All Chapters of The Bound Collection: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

Devastation didn't begin to describe what consumed me at that moment, or maybe it did. Standing in the rain, I wasn't aware of anything around me. It might have been the water or the fact my brain was overloaded and stopped functioning hours earlier. I knew he wasn't there, but I couldn't help myself. The guilt weighed heavily on my conscience as I traced the top of the family's marker. My legs quivered as I lowered myself onto the ground, kneeling above his body with my hands pressed into the freshly turned earth. Everyone else had either left or stepped away. Gray's mom was nearby, as was Brett, but I'd ended up here alone to say goodbye. There were likely people watching, and those who thought it was inappropriate, but I laid down on my side, with my temple to the cool dirt below and let the tears slip away. From my face to the ground, they instantly disappeared, as though they were insignificant and meaningless. I wanted to believe if I laid there long enough, somehow, I could re

As much as I hated moving, myself or anyone else, I was grateful to have my best friend and his girlfriend relocating next door. The weeks since Gray's death had been hard on all of us, especially Annie, and having her running back and forth from work to Lissa's house and then home was too much. When she hit her second trimester, it was like she became narcoleptic. I worried she would fall asleep driving, but Lissa was even further along. I didn't want either one of them running around without Dan or me, but telling two pregnant women they needed to stay put was a recipe for an argument.Dan and I had been working a ton of overtime to cover Gray's shifts while we looked for a replacement, so the move had come at a particularly difficult time, but I was afraid if we didn't handle it the girls would take it upon themselves to do more than they should. Annie had been helping Lissa pack, but even that was difficult because neither of them could lift anything. I'd encouraged Annie to stay

I didn't have to keep my secret anywhere near as long as I thought I was going to. It hadn't happened yet, but when I got the call from Lissa, I grabbed the ring from Brett's dresser drawer. Neither Brett nor Dan knew it, but she would have a harder time with this than either of them believed. Over the last few weeks, she'd dropped comments about being sad the pregnancy was ending and that she'd miss having the baby with her all the time. I hadn't asked because I didn't want to know, but if I had to guess, Lissa had changed her mind about wanting children. "Hello?" I hadn't made it over to Lissa's to check on her yet. The bigger I got the slower I moved, but I loved every minute of being pregnant. I started working from home when Lissa hit thirty-five weeks just in case she needed anything. As a college professor, she'd chosen not to teach summer classes and had been done in late April."I keep peeing on myself." We'd had lots of these types of conversations. The things that hap

Life changed overnight with the addition of Alissa to the household. I didn't believe it would be possible for Brett to love another female more than he did me, but that little girl was his life. From the moment he got up, to the moment he went to bed, if he was home, he was with her and wanted me nearby. Being pregnant with an infant isn't for the faint at heart, but if I was going to do it, Brett was the perfect partner to do it with. We were lying in bed, with me on his shoulder having just put Alissa in her crib. My belly rested on his side so he could rub it. I loved his hand caressing the child we couldn't wait to meet. The bigger I got, the harder it was to get near him, the sheer size of my belly preventing it, and I felt like I was smothering him. But he continuously pulled me to him, just like this. My eyes found his when I gazed up to meet them. He hesitated to take my lips, but when he did, it ignited electricity, and desire pooled between my legs. It had been far too lon

I woke sometime in the middle of the night to find Brett sitting on the sofa chair watching me. Wiping the haze from my eyes, I saw concern in his. I sat upright, bolting uncomfortably. "What's wrong?" I looked around the room for my son, but he was nowhere to be seen. "He's in the nursery, sweetheart. Don't panic. Everything's fine.""Why do you look like that then?""Will you let me name him?" That was random and completely unexpected. I was taken aback by the fact that he wanted to and even more so that I wanted to let him. He hadn't so much as hesitated when I wanted to name Alissa and didn't quip about the name I'd chosen. This was his son, he deserved this rite of passage. "Yes." It would give him a forever bond that I already had. "Do you have a name in mind?""Yeah, but I want to wait until right before we're discharged to fill out the paperwork." A hint of a mischievous smile flashed across his face. "Brett, that's almost two days away! What do you want me to call him