Break Point: A Winning Ace Novella Read online

  Break Point

  A Winning Ace Novella

  Tracie Delaney

  Contents

  Newsletter Sign Up

  Books by Tracie Delaney

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Bonus Scene

  FROM MY HEART

  Books by Tracie Delaney

  Newsletter Sign Up

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2018 Tracie Delaney

  Edited by Delphine Noble-Fox

  Cover art by Tiffany @TEBlack Designs

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in uniform or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Books by Tracie Delaney

  The Winning Ace Series

  Winning Ace

  Losing Game

  Grand Slam

  Winning Ace Boxset

  Mismatch

  Break Point - A Winning Ace Novella

  Stand-alone

  My Gift To You

  The Brook Brothers Series

  The Blame Game

  Against All Odds

  His To Protect (Releasing January 2019)

  Web of Lies (Releasing March 2019)

  Chapter 1

  Em gripped David’s hand and looked up at him with a wavering smile. In response, he brushed a kiss against her temple.

  “It’ll be okay, Em.”

  She nodded. “I hope so.”

  “Hey now,” David said. “All the tests you’ve had previously have come back fine, and so will these. Like Dr Abbott said at our last appointment, there’s no medical reason stopping you from conceiving. She’s being thorough, that’s all. We’ll get this final all clear, and then keep trying.” He grinned. “It’s not like it’s a chore.”

  Em laughed. David always seemed to know exactly the right thing to say. They’d been trying for a baby for so long though, it was hard to keep her spirits up at times. So far, the doctors hadn’t found any medical reason why she couldn’t get pregnant, she just… hadn’t. This final round of tests had to give them the answers they’d been looking for.

  They entered the surgery and Em registered her arrival on the self-serve computer screen just inside the entrance. They took a seat and waited. Her leg bounced up and down until David put his hand on her knee.

  “Sorry, babe,” she said. “Annoying, isn’t it?”

  He touched his head to hers. “You could never annoy me.”

  She laughed. “Liar.”

  The TV screen on the far side of the surgery buzzed. She looked up. Mrs Emmalee Harper. Room 9. She swallowed past a lump in her throat. “This is it.”

  David stood, took her hand, and together they walked down the corridor. Em inhaled a deep, cleansing breath, then blew it out slowly through pursed lips. She knocked then opened the door.

  Ten minutes later, she staggered onto the street in a daze. If a passing stranger reached into her chest and literally ripped out her heart, it couldn’t be more painful than what she was feeling in that moment. Her vision blurred, like it did on the odd occasion when she stabbed herself in the eye with a mascara wand, yet no matter how many times she wiped her eyes, she still couldn’t see properly.

  On trembling legs, Em made her way over to where she’d parked her car a mere twenty minutes earlier. She’d dared to hope, to fill her mind with optimism and positive thoughts. And she’d headed straight into an ambush—one she hadn’t been prepared for—despite all evidence to the contrary.

  “Em…”

  She raised her hand in the air. David only wanted to take care of her, but he couldn’t fix this. No one could. He’d have to deal with his own pain without her help right now. She didn’t have the strength to manage his agony as well as her own – not yet – she needed time to absorb the cruel direction her life had taken.

  God, the arrogance she’d shown. For years she’d put off trying for a baby. There was plenty of time to get pregnant, right?

  Wrong.

  David held out his hand for the car key. “Let me drive.”

  Em shook her head and climbed in the driver’s side. She gripped the steering wheel and resolutely stared ahead, then started the engine. Pulling onto the main road Em didn’t give the busy oncoming London traffic enough space. The man behind her honked his horn and when she glanced in her rear-view mirror, she was treated to his middle finger thrust up against his windscreen.

  She ignored him. On any other day, she’d have wound down her window and returned the favour with a one-fingered salute of her own. But every ounce of energy had been sucked out of her body. She could barely lift an arm, let alone engage in a fierce exchange of road rage. Maybe she should have let David drive.

  With no memory of the journey home, Em turned into her road and found a space on the left. On autopilot, she parallel parked the car, something that usually would have taken her several attempts, much to David’s amusement. But today, she manoeuvred it straight in. It was as if a presence greater than herself had thought, “Give the poor bitch a break. She’s had enough for one day.”

  How about enough for a lifetime?

  She checked her blind spot in case some idiotic boy racer came barrelling down the street, then got out of the car. David appeared beside her and together—yet so very far apart—they headed into the house.

  “Heating hasn’t come on,” Em said as she stomped into the kitchen to check the boiler.

  “I don’t think I reset the timer after the clocks went back last weekend.”

  “Can’t you get anything right?” she muttered under her breath, and then immediately cursed herself for the uncharitable, and wholly untrue thought. There wasn’t a kinder man than David on the whole planet, and he idolised the very ground she walked upon. But pain had such a grip on her heart, she wanted to rail against the world, to dole out cruel and unusual punishment, to make others suffer as she was suffering.

  After adjusting the heating, she flicked on the kettle and reached into the top cupboard for the coffee. The jar slipped through her fingers and smashed all over the kitchen floor. Shards of glass and coffee granules scattered everywhere.

  “Goddammit,” Em yelled.

  And then she burst into tears.

  David’
s arms came around her, his hands soothing as they rubbed in circles against her back. He didn’t say a word, just let her cry it out. He’d never been particularly verbose, but that was just as well, because he was married to Em – she chattered enough for the both of them.

  “I’ve got snot all over your shirt,” she said, wiping the back of her hand across her nose.

  David smiled. His dimples that had so captivated her years earlier made an appearance. One adoring glance from her husband still had her going weak at the knees despite the fact they’d been married for eight years. Maybe they’d skipped the seven-year-itch and this was their “difficult patch”, a situation not of their making, where they were completely blameless, and yet it could drive a wedge through the centre of their marriage.

  David reached behind her, tugged a tissue from the box sitting on the kitchen windowsill, and wiped her face. “You’ve done worse over the years.”

  Despite the heavy weight that had settled deep in her abdomen since leaving the doctor’s office, she laughed. “We agreed never to mention that. And I still reckon it was food poisoning.”

  “Of course it was. Gin’s a food group, right?”

  She playfully dug him in the ribs. “You’re lucky I love you.”

  He twisted his lips to one side. “Still?”

  Her face fell. “Nothing’s changed.” Everything’s changed.

  His hands curved around the back of her neck and he bent down to kiss her. “You’re my life, Em. Please don’t shut me out. We’ll find a way through this. There are options for couples like us.”

  Sorrow and loss for something she’d never had—and now never would—rolled through her. Needing comfort, she wrapped her arms around him, holding him close, drawing on the strength and support he so willingly provided.

  The doctor had said “Extremely unlikely to ever fall pregnant”. After two years of trying, and a year of tests, they’d finally discovered the reason—some weird shit going on with her uterus. She hadn’t understood all the medical mumbo jumbo, only that she had a stupid fucking uterus. The one thing that should come naturally to every woman, and her body had decided to play the cruellest of jokes on her.

  The doctor had regurgitated the usual platitudes. Nothing wrong with continuing to try, it couldn’t do any harm blah blah blah, but she’d stopped listening at that point. She had to face facts. She’d never know what it was like to feel a baby move inside her, or to go through the agony of childbirth – David’s ball sac metaphorically in her hand as she cursed him through the pain.

  A sob caught in her throat, and more tears fell.

  Life sucked.

  * * *

  “Shall I call Tally and put her off?” David asked later that day. “Tell her you’re not feeling well.”

  “Oh shit. I forgot we’d invited them over.” Em shook her head. “Let them come. It might do me good.”

  “Are you going to tell her?”

  Tally was Em’s best friend, the girl she’d grown up with. They shared everything, and although talking about her useless woman bits was the last thing she wanted to do, there was no way she’d be able to keep something so huge from Tally. She knew Em too well, and would figure out with one look at her face that something was terribly wrong. It was Tally who’d encouraged Em to investigate further after her damned period kept arriving.

  “Eventually. Not today though.”

  The tips of David’s fingers connected with hers, his gentle touch bringing hot tears to her eyes once more. Never having been the teary sort, she blinked them back – stiff upper lip and all that. Now that she had been told definitively that she’d never have the child they’d been trying for, that the last two years of hoping and praying, only to feel the onset of monthly stomach cramps and know she’d been unsuccessful once more… well, she was allowed a little self-pity, right?

  “Thank you,” she murmured, curling her hand around his.

  “For what?”

  “For not blaming me.”

  David’s eyes widened, and the following shake of his head was loaded with disappointment. “I can’t believe you’d think for one second that I would. It’s you I want, you I married. A child would simply have been the icing on the best tasting cake in the world.”

  She smiled and checked her watch. “We’ve got a couple of hours before Tal and Cash are due. Fancy a taste of that cake?”

  David’s answering grin defrosted the icicles that had formed around her heart. He got to his feet and held out his hand. “A taste is never enough. I need at least a whole slice.”

  Chapter 2

  Em lay with her head on David’s chest as it rose and fell in line with his breathing. Her fingers absentmindedly played with the light dusting of hair across his chest. She was so lucky to have him, her wonderful, supportive, loving husband. An amazing man who’d make such a great dad. Bad luck for him he’d fallen in love with the wrong woman.

  Let’s hope he sticks around.

  Her stomach churned and her throat constricted. She couldn’t lose him too. She pushed the thoughts away because they were too horrific to contemplate.

  Em sighed. “I guess we’d better start getting dinner ready.”

  “By we, you mean me, right?”

  She chuckled. “I can at least help by peeling the veg.”

  David pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Why don’t you have a long soak in the bath and I’ll prep the veg.”

  She lifted her head. “Is that your subtle way of telling me I stink?”

  He laughed. “Hon, if that were true, I wouldn’t have spent so long with my head between your legs.”

  She grinned, his teasing momentarily chasing away her dark thoughts. “And you’re so good at it, baby.”

  “Play your cards right and you might get a replay later.” He flung back the covers and climbed out of bed. Em’s eyes grazed him from top to toe.

  “You’ve got such a great arse.”

  David turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

  She propped up her head with her hand. “Yeah. It’s biteable.”

  He got back on the bed and crawled across to her on all fours. He pulled her bottom lip into his mouth, his teeth grazing the delicate flesh. “I’m not sure that’s a word, but it sounds intriguing.”

  “Later, lover.”

  David chuckled and got to his feet once more. He slipped on a pair of jeans—commando no less—and tugged a white T-shirt over his head. “I’ll start running your bath.” He left the bedroom, leaving her alone.

  Em knitted her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling. She still had a lot to be thankful for, despite the crushing news from earlier today. She’d been perfectly content before they’d started trying for a baby. It would be nice to get back to having sex because they wanted to, rather than just because her temperature had gone up a notch.

  She swung her legs over the side of the bed and pinched her nose between her thumb and forefinger. Taking a deep breath, she got to her feet and trudged into the bathroom. God bless David – he’d had the foresight to add bath salts and bubble bath. He’d even dimmed the lights and turned on the towel heater. Over the years, she’d often wondered how she’d managed to snare such a thoughtful bloke. They were so different. Maybe that’s why their relationship worked so well.

  After testing the water temperature, she lowered herself into the bubbles. Propping a towel behind her head, she closed her eyes and allowed the shittiness of the day to wash away. She’d give it some time and then look into adoption. There was more to being a mother than carrying a baby for nine months. It didn’t matter whose egg and sperm created the child, it was how they were brought up, in a loving and supportive home. If she knew one thing, it was that she and David would be great parents – not perfect parents by any stretch of the imagination, but they had so much love to give.

  She stayed in the bath long enough to wrinkle her skin, then quickly dried off and dressed. She applied enough makeup to keep Tal from asking
too many questions. If Em greeted her best friend au naturelle, Tally would definitely know something was up. Em needed to share the devastating news when she was ready, not when Tally guessed something was wrong and started pressing her for details.

  When she got to the kitchen, she hard-stopped, and then burst out laughing. David was preparing dinner wearing nothing but an apron, his firmly muscled arse on display for all to see. Thankfully, he’d had the foresight to close the blinds in case any passers-by took a cheeky peek inside.

  “You crazy man,” she said.

  He glanced over his shoulder and grinned. “Just thought, you know, seeing as you like my peachy arse and all, I’d give you a free show.”

  Em strolled around the kitchen table and pinched his left buttock. “Please tell me you’re getting dressed before Tal and Cash arrive.”

  He gave her a crooked grin. “Really? Are you saying this isn’t suitable attire for the evening?”

  She reached up for a kiss. “You’re so good for me, you know that?”

  His face grew serious. “You and me, Em, we’re solid. Once we’ve had time to absorb today’s news, we’ll figure out our next steps. Okay?”

  “I hear you.” She nudged him out of the way and picked up the potato peeler. “Now, go put your clothes back on and I’ll finish up here.”

  David removed the apron and pulled on the jeans and T-shirt he’d chucked on the kitchen table.