“I know, baby,” he said, softly kissing her on her neck. “Audrey wouldn’t want you to cry like this. She’d tell you not to worry. Thank you for letting Tate go back there and sit with Audrey. I know it meant a lot to him.”
Fallon nodded, pulling away to look up into his beautiful gray eyes. The same gray eyes their son had, and that she hoped their unborn child would be blessed with. “Mom wouldn’t go without Dad, and I wouldn’t go without you. I couldn’t sit there and watch her try to heal without you. As much as all three of us want to be in there, we can’t. Plus, Tate needs this time with her. He is falling apart.”
“He is,” Lucas said sadly. “I’m really worried about him and you, but I promise you, baby, I can feel it in my gut, she’s going to make it. She’s going to wake up and crack a joke about something and then life will go back to normal. Everything is going to be okay.”
Fallon nodded, tears spilling over her cheeks as she said, “I pray to God you’re right, Lucas. I want you to be right.”
Lucas kissed her again. “Everything is going to work out, baby, don’t you worry. Me, you, Tate, and Audrey will all celebrate her child’s birth as a big happy family. You just wait and see, everything is going to be okay.”
Fallon nodded, her heart wanting to believe him while her brain doubted him.
Looking up at Lucas, she smiled and said, “I can’t wait. I love you, Lucas.”
He gave her a sexy half grin before his hand moved to her midsection while his eyes shined with tears. “I love you too, baby girl.”
Tate hadn’t taken his eyes off Audrey for almost five hours.
He watched as nurses and doctors came in to check on her, until finally the gynecologist came in. He listened as the young doctor told him what she was about to do, and then he watched as she put a long rod inside of Audrey. When she turned the screen to show him what looked like a little blob on the screen, she said, “That is your strong little baby. Its heart is beating at a normal speed, everything looks great.” Tate couldn’t control himself, and started crying all over again. He had stopped a while back and finally gotten himself together, but seeing that little blob wiggle on the screen did him in. He was right back to square one, crying and hoping for a dream only Audrey could give him.
Hour after hour passed and all he could do was sit near Audrey, hoping for some kind of sign she was getting better. As he watched her, his mind began to wander as he thought about their relationship. In their three months together so much had happened. So much happiness that he couldn’t help but think that something bad was supposed to happen. He was too happy, too in love, for everything to stay the same. They only fought twice, and the first time, when Levi had texted her, really wasn’t a fight. When they fought about the baby issue, it scared him bone deep that he might lose her. Luckily he hadn’t, but now he might.
Tate reached over and took her hand, kissing each of her fingertips before kissing her palm, wishing he had never gone to All-Star week. Even though it was great for his career, he hadn’t been here to help Audrey through her morning sickness. He had missed going to the doctor to find out she was pregnant, and then he wasn’t there when that fucker came to hurt her. He wondered if she cried for him when Levi was beating her. If she was scared she would die. Did she know he loved her? If only he was ten minutes earlier he might have been there to stop him before it got this bad.
Kissing the back of her hand, he looked at her and said, “I’m sorry, Audrey, I should have been there.”
He knew that if she were awake she would yell at him that there was nothing he could do, but there was a lot. He was supposed to protect her. He was supposed to be there when she needed him and take care of her when she was sick. That was his job, and he had failed her. Shaking his head, he kissed her swollen hand again before he gently laid his head against her bed as the tears welled up again in his eyes. But before they could fall, he fell asleep.