“No,” he said. “I want a picture of what’s beautiful. You.”
I blushed like a schoolgirl.
“I’ve still got it,” Ryder said as he patted himself on the back.
“Are you sure you can see the background or do I take up all the space?” I asked, grinning.
Ryder snorted. “Please, you’re an itty bitty thing.”
I laughed. “I wish.”
My husband simply smiled as he lifted his phone and pointed it in my direction. I turned a little to the side, placed my hands on my bump in a way that showed I was cradling the little bundle of joy inside me, and beamed a smile when Ryder counted to three.
He wolf-whistled when he took the picture and said, “Damn, my wife is sexy.”
“Kiss arse.”
“Can I kiss your ass?”
I laughed. “If you want to, you can.”
“Oh.” Ryder grinned as he pocketed his phone. “I want to.”
He began to advance on me, and I instantly began to screech.
“Stop,” I squealed with laughter. “I can’t run!”
“You’re easy prey for me then, Sweetness,” Ryder joked as he jumped for me and captured my lips the instant his body touched mine.
I laughed against his lips and flung my arms around his neck, pulling him as close as possible to me. He made that almost animalistic growling sound in the back of his throat like he always did when his body reacted to mine. I hummed as I kissed his lips, before nipping at his lower lip with my teeth.
“It’s colder than a witch’s tit out here,” he warned. “Don’t start something we can’t finish right now.”
I smiled as I released his lip. Ryder’s eyes held a heated promise of what later would bring, but for the moment, he wanted us to focus on our mini walking adventure, which was what we did. After a blissful hour of exploring, a sudden rumble of thunder startled us both. I looked up, and just beyond the mountains, were nasty looking clouds that were rolling in. Ryder checked the weather app on his phone and cursed under his breath just as lightening cracked and flashed across the sky.
“A storm is coming.”.
We decided we’d had enough nature for one day with the weather warning and headed back to the warm and toasty cabin. We made it inside, and not a second later, my phone rang from the bedroom.
I did a mixture of a brisk walk and a waddle, according to Ryder, which caused me to give him the finger as I headed towards the bedroom with his laughter flowing behind me. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, glanced at the screen, and then answered the call as I placed it against my ear.
“Hey, Kay, what’s up?”
“Aideen had ‘er baby!” Keela’s excited voice squealed through the receiver of my phone.
“What?” I gasped. “She went early again?”
“Yep, but it took longer than Jax this time around.”
“What do you mean?”
“She went into labour yesterday and only had him ten minutes ago. She held out until late last night before she went to the hospital.”
I furrowed my brows and startled once again when thunder boomed outside.
“Why didn’t anyone ring me?” I asked, focusing on the phone call.
“That was Ado’s call,” Keela said quickly. “She didn’t want to interrupt your honeymoon.”
“Is she shittin’ me?” I asked, exasperated.
“I know. We told ‘er you and Ry would want to know, but she made us all promise to wait until she gave birth before we called. And by promise, I mean she threatened us all to within an inch of our lives.”
I shook my head. “I’m goin’ to beat ‘er arse.”
Keela snorted. “She’s doin’ great and so is your new nephew.”
Nephew.
“She had another boy?”
“Yeah,” Keela squealed again. “He weighed ten pounds, four ounces and is twenty-one inches long. He is a big boy. They called him Locke Ryder Slater!”
Locke Ryder Slater.
I began jumping up and down—as best as I could—with joy, but stopped almost instantly when loud rain began to belt against the bedroom window. The sun was setting, and blackened clouds were quickly shutting out any orange glow with murky shade. I frowned at the forest our cabin overlooked. The wind had picked up considerably and was causing the trees to thrash from side to side.
“Bran? Can... hear... me... you... Hello?”
“Keela? You’re breakin’ up, babe.”
“Can you hear me?” she asked loudly.
“Yeah,” I said, raising my voice, too. “Sorry, the weather is gettin’ bad up ‘ere. Ryder said a storm is comin’ in.”
“That’s one of the reasons I called,” Keela replied as I turned on our bedroom light. “Heavy rain, thunder and lightnin’, and gale force winds are expected. We’re gettin’ the tail end of Storm Harry that hit the UK last night.”
Well, fuck.
“Hopefully it’ll pass soon,” I said.
“Branna? Can… Me… Branna? Hello?”
“I can’t hear you.”
“Call... later. Hello?”
“Okay, babe. Talk to you later.”
The reception had been so shitty whenever my sister or friends called over the last few days, but it was really bad now that a storm was rolling in. It was another reason I was excited to get home. I couldn’t wait to have a real chat with them without being cut off.