Life Next Door (Love Not Included Series Book 2) (17 page)

“Ohhhh God…”

“CeCe…”

“Shhhh…I’m almost there.”

“CeCe, I’m serious, let it go...”

“No…ohhhhhhh God!”

“Ce, I’m not going to tell you again, this is ridiculous. Let it go now.”

“No, I’m not done yet. Just give me five more minutes. I just need one last squeeze—ohhhhh shit!”

“Goddammit! That’s it!” Trent stops wrestling me for the icing dispenser and whips it across the bakery. I watch in horror as it hits the fridge, splattering beautiful, Tiffany-blue icing all over my brand new stainless steel refrigerator.

“You did not just do that,” I grunt. I’m not sure if it’s because of his actions or if it’s the pain radiating from down below that’s going to make me pass out.

“CeCe. I let this go on too long. And now you are about to give me a Goddamn heart attack! We should have been on our way to the hospital like twenty fucking minutes ago!” He ends his tirade on a howl.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Trent, it’s fine. They said you don’t have to rush it when you— Hoooooooly shit pudding,” I grumble. That was a bad one.

“Shit! See? We’re going now!”

So, when I start feeling a mini human trying to break through my lower region, maybe it’s time to let Trent win this one. But to know I am leaving mid cake and Mrs. Bellows won’t have her daughter’s communion cake on time just doesn’t feel right. “Trent. Just wait. If you let me breathe this out, I can finish the topping and let Katie—” That argument is cut off by yet another wave of killer contractions.

I bend over and try to catch my breath. “These are seriously getting to be a bit dramatic.” I probably should not have said that, because it turns Trent an even paler shade.

“That’s it, I’m just calling 9-1-1.” He pulls out his phone. Good thing he’s shaking so badly and can’t dial three lousy numbers, giving me the opportunity to smack the phone out of his hand. “You did not just do that,” he growls.

“Oh, I did. You need to relax. No one’s calling 9-1-1.”

“CeCe! Your water broke almost thirty minutes ago! If I didn’t get Katie to sell you out and confess you were here, then you would be by yourself about to have this baby in the bakery!”

I’m not really sure why he is yelling at this point. Trust me, I can hear him just fine. “Listen, I know I lied, but I just wanted to finish this cake.”

“Lied? I banned you from the shop, CeCe! You can’t even walk on your own, let alone ice a damn cake! How many times do I have to tell you? This is the fourth time this month I have caught you
NOT
going for some fresh air, or the mail, or letting Jake out, and instead, doing something sugar related!”

“Trent...”

“Don’t you ‘Trent’ me, woman! You were told to be on bed-rest. I have spent more effort holding you captive than I should have. The shop is running fine without you. Katie has it under control. I don’t know why you think you need to sneak in here to bake something every time I turn my back on you for a second!”

“Because I miss baking.”

“Well, I miss my sane wife! And just when I thought you were getting the hint of what bed-rest means, you lock me in the bathroom and drive yourself to the bakery!”

“Well, for the record, I didn’t lock you in there. I just may have left the chair where it blocked the door.”

“CeCe...did the chair also have a wire around the nob?”

“Well, that would be strange if it did.”

“Dammit, CeCe, you’re gonna send me to an early grave. “

“It’s fine, trust me—” That’s as far as I get because I barrel over with another wave of holy shit, one badass contraction hitting me right where it counts.

“Oh, fuck this,” Trent groans and takes action, scooping me up in his arms. It’s weird because not a second ago, I swear I wasn’t sweating. Trent shoves us through the shop doors and heads to his Jeep. He opens the door and guides me into the front seat. As he attempts to latch my seatbelt, I get hit again and double over in pain. Trent might as well be feeling the same agony; a pained expression of horror covers his face.

“Baby, breathe it out, okay? Just breathe it out.”

I take his advice and breath in and out once, then say fuck it and use the remainder of my energy to curse out all mankind. Trent shuts my door and sprints to the driver side, practically hopping over the hood of the Jeep to get to other side faster. He jumps into the car and throws it into drive. He throws his police light on top of his hood and drives like a bat outta hell to the hospital.

“Trent?” I say, grinding my teeth.

“Yeah, babe?”

“Maybe we should have left thirty minutes ago.” That gets a panicked look from Trent as, impossibly, his face gets paler still.

“Seriously, CeCe, I love you, but if you have that baby in this car, I swear to God, I will cancel all your wine memberships while you are stuck in your hospital bed.”

He swerves to avoid a parked car and I begin to take in how serious this situation is. He has scared me into squeezing my goods closed as tight as I can. The only thing scarier than giving birth in a vehicle is the death of my wine club membership.

…

So, since you have stuck it out this far into my story, it’s only fair to backtrack a little and fill you in on the good stuff. It wouldn’t be my life if my story didn’t end in the most unconventional way ever. How did I get here? I would only describe it as tripping, falling and landing right where I needed to be. Life next door took away a part of my past and replaced it with my beautiful future. It’s been almost a year since Trent and I became an official
us
.

So much has happened since that day of the attempted robbery. Where do I begin? In regards to the incident, once we were spent, sated and officially made up, Trent flipped. It took less than twenty-four hours for Trent to take control and add a security system to the shop. I have faith in humanity so I was not as worried, but Trent was taking no chances and had the system up and running ASAP. Not only did he have it up and wired, he also had it ready for the expansion. Trent was taking no chances with
his girl
.

In a small town, no gossip goes unheard, so the store was insane with meddling customers for the next few weeks. Everyone wanted to hear the brave story of how Trent’s mystery sister and I took down a crazy man with a gun. The story took some crazy twists; at one point, I heard that I had been stabbed three times and that Cassie didn’t make it. It took Cassie actually walking into the shop a week later—and Mrs. Humphries swearing she just saw a ghost and passing out right in line—for that rumor to get set straight.

And you’re right, Cassie did come back to offer her monumental apology. Turns out, Cassie wasn’t such a she-devil after all. She showed up at my house a few days after the attack and, shockingly, she left with my number and a blooming new friendship. I officially retired “she-devil” and replaced it with Cassie in my name bank. We sat in my living room for hours as she explained how sorry she was about how she and Jeff came to be. She explained that it just happened and that she is truly in love with him and believes he is the one. She went into detail about her family drama and the deceitful past that Trent had already shared with me. She cried when she apologized for allowing Jeff to be unfaithful to me; she does feel shame for how they got together.

As much as I wanted to hate her, I understood–Jeff wasn’t mine anymore as much as I wasn’t his. I think hearing that she knew she was wrong made it better. But in the end, I guess you can’t fight true love. She expressed how she had been suffering from nightmares since the attack and thanked me for being so strong during it all. I, of course, left out that I was actually scared shitless. Someone needed to be the hero here. We talked about Trent. She told me that after I left that day, Trent threatened her and went as far as cutting off family ties if she didn’t make it right with me. He told her that he loved me and admitted to her he was going to marry me one day. I was moved to hear he already knew, even back then.

A week after the whole burglary fiasco, I had my interview with Silvia Weathers and it went amazingly well. Her questions started off basic and built to the heartfelt story about how May and I met. I shared my personal journey from first meeting May to her private farewell letter to me. By the end, I think even the camera man was sniffling. The segment ended with Silvia and me creating desserts in the bakery. Silvia wrapped up our interview with dates of when the segment will air, of course, falling two weeks before the grand opening of the expansion.

One question that was asked and I didn’t even have to hesitate to answer was whether or not I was planning on changing the name of the shop. My answer was no. No matter how I changed this place, it would always be May’s. Every day that I step foot in this shop, I see May. I see what she’s built, and her legacy will always live on.

The expansion was completed six hectic weeks later, and there were no words for the turnout. Seems like the news segment and article really did create a buzz, and once we finally made it to opening day, we had a line down the block of people wanting to be first to report on what all the hype was about. Of course we had issues with the locals trying to stake claim on the out-of-towners, so my possessive boyfriend had set up a police escort monitoring the scene. Trent wouldn’t be Trent if he wasn’t possessive over
his girl.

Happiness stuck with me from the moment we opened the doors, because let’s be honest, to dream of something and see it come to life is a great feeling. I really did it! The shop, love, that light in my life—it all fell right into place for me.

Unfortunately, that lasted for about a solid week until I realized I missed my period. I thought for sure that Trent was going to leave me once he found out I was knocked up. I had to tell him. Give him the chance to bolt so that I could crawl up in a hole and cry. What do single people do with babies? I didn’t even know if I wanted babies! I wanted babies. I was just trying to talk myself off of a ledge. I came home to Trent pacing the house like a maniac. He told me we needed to talk. He said he’d been trying to talk to me all week. His nervous jitters freaked me out, and when I sat down and he kneeled down in front of me, the second his words spilled out, I vomited out my dirty little secret at the same time. I heard Trent say, “Will you marry me?” as I overlapped his question with, “I’m pregnant.”

“Say that again?” we asked in unison.

“I’m pregnant” and “Will you marry me?” echoed again throughout the room.

“Wait. What did you just ask me?”

“What did you just say?”

“I’m sorry, Trent. I don’t know how it happened. I think it’s because I’ve been so stressed out with the new expansion and all. I may have missed a pill…or three. I don’t know. I just kept falling asleep before doing…wait. What did you just ask me?”

“CeCe, I asked you to marry me. But now I don’t know who is surprising who here.”

“Wait a minute, you want to marry me?”

“Of course, why the fuck wouldn’t I?”

“Because you have been acting so off the past week. I thought it was because you think I’m crazy and you’re done with crazy, so you’re about to break up with me.”

He looks at me and laughs. “Sweetcheeks, I’ve been off because I’ve been trying, for the past damn week, to ask you to marry me and every time I get the courage, you are snoring. My nerves have been so all over the place, that today I finally said, fuck it, I’m going to ask you whether you are half conscience or not. I couldn’t go one more day without asking you and making you say yes to me.”

Love. There is no stronger emotion than the love I feel for this man. And so I do the only thing I seem to do best lately, which is burst out crying.

“Jesus, why are you crying now?”

“Because you love me and instead of breaking up with me you want to marry me.”

“Babe, you were never getting rid of me. Now answer my question. Priscilla Westcott, will you marry me?”

I wipe my wet face and look straight into the eyes of the man who I, without question, plan on spending the rest of my life loving till my ever dying breath and I say the only thing that feels right: “Yes.”

“Thank fuck!” He grabs at my face and places his inviting lips to mine. He kisses me with passion and love and promise. Because I know deep in my soul, this is something that will be forever. He pulls away and assists in clearing my face of tears. “Now that that is out of the way, can you please repeat your news? Because I need to hear you say that again.”

Oh no. Did I just ruin a good thing? “I’m pregnant,” I state nervously.

“You’re pregnant.”

“Pregnant,” I repeat

“We’re going to have a baby?”

“Yes, we’re going to have a baby.”

The look in his eyes melts my soul. “God, and just when I thought you couldn’t make me any happier, you prove me wrong.” He still has his hands placed on each side of my face. He starts placing soft kisses everywhere. My eyes, my nose, my cheeks. “Pricilla Westcott, I am going to spend the rest of our lives loving you like you deserve to be loved. And till our dying breath, I will still never be able to show you just how deeply that love runs for me. Thank you for making me so happy.” He kisses my forehead. “Thank you for giving me life. Yours, the one you have growing inside you, our future. There will never be a day that I will feel like I am done showing you all the ways I love you.” He finishes his heart-melting speech and finally places his lips where I need them to be—touching mine.