“It should have never happened to me.”
“And it won’t happen again, if I know anything about you. So we’re not in any danger by association. What are you worried about, then?”
His lips twisted, as if she’d asked him why he breathed. “I’ll always worry, because you and Rico are not inside my body, where I can monitor where you are at all times, and where I can keep you safe every second of every day for the rest of my life.”
After another ferocious hug, she pulled back, grinned up at him. “Welcome to love. And to parenthood.”
He squeezed his eyes, gritted his teeth. “It’s always that bad, isn’t it?”
“Far worse.”
His eyes opened, blasting her to her marrow with his adoration. “I love it. I love you. Darling...”
Her phone rang. They froze for a heartbeat before they both lunged for it.
It was Rico. Shaking, Isabella put him on speaker. He sounded sleepy, but exactly like their perfect little boy.
“Uncle Antonio told me who he is and what happened and that he didn’t expect me to wake up so soon, and that my head is as hard as my father’s. You’re my father, Richard, right?”
Richard covered his face with his hands for a second, dragged them down over it, his eyes filling again. “I am your father, Rico. And Father is what I want you to call me from now on. I’m sorry I left, but your mother and I are coming right now, and I’ll tell you everything as soon as you can handle long talks. But I want you to know one thing. I’m never leaving you again. Ever.”
Rico’s squeal of delight was cut short before he slurred for them to hurry up. Antonio came on and told them to come only if they were rested, as Rico was already asleep again.
With the call over, Richard looked at her, his eyes reddened, his expression disbelieving again. “This is too much, my love. Too many blessings.”
Overwhelmed by everything, too, Isabella clung to him. “Can you handle one more? You might have to make space inside yourself for one more person who’ll love you forever.” He pulled back, eyes wide in shock. She bit her lip, pulled at a patch of his chest hair. “I suspect we made another baby.”
“You suspect?” he rasped, looking shell-shocked.
“Want to find out for sure?”
He exploded from her side, cursing that he’d shredded his clothes, called Murdock, told him to get him intact ones and the helicopter.
She giggled at seeing him all over the place, flustered, no doubt, for the first time in his life. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to buy a pregnancy kit.”
“By helicopter?”
“That’s to go to Rico.”
“But we’re not in such a hurry anymore.” He looked as if this possibility hadn’t even occurred to him. “And there’s a kit in the top drawer of my bathroom cabinet.”
Before she finished talking, he hurtled to where she’d indicated, coming back with it in seconds.
Trembling, she rose, took it from him, her smile shaky. “I had to go to the bathroom anyway.”
“Why?” Then he groaned. “Bloody hell, yes, of course, by all means. I think my mind has been irreversibly scrambled.”
She planted a kiss on his chest as she passed him. “No way. But I love you even more because it’s scrambled now.”
Heart drumming madly, she ducked into the bathroom.
In minutes, she exited, the strip held tight in her hand.
“Tell me.” His voice was a ragged rumble.
She walked into his arms before she held up her fist. “I wanted to find out with you.”
“Do it.”
She opened her fist. The two pink lines were as clear as they had been when she’d found out she was pregnant with Rico.
On a triumphant growl, Richard crushed her to him.
Many hot tears and kisses later, Richard raised his head, scorched her to her soul with the power of his love. “I’ll always live with the regret that I wasn’t there for you when you were carrying Rico, that I lost the first seven years of his life.” His finger on her lips silenced her protest. “But now fate has given me more than the everything it has already given me—another miracle, and a chance to fix all my mistakes. Now I get to share our new baby with you, and with Rico, from the first moment. I will be there for you, for all of you, every single second, for the rest of my life. This time, I’ll do everything right.”
Aching with thankfulness, she clung to him, the man she was fated for, the father of her son and of her unborn baby. “Just love me, just love us. You’re all I need. All our children will ever need. If we have you, everything will always be right with the world.”