Just Once (Book 1 in the Just Once Series)

Chapter Thirty

Brook’s POV:

I’d just finished the first wall of paint in the nursery and I took a step back to take it in.

We’d decided we’d paint the nursery cream colour, to start with, and then my imagination had taken over and I’d convinced Jack we needed to put up either Winnie the pooh wall paper or stencil it on to the walls.

We’d gone for the stencils. Jack had done one wall after we’d gotten home and it looked amazing, so I was leaving the stencilling to him and I was just painting the cream background.

            I dropped my hand to cover my stomach and I couldn’t help but smile happily.

How could one person ever be so damn happy and survive?

Although my stomach hadn’t changed much, it was slightly rounded and softer. I loved it, knowing our baby, a human being we had created together, was growing inside of me.

I rolled the paint onto the wall once more, seeing a spot I’d missed and already planning the next wall.

I could see it all in my head, what the room would look like, Winnie the Pooh theme, the cot a mahogany wood, which would match the chest of draws and baby change Jack and I had spotted yesterday.

We’d already ordered so of the furniture for the nursery and we’d picked up a few essentials along the way too.

A few packets of nappies, baby grows, bottles, powders, creams, and, I can’t help but admit, a Winnie the Pooh blankie, it was so cute and I couldn’t leave it.

I laughed aloud as my thoughts wandered and I could do nothing to stop it.

“I can’t wait to meet you, baby. You’re going to be so loved and happy, I promise, I’ll do everything I can to make you happy and give you everything you could ever need and want,” I said, talking softly.

Although the baby books I’d been reading, and I know Jack had secretly been reading them too, said that the baby couldn’t hear outside voices this early on, I don’t care that he or she can’t hear me, just knowing that one day, when I’m talking to him or her, that it’ll be able to hear me makes my heart squeeze and my lips curve.

I was just about to start on the third wall when someone knocked.

I checked the time on my watch, it was still early; the sun only just beginning to set and I sighed as I got to me feet and put the roller down.

Maybe Jack forgot his keys again.

I headed down the stairs quickly, a smile playing on my lips at the last time he’d forgotten his keys.

He’d been late for work and I had been, very happy.

I looked around as I hurried downstairs and I loved how, in the two weeks we’d lived here, we’d managed to decorate our bedroom, the living room and the hall and landing.

I loved that this place was ours.

Reaching the door, I slipped the lock back and opened the door smiling.

My smile died instantly on my lips as I found myself face to face with Rick.

“Hey babe, miss me?” he asked now as he grinned.

Terror washes over me as I see the dangerous glint to his eye and I swallow hard. Oh god.

“What are you doing here?” I breathe, my heart speeding up rapidly as fear and adrenaline rush through me.

“You’re mine, Brook and I’m here to remind you of that,” he said now and I shove the door closed, but it jams as his foot shoots out and wedges the door open.