PROLOGUE
Shelly (approximately six years ago)
“I’m pregnant,”I whispered, looking at the two blue lines on the test I just took. Of course, it was thefourthtest I’d taken over the past two days, but each one was the same… positive.
“We’re going to have a baby?” James asked, standing next to me in the bathroom.
I turned wide eyes to him with a trembling smile and nodded. “You’re going to be a daddy, James,” I murmured.
“I know you’re scared because we’re so young, but we’re gonna be fine,” he replied, pulling me into his arms as he hugged me. “We might have put the horse before the cart, but it’s going to be just fine, ShellBell, I promise.”
And it was—until it wasn’t.
“I’m excited for today,” I told him as we drove to the local park for the co-ed baby shower that one of our friends was putting on.
Rubbing my burgeoning stomach, I felt the kicks that our daughter, Amberlea, was giving me during her daily gymnastics routine. With little room to move around, her undulations were obvious to me, as well as James, who chuckled as he rubbed Little Miss through the maxi dress I was wearing.
“She must be too, huh?” he teased, glancing over at me.
“She’s running out of room,” I huffed out when either a foot or an arm nailed me in the kidney. “She’s going to cause me to have a wardrobe malfunction if she keeps it up.”
“Won’t be the first time,” he replied, teasing me.
What he said was true because I’d lost count of the times when I wasn’t able to waddle fast enough to the nearest bathroom. Suffice it to say, I’d taken to wearing what I called ‘pee pants’ so that I wasn’t constantly washing clothes. The joys of pregnancy, I guess. Still, the inconvenience of constantly having my body betray me in such an embarrassing way made me carry extra clothes every time I left the house.
At least my clients understood when I had to bolt to the bathroom during one of their tattoo sessions. Uncle Mack would just laugh when he saw me run-walking to the employee bathroom and he’d usually call out something obnoxious as well.
Shaking my head, I did what I could to soothe my girl, talking quietly to her while James drove. I was so lost in my thoughtsthat I didn’t realize he had parked our car, gotten out, and was at my door to help me down.
“Okay, ShellBell, let’s go see what goodies our girl got so we know what we have left to get,” he said as he locked our vehicle then took my hand in his.
Looking up at him, my heart fluttered; he was so good to me and was genuinely what many of my friends called a ‘green flag guy’ because he never got flustered, he never acted like my cravings were annoying, and he had gone out of his way to make sure that whatever I needed, I got.
“Let’s go, Big Daddy,” I teased, giggling when he shuddered.
“Please no,” he replied, “call me anything but that, baby.”
“Where are we going to put everything?” I questioned, looking over my shoulder at all the boxes and bags we’d received. “I think we’re set for clothes for the first year, at least.”
Several of my friends, who were already moms, had made sure that people bought clothes to fit now, and also later. We had diapers in so many varying sizes, I wasn’t sure we’d use them all before our daughter graduated to the next stage, but that was a problem for future Shelly.
Because today’s Shelly was full of yummy food and cake, and her feet hurt since they had swollen into cankles due to me sitting stagnant for so long while opening gifts.
“The spare room, I guess,” James mused, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “I’ll get it all organized by sizes so we can just swap things out as we need them.”
“You’re too good to me, to us,” I replied, reaching over to capture his right hand and clasp it in mine. “I love you, James, so damn much,” I told him as tears sprang to my eyes. Damn hormones had me crying at the drop of a hat.
“You two are my whole world,” he stated as he shrugged. “What the hell is this guy doing?” he muttered as I heard a vehicle revving somewhere close by. “Oh, shit. Hold on, ShellBell and know that I love you and Amberlea.”
“I love you too,” I replied, my head on a swivel as I could now hear a revving engine. “Oh, my God, he’s going to hit us!”
That was the last thing I remembered.
“Miss Adcock, can you hear me?” a female voice asked. “You’re in the hospital.”
I could hear her voice but wasn’t able to open my eyes. “I can’t see!” I exclaimed, fear causing my heart to race. I could hear alarms beeping as my anxiety amped up, but waking up in so much pain had me confused as to where I was at and what had happened to me. “Where’s James?” I asked. I felt something cool go into the IV I could feel in my arm and panic set in. “No, I’m pregnant, please, don’t hurt my baby!” Instead of hearing a response, I felt the abyss swallow me once again as whatever was put in my IV took me away.
No more pain, no more thoughts.
