He covered her hands with his, his grip firm and soothing. “Okay. Okay, baby, don’t you worry about my part, my part’s easy.”

“Easy.” She choked out a laugh. “We haven’t even slept together and you’re going to have to-”

“Look, it’s still pretty dark. I won’t be able to see much.”

“Oh, God.” She lay back and stared at the roof of the Hummer. “I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe I finally turned my life around, that I finally met a really great guy, and now…this.”

“You don’t have to tell him,” Hunter said quietly. “You don’t have to tell him about me.”

She blinked through the haze of pain and felt another laugh ripple through her. “I meant you, Hunter. You’re the really great guy I finally met.”

“Oh.” He looked at her, then let out a slow smile that changed his usually solemn, quiet face. Transformed it. “I thought I was just one of those assholes.”

“I was wrong. So wrong-Oh, God.” Gasping as the contraction slammed her, she tried desperately to ride the wave of pain, but she was tired of riding. Tired of pain. So damn tired. “Hunter!”

“Right here.”

He was. He was right there. Which was more than she could say for any other man in her life, ever. “I really don’t think I can do this.”

“Sure you can.” He continued to stroke her hair back from her face and smiled into her eyes. “You’re almost there-”

“No, I changed my mind. I don’t want to do this anymore.” She knew she was just babbling, half-delirious, making no sense. “Tomorrow would be better.”

He shook his head with regret. “I don’t think you have that option, Cece.”

“No, seriously-” She broke off on a thin wail as the insidious, all-consuming pain completely took her. It felt like it lasted forever, but finally, when she could breathe again, she closed her eyes and lay back, panting. “I’m done. Cooked. Finished. I want to go home.”

“Soon,” he promised. “Soon, I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

“Oh, God. I really have to push. You’re going to have to-”

“I know.” He ran his hand over her leg as he slid down to a better position. “It’s going to be okay, Cece. It’s all going to be okay.”

“How?” she whispered miserably. “It’s never been okay.” She knew she sounded like a child, but at the moment, facing what she was facing, she felt like one. “I’m going to be a mom, Hunter. I’m going to be someone’s mom, and I don’t know how.”

“It’ll come.”

“Are you kidding? I can barely control myself. I mean, I gave up looking for trouble, I did, but sometimes I have the feeling it’s looking for me, you know? And no matter what I do, it’ll find me.” She squeezed her eyes shut.

“I do know. Look at me, Cece.” When she did, she could see it in his eyes, that he really got it. Got her. “You asked for my dirty laundry, and I was flippant. I used to be one of those assholes you gave up. But I’ve changed. So have you. We can do anything now, including this.”

“Trust me, I can’t. In fact, I’m not going to. I’m not.” She shook her head wildly. “I’m just not going to do it.”

“Okay, listen to me.” He was on his knees, between hers, looking fiercely into her face, his hands on her hips as he leaned in. “Turning your life around is more than half the battle, I promise you. Everything that comes after that decision is icing, baby, all icing. As for not knowing how to be a mom, are you kidding me? You have all that life experience. You’ll know exactly what to do. All that’s left is believing in yourself.”

She felt her throat close up a little, blocked by emotion. “I’m not sure I’m that evolved.”

“Fine. Then I’ll believe for you. How’s that? I’ll believe in you enough for the both of us.”

“Why?” she whispered, feeling something well up from within, something that felt alien but not unpleasant.

Hope.

Such painful, delicious hope. “Why would you do that for me?”

He smiled, and it took her heart. “Because everyone deserves a second chance. I got mine, and I want you to have yours. I’ve watched you struggle with the pain for hours now without giving up, Cece. You’ve talked about your sister being a hero, but, Cece, I think it’s you. You’re the hero.”

Oh, God, she wanted to believe. “Are you sure?” she whispered.

“So sure,” he promised, shifting a little, putting himself into position for what came next, she realized.

Oh, God…

“There’s a first time for everything,” he said. “You know that, right?”

“Yes, but I’ve never been good at firsts.”

“You’ll be good at this,” he said with such certainty that she had to believe.

He pulled off his jacket and rolled it up, sliding it behind her, making her as comfortable as possible, and she understood he did it so that she’d be better able to push.

She was going to have to actually push.

“It’s going to be amazing,” he told her, talking, keeping up the steady stream of words probably to take her mind off what was about to happen. “Beautiful.”

“Beautiful,” she repeated.

“That’s right. Beautiful and life altering.” He pulled off his T-shirt, which was eye-opening, and for a minute it pulled her out of her own world of pain because wow. He really had it going on, a tough, hard, sinewy built with more than few tattoos-

He spread the shirt beneath her hips. It was the only clean thing they had, relatively speaking, and this baby needed clean. She felt the panic bubble over. “Hunter-”

“Beautiful and life altering,” he repeated. “You have to remember that. Be okay with it. Commit to it. Your baby deserves that.”

That was true.

So absolutely true.

“Now.” His eyes were dark, steadfast. “Let’s do this. Let’s have this baby. Your baby, Cece.”

The baby she hadn’t been sure she wanted until the day she’d felt something funny on her belly. Thinking a butterfly had landed on her or something, she’d looked down and seen nothing.

Because it had come from the inside. Her baby had kicked.

And from that day on, the baby had been hers, heart and soul.

She stared into Hunter’s face, suddenly no longer overwhelmed with horror and embarrassment about the position she was in, or the position he was in. Instead, she felt his hope grow within her and take root. “Ready,” she whispered.

His slow, warm smile was her reward. “Let’s do this, then. Let’s have this baby.”

JASON MANEUVERED the raft down the flooded streets of Santa Rey, toward Lizzy’s place. The going was tough, a virtual maze filled with death traps like garage doors, branches, lawn furniture and other debris moving along like bullets through the water.

He eyed the utter devastation all around them, the town so wrecked it’d lost its own sense of self, and felt the grimness settle in his gut.

He’d lost Matt on a day just like this.

And at the reminder, more than his gut hurt now. His damn soul hurt. How much suffering, how much destruction, he wondered, could a guy see and still remain attached? Emotionally involved?

Because he sure as hell hadn’t been emotionally involved when he’d gotten here.

Or attached.

To anything.

He looked at Lizzy and amended the thought-until her. Too bad she’d made it clear she didn’t plan on getting attached in return.

“I can’t believe it,” she murmured, looking shell-shocked as they floated along. “It’s like a bad dream.”

He didn’t answer, because to him, it was a bad dream coming back to life, and then she took his hand. “Hey. You okay?”

He looked down at the hand that covered his, then lifted his head to look into her eyes, and caught what was happening behind her.

They were coming up on a big intersection, the two raging rivers colliding with an awe-inspiring amount of power. As he knew all too well, hell hath no fury like the power of rushing water, and this particular fury was incredible. Right where the two streets converged lay a whirlpool.

A swirling, massive whirlpool.

His heart sank, his gut clenched, and in the blink of an eye he was back inside that boat, watching helplessly as Matt lost his life. “Lizzy,” he said hoarsely. “Get down-”

But it was too late. They flew into the vortex of the whirlpool and whipped around and flipped, and the next thing he knew the water was closing over his head. He pushed down, kicking to get under the water, not easy in a life vest, but he pushed hard to get to the place where he’d seen Lizzy go in.

He couldn’t find her. Even when his lungs threatened to burst, he stayed down, searching. Finally his body forced him to the surface, where he whipped his head right and left, desperately looking for her as he tumbled over and over.

His blood was pounding in his ears, roaring as loud as the water shoving him along at breakneck speeds. The raft was right in front of him.

But no Lizzy.

“Lizzy!” Gulping in more air, he dunked again, and by some miracle, caught sight of her about ten feet ahead of him, fighting like hell, just like she fought everything…life, love…and that’s when he knew she was the one for him, the only one.

14

NEVER IN LIZZY’S LIFE had she experienced anything like the river that shoved and pulled and slammed where it pleased, which pissed her off, and she fought the current like hell.

It didn’t help.

“Jason!” she yelled, or tried to, but the water swamped her mouth so she only got out the first syllable. She could see sky, and then the roof of a building she recognized, a light signal. Oh, hell, no way was she going to die like this. “Jason!”

But then she got rudely tumbled, and couldn’t see anything but the frothy, churning water as it tossed her about as if she’d landed in the spin cycle of a heavy-duty washing machine. Fighting for air, she tried yelling for Jason again but her mouth kept filling up with water. Gross, icky water. And the oddest things kept going through her head.

She hadn’t fed her goldfish that morning.

She hadn’t yet held her new niece or nephew.

And she’d never let herself say I love you to a man. She’d never wanted to, but now, while being unceremoniously tossed around without will or way, she realized how sad that was, that she’d never opened her heart, not even with the one person to tempt her to do so.

Jason.

God, she’d been an annoying pain in the ass. Damn, the water was cold. Something rushed by her and she reached out for it, but it slipped through her fingers. Dammit. “Jason!” she tried again, but the water carried her voice away, choking her.

She struggled wildly to stop her momentum, to stand up, anything, but she discovered something right then, something a little horrifying. She was good in an emergency, but only if it was someone else’s emergency.

Then, through her battle with the water, she thought she heard her name.

Jason. He had to be close by, and she struggled anew, nearly getting upright in the churning, rushing flood, which was good, because her lungs couldn’t take another second.

A powerful hand clamped over her wrist and tugged, and finally, she got her head above water. Gulping hungrily for air, she gasped and coughed as she opened her eyes. Jason had her in one hand and the raft in another. He was letting the current whip them along through the worst of the rushing water, past the entire intersection, where it slowed. There, he swam them to the side, pushing her and the raft ahead of him. The moment she grabbed on to a bus bench, the water swirling up to the seat, she dragged in more precious air, feeling nothing short of sheer awe at what had just happened.

“Two-two,” Jason said, and pulled himself up beside her, breathing as raggedly as she.

With a half laugh, she turned to him, arms open, and he swam right into them. “It’s okay,” he murmured, stroking a hand down her back. “I’ve got you-”

“I know.” She tipped her head up, a relieved, grateful smile on her lips, which abruptly faded at the look on his face. He was pale, his eyes dark and haunted. “Jase-”

“You’re shaking,” he said, and tightened his grip.

“No,” she realized. “That’s you.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” He simply tightened his grip and buried his face into the crook of her neck, the muscles in his arms banded around her quivering.

“Jason-”

“Give me a minute.”

He hugged her, then ran his hands down her body, making sure she wasn’t hurt, but she grabbed them, wrapped her fingers around his and pressed them to her chest. His eyes were stark and bleak and broke her heart. They were full with grief and memories and horror, and she knew he’d been transported back to when he’d lost Matt. “Jason, look at me. I’m okay.”