One Month Later

Nicole was slathering her bagel with cream cheese, half listening to whatever Stacey was saying about Hashtag. They’d been fighting a lot lately and although Stacey seemed to know it was over, she was still hanging on for some strange reason. Nicole was tired. She was tired of being pregnant, she was tired of trying to teach Julie how to use the ovens at the bakery without burning the bread, and she was tired of listening to her best friend bitch about a man she knew she didn’t love. “Are you even listening to me?”

Nicole looked up from her bagel. “I’m sorry. I was…Stacey, be honest, why don’t you just admit that it’s over between you two?”

“Wow, thanks. What if I had told you that about Zack way back when?”

“Do you love Hash?”

She hesitated and then said, “I might.”

Nicole smiled. “That’s the difference. I knew I loved Zack almost from the start. You’ll know when it’s something worth fighting for. Honey, you told me yourself that he’s cheating on you with the club girls. Hash is a good guy, but I don’t think he’s cut out for a relationship. If I thought that you thought he was, I wouldn’t say that…but I feel like I’m listening to you try and talk yourself out of this relationship every day. So then why keep staying in it?”

Stacey sighed and fiddled with her coffee cup. “Because, despite him sleeping with any female that crosses his path and smells like pussy, he’s a really great guy. I like him and I’ll miss him.”

Nicole tried not to laugh. Suppressing a smile, she said, “So you either have to decide if you’re okay with him fucking other women, or not.”

“I’m not. I don’t like to share.”

“Then end it now while you still like him and you can still be friends, and move on. You’re gorgeous and smart and you just got a promotion at work. You can find another man.”

Stacey picked at the coffee cake in front of her and said, “I guess. But, all I meet are suits and ties. I want a man like you have. I want one that treats me like a queen, but still has that tough exterior.”

Nicole smiled. “Then keep looking until you find him. Don’t try to force something that’s not working.” Stacey nodded.

“You’re right, as usual. Does Zack have any other friends I haven’t met?”

“I’ll ask,” Nicole said and smiled. Her smile quickly turned into a grimace as a sharp pain stabbed her in the back. She grunted and leaned into the table.

“Nick, are you okay?”

“I don’t know. I got this pain in my back suddenly.” She took a few deep breaths. “It’s going away now.” Suddenly she wasn’t hungry any longer. She sat the bagel down and sat up straighter. “There, it’s gone.” She looked at her watch and said, “I’m sorry, honey. I should get going. I have to pick up Liam at my mother’s soon.”

“Okay,” Stacey said. “You go ahead. I’m going to finish my coffee. I’ll get the check.” They had met for brunch at the diner across from the bakery after Nicole had spent the early morning helping Julie bake the bread for the day. She was already tired and looking forward to a nap with Liam. She gave Stacey a hug and said goodbye. On her way out to the car she was assaulted by another sharp pain in her back. She had to stop and let her body work through it before she could make it to her car. It was gone by the time she started the car up and drove out of the parking lot, but less than five minutes passed before she had to find a spot on the shoulder to pull off on and fight her way through another one. When it passed, she took out her phone and called her mom.

“Hi, Mom, how’s Liam?”

“He’s perfect, as usual,” she said, going on to tell Nicole some story about something he did that she thought made him seem intelligent well beyond his not quite two years.

“Good,” Nicole said. “Mom, did you have back pain when you were in labor?”

“Are you in labor? Where are you? Is Zack with you?”

Nicole chuckled. “Slow down, Mom. I’m okay. I’m just having these pains in my back. I never had back labor with Liam so I’m not sure that’s what it is…but they come and go every five minutes or so.”

“You need to get to the hospital. Tell Zack to take you in the car and not on that motorcycle of his.”

Nicole smiled, and then grimaced as another pain assaulted her. That one traveled from her back to her stomach and it tightened before it went away. Her mother was right; she should get to the hospital. “Okay, Mom. Are you okay with keeping Liam a bit longer?”

“A bit longer? You’re having a baby. He’ll be fine. I have everything he needs here. He can stay the next two weeks if he needs to.”

“I love you, Mom, but he’s not staying for two weeks. Even if I could stand it, Zack hates it when he’s gone for one night.”

“Fine, but don’t worry, he can stay as long as he needs to. Tell Zack to call me as soon as you’re settled in at the hospital. Do you need me there? I can have your father watch Liam…”

“It’s okay, Mom. Zack will be there.” Nicole ended the call and endured another pain before she called Zack. His phone went to voicemail. She left a message that said, “I’m not sure, babe, but, I think I’m in labor. I’ll meet you at the hospital.” She hung up and started on the thirty-minute drive to the hospital. Her phone rang twice while she was driving, but between the heavy morning traffic and the pain, she didn’t want to reach for it. It was almost forty minutes later before she drove into the lot in front of the hospital. She found a place to park and then put her head forward on the steering wheel and waited for another pain to pass. She was breathing through it when there was a knock on her window that nearly gave her a heart attack. She looked up into the worried blue eyes of Zack. She flipped up the door lock and he pulled the door open.

“God, baby, are you okay? Why did you drive yourself? Where’s Stacey?”

“I left her at the diner. I thought I was fine. The pains didn’t get bad until I was on my way.”

“Isn’t it too soon for her to come?”

“Second babies are always a little early. I’m due in three weeks. She should be fine. Or, this could be false labor.”

“Well, let’s go in and find out.” Zack took her arm and helped her out of the car. He looked like he was trying to keep his cool, but the panic showed through in his blue eyes.

“I’m okay, baby,” Nicole tried to reassure him. It was obvious he didn’t believe her when he bent down and scooped her up into his arms. She giggled. “I can walk.”

“I’m sure you can, but I’m not going to…what the hell is that?” Nicole felt the moisture running down her legs and soaking Zack’s t-shirt. She giggled again.

“I guess it’s not false labor. My water broke.”

“Jesus.” Zack’s paranoid look moved from his eyes into his forehead as he raced her into the hospital. A nurse put her in a wheelchair and from there he followed her every step of the way. He held her hand during labor and he fed her ice chips. He glared at the nurses when they wouldn’t give her anything else for pain and he stood next to the doctor and made sure he didn’t hurt the baby as he “pulled” her out. He took the scissors they offered him in a pair of shaky hands and with a look of awe unlike any Nicole had ever seen, he cut the cord between her and the beautiful, squiggly, slimy baby on her belly. When the nurse took the baby to clean her up, he followed them over to the sink and the tent where they put her in a diaper and swaddled her in a blanket, and then he followed them back when they laid her in Nicole’s arms. Once the nurses finally left them alone he looked down at the baby and said, “Thank God.”

Nicole was confused. “Thank God, what?”

“When she first came out and she had that green stuff and blood all over her, she looked like she had a beard and a pinched-up forehead. For a minute there she reminded me of Adolf Hitler.”

“Zack!”

He laughed. “I’m kidding.” He reached down and touched her tiny little head. “She’s beautiful, just like her mother.” The baby opened her eyes and looked up at Nicole. Her eyes were blue and her hair dark like a raven. She looked just like Mona, but Zack wasn’t going to say that out loud. Mona, however, would be sure to point it out when Zack sent her a photograph. She had taken the deal and now Zack had to keep up his part of the bargain.

“She is beautiful,” Nicole said, “but she doesn’t look like me. Those eyes are all you.” She held the baby up and said, “You want to hold her?”

The nurse had told Zack that the baby weighed six pounds and four ounces. One of his hands probably weighed more than that. “What if I hurt her?”

“You won’t hurt her, babe. Just put your hand under her neck and the other one under her little bottom. Hold her against your body.”

Feeling more nervous than he’d ever been, even with Liam, Zack slid his big hands under the baby and lifted her up. He held her out for a few seconds and looked at her before drawing her in and letting her rest against his chest. She felt so good, and Zack couldn’t believe that he could already be in love with someone he’d laid eyes on for the first time only minutes ago. He smiled down at the baby and then looked at Nicole and said, “What’s her name?”

“We never agreed on one. What do you think?”

He looked at the baby in his arms again. “She looks like a princess. Let’s call her that.”

Nicole smiled then said, “You can call her that, Daddy, but she needs a real name. How do you feel about Emma?”

Zack looked back down at his little princess and said, “Emma.” The baby fluttered her long, black eyelashes. “I think she likes it. Emma Leoni. What about a middle name?”

“Well, Zachary Ray Leoni, I was thinking we could name her after you.”

Zack raised an eyebrow. “Emma Zack? I guess no one would mess with her.”

Nicole laughed. “No, Emma Rae Leoni.”

Zack nodded. “I like it. Hey there, Emma Rae Leoni, I’m your dad. Don’t let the good looks fool you. I’m one badass mofo.”

* * *

Nicole looked around at the men and women who filled her parents’ backyard. Her dad was at the grill and Zack was standing next to him. She didn’t know what they were talking about, but she loved the fact that Zack had gone out of his way to find things in common with her dad. She looked over at Stacey, who was sitting under a tree in a lawn chair next to Zack’s VP, Skid. Nicole saw nothing attractive about Skid, but Stacey was in flirting mode and at least from a distance, she seemed to find him fascinating. Hashtag had taken the break-up well and he’d brought a date to the christening and barbecue. Nicole smiled. As out of place as most of these people looked in her parents’ backyard, the looks they all got as they came out of the church were priceless.

Nicole looked across the patio at her mother, who sat rocking Emma. The only time her mother agreed to give the baby up was when Liam needed her. Nicole loved that her mother was such a happy grandmother. She loved her family, and as she looked around she realized how lucky she was. Her eyes landed on Levi, the man that had ended Spider’s miserable life once and for all. He was a quiet kid and he didn’t seem to fit in well with the other bikers. Zack liked him and since he hated the Defenders, that was saying a lot. He’d been trying to get Levi to change clubs and ride with the Invaders, but as far as Nicole could tell, he was still on the fence about it. She watched him now, sitting alone, drinking a beer and touching his fingers to the tattoo on the side of his neck. She got up and took her own beer over to sit in the chair next to him.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her. Emma was a month old, so Nicole was back to normal, but all the bikers so far had asked her how she was feeling like maybe she’d just beaten cancer. She smiled and said:

“I’m good, thanks. How about you?”

He nodded and took a sip of his beer. “I’m good.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Who’s Krissy?”

He touched the tattoo again, but this time he smiled. “She’s my girl.”

“You should have brought her with you.”

“I wish. She’s away at college. I miss her so fucking much. Sorry.”

Smiling, Nicole said, “Sorry? For what?”

“The ‘fucking.’ I promised Krissy I wouldn’t say it so much, but it’s hard. I mean listen to these guys, it’s every other word.”

“True story,” Nicole said. “I say it too much myself. So, when is your girl coming home?”

He smiled again. His big doe eyes filled with joy as he said, “She’ll be back next week. I haven’t seen her in months. I can’t wait.”

“Can’t wait for what?” Zack asked, walking up on the conversation.

“To see his girl,” Nicole told him.

“Nice,” Zack said. “Nicole, can I see you inside for a minute?”

“Sure.” Nicole smiled at Levi and excused herself. It made her heart happy to see another one of these guys like her Zack…faithful. It was a hard thing to find in the midst of an MC, but at least it meant there was still hope for Stacey, who suddenly had her heart set on being an old lady. Once they were in the house, Zack took Nicole’s hand and led her down the hallway. “What’s going on?”

“Just want to show you something.” He led her into the bathroom in the main hallway and then closed and locked the door.

Nicole smiled. “Is this one of those times you’re going to drop your pants and show me what an incredibly big cock you have?”

Zack laughed. “No, it’s one of those times when I drop to one knee and pull out a little box and show you what an incredibly large diamond I bought you.” Nicole gasped as he knelt and flipped open the little box in his hand. Inside was a diamond engagement ring in a white gold setting. It was gorgeous. “Will you marry me, Nicole Swafford?”

Nicole dropped to her knees in front of him. She had tears in her eyes. “Yes! Oh, hell yes.”

Zack laughed. “I don’t think we’re both supposed to be on our knees.”

“I want to be wherever you are.” He took the ring out of the box and she held out her finger and let him slide it on. “Zack, it’s beautiful.”

“I’m glad you like it. I don’t know anything about jewelry.”

“You did great,” she said.

“Stacey and your mom might have helped…a little.”

Nicole took his face in her hands and kissed him. She started to pull back and Zack put his hands on her back and pulled her back in for another kiss, a deep, passionate one. When they came up for air he said, “Is now an appropriate time to drop my pants and show you what an incredibly large cock I have?”

Nicole laughed. “Probably not, but when have we ever done things the appropriate way?”

“Hell yeah, that’s my girl.” He took her hands and pulled her to her feet and then he unzipped his jeans and let them fall before pushing down his shorts. “Big, eh?”

Nicole reached out and put her hand around his erection. “Mm-hmm…the biggest.” She started stroking him and he closed his eyes for a few seconds and let her. She was really getting into it when there was a knock on the door.

“Fuck, occupied!” he yelled. Nicole let go of his cock and reached under the skirt she was wearing and pushed down her panties. Zack grinned, spun her around so that she could grab hold of the sink, and bent her forward. “That sweet pussy is about to be occupied with this big cock, baby, what do you think about that?”

“I think too much talk, not enough action.”

Zack laughed and rubbed the head of his cock against the entrance of her wet pussy. “You want me to stop talking?”

“Yes.”

“And do what.”

“Fuck me.”

He slid his hand underneath her shirt and her bra. With one of her breasts firmly in his hand he put his face next to hers and looked at her in the mirror with his sexy blue eyes and grinned. That grin was what Nicole fell in love with, the rest of him was just icing on the cake. He kept his eyes locked into hers in the mirror as he let his cock slide into her from behind. She moaned when he was inside of her and he slid his other hand up in her shirt and grasped her other breast. He held onto them, massaging, caressing, and tweaking her nipples as he pounded into her from behind. It didn’t take either of them more than five minutes before they climaxed, but it was a powerful one for them both. As she was still gasping for breath she smiled at him in the mirror and said:

“I finally have everything I ever wanted.”

He turned her around so that she was facing him and with his lips hovering just over hers he said, “So do I, baby. I love you.”

“I love you too. I can’t wait to marry you.”

Zack grinned. “Because of my incredibly huge cock?”

Nicole leaned her forehead into him and laughed. “Of course.”