All You Need Is Love

Chapter 33

- 5 days later (New Year's Eve) -

*Nicole's POV*

It was only about an hour until the start of the New Year, and we were ringing it in at the hospital.

So far, Michael is recovering fairly quickly from the surgery and has had no complications.

"What names do you like?" he asks eagerly while taking a huge bite of his sandwich. "If it's a boy, I was thinking we could name him Prince, you know, like after Prince?" He says with his mouth full. "Or, if it's a girl, we can name her Taylor after Taylor Swift since you love her so much!"

I laugh and shake my head "You know you'd never go for that." Somehow, getting shot has made him into a more energetic person. How that's possible, I still don't know.

"Yes, I would if you liked it!" He turns his head towards my Mom who is seated by the window, looking outside, even though there's nothing to see. "What do you think, Alex?"

She quickly snaps her head back to look at him. "Hm?"

"Do you like the name Taylor?" He asks her.

"Oh, um." She glances at me then back at him. "Yeah, that's cute. I'm sure whatever you two pick will be perfect." She says while getting up from her chair. "I'm going to go for a walk, I'll be back okay?"

I watch as she exits the room and I could've sworn I saw her wipe her eyes as she did.

I sigh and turn to face Michael. "I'm gonna go check on her, babe. I think she might be upset."

"Aw, okay. Gimme a kiss before you go." He says while puckering his lips.

I scrunch my nose up and laugh. "Why? I'm gonna be right back."

"From now on, we don't ever say goodbye without kissing each other, okay? I don't care if you're gone for 10 minutes or 10 hours." He says seriously.

I smile at him. "You're so sweet." I say before leaning down to kiss his lips softly. "Aren't you tired? You've been up for hours. Do you want to get some rest after you finish that?" I say while pointing to the sandwich in his hand. "I can leave for a bit."

"No way!" He says. "It's our first New Year's together, I wanna stay up and watch the ball drop with you."

I laugh. "Okay," I say before leaning down to kiss him one more time. "love you."

"Love you more." He says as he turns his attention back to the TV.

I exit the room, but not before looking back at him one last time. I'm so lucky to have him and I can't thank God enough that he's okay.

I won't ever hurt him again.

I close the door behind me before stepping out into the empty hallway and seeing my mom in the distance not too far from me.

"Mom?" I call out.

She hears my voice call her, but she doesn't turn to face me.

I walk over to her. "Mom, are you okay?" I ask.

She takes a deep breath before covering her face with her hands. "No." She says. "I'm just, so upset."

I automatically assume I know the reason why.

"Because I'm pregnant?" I ask her.

She looks up at me. "God, no!" She exclaims. "If anything, that's the only thing I'm happy about."

I widen my eyes in disbelief. "Really?" I ask while placing my hand on my stomach.

She nods while wiping another tear from her eye. "Really. Michael is such a good man and he loves you so much, I can tell. I could tell from the first time I saw him look at you."