Loved Either Way, page 41
She laughed weakly, looking his way with desperate eyes. “It’s crazy. I went from not even thinking I wanted to be pregnant to probably being pregnant to not being pregnant, and then …” Her hand gestured toward the strip of sonograms he still held.
“You’re supposed to have this stuff figured out before it happens,” Delaney said. “Right?”
“Not everybody,” he returned. “Life’s different for everyone, Delaney.”
Maybe that sad smile of hers had a little more fear than he’d first thought.
“Okay, well I wanted to have a lot more things in my life figured out before I had to do it with a baby on my hip,” Delaney said, but even that made her frown. “I hate hearing myself say that out loud because it makes me feel bad, too.”
“I can’t begin to find a single reason why you need to feel bad about anything you’ve done, Delaney.”
Her wet gaze, tears gathering on her long lashes, found his. “I don’t want to feel that way at all because I need my baby to know I loved them from the start. Even if it didn’t happen the way I might have planned for it to. That’s not going to change if I’ll be a good mom.”
Lucas pressed his lips together, desperate to hold the smile back lest she take it the wrong way. “I don’t think you have to worry about being a good mom. Our baby looks like a grain of rice in these damn things, and you’re already worried about whether it knows you love it. Doesn’t that speak for itself?”
Delaney instantly burst into tears.
Rolling down her cheeks, and all.
Not really sure what to do at that point, Lucas simply hugged Delaney against his chest while his mouth stayed pressed to the top of her forehead where he could whisper everything he wanted her to know.
“You’re going to be the best mom, and no matter what, I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her.
“I don’t even want to cry,” she wailed helplessly. “It’s just happening a lot today.”
Lucas didn’t try to hold back the laughter. “I heard that happens with pregnant women, sometimes.”
Her hand weakly smacked at him. “Shut up.”
Then, she tipped her head back.
Tears still stained her cheeks.
But she smiled.
Lucas dropped a kiss to her coral colored lips, and grinned back. “I love you, Delaney Reed. We’re going to figure this out.”
“Either way?” she asked, her voice still a little wobbly.
He tucked the flyaway strands of her hair behind her ear, nodding all the while, because he remembered very well what she had told him not very long ago.
“Either way,” he echoed.
Epilogue
“We’re definitely doing a live band when we get married next summer,” Delaney said.
Lucas grinned next to her where he leaned against the barn wall. His leather loafer tapped along with the bluegrass beat coming out of the band at the far side of the barn. “I agree.”
His gaze shot to the ring on Delaney’s finger that twinkled under the bare bulb lights dangling across the eaves of the barn overhead. A new feature that she was still trying to get used to despite wearing the engagement ring for a little over a week.
She hadn’t imagined being proposed to in the middle of a big field with the backdrop of the sky dotted with stars, but it had been perfect, all the same.
Being with Lucas?
Always.
“Come here,” he murmured, catching her by the wrist with his hand to pull her into his side. He didn’t even ask for his kiss, simply took it, and grinned against her mouth as his palm found its favorite spot overtop her belly.
Not that there was much to feel.
Yet.
In fact, Delaney hadn’t even announced her pregnancy outside of her very small circle of close friends and the family she still spoke to. Like Bexley. Given her initial experience with the pregnancy, and the fact she had probably lost a twin, she didn’t want to share the news widely until she had made it past her first trimester.
Not that it mattered.
People, especially over the course of Gracen’s wedding weekend, had more than enough things to talk about and ask Delaney other than why she kept refusing drinks with alcohol. Like the new man who was never too far from her side, and her return to the area. Those things could keep the gossip mill going for a while, surely.
Lucas nodded toward the middle of the barn where the pews and aisle from the wedding service had been removed and changed to a hardwood dance floor for the guests. Currently, the band had so many people up and dancing that the floor in the middle wasn’t big enough. Gracen, in the very middle with Malachi, looked happier than Delaney had ever seen her friend before.
She should be happy.
Life had started to settle out for them both.
“Am I getting you back out there, or what?” Lucas asked.
“These shoes are killing me.”
Lucas bopped her nose, earning him a half-hearted glare. “I’ll go get your flats at the apartment. It’ll take me five minutes and save you the rest of the night. Win-win.”
“They won’t look right with the dress.”
At that comment, Lucas pulled Delaney close for a bruising kiss that took her breath away.
“Nobody is looking at your shoes,” he promised.
Delaney grinned. “Okay, go get them for me?”
“On it, baby.”
Lucas barely had time to push away from the wall before someone else joined Delaney against the barn boards. Margot, in a pink gown like Delaney’s but slinkier with deeper cuts in the chest and back, teased her friend with a glass of something pink and bubbly.
“Did you try this yet?” Margot asked.
Delaney made a face. “No, I don’t want to drink.”
“You’re missing out,” Margot said in a sigh.
“Pregnant, actually.”
The admission had Margot’s eyes flying wide, and she coughed on the sip of spiked punch as her attention swung to Delaney.
“What?”
Margot was one of the last people Delaney had to tell. She didn’t feel right doing it over the phone, but since their friend had returned to the province for a couple of weeks to celebrate Gracen’s wedding—and be a part of it as a bridesmaid—Delaney opted to wait.
Now felt as good of a time as ever.
“Yeah,” she told Margot, “I’m about nine-ish weeks.”
The news earned her a tight hug from Margot and a mumbled congratulations.
“You next?” she asked her friend after Margot pulled away.
That earned Delaney a scoff.
“No way,” Margot muttered around the rim of her drink. “No babies for me. Besides, you need a penis for that job. I swore off dick a long while back.”
Delaney snorted. “I mean, traditionally you do, maybe.”
Margot quieted next to Delaney as the band began to switch songs to a slower tune. She did well to hide the slip of sadness that fell over her expression before it disappeared, but Delaney still saw the emotion in Margot’s face.
She’d also noticed how Margot arrived home for the wedding alone.
“No girlfriend?” Delaney asked, the first time she had mentioned Leya to Margot despite it being obvious her friend had returned home alone.
Margot shrugged, and her red curls bounced with the swing of her head back and forth. “Nope, it’s just me. I came home alone.”
“Sometimes, we need to.”
That’s when a person could figure out what they really wanted.
Margot pushed away from the wall but turned to walk backward so she could face Delaney as she headed toward the dance floor. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll even stay.”
Gracen would love that.
Delaney, too.
“Maybe you should,” she replied.
Margot winked before spinning away.
It didn’t take long for Lucas to get back to Delaney with a pair of sensible, black flats that absolutely did not match the pink dress she had agreed to wear—not her favorite color, but anything for Gracen—but would make the rest of the night far more comfortable.
That’s what she wanted to do more than anything.
Make memories to remember.
Lucas kneeled to help Delaney out of her strappy, open-toed stilettos before holding the flats for her to step into as well. Remaining on his one knee after she had stepped into the change of shoes, he smiled up at her.
“Looks familiar,” she joked.
Lucas snorted, and then stood to catch her cheeky grin in a kiss. He hummed against her lips, swaying the two of them as their arms wrapped around one another, and the song from the band helped to urge their gentle rocking.
“Guess what?” Lucas asked her, arching a brow high and showing off his teeth.
“What?”
“I had a message from the farmer back at the apartment.”
Delaney bit her lip, careful not to get too excited. “Really?”
He nodded. “Forty acres, all the way back to the wild raspberries—he’ll sell it if you want it, sweets.”
The slice of land next to Gracen’s hadn’t been publicly listed, and nobody seemed to tend the wild patch of raspberry bushes Lucas and Delaney had found on a ride deeper into the land, but the farmer who owned it had been willing to talk.
Especially to a man like Lucas Dalton.
The only man who seemed to know how to make Delaney’s dreams come true. If there was a will, he found the way.
“How many acres back do you want the main house?” Lucas asked, looking oh, so pleased with himself.
Delaney swatted his chest lightly. “Stop it—we haven’t even bought the land yet. It’s not ours. You can’t start building an imaginary house.”
“Can’t we? Who else is gonna dream our dreams, gorgeous? I was thinking back behind that first line of trees. In the field. Right where you said yes, huh?”
Good God.
He truly had thought of everything.
Before it even happened.
“You can’t stop being perfect, can you?”
Lucas kept them swaying to the music on the spot, and his smile never once faltered. “Anything for you.”
*
Want more These Valley Days? Book 3, coming soon …
About the Author
The author of too many novels to count, Bethany-Kris is a Canadian, lover of much, and mother to four sons, a glaring of cats, and a pack of dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, a snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a spouse calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something ... when she can find the time.
Find where to follow BK and keep up to date with all her book news at www.bethanykris.com.
Other Books
The Beast of Moscow Saga
The Beast of Moscow
The Lies Between Lovers
The Beauty Who Loved Him
The Breath Before Forever
The Darkest Lies Trilogy
The Agreement
The Promise
The Marriage
After Another Trilogy
One Step After Another
One Breath After Another
One Second After Another
Boykov Bratva
Fractured Ties
Essence of Fear
The Guzzi Legacy
Corrado
Alessio
Chris
Beni
Bene
Marcus
The Firsts: A Guzzi Legacy Companion Novel
The Guzzi Legacy: Vol 1
The Guzzi Legacy: Vol 2
Renzo + Lucia
Privilege
Harbor
Contempt
Forever
Cusp
Renzo + Lucia: The Complete Trilogy
Andino + Haven
Duty
Vow
One Last Time
Andino + Haven: The Complete Duet
John + Siena
Loyalty
Disgrace
John + Siena: The Complete Duet
John + Siena: Extended
Cross + Catherine
Always
Revere
Unruly
The Companion
Naz & Roz
Guzzi Duet
Unraveled, Book One
Entangled, Book Two
Cara & Gian: The Complete Duet
DeLuca Duet
Waste of Worth: Part One
Worth of Waste: Part Two
Standalone Titles
Pink
Pretty Lies
Dirty Pool
Effortless
Inflict
Cozen
Captivated
Dishonored
Donati Bloodlines
Thin Lies
Thin Lines
Thin Lives
Behind the Bloodlines
The Complete Trilogy
Filthy Marcellos
Antony
Lucian
Giovanni
Dante
Legacy
A Very Marcello Christmas
The Complete Collection
Seasons of Betrayal
Where the Sun Hides
Where the Snow Falls
Where the Wind Whispers
Seasons: The Complete Seasons of Betrayal Series
Gun Moll Trilogy
Gun Moll
Gangster Moll
Madame Moll
The Chicago War
Deathless & Divided
Reckless & Ruined
Scarless & Sacred
Breathless & Bloodstained
The Complete Series
Maldives & Mistletoe
The Russian Guns
The Arrangement
The Life
The Score
Demyan & Ana
Shattered
The Jersey Vignettes
FANTASY ROMANCE
The Hunted: A 9INE REALMS Novel
Find more on Bethany-Kris’s website at www.bethanykris.com.
Copyright © 2022 by Bethany-Kris. All Rights Reserved.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted material is illegal and punishable by law. No parts of this work may be reproduced, copied, used, or printed without expressed written consent from the publisher/author. Exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in reviews.
eISBN 13: 978-1-989658-59-8
Editor: Eli Peters
Cover Design © Mignon Mykel
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, corporations, locales and so forth are a product of the author’s imagination, or if real, used fictitiously. Any resemblance to a person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Bethany-Kris, Loved Either Way
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“You’re supposed to have this stuff figured out before it happens,” Delaney said. “Right?”
“Not everybody,” he returned. “Life’s different for everyone, Delaney.”
Maybe that sad smile of hers had a little more fear than he’d first thought.
“Okay, well I wanted to have a lot more things in my life figured out before I had to do it with a baby on my hip,” Delaney said, but even that made her frown. “I hate hearing myself say that out loud because it makes me feel bad, too.”
“I can’t begin to find a single reason why you need to feel bad about anything you’ve done, Delaney.”
Her wet gaze, tears gathering on her long lashes, found his. “I don’t want to feel that way at all because I need my baby to know I loved them from the start. Even if it didn’t happen the way I might have planned for it to. That’s not going to change if I’ll be a good mom.”
Lucas pressed his lips together, desperate to hold the smile back lest she take it the wrong way. “I don’t think you have to worry about being a good mom. Our baby looks like a grain of rice in these damn things, and you’re already worried about whether it knows you love it. Doesn’t that speak for itself?”
Delaney instantly burst into tears.
Rolling down her cheeks, and all.
Not really sure what to do at that point, Lucas simply hugged Delaney against his chest while his mouth stayed pressed to the top of her forehead where he could whisper everything he wanted her to know.
“You’re going to be the best mom, and no matter what, I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her.
“I don’t even want to cry,” she wailed helplessly. “It’s just happening a lot today.”
Lucas didn’t try to hold back the laughter. “I heard that happens with pregnant women, sometimes.”
Her hand weakly smacked at him. “Shut up.”
Then, she tipped her head back.
Tears still stained her cheeks.
But she smiled.
Lucas dropped a kiss to her coral colored lips, and grinned back. “I love you, Delaney Reed. We’re going to figure this out.”
“Either way?” she asked, her voice still a little wobbly.
He tucked the flyaway strands of her hair behind her ear, nodding all the while, because he remembered very well what she had told him not very long ago.
“Either way,” he echoed.
Epilogue
“We’re definitely doing a live band when we get married next summer,” Delaney said.
Lucas grinned next to her where he leaned against the barn wall. His leather loafer tapped along with the bluegrass beat coming out of the band at the far side of the barn. “I agree.”
His gaze shot to the ring on Delaney’s finger that twinkled under the bare bulb lights dangling across the eaves of the barn overhead. A new feature that she was still trying to get used to despite wearing the engagement ring for a little over a week.
She hadn’t imagined being proposed to in the middle of a big field with the backdrop of the sky dotted with stars, but it had been perfect, all the same.
Being with Lucas?
Always.
“Come here,” he murmured, catching her by the wrist with his hand to pull her into his side. He didn’t even ask for his kiss, simply took it, and grinned against her mouth as his palm found its favorite spot overtop her belly.
Not that there was much to feel.
Yet.
In fact, Delaney hadn’t even announced her pregnancy outside of her very small circle of close friends and the family she still spoke to. Like Bexley. Given her initial experience with the pregnancy, and the fact she had probably lost a twin, she didn’t want to share the news widely until she had made it past her first trimester.
Not that it mattered.
People, especially over the course of Gracen’s wedding weekend, had more than enough things to talk about and ask Delaney other than why she kept refusing drinks with alcohol. Like the new man who was never too far from her side, and her return to the area. Those things could keep the gossip mill going for a while, surely.
Lucas nodded toward the middle of the barn where the pews and aisle from the wedding service had been removed and changed to a hardwood dance floor for the guests. Currently, the band had so many people up and dancing that the floor in the middle wasn’t big enough. Gracen, in the very middle with Malachi, looked happier than Delaney had ever seen her friend before.
She should be happy.
Life had started to settle out for them both.
“Am I getting you back out there, or what?” Lucas asked.
“These shoes are killing me.”
Lucas bopped her nose, earning him a half-hearted glare. “I’ll go get your flats at the apartment. It’ll take me five minutes and save you the rest of the night. Win-win.”
“They won’t look right with the dress.”
At that comment, Lucas pulled Delaney close for a bruising kiss that took her breath away.
“Nobody is looking at your shoes,” he promised.
Delaney grinned. “Okay, go get them for me?”
“On it, baby.”
Lucas barely had time to push away from the wall before someone else joined Delaney against the barn boards. Margot, in a pink gown like Delaney’s but slinkier with deeper cuts in the chest and back, teased her friend with a glass of something pink and bubbly.
“Did you try this yet?” Margot asked.
Delaney made a face. “No, I don’t want to drink.”
“You’re missing out,” Margot said in a sigh.
“Pregnant, actually.”
The admission had Margot’s eyes flying wide, and she coughed on the sip of spiked punch as her attention swung to Delaney.
“What?”
Margot was one of the last people Delaney had to tell. She didn’t feel right doing it over the phone, but since their friend had returned to the province for a couple of weeks to celebrate Gracen’s wedding—and be a part of it as a bridesmaid—Delaney opted to wait.
Now felt as good of a time as ever.
“Yeah,” she told Margot, “I’m about nine-ish weeks.”
The news earned her a tight hug from Margot and a mumbled congratulations.
“You next?” she asked her friend after Margot pulled away.
That earned Delaney a scoff.
“No way,” Margot muttered around the rim of her drink. “No babies for me. Besides, you need a penis for that job. I swore off dick a long while back.”
Delaney snorted. “I mean, traditionally you do, maybe.”
Margot quieted next to Delaney as the band began to switch songs to a slower tune. She did well to hide the slip of sadness that fell over her expression before it disappeared, but Delaney still saw the emotion in Margot’s face.
She’d also noticed how Margot arrived home for the wedding alone.
“No girlfriend?” Delaney asked, the first time she had mentioned Leya to Margot despite it being obvious her friend had returned home alone.
Margot shrugged, and her red curls bounced with the swing of her head back and forth. “Nope, it’s just me. I came home alone.”
“Sometimes, we need to.”
That’s when a person could figure out what they really wanted.
Margot pushed away from the wall but turned to walk backward so she could face Delaney as she headed toward the dance floor. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll even stay.”
Gracen would love that.
Delaney, too.
“Maybe you should,” she replied.
Margot winked before spinning away.
It didn’t take long for Lucas to get back to Delaney with a pair of sensible, black flats that absolutely did not match the pink dress she had agreed to wear—not her favorite color, but anything for Gracen—but would make the rest of the night far more comfortable.
That’s what she wanted to do more than anything.
Make memories to remember.
Lucas kneeled to help Delaney out of her strappy, open-toed stilettos before holding the flats for her to step into as well. Remaining on his one knee after she had stepped into the change of shoes, he smiled up at her.
“Looks familiar,” she joked.
Lucas snorted, and then stood to catch her cheeky grin in a kiss. He hummed against her lips, swaying the two of them as their arms wrapped around one another, and the song from the band helped to urge their gentle rocking.
“Guess what?” Lucas asked her, arching a brow high and showing off his teeth.
“What?”
“I had a message from the farmer back at the apartment.”
Delaney bit her lip, careful not to get too excited. “Really?”
He nodded. “Forty acres, all the way back to the wild raspberries—he’ll sell it if you want it, sweets.”
The slice of land next to Gracen’s hadn’t been publicly listed, and nobody seemed to tend the wild patch of raspberry bushes Lucas and Delaney had found on a ride deeper into the land, but the farmer who owned it had been willing to talk.
Especially to a man like Lucas Dalton.
The only man who seemed to know how to make Delaney’s dreams come true. If there was a will, he found the way.
“How many acres back do you want the main house?” Lucas asked, looking oh, so pleased with himself.
Delaney swatted his chest lightly. “Stop it—we haven’t even bought the land yet. It’s not ours. You can’t start building an imaginary house.”
“Can’t we? Who else is gonna dream our dreams, gorgeous? I was thinking back behind that first line of trees. In the field. Right where you said yes, huh?”
Good God.
He truly had thought of everything.
Before it even happened.
“You can’t stop being perfect, can you?”
Lucas kept them swaying to the music on the spot, and his smile never once faltered. “Anything for you.”
*
Want more These Valley Days? Book 3, coming soon …
About the Author
The author of too many novels to count, Bethany-Kris is a Canadian, lover of much, and mother to four sons, a glaring of cats, and a pack of dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, a snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a spouse calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something ... when she can find the time.
Find where to follow BK and keep up to date with all her book news at www.bethanykris.com.
Other Books
The Beast of Moscow Saga
The Beast of Moscow
The Lies Between Lovers
The Beauty Who Loved Him
The Breath Before Forever
The Darkest Lies Trilogy
The Agreement
The Promise
The Marriage
After Another Trilogy
One Step After Another
One Breath After Another
One Second After Another
Boykov Bratva
Fractured Ties
Essence of Fear
The Guzzi Legacy
Corrado
Alessio
Chris
Beni
Bene
Marcus
The Firsts: A Guzzi Legacy Companion Novel
The Guzzi Legacy: Vol 1
The Guzzi Legacy: Vol 2
Renzo + Lucia
Privilege
Harbor
Contempt
Forever
Cusp
Renzo + Lucia: The Complete Trilogy
Andino + Haven
Duty
Vow
One Last Time
Andino + Haven: The Complete Duet
John + Siena
Loyalty
Disgrace
John + Siena: The Complete Duet
John + Siena: Extended
Cross + Catherine
Always
Revere
Unruly
The Companion
Naz & Roz
Guzzi Duet
Unraveled, Book One
Entangled, Book Two
Cara & Gian: The Complete Duet
DeLuca Duet
Waste of Worth: Part One
Worth of Waste: Part Two
Standalone Titles
Pink
Pretty Lies
Dirty Pool
Effortless
Inflict
Cozen
Captivated
Dishonored
Donati Bloodlines
Thin Lies
Thin Lines
Thin Lives
Behind the Bloodlines
The Complete Trilogy
Filthy Marcellos
Antony
Lucian
Giovanni
Dante
Legacy
A Very Marcello Christmas
The Complete Collection
Seasons of Betrayal
Where the Sun Hides
Where the Snow Falls
Where the Wind Whispers
Seasons: The Complete Seasons of Betrayal Series
Gun Moll Trilogy
Gun Moll
Gangster Moll
Madame Moll
The Chicago War
Deathless & Divided
Reckless & Ruined
Scarless & Sacred
Breathless & Bloodstained
The Complete Series
Maldives & Mistletoe
The Russian Guns
The Arrangement
The Life
The Score
Demyan & Ana
Shattered
The Jersey Vignettes
FANTASY ROMANCE
The Hunted: A 9INE REALMS Novel
Find more on Bethany-Kris’s website at www.bethanykris.com.
Copyright © 2022 by Bethany-Kris. All Rights Reserved.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted material is illegal and punishable by law. No parts of this work may be reproduced, copied, used, or printed without expressed written consent from the publisher/author. Exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in reviews.
eISBN 13: 978-1-989658-59-8
Editor: Eli Peters
Cover Design © Mignon Mykel
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, corporations, locales and so forth are a product of the author’s imagination, or if real, used fictitiously. Any resemblance to a person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Bethany-Kris, Loved Either Way
