“How in the goddamn hell will I survive the birth of this baby, Brynne?”
I held his face in my hands and made him focus. “You will. You can do it. One minute at a time, just like me.” I didn’t know what else to tell him. I was scared, too.
He drew me into his arms and just held me against him, kissing the top of my head and smoothing down my hair. We’d shower and get ourselves cleaned up for my birthday dinner with his family in a little while, but right now we both needed this.
He just held me.
“SO we’ve had cake. Which was really delicious—thank you, Hannah.” Ethan gave his sister a bow of his head in appreciation. “We’ve had presents…except for one.” He snickered at everyone, looking far too smug for my liking. What in the hell was he up to? I sensed it might be something big, and that made me anxious. I didn’t need extravagant gifts from him. Didn’t really want them either. I knew myself. I was a simple girl.
“I want to see Auntie Brynne’s present,” Zara piped up. My five-year-old niece had absolutely no trouble expressing her opinions about life in general. It was safe to say that extravagant gifts didn’t bother Zara one iota. Ethan doted on her, and I adored her. In fact, she came over to see us quite a bit. One of her older brothers would walk her over if the weather was nice and she would run around our house and play with her Barbies. Zara was a hoot.
“Okay, let’s go see it,” Ethan said smugly. “Now, Zara, I need your help with it. Your job is to make sure Brynne doesn’t open her eyes until I say she can.” Zara stared up at him, her little neck bent flat on her spine.
“Okay,” she said, taking my hand in hers. “You can’t look, Auntie Brynne.”
“Deal,” I said. “When you say, ‘let’s go see it,’ where is that exactly?”
Ethan laughed and the others smiled cryptically.
“To the front of the house we go.” He held out his arm and I took it, letting him lead me on one side with little Zara on the other.
Before we passed through the front doors, I made a big show of closing my eyes and allowed them to bring me forward. I didn’t need to worry about stumbling because Ethan had me firmly, directing every step. Of course he would make sure I didn’t fall. It made a lot of sense to me as to his chosen field for his career. My man had been born to protect and serve, and those hard-wired traits were carried over in all that he did.
The crunch of gravel sounded under everyone’s feet as we walked, and I still had no earthly idea what sort of gift he’d gotten for me.
We stopped.
I heard whispers, and then Zara shouted in her adorable child voice, “You can look at your white car now, Auntie Brynne!”
A car? I opened my eyes to a brand, spanking, new, white Range Rover HSE Sport. The full deal, left-handed drive and all. Holy crap.
I spun on Ethan. “You bought me a car?!”
The grin on his face was worth having to learn to drive lefty. “I did, baby. Do you like it?”
“I love my Rover.” I am so very intimidated by this Rover. I threw my arms around him and whispered in his ear because we had an audience. “You are crazy for buying such an extravagant gift for me. You must stop.”
He pulled back and shook his head slowly. “Crazy for you is all…and I’ll never stop.”
I knew he wouldn’t, either. The steadfast look in his eye told me so.
I wanted to shake him and kiss him at the same time. He spent way too much money on gifts for me. He didn’t need to, but he’d always been so overly generous with me from the first. He spoiled me and enjoyed doing it.
I looked at my new car and swallowed. I had an idea as to its price tag and knew it was a shitload of money. Jesus Christ, what if I wreck the thing? Better yet, how would I drive the damn thing?
“What am I going to do with you, Blackstone?”
“You aren’t doing anything with me, but I think you are going to do something with your new car.” He looked worried, like maybe I wasn’t happy with the gift. I couldn’t hurt him though. Out of the question for me to ever do that to Ethan. Plus, he was still a little freaked about my earlier nosebleed problem. I could tell it had triggered something for him. I wasn’t sure exactly what, but sensed it had little to do with my pregnancy, and more to do with his traumatic past. I sighed inwardly and shelved it for now. This was not the time to delve into it.
I stared at him. At Freddy and Hannah, Colin and Jordan, who waited with smiles for me to take possession of my gift. Zara, bless her, broke the tension and jumped up and down. “I want a ride in it. Let’s go, Auntie Brynne.”
I laughed nervously for a minute, and then figured, why the hell not? I was married to Ethan now. England was my home, and we had a house in the country. I couldn’t take a train into town. I would need to go out and get things like normal people did every day. I would be a mom soon, and there would be places to go with my baby. Better to learn now, rather than later.
I gave everyone my best confident smile and went for it.
Channeling Rain Man here, people. “Okay…just real slow on the driveway. I’m an excellent driver.”
“Who’s coming first?” Ethan asked.
Zara and Jordan volunteered and climbed in the back. I went to the driver’s side and opened the door, smelling the new-car leather and finding it hard to believe this beautiful piece of machinery now belonged to me, along with everything else.
Ethan, the house, his family, the baby…just everything was a lot to take in for my pitiful self, especially in my hormonal state.
I buckled myself in, the seatbelt being the least of my problems as I looked at the dashboard. More like a control panel for a stealth bomber. I looked over at Ethan in the passenger seat and held out my hand. “The key?”
He smiled at me. “You push here to start it.” He reached forward and pointed to a round button.
“Are you f**king kidding me?!”
Jordan snickered. Zara giggled. Ethan rolled his lips as if to keep himself from saying something he would later regret. Smart husband. I pushed the damn button.
I only dropped one more f-bomb and two or three “shits” in the course of my first, driving-left, sitting-right lesson, with Ethan as my patient teacher.
The kids in the back thought it was hilarious fun, and loved reminding me I needed to “keep left” on the country road, which was stupid because it was only one lane.