Well it was confirmed, she was pregnant. Jaycee had done a dozen tests on her own and she’d been to see Nicks. It was true. She was pregnant.

Jaycee didn’t go near AD. Didn’t go near Beck’s. She actually stayed in her apartment and avoided all calls and texts. She hadn’t even told Mavis. This was just crazy. It was such an unexpected situation that she couldn’t process it.

How the hell was she supposed to raise a child alone?

It was getting late and she’d ordered food. Yeah, she should be taking care of herself and eating right, but screw it, she hadn’t been to the grocery store.

When she opened the door to the food delivery guy, she gave him the money and took the sack. He turned to leave, and she noticed four guys carrying a large skinny wooden crate. Interesting. Someone was getting a delivery that looked suspiciously like a painting-shaped box. Just as she was about to close the door, one of the guys held up an arm.

“Jaycee Kirk?”

Her eyes went left and then right. “Uh, yeah,” she said.

“Will you sign for this?” The delivery guy was wearing a perfectly pressed uniform and she didn’t recognize the logo on it. But he was polite as he handed the clipboard to her. It wasn’t even a digital machine; it was old-fashioned pen and paper. “I need to see ID.”

“You need to see… what?” she asked, wondering what the hell those guys were bringing into her apartment. But as she stepped back and they slid it inside, she put a hand on the top of the box. “Do you guys know what’s inside?”

There was only one man she knew who would know how to transport anything like this. Only one artist she knew. But what would he send her? A blank canvas maybe? But why would it be so carefully packed? She’d never expressed any interest in painting on her own. She was his muse, not his student.

“No, ma’am,” the first guy said. “Do you have the ID?”

“Bring it in,” she said because she wasn’t going to leave it out in the hall. They brought it into the living room and she asked them to pull the sofa away from the wall to prop the box against it. After giving over her ID, they asked for a dozen signatures and then she ushered them out.

Standing alone in front of the box, she pushed her lips to one side. Her appetite was gone. Why would Beck send her anything? What could it be? There were dozens of his pieces that she loved. Most of them weren’t this big.

Too curious to leave the wooden box alone, she popped the nails from the end and pulled off a panel to open it. But when she peeked inside, she couldn’t see what it was and had to get a flashlight. Damn, it was wrapped.

Jaycee wasn’t known for her patience. Pulling one nail out and then another, she stepped back when the front of the box fell down. As it did, the packaging dropped, revealing what was inside. For a good minute, she was too stunned to even think about breathing. Absorbing what she was looking at, she steadied her breathing, but it was too much, she couldn’t find her center or her calm.

Cursing him aloud, Jaycee grabbed her purse, and dashed out of her apartment.

 

 

Her mood didn’t improve on her journey to Beck’s place, if anything, it got worse. 

Jaycee didn’t bother to knock, she just marched straight in, slammed the door, and threw her purse down.

“What the hell did you do that for?” she screamed, thumping both hands on the island.

The twins weren’t in the room, but the rest of the Infamous Five were there. All rose from their seats in the living room. But she didn’t care about the others, Beck was the aim of her laser focus.

“You got my present?” the smug bastard asked.

Aggravated, she gritted her teeth, but taking a few seconds to herself didn’t calm her down. “Your present?” she asked. “Who the hell gives a zillion-dollar piece of art as a present?”

“Thanks for the generous appraisal,” he said. “That’ll break records.”

“Beckett!”

But her frustration didn’t affect his calm. “You love The Abyss, more than anyone else will ever love it,” he said, coming to the island. Pete, Pine, and Snick came too, but Jaycee kept her eyes on him. “Why shouldn’t you have it?”

If he was being obtuse to piss her off, it was working. “Because it doesn’t belong to me,” she said. “Because right now it’s unsecure in my apartment. I can’t afford to insure it or to transport it back here. Beckett! Why the hell would you even—”

“Because if I’m going to lose you forever, I want you to have some memory of what we experienced together.”

Now he was locating his anger, and it fueled hers. “You think I’d ever forget?” she shouted and couldn’t even care that he was mad. Was it just tension that was affecting him or was he was hurt? She had no idea what the hell was going on anymore.

“Damnit, Beck, did you really think I’d ever forget us?”

“There is no us, remember?” he said, glancing at Snick.

Oh, so he thought he was protecting her relationship with his buddy? Her maestro was an idiot if he thought she could ever consider giving herself to any other man after being with him. What they’d had together meant more to her than any relationship she’d ever had.

Being suspicious was one thing, but she’d really believed that if Beck thought about it for a second, he’d know she wasn’t capable of disrespecting him by moving on to one of his best friends.

But this argument wasn’t about Snick; it was about Beck’s insane generosity. “You have to take The Abyss back,” she said. “We have to have it shipped back here—now.”

“No,” he said. “It’s yours… Did you sign the paperwork?”

Paperwork. She signed a bunch of times, but she just thought she was accepting delivery, she didn’t think she was taking ownership. “Beckett, what did you do?” she murmured, mortified that she might have been conned into taking his masterpiece from him. “You can’t sign an asset like that over to me.”

“Why not?” he asked, petulant in his delivery. “That piece has belonged to you since the first night you laid eyes on it upstairs. Do you know how many offers I’ve had to show the piece in the last year? A lot. But I refused them all. I wouldn’t take it away from you. It’s yours, Jaycee, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it now. Are you going to donate it to goodwill?”

Not a chance. She loved The Abyss and would hate to see it damaged or mistreated. The only person she trusted to care for it was the same man she trusted to raise her children. “Please, Beck,” she said, figuring she might make more progress if she softened. “I need you to keep it here. I probably won’t be in my apartment much longer. I’ll have to move. I can’t live in a studio with a baby.”

Beck’s eyes dropped to her abdomen. “It’s confirmed then?”

“Yes,” she said, moving a hand to her stomach. “And I need to… Damnit, Beck, I don’t even know what I need to do. I’m terrified enough trying to think about raising a child alone, I can’t be thinking about paying for security for The Abyss too.”

“Raising a…” Beck got angry all over again and growled at Snick. “You sonofabitch! You knocked her up and dumped her?”

Pine and Pete didn’t look sympathetic either, so she had to speak up before Snick got his ass kicked. “Snick isn’t the father of my child,” she said, grabbing everyone’s attention again. “I asked him not to say anything while I got my head straight. I know you all assumed that we did, but we never slept together.”

Offering Snick a tight smile, she did appreciate him taking the heat. The poor guy looked relieved that the truth was out. She didn’t blame him; he’d probably been dealing with a lot of questions and hostility.

“Then who?” Pine asked. “Who did you sleep with?”

Pine, Pete, and Snick searched each other. Snick was the one to shrug. “Howell I’m guessing,” he said. “She didn’t tell me.”

“Liam?” Pete asked.

Jaycee found Beck’s eyes, wondering how long it would take him to catch up. This might not be the best-case scenario, but she’d have to tell him the truth eventually. Her maestro’s mouth opened an inch.

“I didn’t sleep with Liam. We’re friends, but our relationship isn’t sexual,” she said, shaking her head. Beck’s frown changed hue, it became more severe, more somber. This was it, the moment of admission. She took a slow breath and then bit the bullet. “I’ve only slept with one man since the twins were born.”

Beck was catching up; the others were still dumbfounded and growing impatient. “Did you tell the father you were pregnant?” Pine asked. “How did he react?”

Though her lips were drying, Jaycee reminded herself to keep breathing. “Give it a second and you’ll see for yourself,” she murmured. “I’m waiting for him to figure it out.”

The room seemed to hold a collective breath. The guys were putting the pieces together, or maybe they weren’t, she didn’t care, she couldn’t think of anything except Beck.

“Muse,” he murmured.

Recognizing the tone of warning, she didn’t mind him being mad at her, not as long as he was using her pet name again. “Yes, Maestro,” she said, answering the question he wasn’t asking.

His mouth opened and closed. He took a single step backward and came up against one of the dining chairs. Yep, he got it, he didn’t have to ask.

Beck’s hand flattened on his forehead. “Goddamn,” he breathed out.

It was a weight off that he knew, but it broke her heart too. He wasn’t expecting this, he didn’t need it; she’d screwed up. “I’m sorry,” she said and familiar wet heat streaked her cheek. “I’m so sorry, Maestro.”

Although he was exasperated, he managed to stay calm. “We weren’t even a little bit careful,” he said, and she shook her head. “I thought breastfeeding was a… Hell, that’s a lie, I didn’t think anything. We’ve never been careful.”

Protection was never an issue. They’d both had health checks during the process of the surrogacy, and only been with each other since then. “I was always pregnant before, so we didn’t have to be,” she said. “I didn’t think about it either.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Pine said, shaking both hands. “You two had sex?”

“How the hell can you sound surprised when you say that?” Pete asked. “We’ve suspected forever, now we just got confirmation.”

“But she said ‘always pregnant before’,” Pine said. “Like they’ve been having sex for a while.”

Jaycee didn’t know how many questions to answer or what they should tell the guys. She was too pissed at herself for putting this on Beck who was already raising two young infants. Gradually, as the others speculated aloud about the relationship, her maestro started to get some of his determination back.

When Beck eventually looked at her again, he tipped his head to the side, indicating she should go around the kitchen island to him. Doing just that, Jaycee wasn’t sure the others even noticed her going.

The second she reached him, he cupped her face. “You should’ve told me,” he said, smoothing his thumbs over her cheeks.

This acceptance, even if it was temporary, made her feel better than she had since drinking that pickle juice here in the kitchen. “I wanted to be sure,” she said. “If the tests were negative, I didn’t want to out us. Everyone was here the other night and… I was in shock.”

“I was so cold… in the nursery you asked me to hold you…” he said, pulling her nearer to press his mouth to her hair. “Muse, I’m so sorry.”

“No,” she said, pushing away to look up at him. “I’m sorry. I’m the one who has to say sorry! I can’t believe I did this to you… You already have two children and I… we don’t have a contract.”

“This child was conceived in love,” he said, smiling as he brushed his fingers over her lips. “You said you were going to raise him alone?”

Panic made her cling to him. “I can’t abort,” she said, shaking her head that was still in his grip. “Please don’t ask me to, Maestro.”

“You’re an incredible mother,” he said, his smile growing more genuine by the second. “Having one baby will be a doddle after what the twins have put us through. The boys will love having a sibling around.”

Now he was just confusing her. “You said they couldn’t know,” she said, hearing the conversation behind her dying down. “In the nursery, you said it was best that they didn’t know.”

But Beck was adamant as he shook his head and she noticed a glimmer of anger. “You’re not going to ask me to deny our child, are you?”

She had to deny the twins; there was a contract saying she had to. Jaycee had spent time thinking about how she would handle this pregnancy. It surprised her to hear that he’d consider taking on another child. Would he save her from the consequences of their lapse in judgement? Did she want him to?

“Can you handle having three?” she asked.

There was a grumble behind her. “I can write another contract,” Pine said. “We’ll just confirm how many there are this time. It’s not triplets, right? Quads?”

The idea it could be a multiple birth terrified her, she’d almost died having the twins. As of this minute, she didn’t know how many children she had growing inside of her. “I have a scan scheduled for next week,” she said.

“You went to Nicks?” Beck asked. She nodded. “Damnit, I wish I’d been there.”

“I’d confirmed it with a test in my apartment. But I didn’t want to put off seeing him, after what happened with the twins’ birth, I wanted to talk to him about the risks.”

“What did he say?”

Doctor Nicks had been amazing about reassuring her. “That he’ll be happy to treat my pregnancy as high risk if it will make me feel better, but that the chance of hemorrhage is low… if it’s a single baby.”

“And if it’s not?” Beck asked, slipping an arm around her shoulders and running his fingers through her bangs. “We’re going to be ok, Muse. I won’t be leaving you after the birth, not for a second this time, ok? I’ll be right there with you every second.”

His calm understanding, his patience and reassurance, it was such a relief and a surprise. “I thought you’d be mad at me.”

“You didn’t do this on purpose and I’m as much to blame as you are,” he said and kissed her head again. “If you think about it, I’m more to blame… you remember what happened that night… you remember how we ended up in bed?”

Yes, she did. Turning her lip into her mouth, she bit it hard. Jaycee was guilty of thinking about him, of replaying her many nights with him, and their most recent one was a favorite.

“You only gave me what I wanted, Maestro.”

He stroked her face, she’d missed his touch. Living without him, trying to push him away, she’d been crazy. Jaycee didn’t want anything but this. Being here in this place she felt at home, with this man who worshiped her like she worshiped him.

Beck touched her lips again. “It’s funny,” he said. “Our first two couldn’t have been more planned and this one…”

“Couldn’t have been more of an accident,” she said and then scowled at herself as she nestled against him and reveled in the security of his arms. “I don’t like that word.”

“Serendipity,” he said, toying with the ends of her hair on her back. “He or she is our serendipity.”

Because this child was bringing them back together, reminding them of where they belonged. Now they had an excuse to return to their old terms… but Jaycee didn’t think she’d be able to walk away again.

Living with Beck for a year had been bliss, walking away had nearly killed her. But she had the opportunity to come back, to stay for another year, and then what? Was she going to leave him with three of their children? She didn’t think she had it in her.

“Good name for a girl,” she said, slipping her hands into his back pockets.

His brief laugh warmed her hair. “Yes, it is.”

“Ok,” Pine said, clapping his hands together. “I’ll get the paperwork written. I’m guessing you don’t want a no-sex clause in this one. And I’ll forget everything I heard about what may or may not have happened before delivery because you know, that would invalidate the twins’ contract.”

Easing away from him, Jaycee blinked up at Beck who was peering down at her. Could he feel her heart beating against him? Could he sense her terror and anticipation? She didn’t want to walk away. She didn’t want to ever leave this man or the children they’d made together.

It could be too much to ask him to accept her. But her love, it was too big to ignore. It had only grown since having their babies. Something kept bringing her back here to Beck and she was tired of fighting it. But was he ready to commit to her?

Her maestro could read her thoughts. “No,” he murmured, looking at her, but talking to Pine. “We don’t want a contract… and we did have sex before the boys were born. Lots and lots of sex… for months.”

Jaycee didn’t mean to smile, but her coy look made him relax. “I don’t understand,” Pine said. “You want the contract voided?”

“Yes, everything except her ownership stake in AD,” Beck said, and she tilted her head in a question, but he smiled. “I’ll explain that later… We want paperwork returning all of Jaycee’s parental rights for the twins.”

“Uh, shouldn’t you ask her about that first?” Pine asked.

Beck’s eyes rose from hers to his lawyer’s. “I don’t need to hear her voice to know what she wants. She’s my muse.”

“I don’t understand, what changed?” Snick asked.

Her maestro bowed to kiss her. “I want a wife,” he whispered, brushing his lips on hers.

His admission made her heart sing. Yes, nothing would make her happier than to belong to Beck forever. If he wanted a wife, she wasn’t going to let any other woman take that role. The father of her children had always been honest about what he wanted for his offspring.

In his household, one thing had to reign supreme. “Nothing but love?” she asked, straightening her arms to loop them around his neck.

“You’ve figured out by now that you’re better than me at that, and with the boys, right?”

Confessing would be cathartic; she had to say it out loud. Telling Beck the truth had freed her every time she’d done it in the past. “I love them, Beck. I don’t know how it happened; I didn’t expect it to… I didn’t intend to—”

“You’ve loved them since before I have,” he said. “Somehow you understood. You had a connection with the boys before I understood what it was to be a parent… You can’t walk away from them, girl. You can’t.”

He wasn’t giving her an order, he was stating a fact, and he was right. It just wasn’t physically possible for her to abandon her babies. “I won’t,” she said, pulling him down for a deeper, longer kiss. “I love you too much to walk away from you, from all of you… I need my maestro. Without you, I’m not whole.”

“I don’t understand,” Snick said from somewhere behind her, but she was too enamored with the sight of her love to turn. “She was screaming at him two seconds ago.”

“That’s artistic types for you,” Pete said.

Beck threaded his fingers through her hair to cradle the back of her head. “Muses are fickle,” he said and opened his mouth on hers.

Yes, she could be fickle, as could her maestro. Jaycee was scared she’d screw up her kids, but trusted her man to steer her right. There were going to be bumps, but they’d navigate them together.

It couldn’t have been an accident that she was pregnant again. Someone, somewhere, was giving them another go to get it right this time. If the obstinate Beckett Trent could change the path of his life to accommodate a wife, then the sensitive Jaycee Kirk could change the path of hers to accommodate their growing family.

If there was one thing the couple had always been good at, it was compromise.