. I shook my head and lied.

I was exhausted.

But I didn’t want to move from this very spot. We watched the sun set behind the tree we had once upon sat underneath. The memories started to flood me. One by one, they flashed through my mind. But I was seeing them differently now that I knew how he had felt. How all that time, we’d both felt the same way while we sat there, slowly and sweetly falling in love with one another so long ago.

And even though everything was great, I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. His hand slid from my arm and rested at my belly.

“Imagine our babies running around under that tree,” he muttered. The image was so bright and beautiful, that weird nagging in the back of my head finally swung loose and vanished.

The future Auggie wanted, the one we both wanted so much, felt possible, within reach.

And I would die to do anything to make sure it came true.

August

Amonth turned into another, and so on.

Until suddenly, Sandy’s due date loomed awfully close. So close, I was officially on baby watch. My mom and Sandy thought I was being an overprotective bear since we were still four weeks away, but I couldn’t help it.

Watching her belly grow as we got closer, hearing and watching our baby grow in ultrasounds, had been incredible. I couldn’t have been happier if it were my blood running through that baby’s veins.

Honestly and truly.

I was a man in love, ready to have a family. Sandy had decided she wanted to be surprised when he or she arrived, so we had two names picked out, ready to name him or her. The day after telling my parents, I was true to my word and showed Sandy the plans for the house where we would raise our kids. With a couple minor changes because my girl was a flipping genius, we got started on the build a week later.

While her place was under construction, we moved into mine.

This had surprised Sandy for some reason.

She had been sure I would have wanted to extend my cabin, but I was a hundred percent honest with her because the days of keeping shit to myself where she was concerned were over. I’d told her that her place felt like home. How she had made the small cabin welcoming. Why the hell would I want us to grow as a family anywhere else than in the place that felt like Sandy to me?

I watched my girl waddle toward me from the kitchen holding a huge mason jar filled with ice water and lemon slices stuffed inside of it. That was the craving of the week—lemon slices in ice water. I smiled at her, and when she was within reach, I took the glass from her before I grabbed her hand to help her sit on the couch, setting her feet up on my lap when I took a seat next to her. She smiled at me with gratitude and love as I handed back the glass of water. I watched as she sipped her drink and sighed happily the moment my hands started to work on her feet.

“They’re more swollen than yesterday,” she pouted.

“They’re fucking adorable.” But I was biased. I thought everything about Sandy was adorable.

“I’m gonna have to start using your boots soon. None of my shoes fit,” she mumbled with an exhausted sigh.

Her feet had been swelling for the last month. The doctor said it was normal, but we should keep an eye on it. We needed to make sure she tried to walk and then elevate her feet at the end of the day.

“Oh god,” she moaned. The sound shot straight through my dick. “That feels so good.”

“I’ll rub your feet forever if you keep making those sounds.”

“You have some kind of foot fetish I didn’t know about, cowboy?” she teased. I chuckled, shaking my head before setting her feet to the side and carefully covering her body with mine.

“I have a Sandy fetish.” She giggled at my answer but didn’t do it for long because our lips touched.

I should have known better. Sandy might be far along, but fuck if that wasn’t some kind of aphrodisiac for both of us. We started to catch fire, and things started to heat up, then a knock sounded at the door of my cabin. She groaned.

“Tell whoever it is to go away,” she muttered against my lips, her hands still bunching the front of my shirt.

“Let’s ignore ‘em,” I suggested and kissed her. We got lost in the way our mouths danced for a moment. Fuck, when we started going, I was always sure the world around us could burn to the ground, and I wouldn’t notice.