Always With You: Part One by M. Leighton Read Free Book Online

low, “I’m loving the hell out of what’s happening to her body. You’ll see what I mean when Olivia gets pregnant.  Her boobs…damn! She’s got the tits of a porn star.  And horny!  Holy shit is she horny!  Now I see why people have an ass-ton of kids.  This part’s a lot more fun than what I expected.”
    “Dude!  That’s some shit I did not need to hear,” I tell him in mock horror.  In truth, though, it makes me a little sad to think that Olivia and I might not be able to ever experience all that together.  I’d never let her know that it bothers me or that I’d miss it if I couldn’t see her belly grow round with my baby. It would hurt her even more than what she’s already hurting. But I do think about it.  I probably mourn it as much as Olivia does, but I hide it.  Because I love her. I love her more than I need to share my own feelings on the matter.  And I love her more than a missed pregnancy or pre-baby tits.  She’s all that matters to me.  Plain and simple.
    Nash laughs.  “I love listening to you squirm.”
    “You’re one sick bastard.”
    “So I hear,” he says, sobering a little.  “Want me to tell Dad, too?”
    “Yeah, if you would.  I’ll get word out to everyone when he’s in a room or…whatever.”
    “Sounds good.  Anything you need? Anything we can do?”
    “Nah.  Gavin’s holding down the fort at Dual.  He can keep an eye on Sophie. Anything else can wait until Darrin’s out of the woods because I’m not leaving Olivia until we know he’s okay.”
    “Don’t blame you, Cash.  Call if you need me, though.”
    “Thanks. Later, man.”
    “See ya.”
    When the line goes dead, I let my arm drop to my side and I think about where we are, what’s happened and what’s likely to happen.  The convergence of all this shit, this perfect storm of shit, on my wife worries me.  She was struggling with not being able to get pregnant anyway.  Now her cousin is expecting and my ex showed up with a child that could well be mine.  On top of that, her father just had a heart attack. Who knows how that could end up? 
    Olivia is strong.  One of the strongest people I’ve ever met, but I’m not sure how she’s going to hold up under all this if it gets much worse.
    As though my thoughts summoned her—and another pile of shit to add to the storm—Olivia comes rushing out the door, face pale, eyes watering.
    “They’re taking him into surgery, Cash!  They’re taking Dad in for open heart surgery. They said he just had a massive heart attack in the room back there.  The blockage is so severe they can’t put in a stent. They said something about a widow-maker. Cash, they don’t know if he’s going to make it.  My dad might die.  He might die!”
    With eyes as big and shiny as the full moon on a clear summer night, she gulps in air once, twice, and then crumbles right in my arms.
    I didn’t know how much worse things could get.  I guess I just got my answer.
    Until my phone bleeps with an incoming text.
    From Sophie.
    How the hell did she get my number?
     

 
    CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    Olivia
     
    “W ho is it?” I manage to ask when Cash checks his phone and slides it quickly back into his pocket.
    He shrugs, pressing his lips to my forehead.  “Work.  Nothing important.”
    A knife of unease slices through me, but almost immediately my current worries rush in to overtake all other thought.  My father—the man who raised me, the man who shielded me from my mother, the man who bandaged my scraped knees and watched cartoons with me when I was sick—is going into one of the most major surgeries a human being can have.  They’re going to put him to sleep and cut his chest wide open. They’re going to re-route the circulation of his heart and breathe for him.  They’re going to replace vital arteries and hope that they hold.  Then they’re going to sew him back up and pray that he wakes up when it’s over.  And if one thing goes wrong, if