“Yeah, Coop. I bet you’re right.”

That night, we both sleep facing each other, his hand firmly placed in mine, our foreheads resting together, and I pray that he’s right. That if we ever do have kids, they’re nothing like HER and they know what love feels like.

If that’s even possible.

Chapter 16 – Chelcie

The first thing I notice when I start to wake up is how warm I am. I’ve always been warm natured, which is why I sleep in as little as possible. I try to wake my mind up enough to take stock in my body. My heavy breasts feel constricted from evidently falling asleep with my bra. At least I remembered to take my socks off; hot feet at night are the worst.

The thought of my feet, or more specifically my toes, is what brings it all back. Phil, his creepy toe fetish, Asher, running, Asher, and the baby. It all slams into my mind so powerfully that I’m left shaking and crying again.

Damn hormones. Even though I’m legitimately upset, I don’t think I would be this much of a mess if I weren’t a walking, talking basket case of hormone overload.

The feeling of something tightening against my stomach makes me calm down long enough to make sure the baby is okay. I reach down and scream when I feel warm skin, coarse hair and an arm that does not belong to me.

What the hell?

I start panicking, thinking about how I can get out of here safely. How did someone get in? Oh my God! What if it’s Phil? Did he already suck my toes while I was sleeping? I’m going to die and Phil is going to cut off my toes!

“Calm down, Sunshine. I can hear you thinking over here.”

When I hear Asher’s deep mumble and feel his words vibrate against my back, I scream again and then naturally start crying all over again.

Basket. Case.

He tightens his grip, his huge hand palming my stomach in such a way that it renders me speechless. His fingers almost span my entire stomach. They twitch and caress—explore the bump I’ve been falling in love with more and more each day.

I calm myself down, my breathing still thick, but the feel of him—the safety of being in his arms—gives me the needed strength to pull my crybaby act together.

“How did you get in?” I question. The last thing I remember, after pulling myself off the floor, was going straight to bed. I must have been exhausted to not feel or hear him climb in behind me.

“Hmm,” he hums against my neck. His nose running along the sensitive skin causes goose bumps to break out against my flesh.

“Ash,” I whine desperately. My body—my very horny body—has been in hibernation mode for so long that just the feeling of his breathing against my neck and his hand holding my stomach makes me feel like I could come on command.

“The door was unlocked, which was a gross oversight on my end, but I was lost in my own shit. When I got my head together, I came back to make sure you were okay and found the door open…” he trails off, leaving us both lying there, wondering what’s next.

“I’m sorry, Ash.” I sigh into the silence, breaking the fragile stillness around us.

He doesn’t say anything for a few beats, leaving me teetering on the edge of fear that I’ve ruined what trust we had in each other. “I know you are, Sunshine. I know. It doesn’t make it easy, and I’m sorry I blew up on you.”

“You were right in your anger. I shouldn’t have kept it from you, but Ash…you were in such a bad way for a while after Coop and I… Even though it doesn’t make what I did okay, I was scared to tell you. Afraid you would think the worst of me. It makes none of it okay, but that’s where I was coming from.”

“You were right,” he utters, his voice thick with emotion. “I wouldn’t have heard you even if you were standing in front of me with a blow horn. I’ve been asking myself for months why… Why him? What was the point? Why take him from this world? He has always been the better soul out of the two of us, and knowing that he died without me there to protect him—yeah, I wouldn’t have heard you.”

“How can you think that? The better soul? You really believe that, don’t you?” I turn in his arms, reaching up to cup his cheeks in my hands. “I’ll agree with you that Coop was an incredible man. He was there for me when I needed someone to help me feel strong again. He was brave, selfless, and oh so loved. But Ash…do you not see that you are just as incredible? I see you, YOU, Ash. I see the man who has been so lost, but fighting with every breath, he has to survive. I don’t know a lot about your past, but I know enough to know that you’re a fighter. You and Coop, you might as well have been built from the same mold because the same fearlessness that he possessed each and every day was obviously learned from his big brother.”