Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Regan laughed through her tears. “We’re having a baby.”
I kissed her slow and languid, pouring everything I felt into it. Regan clung to me, pushing into the kiss, turning it fierce, hungry. Then she maneuvered me back to the bed.
“Afternoon delight time,” she whispered breathlessly against my mouth as she fumbled for my zipper.
Laughing against her lips, I let myself be pushed back onto the bed. I clasped her hand as she shoved inside my jeans. “Mo leannan,” I groaned. “As much as I hate to put a stop to this, we need to talk. I need to know what the doctor said.”
“I’m eight weeks pregnant,” she said hurriedly, and pushed her free hand inside my boxers instead. “I have my first screening test and blood work next week, scan and another screening a few weeks after that. Otherwise, it’s all good. I’m young, I’m healthy, Doc has no concerns, so now I would like to make love to my husband to celebrate the fact that we’re having a baby and you’re happy about it. That okay with you?”
I fucking growled as she tightened her hold on my cock, the blood rushing from my brain.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said smugly before kissing the life out of me.
A while later, after we’d celebrated our pregnancy news twice, I held Regan in my arms as we laid in bed and stared at the cot.
“You told Robyn first,” I said, a wee bit put out.
“I’m sorry.” Regan lifted her head off my chest, her hair tickling my skin. “I … I don’t know why I got so freaked out. I guess it’s everything. Changing our life, especially just as I’m about to open the preschool. It’s a lot. I worried that we’d grown so comfortable that you would be disappointed. That the kids would be disappointed. It was silly. I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t silly. I understand. But never be afraid to tell me anything, mo leannan. Anything.”
“I know. I won’t.”
“And I promise to push harder to find out what’s going on in that head of yours so I don’t have to resort to eavesdropping on your conversations like a creep.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t cool.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too.” She pressed a soft kiss to my lips, her fingers tickling across my beard, before she settled back against me. “I wonder if we’ll have a boy or a girl.”
The thought made me smile. “I hope he or she gets your dimples.”
“I hope they get your accent.”
Shaking with laughter at that, I replied, “It’s likely. Children develop their accent from their peers, not their parents.”
“I knew that.” She smiled. “I’m just rambling nonsense. Is it possible to have baby brain this early in the pregnancy? I mean, my hormones are all over the place, obviously.”
I glanced at the clock. “The kids will be home soon.”
“I know. But let’s just lie here as long as we can.”
In answer, I pulled her closer, and we fell into companionable silence. Trailing my fingers over her shoulder, I imagined the future. I imagined her growing belly, and then our child. I imagined Eilidh acting like a wee mother over the baby and Lewis’s watchfulness, his quiet protectiveness, just as he was with his sister.
It filled me up.
This woman, our children, this life … it filled every part of me until there was no emptiness to be found.
“Happy here?” I asked Regan, as I often did.
She smoothed her left hand over my stomach, her fingertips tickling me, her engagement ring and wedding band glinting in the afternoon light. And she gave me the words I loved to hear. “I’m happy wherever I am, as long as I’m there with you.”
ARROCHAR
* * *
An hour commute to work never used to bother me. It was part of the business of being a forest engineer. But the drive to the forest near Loch Garve in Strathpeffer meant I was an hour there and an hour back. Two hours of my day on top of my working hours I wasn’t spending with my husband and daughter.
Thankfully, the days of logistical planning were over. Everything was almost implemented, and harvesting would begin soon. My next job was a bit closer to home. Still, I missed Mackennon and Skye in a way I had never imagined before I became a mum.
After little discussion, Mackennon had insisted I return to work after maternity leave and he take a hiatus from his job as head of security at Ardnoch to be a full-time dad. He’d saved a lot of money during his career that would allow us to manage financially. It was a relief because my job was a bit trickier to find my way back to if I took more time off.
As it was, Marcello, my project manager, had left the industry to teach. Marcello and I had gotten along so well. It was disappointing then to return from maternity leave to a new project manager, Scott, who subtly undermined me at every turn. I pushed through; I stood my ground, and I did my job. I just wished Scott would make my life a bit easier. It was hard enough being away from Skye, knowing she and Mackennon were off on their adventures for the day without me.