Calling Me Home (13 page)

“So my proposal wasn’t good enough?” I asked, chuckling.

She laughed. “I just thought you deserved to see how much you mean to me. To know that I realize we’re forever.”

“You’re going to be the most incredible wife and mother.” I was so proud of her in that moment, so proud of who she was and the mother I knew she would become.

“You’re going to be the most amazing husband and father.”

I pulled her closer and buried my head in her neck, breathing in her familiar smell of summer. “This is the perfect engagement story to tell our kids and grandkids.”

“You think the story where you pulled out a ring while I stank of vomit isn’t romantic enough?” She giggled. “For me it was when we finally made sense. I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything.”

“I wouldn’t trade any moment I have with you.” Every second was special when I spent it with Ashleigh.

A Few Months Later—Ashleigh

My husband cooing over our daughter had to be one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen. He was just so gigantic next to her delicate newness.

“Welcome home, Maggie,” he whispered as he stepped over the threshold of our new house, clutching her like the precious jewel she was. Even at twenty-three hours old, she had Luke’s eyes and golden skin. She was perfect. She’d been as desperate to meet us as we her, and the labor had only lasted two hours. A girl after my own heart, she’d arrived just after six, and just in time for cocktails. The hospital had told us we could go home that evening, but Luke, ever protective, had insisted we all stay the night. Luke and I’d spent the entire time holding hands, just staring at her.

A few months earlier, we’d found a house, a Victorian villa with a garden. When we’d moved in, Haven and Jake put an offer in on a place two streets down. Their home was at least nine times the size of ours, but I couldn’t wait to have them round the corner. Ours was a fixer-upper, but when it was done, there would be room for more babies and a garden where they could play. Luke insisted that he wanted at least seven more kids. I’d told him that he would have to pray for a medical miracle that made men carrying children possible. Though now that Maggie had arrived, he could probably convince me that I should be pregnant the rest of my life.

“She smells like you,” he said, taking a seat in our living room, his eyes not leaving her for a second. I stood next to them, leaning into him, gazing at my daughter as I threaded my fingers through his hair. How had I gotten this lucky?

I bent down to take in her scent. “She smells of the flower she was named after. How is that possible?”

“She’s a miracle.”

“We have to try not to break her. She’s nonrefundable,” I said.

“We got this, Ashleigh.”

I nodded. “We really do.”

There was some scrabbling at the front door, and then I heard voices. Luke looked up at me, and we grinned. The rest of the family had arrived.

I turned around and found myself enveloped in a Beth-and-Haven hug, which was the best kind.

“A two hour labor? Are you shitting me?” Haven asked.

“Giving birth is her superpower,” Luke said proudly.

“And you look so good,” Beth added. I felt fantastic, elated—as if I were high on a new kind of drug named baby.

Jake carried a sleeping baby Sophia over to the sofa and set her down next to Luke and Maggie as we all gathered around them.

“She’s gorgeous,” Haven said, mesmerized by Maggie.

“She really is,” I replied. “Maggie, meet your future partner in crime, Sophia. You two are going to break some hearts.”

Haven and Beth laughed.

“I really don’t need to hear about my daughter and boys the day she’s home from the hospital. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” Luke asked.

“Don’t worry, we have a few years to formulate a plan,” I replied.

Haven and I exchanged a look. No plan would ever work. We knew how naughty teenage girls could be.

“Can I hold her?” Beth asked me.

“If you can pry her away from her father, then of course.”

Luke shot me a glance. He didn’t want to lose a second with his daughter, but he reluctantly handed our tiny bundle to Beth.

“You next then, Beth,” I said.

Beth smiled. “I don’t think so.”

“They all say that,” Jake said. “Just before they meet the perfect guy. And he better be perfect, mind.” He slung his arm around his sister’s shoulder. “But in the meantime, you should have some fun.”

“Yeah, surely there’s a tall, dark stranger waiting for you on one of your trips to Chicago.”

“Yes, mindless sex with a stranger. That’s what you need.” Haven sounded excited, and I couldn’t help but giggle at Jake’s face as he watched his wife consider the idea.

Beth rolled her eyes. “Let’s just concentrate on baby central over here, shall we? Just because you’re all domesticated doesn’t mean that’s my path.”

“It’s just a matter of time.” I grinned at her.

I wrapped my arms around Luke’s waist. “Can you believe this?” He bent down and dropped a soft kiss on my lips.

“We brought food and beer,” Haven said. I didn’t want to let my baby out of my sight, so I stood as Haven scurried round, finding plates, glasses and cutlery.

“We’ve set it all out in the garden,” she said a few minutes later.

“Please, may I have my daughter?” I asked Beth. I loved her feeling everyone else’s love, but I needed a Maggie top-up, just so I could feel her pressing against my heart, to let her know I was still here, as I always would be.

Beth grinned and handed Maggie to me, and she led the way into the garden.

“I hope you don’t mind all these noisy people,” I whispered to Maggie. “You’ll get used to their strange ways soon enough.”

“Is she talking back?” Luke asked as he came up behind us in the doorway.

I turned to face him. “She is. She told me she’s pleased to have such a handsome, kind and generous daddy.”

“She said that to me too,” Luke said.

I giggled.

Luke’s face broke into a grin, and then his smile fell, his brows knitting together. “God, you’re so beautiful.” He sounded so serious, my heart skipped at his words. He pulled us into his arms as we watched the rest of them gather around the table.

The air was warm, still full of summer. “Let’s show her the tree,” Luke suggested.

Our guests made themselves comfortable, content to let the three of us wander about our little oasis. “Thank God I deferred business school. I would have failed all my exams because I was so totally obsessed with our daughter and our life together. But I still want to do it—go back to school. Does that make me a bad mother?”

Luke chuckled as we crossed the lawn. “Of course not. Maggie told me you’re the best mother she could have ever wished for. I feel sort of torn. I can’t imagine being away from her for a second, but at the same time, I have a near-Neanderthal desire to go out and make a ton of money and lavish it on you both. If I hadn’t made partner before she arrived, I think I’d be going crazy right now.”

We stopped in front of our tree. “But you did. We have everything we need right here.”

When we moved, we’d brought the small magnolia tree that I’d bought Luke as a housewarming present and planted it at the end of the garden. It had flourished in the months since and its flowers this summer had been so big they were in danger of bowing the branches supporting them.

“I can’t believe it’s still got some petals. It’s as if it’s been waiting for her. Look, Magnolia, it’s almost as pretty as you.” I handed her to Luke. I could tell he was just itching to hold her again. She was going to be horribly spoiled, with both parents fighting for her attention as we were.

Luke slid his free arm around my waist. “It’s late blooming, which is kinda perfect,” he said.

I looked up at my husband. “The wait makes the flowers all the more beautiful when they arrive.”

Read Haven and Jake’s story in
What the Lightning Sees.

Beth’s story is next!

I Can’t Make You Love Me – Bonnie Raitt

If You Ever Want To Be In Love – James Bay

Landslide – Dixie Chicks

Say You Love Me – Jessie Ware

To Make Her Love Me – Rascal Flatts

If I Knew Then – Lady Antebellum

You Are Everything – Diana Ross

Let’s Wait Awhile – Janet Jackson

Here I Am – Leona Lewis

Knocks Me Off My Feet – Stevie Wonder

Where My Heart Belongs – Gloriana

Come Rain Or Come Shine – Ray Charles

I’m so thankful to you for reading about Luke and Ashleigh’s story. It’s difficult to explain what a gorgeous lift to my day it is when I get a message from someone telling me how they enjoyed one of my books. Every single interaction on social media and my website means the world to me.

I still have to pinch myself every now and then that people are actually buying and reading my books. It’s a lesson to us all that some of our best dreams are the ones we don’t plan. I heard Condoleezza Rice say how important it is in life to leave room for serendipity. I’ve never been good at doing that but dear readers, I’m learning and you’ve all proved to me that it’s worth it –thank you.

To all the bloggers, supporters, champions and cheerleaders that I’m lucky to have in my world – thank you. I love the way you’re all on a crusade of positivity. We need more of it in the world.

In a sense it feels wrong to single people out to thank because the smallest like, share, retweet means so much, but I can’t leave the stage without just a few others standing to take a bow.

Elizabeth—I really don’t have the words to thank you. You’ve taught me how to write (and induced various meltdowns about my writing) and I will be
forever
grateful. Thank you for being brutal. Here’s to being dangerous.

Karen Booth, I just love you more the more I know you. You are so kind and generous and lovely and I’m lucky to have found you.

Jessica Hawkins, you are a rock star and a dear friend. Thank you for all your support and for lending me the wonderful Elizabeth.

Lauren Blakely—thank you for all your generosity and support. I love your spirit.

Jules Rapley Collins and Megan Fields. What can I say? You pair are the girls that keep my spirits lifted and make me laugh with your outrageous confessions. Thank you for letting me share your worlds. Thank you for ALL your support and encouragement.

Thanks to Jacquie Jax Denison, Lucy May, Lauren Hutton, Kingston Westmoreland, Lauren Luman, Mimi Perez Sanchez, Ashton Williams Shone, Tina Haynes Marshall, Susan Ann Whitaker, Sally-Ann Cole and Vicky Marsh. You are so good to me!

Twirly, thank you brain twin for inspiring the line “I’ve lost my funny.” I hope I find it again at some point. PS Juno’s “the business” because she’s her mother’s daughter.