Chapter 29

Just so we’re clear, I’m fatter in person.

-Cora’s secret thoughts

Coke

3 months later

I moved my cock in and out of her pretty little pussy.

Cora’s eyes stayed locked on mine as her orgasm overtook her.

The moment I felt her tighten around me, I didn’t hold off any longer.

I came hard inside of her.

“Oh, God. That feels so good,” she moaned, arching her back.

I lifted up on my hands and stared down her body as her hips swiveled.

Her tiny baby bump lifted with the movement, and if I hadn’t already come, just the sight of her ripening with my baby would’ve been enough to set me off.

God, I adored this woman and her body—even more so now that my baby was growing inside of her.

It hadn’t been an easy three months.

Not with the mood swings, and constant worry that she was going to be a horrible mother to our child.

But the three-month mark, it was like a light switch that controlled those chaotic emotions had turned off in her brain, and all of a sudden, things were just…normal.

One day, she woke up, and she was perfectly content in herself, and ever since, we’d spent our time waiting for her to revert back, but she hadn’t yet.

And hopefully, that meant for good.

I’d read and studied up on her disease, and they did say that once she felt stable, that sometimes, the cyclothymia would just resolve itself. Maybe it had just run its course since there was no known cure.

We didn’t know. The doctors didn’t know. Nobody knew…and we were counting that as a win. Though we did feel like we were holding our breath waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Here was to hoping it stayed gone.

Beatrice was doing her level best to make Cora feel anything but settled.

After finding out that Cora was pregnant with my child, Beatrice had lost her shit.

She was now a permanent resident of a penitentiary that specialized in the intense cases where the occupants also suffered from a mental disorder.

The penitentiary had helped her kick her drug habit, had found her a psychiatrist, and had told her that she wouldn’t be leaving for a very long time.

Cora, after coming out of her panic attack, had found out that she was pregnant, and had been in a state of shock right along with me for at least a month as we all tried to come to terms with what was now our lives.

But, overall, we were both quite happy—even if we were both scared shitless.

I’d asked her to marry me a month ago, and our wedding would take place the moment that Cora’s brother was able to come home from BUD/s training.

Luca hadn’t wanted to leave, but Cora had urged him to follow his dream.

And none of us had missed the way he’d looked at Frankie as he’d packed his shit and left.

Frankie hadn’t been the same since he’d left, either.

She was more withdrawn, and a whole lot more cautious.

She was now attending community college and was living back at my house while I’d moved in with Cora.

She was really shaken about the turn her mother had taken—and I couldn’t say that we all didn’t feel the same.

How we’d all missed Beatrice’s drug problem was beyond me.

In her need to get her hands on more money, she’d practically sold her daughter to a man to pay off her debts.

After everyone had met for a discussion and added everything they knew, Beatrice was questioned, and she confessed to everything.

Planting bomb materials in Cora’s car in the hopes of distracting me from what she was trying to accomplish—selling our daughter to cover her drug habit. Oh, and let’s not forget everything else she’d confessed in her crazy tirade in the hospital three months ago.

Needless to say, she wasn’t missed.

Cora’s fingers trailed down along my chest where I’d been impaled by the gear shifter.

“No panic attacks today,” she murmured.

“No,” I agreed. “You’re doing better.”

One day, Cora would be free of those panic attacks that’d been brought on when she killed that man, but today, and likely tomorrow, wouldn’t be that day.

We’d take our lives together one step at a time, and eventually we’d fight those demons together.

In the meantime, I was happy to be there for her just as she was thankful to be there for me.

I’d found something special in my neighbor, and I would thank every single star in the sky for being handed such a gift.

“Now, I think you better get off me. I’m about to throw up.”

I moved like lightning, and she did indeed throw up.

But, unlike Beatrice’s pregnancy, I was there for every step of Cora’s.

Every puke, hiccup, and nap included.