Chapter Twenty-Nine

Eddie

I look around the room, realising everyone is here including a medic. “I’m fine, can everyone get out.” Everyone starts to leave, even Callie. “Not you, Callie.” She looks at me and sits back down in the chair beside me. “You’re pregnant?” I have so many questions, I figured I may as well start there.

“I am,” she says, not offering me any more information.

“Why didn’t you tell me before now?”

“I only found out just before I came back, I’ve never had regular periods so I didn’t think anything of it until I had my routine drug test, which I found amusing since I was in the middle of nowhere. To be honest, I wasn’t going to keep it.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re messed up. I failed the first time around and your reaction just now confirms how you feel.”

“I was expecting a different reaction from you is all, and wasn’t expecting that, but this changes nothing. I want to marry you, I want a life with you and while kids weren’t something I was expecting, or thinking of straight away, we can do this. We may be screwed up and have made lots of mistakes in our past, but together we can figure it out.”

“I don’t know, it all seems so fast,” she says.

“If you asked me two days ago, I would have said the same thing, but you need to watch this. If you still think it’s a crazy idea then I’ll drop the marriage idea, but I’m not leaving you again no matter what you decide to do.” I get up from the day lounge I was laying on and go in search of my laptop. Callie just watches me in silence. I know it’s in here, in retrospect it probably wasn’t a smart idea. I find it in a closet with the rest of the crap I’d bought in earlier and sit it down next to her and wait for it to load. The few minutes that go by feel like hours.

“What’s so important that I need to watch it?” she asks.

“Your son, he’s brilliant.” She just smiles and watches as the screen lights up, I skip it forward to where I paused it earlier. Beau’s face pops up on the screen and while I see her sadness, I see the pure love on her face. Call me sappy, but the thought of her looking at our child like that, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

“Hey mum, me again. I bet when I died you expected that to be it, you can’t get rid of me that easily.” Callie has tears in her eyes and laughs at his joke. “So, I take it Eddie asked you to marry him. You said no, didn’t you? Don’t overthink it or use your past as an excuse. I’ll ask you what I asked him. Do you love him?”

She looks over at me. “Well?” I ask.

“Yes, I love you,” she says, rolling her eyes.

“Now, close your eyes and imagine it’s ten years from now. The door swings open at the end of the day and you’ve cooked a nice meal—who’s coming home to you? And lastly, imagine Eddie dies—does it hurt your heart? Does panic set in? You know life is short, and you can’t ignore how you feel because you’re scared. I love you and you have my blessing. Now, go back to the start of the video and see how much effort we put into this proposal.”

I start the video over for her and she watches and laughs in places.

“So, this was all him?” she says.

“Pretty much. When he says it, it doesn’t sound crazy though, it just makes sense,” I say, getting down on one knee. “So, I’m going to ask you again, will you marry me? We have so much to talk about and a lifetime to figure it out. We are far from perfect, but you know what, I want to be flawed with you. I want to get old with you by my side, holding my hand when times get hard. I know things will get hard because that’s what life is all about, but with you by my side the hard things never seem as bad. You’re that missing piece I have been looking for all my life, when I’m with you everything else fades away and I feel like everything is right in the world.”

“Yes,” she says. I slide the ring on her finger. It’s nothing flashy or oversized, Delilah said Callie was elegant and something simple yet beautiful is what she’d like. “It’s perfect”

“So, we’re having a baby,” I say.

“I’m scared,” she says.

“It’s okay to be scared. Hell, I’m scared too, but together we can figure it out. He’ll be loved, something I never had growing up.” I don’t talk about my past very often, but one thing I never felt from my parents was love.

“He?” She says, arching an eyebrow at me.

“Or she, but I think these powerful swimmers have made a boy.” She playfully slaps me as I pull her to my chest.

Last night, after I spent what felt like seconds with Callie, I was whisked away to wrap up our tour. And that meant meeting fans and talking to reporters and those vloggers, or whatever they call themselves, because a pregnancy bombshell and her saying no to my marriage proposal would be everywhere by tomorrow. Mickki did say that he wanted to go out with a bang. But all I wanted to do was go back to Callie and talk to her before she could talk herself out of marrying me and having my baby. When I, or Beau, came up with this idea, I’d planned on her being in my room and made sure her friend had their own room. When we finally got to the hotel as the sun was coming up, I crawled into bed next to her and pulled her up against me. I needed to hold her in my arms to believe this is really happening, to make her feel safe before we head out into the real world – my world. We’ve never talked about her being in the spotlight, we may not be Black Diamond anymore, but with the record company about to launch its first artists I doubt the spotlight is going anywhere. Now that we’ve fulfilled our contracts with Fontaine records, and all the drama with Alex is over with, our solicitors made sure a contract of our own was signed just to cover our asses. Oliver wished us well, and I have a feeling Alex has something on him or his father, because he didn’t seem overly happy with her last night. One of the roadies told Mickki he overheard them arguing about losing some of their best talent, and that he’d never work with Avery again. I told Mickki and he said Alex and Avery were together now and so much made sense, the two of them deserved each other. I’m just glad the whole thing is over with. For the first time in my life, I’m content with knowing where my life is headed; a beautiful woman, a baby on the way, and an exciting new adventure workwise.