side. “Thank you for finding her,” she whispers. “Bringing her home to us.”
We were two stars from different hemispheres, destined to meet. Her life might have been a wild distortion, but she made mine as clear as the water on the island.
She just didn’t know her place in the universe yet.
She found it.
With me.
Epilogue
Ryker
Five years later
“Whiskey, I’m home.”
I shake the déjà vu from my head, looking around the empty condo. Tanner, the most rambunctious three-year-old ever, comes running out of his room in his typical attire. Undies and a red superhero cape. It doesn’t matter that it’s ten degrees outside and we’re in the middle of one of the worst snowstorms New York City has seen in years. Thank god for the subway or I would have never gotten home from practice.
“Daddy!” I shoot him up in the air, giggles fill the room.
I walk into the kitchen with him on my hip. “Where’s your mom?”
“She’s having a baby,” he deadpans.
I jerk my head back. “What?”
The sound of a moan comes from our bedroom and panic clogs my throat. I lower Tanner to the ground and dart to the bedroom.
“I wouldn’t go in there, Daddy.” Tanner’s eyes are wide with fear. “Mommy doesn’t feel good.”
“She’ll be okay, buddy. Just stay out here.”
Swinging the door open, I wasn’t ready for what I saw. Aspen on all fours, swaying back and forth on the bed. She moans again as she drops her head between her shoulders. Her hands fist the comforter.
“Whiskey, are you okay?” It’s a dumb question because obviously, she’s not. But she’s only thirty-five weeks. She can’t be in labor.
Her head shoots to the side, sending a demonic level stare my way. “My water broke,” she sneers, returning to her swaying. “I’ve tried to call everyone, but my fucking phone won’t work.” The signals are horrible right now from the storms. “I don’t want to have her in the back of an ambulance. And she’s coming. Soon.”
My eyes widen and I run back and forth like a chicken with its head cut off, not knowing what in the hell I should be doing. “Soon? Like how soon?” My voice raises a few octaves in panic mode.
She roars out a moan and I have the foresight to at least check my watch so I’ll be able to time the contractions. “Ryker,” she screams, “they’re two minutes apart. You don’t think I’m already checking?”
Fuck! “What do I do, Aspen?”
“You might have to catch her,” she jokes through her pain.
My heart stops beating for a moment. Panic floods through every extremity, making it impossible to move. I break out in a sweat at the image and take a quick step backward. Finally, I reply, “I don’t catch, I throw!”
She drops her head in hysterics. Her body convulses. “Don’t make me laugh! She might pop out.”
“Oh! I have an idea! I’ll run down and ask the front desk if any doctor’s live here. Just squeeze your legs shut till I get back.”
She throws a pillow at me. “You’re an idiot. But that’s a good idea. Hurry.”
I dash out the door and grab Tanner, hoping the neighbors are home so I can hand him off. He’s been traumatized enough.
“Is Mommy going to die?” he whispers as we wait for the elevator. I blow out the panic in my body. I can’t reassure him that Aspen will be okay if I look like I’m about to explode.
“No, buddy. She’s going to be okay. You’re going to be a big brother soon.”
He looks me dead in the eyes. “She’s already trouble.”
Aspen
Two years later
“I can’t believe it’s been two years since you were having her in a bathtub in your own home,” Mila says, dusting sprinkles over the cupcakes after I finish icing them.
I laugh at the memory like it was yesterday. “Hey, at least there was an obstetrician living in the condo so he didn’t have to deliver her. That might have put a damper on our sexy times. It’s bad enough he can’t look at the bathtub without a shiver running up his back.”
“What are sexy times?” Tanner asks, walking into the back room, surprising me. He’s not supposed to be here yet. I watch the doorway and sure enough Ryker appears with a smiling crazy girl attached to his hip, with her curly blond locks as wild as she is. Amber-colored eyes light up when she sees the cupcakes.
“For me?” She stretches out her chubby arms.
“Hold on, Lady Bug, I want to hear Mom’s answer to