Summer peered at Gabriel through slitted eyes. Worry lined his handsome face around his eyes and mouth. While they waited for the doctor, he knelt by her hospital bed and prayed.
Wave after painful wave of contractions washed over her, making her body run hot, and then cold. She kicked the sheets off and fumbled for something, anything to help her.
“Here, sweetheart.” Gabriel pressed ice chips to her lips, and she swallowed them. A slew of nurses entered the room, maneuvering him out the way as they helped her to a wheelchair.
She hunched over when another contraction hit. “Gabriel,” she gasped, reaching for his hand.
“Want me to come with you?”
“You can’t,” one of the nurses informed him, and then turned to Summer. “We have to go.”
She began to struggle to get out of the chair, desperate for his comfort and strength. “Not without him.”
Gabriel knelt before her, his large hands covering hers as he stared into her eyes. “Everything will be fine. I’ll be waiting for you.”
But it wasn’t his face she saw when she came to, teeth chattering and strangely empty. “My baby.” The nurse had told Summer the baby would be brought to her after she had time to recover from surgery. But Summer wanted her now.
Azalea smoothed back the hair on Summer’s forehead and smiled. “How do you feel?”
Too exhausted to be shocked by Azalea’s sudden and unwelcome appearance, she asked, “Wh-where’s G-Gabriel?” Dear God, she was cold. So cold her teeth wouldn’t stop chattering. “He s-s-said he’d b-be here.” She tried to rise, but Azalea put a firm hand on her shoulder.
Azalea tsked. “Sugar, it’s like I’ve always told you, the only thing you can count on a man doing is never being there when you need him.” She pulled the covers up. “Now, about the baby’s daddy. Is he planning on coming up here and taking care of y’all?”
Summer stared up into violet colored eyes, hating the woman who’d abandoned her and her little sisters. “He’s d-dead.”
“I hope you don’t expect me to…” The frown that marred her mother’s perfect face eased into a smile. “Well, there are death benefits and pensions. All sorts of things a woman needs to survive. They owe you.”
They owed her nothing. And she would get nothing, since she and Darius hadn’t been married. He’d just been a nice guy who’d treated her like she was worth something. A nice guy who hadn’t deserved to die in a war.
Maybe that was his punishment for being with a Holland. With her. She mentally brushed away the melancholy thoughts that threatened to overwhelm her. “N-nothing’s f-for us.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Give that baby a paternity test and—”
“Get out,” Summer said through tightly clenched teeth.
Florescent lights flickered in the room, a loud buzzing turned into an even louder pop.
“Don’t get all riled up.” Her mother sniffed. “It’s not healthy, but you never listened to me. Just like you didn’t listen to me when it came to that preacher’s boy. He couldn’t be bothered to stay. Something about not being able to handle the pressure.”
“I don’t believe you,” Summer said through gritted teeth.
A nurse came into the room, saying something to Azalea as she left. She took Summer’s temperature and checked the small sutures. “You’ll be able to see your baby in a little while.” A cool hand patted her shoulder. “Picked out a name yet?”
Summer nodded, her arms aching to hold her. “Ivy.”
“That’s a nice name.”
“Wh-where’s G-gabriel?”
The nurse’s brow furrowed. “I was told that he needed to leave, that you only wanted family.”
Azalea’s doing—it had to be. But why had he listened? “Oh, yeah.”
“I’ll be back in an hour to check on you.”
The door clicked closed, making the room seem empty. The emptiness grew, until it reached every toe and finger. Until the longing to hold Ivy was overshadowed by it. All she wanted to do was sleep. To feel nothing ever again.
But her last thoughts as she drifted off were of Gabriel. Why wasn’t he here with her? What had made him leave?
This time things had seemed different.
“I don’t belong here,” she sobbed, breaking free from her memories. But where else did she have to go?
After a long evening at The Center, Gabriel drove down to one of the local docks, unloaded the canoe he’d strapped in the truck bed into the water, jumped in, and began to row.
He rowed across the Pamlico, the oars slicing through the water with little resistance. When his arms and abs began to burn from the exertion, he braced his legs against the sides and pushed himself harder.
He rowed until his chest ached and his brain cleared, then he rowed even more, until he came to the bridge that led to the little town of Jessamine. The only time he ever rowed this far northeast was when he had excess energy to burn off, or when he had a problem to solve.
Only Summer wasn’t a problem. She was his wife.
With a great sigh, he began to row back to shore.
Once he showered and changed, he walked into the living room, only to find Summer asleep on the couch.
She was curled up in one corner of it, like a little girl, and every so often, she’d hiccup and sniff. She’d been crying, he realized, and everything he’d rehearsed while he’d been rowing flew out the window
She looked so vulnerable lying there, wearing a pale pink nightgown with butterflies on the hem. Another one of Jemma Leigh’s recommendations, he’d bet, smiling at little.
One of the thin straps slid down her shoulder, and he gently tucked it back in place. “Gabriel,” she murmured, turning to him.
“I’m here.” He leaned down, picking her up as she wrapped her arms around him. “It’s late. Let’s get you to bed.”
“I need you. Now.”
Her words were his undoing. She’d never needed him, at least not in the way he thought she meant it.
He searched the room, zeroing in on the table. Striding to it, he sat her on the edge. “This good?”
“Yes.” She leaned forward and licked a path up his neck. “Please.”
Tugging his shirt up and over his head, he fixed his gaze on her. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Take everything off.”
Not sooner than the command had finished being issued, he toed off his shoes, and rid himself of his socks and pants.
Her nightgown went flying across the room and then her very interested gaze locked on him once more. “Those too.”
“These?” He tucked his thumbs into the waistband of his boxer briefs, edging them down. She licked her lips, and he applied more pressure until the material caught on the tip of his cock.
“Now,” she ordered and he gave her a wicked grin before letting his boxer briefs fall around his ankles.
He barely had enough time to step out of them before she hauled him to her, locking her legs around his waist. The head of his dick brushed her silky thigh. She tackled him, grabbing his face, and kissing him with so much passion, it was like she was desperate. He kissed her back, sliding his hand under her bottom to fit her more fully to him. She moaned, her hands leaving his face to glide down his neck, his chest, over his nipples, and further still to his abs.