"Hello?"

I was frozen. Hearing his voice sent chills through my body and I couldn't form words. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath as I felt Jace reach over and take my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Hi, Valentine," I said, hearing the shakiness in my voice. "It's Clary."

"Oh, wow." I heard him take a breath before he continued. "Thank you so much for calling me. I really wasn't expecting you to after our meeting at your shop."

"Yeah, well, you convinced my husband that I should give you a chance and that's what I'm doing."

"You won't regret it." I didn't tell him that I was really afraid that I would regret letting him in. I didn't tell him how nervous I was to let him be a part of my life. "Listen, I live in San Diego now, but I would love to have this conversation in person. I could fly to the islands this weekend."

"Well, I'm actually in California. Jace and I are planning on driving down the coast and hitting some surf spots along the way. We were going to end up in San Diego at some point, so maybe I could just call you later this week and let you know when we will be passing through."

"Great!" He paused for a moment. "I can't wait for you to meet my wife." Once again, I froze. I was stunned. I had never even thought of him having a family after my mom and me. Jace squeezed my hand and when I didn't respond, he took the phone from my hand and started talking to my dad.

"Hey," Jace mumbled into the phone as his other hand began rubbing circles into my back. "Yeah, she's fine. She's just tired from the past few days. We'll call you later this week." He nodded his head, listening to whatever Valentine was saying. "Alright, talk to you later."

Jace hung the phone up and put it down on the table before wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling my face into his chest. He didn't even know what was going on yet, but I knew I didn't want to cry anymore. Without another word, Jace hooked his arm under my knees and used the other to support my back as he carried me inside the house and to the bedroom.

When he finally sat down with me on his lap, I felt like I was able to breath again. We stayed silent for a few minutes and I knew it was worrying Jace, but I couldn't bring myself to say out loud that my father had a family other than me.

I had always imagined my dad as this lonely guy who traveled the world and lived a hermit existence. Never once had I thought of him having another family. Never once had I thought of what it would be like to have a sibling. It had never occurred to me. Unlike most only children, I had never felt lonely or left out because I didn't have a sibling to fight with or band together with against our parents.

I didn't even know if Valentine had any other children, but the thought left me spiraling back into the place where I thought I wasn't good enough. If he had other children, why were they more important than me? Why was I not good enough for him?

"Maybe it isn't such a good idea to see him," I whispered when I finally found my voice.

"What are you talking about, Clary," Jace asked as he ran his hands up and down my back. "What happened?"

"He's married, Jace." I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the next bit of information. "He has another family and he never found it important for me to be a part of it until now. I don't know if I can open myself up to be rejected from a whole family. My father was one thing. He deserved another chance, but to find out that he has a whole other family is almost a deal breaker. What's so great about them that made him stick around?"

"Clary, I really think you need to hear his side of the story." He took a deep breath. "There are things that you don't know and I think you need to hear another version of the story your mom has been telling you your whole life."

Silence washed over us once again as I thought about Jace's comment. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was just blindly believing whatever my mother had told me over the years because she was the only one there with a story to tell.

Jace pressed his lips to the top of my head and lingered for a moment as I felt his chest move in a deep sigh.

"Can we just not talk about this anymore and enjoy our honeymoon," I asked as I turned my head to look up into his beautiful golden eyes. I could see the worry in his eyes as I raised up to press my lips against his and run my fingers through his long blonde hair.

"We can do whatever you want," Jace mumbled against my lips and I giggled as he deepened the kiss and turned us around on the bed so he was hovering over me. My hair fanned out around me and Jace looked so strong above me, like he could save me from anything. "You are so beautiful."

"Thank you. You're not so terrible to look at yourself." Jace's eyebrows rose as he squeezed my side making me shriek in surprise. Resting on his elbows, Jace lowered himself back down so he could kiss me. My hands rested on his shoulders as he tried to deepen the kiss and pull me closer. Before I let him get any further, I pushed his shoulders back making our lips come apart with an audible pop. "As much as I love kissing you, right now I want you to show me Santa Cruz."

"Seriously?" I nodded before Jace brought his head back down to connect his lips to my throat. He knew it was my weak spot and he could get me to do almost anything if he just pressed his lips…there it was. I arched my neck giving him more access and giving into him more and more by the second. When I let out a small moan, Jace chuckled against my skin and I was brought out of my pleasured haze. I smacked him on the shoulder before rolling out from under him and darting across the room into the bathroom where I shut and locked the door. I could hear him laughing on the other side of the door as he jiggled the doorknob trying to bust through my barricade.

"Okay, fine," Jace shouted through the door when his laughter finally subsided. "We can do whatever you want, just let me in so I can kiss you some more."

"I'm not a fool, Cali," I shouted right back. "I know what kissing leads to with you and as much as I love it, I want to go to the boardwalk right now and if we don't go soon, we won't make it."

"You really want to go to the boardwalk?" I slowly opened the door and found Jace leaned against the doorframe with that stupid smirk on his face.

"Yes. When I was a little girl I always wanted to go to a boardwalk and ride a bunch of rides, but we don't have anything like that in Hawaii. The closest thing we have is the carnival, but it's not the same." Jace pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead as I sighed at the relief I felt from being in his arms.

"You're so weird." Just like that, the moment was over and I pushed myself away from Jace, but he held me tight.

"Just shut up and take me to the boardwalk." Jace continued to laugh as he turned and put his arm around my shoulder to lead me downstairs and to the car.

Three hours later, I was exhausted. We had ridden every ride possible at least twice, played mini golf and laser tag, eaten deep-fried twinkies and walked along the beach before I was literally about to fall asleep standing up.

I drifted off on the ride home with my head on Jace's shoulder and his hand on my knee. When we pulled into the driveway, I felt Jace move, but I didn't budge. He came around to my side of the car and pulled me out before carrying me into the house for the second time that night.

He lay me down on the bed and I curled up into a ball as he took my shoes and shorts off for me. After a few minutes, I felt Jace curl up behind me and pull me against his chest.

"Thank you for taking me to the boardwalk," I mumbled almost intelligibly as my breathing steadied. "I had a great time. Well, all times are great when I'm with you."

"You're welcome," Jace whispered as I felt his lips against my temple. "Go to sleep, Pretty Girl."

I nodded and closed my eyes as Jace ran his fingers along the skin of my legs, soothing me to sleep. Just before I felt myself succumb to the darkness, the words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"I want to have your baby." I couldn't even be mortified or worry about Jace's reaction before I slipped off into sleep, but in the final seconds of wakefulness, I heard Jace whisper, "Okay," as he moved his hand to rest on my stomach.

Thank you so much for reading! I know this chapter was a little shorter than I like to make my chapters, but I hope you still enjoyed it. I am back at school now with my newly declared English major with a creative writing emphasis that I am just thrilled about. My creative writing professor is just excellent and I can't wait to hone my writing skills to write better stories for you all. Also, my computer crashed a couple of days ago so I wasn't able to write for about 36 hours and it was torture! But all is well again and I'm so excited to continue this story!

Please let me know what you think and leave me a review!

P.S. I just added a short story to the blog and it's a tear jerked so if you would like to read it, go to .com and click on Ky's Korner and read the story titled "Comfort."

Thanks again!