The Cowboy’s Mistake

by Jackson, Mary Sue

  “Yes,” Trey answered. “Tex said he’d meet us here. That’s where they keep all the equipment to make sure the babies are all right.”

  “But not to deliver them.”

  He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close as they walked. “Nobody is delivering our babies today.”

  The nurse took her to a wide, sunny room with a view of the city and helped her change into a gown and climb into the bed. Charity had just pulled her legs over the side and reached for Trey’s hand when Dr. Atkins—Tex—came into the room.

  “Good morning, guys,” he said. His whole vibe was positive, even though his face was serious. “Caroline, we’re going to need the ultrasound machine.”

  “Coming right up,” the nurse said. Caroline. What a pretty name. Was Charity going to get a chance to name her own girls, or was it all over? She took a deep breath and tried not to cry.

  Caroline went over to a closet in the wall and opened the door. It revealed a far larger space than Charity had anticipated, and she wheeled out a high-tech looking ultrasound machine and started it up. Charity was desperate to know if everything was all right, and she also desperately wanted a little more time. If everything was wrong…

  “Maybe we should wait,” she said, her voice strangled.

  “We’re not going to wait,” Trey answered. “I’ll be right here the whole time.”

  Caroline dimmed the lights. Charity barely felt the cold of the wand on her belly. She had to blink away tears when they appeared on the screen next to the bed. Her girls.

  Tex—how could she think of him that way now?—kept his attention firmly on the screen, moving the wand this way and that over her belly. Then he reached over to the side of the machine and flipped a switch for the sound.

  One heartbeat, then another, filled the room.

  The tears that Charity had been holding back slipped down over her cheeks.

  Whatever else was happening, those heartbeats were music to her ears. Her girls were still going strong.

  She held on to that sound as Tex took several images, his concentration on the screen absolute. She thought she’d be holding her breath, unable to draw in any air, but those heartbeats kept her going. The heartbeats—and Trey’s hand in hers. That was all she needed in the world.

  Finally, Tex turned his body slightly away from the screen. “I want you to know that I think everything is stable,” he said to Charity. “I believe that the bleeding you experienced is related to the procedure yesterday. All of the imaging hasn’t revealed anything to be concerned about.”

  “What about the size difference?” Trey’s question was tinged with worry that he hadn’t let her see that up until this moment. “Baby A being bigger than Baby B?”

  “It’s within an acceptable range,” Tex said. “Though in light of these developments, I’m going to want to see you more frequently. Every week or two. I think careful monitoring will help to reduce anxiety for you and reduce any further risk to the babies.”

  Charity hardly heard anything after that, though she tried her best to listen. The relief was so strong. So strong. Before she knew it, Tex was sweeping through the door.

  “Wait,” she said to Trey. “Where’s he going?”

  “To set up a new appointment for us. We’re at least staying overnight so he can monitor you. You can get comfortable.”

  She shifted on the bed. “In that case…I could use another pillow.”

  “I think we could use a new address.”

  Charity looked at Trey. His face was utterly sincere. “What?”

  “I think we should move to the city for now.”

  “What? Trey, we can’t do that. What about your business? What about the horses? You can’t just leave them behind. Kepler—”

  “Kepler will be fine. The business will be fine. I have plenty of savings to weather this. And my other clients will understand. This isn’t permanent, Charity. But how are we supposed to manage driving back and forth every week? I don’t want to put that stress on you.”

  “I have my business too, in case you forgot—”

  “You can move your business with us.” He ran a hand through his hair, and for the first time, Charity realized that Trey had been scared out of his wits. “It doesn’t matter to me. I can have my assistants keep things in a holding pattern until we’re back. We can’t risk driving so much. We can’t, Charity.”

  She took his other hand in hers. “Were you holding it together all this time just for me?”

  His face was red. “Of course, I was. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”

  “Trey,” she said.

  “Yeah?”

  She looked into his eyes. The eyes she’d loved all this time. “I’m ready to marry you now.”

  Trey’s panicked look was replaced with the smile that made her want to melt into his arms, right here in the hospital room. “You sure about that?”

  “Yes. I’ve never been surer of anything.”

  He let go of her hand and reached into his pocket. Then he held up…a ring.

  “I’ve been carrying it around for a while,” he said sheepishly.

  “Without a box?” Charity laughed. “In your pocket?”

  “I didn’t have a box.” Trey swallowed hard. “It was my mother’s. And I know it’s not…flashy. We can have the diamond upgraded if you want to.”

  “No,” Charity breathed. “It’s perfect.” It was a simple gold band with a simple diamond, something she could wear while she worked and while she rode Kepler. Her heart swelled with the emotion. “Honestly, I—I can’t believe your mom managed to keep it.”

  “It meant a lot to her,” Trey said gruffly. “She never wanted to let my dad pawn it. Whenever he went looking for something to sell, she hid this. Toward the end—”

  “Trey, you don’t have to—”

  “Toward the end,” he continued on, “she made an arrangement with your mother to keep it for me until I was ready to use it.” He looked back into her eyes. “She gave it to me a few weeks ago.” He gave her another soul-melting grin. “She also gave me some advice about letting you stand on your own two feet.”

  “That’s funny,” Charity said, “because Layla gave me some advice about letting you take some of the weight off my shoulders every now and then. I guess everyone wanted things to work out.”

  “I think things are working out,” Trey said, and then he slipped the ring onto her finger. It was, surprisingly, a perfect fit.

  “Very well,” she said. “Very, very well.”

  He leaned over and kissed her until the nurse came back again.

  Twenty-Six

  Somehow, everything came together in two weeks. Charity couldn’t believe it.

  She’d never thought much about her wedding, other than a vague image of a white dress at the local church. Other than wanting it to look nice, she hadn’t spent much time imagining what it would be like. One thing was for sure—she hadn’t imagined planning a wedding in two weeks.

  But that’s what Trey and her mother did, with plenty of input from Charity.

  Tex had ordered modified bed rest, so even though they went home to pack and prepare for a move to the city, Charity wasn’t allowed to do much. Twila and Trey divided it between them. The first step was to move Charity’s favorite furniture to Trey’s. The rest they’d leave at her house. She was glad to have a tiny house then, because the whole process only took a couple of days. Then all her things were at Trey’s. Twila came over every day to plan for the wedding and help them divide up the things they’d need in the city.

  It took Trey a week to find a place for them to live. It was a little place in a row of brick townhouses, with two bedrooms and a sunny kitchen. It wasn’t like his sprawling farmhouse, but it had a little yard that she could sit in and wide sidewalks to push a stroller on. In the meantime, they could take walks down the street a couple of times per day. Charity wouldn’t be allowed to do more. It was a quiet enough place that the city noises wouldn�
��t drive them crazy, but with enough neighborhood action that even a woman on bedrest wouldn’t get too bored.

  One week before the wedding, Charity sat with her mother in Trey’s living room, her legs stretched out on the sofa. “I don’t want to wear a white dress,” she said. She hadn’t been able to find one that she liked, no matter how many catalogues she looked through. All of them looked wrong, and time was running out.

  “It doesn’t necessarily have to be white,” Twila said, flipping through a catalogue from the local bridal salon. “There are different shades. Ivory. Champagne, even. You could wear any one of those.”

  “I just don’t want to look like a big white whale coming down the aisle.”

  “Charity,” Twila laughed. “You don’t look like a whale. You look pregnant.”

  “I would look like a whale if I had a white tent draped over me.”

  “Why on earth would you wear a tent?”

  “Because that’s the kind of wedding dresses they have for pregnant women.” Charity was being a little dramatic, and she knew it. But suddenly marrying the man she’d loved since she was a child was all a lot to digest. Add being pregnant with twins on top of that, and her moods could be a little…unpredictable. She tried her best to keep them under control.

  Her mother considered her from her seat on the other side of the rug. “Well…have you thought about one of your own designs?”

  “My own designs?” Charity looked across at her. “I don’t design dresses, mom.”

  “What’s stopping you?” Twila waved in the direction of Charity’s workroom. “You have a room full of fabric options. Something made from leather and suede would look stunning.”

  “I don’t know.” Charity frowned. “Leather and suede?”

  “What about something like this?” Twila went to the kitchen, pulled open a drawer, and came back with a notepad. Charity sat up so they could sit together on the couch, and watched in awe as her mother sketched out the lines of a dress that didn’t look…horrible. “Mom. This is a good idea.”

  “I’m full of good ideas,” Twila said with a laugh. “The only concern is that you’re a little short on time…”

  “Short on time?” Charity stood up carefully from the sofa. “I’ve got an entire week. I don’t need a full week to make a dress. I’m going to go choose the fabric right now.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Twila said. “You shouldn’t be moving all those boxes by yourself.”

  So that was how Charity spent the week before her wedding.

  Twila moved the sewing machine out into the living room so Charity could sit on the couch, and she passed most of her hours sewing and stitching and adding the kinds of details she never would have dreamed of as a girl. That white dress was a thing of the past. This—this was her future.

  It wasn’t until day four of working on the dress that Charity realized how sneaky her mother had been. This was a task that would keep her sitting down and resting while they worked on everything else. It seemed like every time Charity looked up, there was another part of the house being rearranged, another little sticky note on a piece of furniture that meant they’d be taking it to the city with them after the wedding.

  That was something Charity thought about often—being far from her parents. One evening as she worked on the dress, she brought it up with her mother.

  “I don’t know how I’ll feel about living in the city,” she said, her eyes on the embroidery she was adding to the hem of her dress.

  “You went away to college,” Twila said. “You were gone for a lot longer then. And college was farther.”

  “I know, but—” Charity swallowed hard. “It was different then. I’m not saying I expect you to be on top of me all the time, catering to my every move, but—”

  “Dad and I were thinking that we’d rent a place nearby for your third trimester.” Twila flipped through a legal pad. She’d been making a packing list for Trey and Charity while he spent his time arranging things with clients and getting in as many training sessions as possible with the horses. “There’s a townhouse for rent on the other end of your row, and we were thinking—”

  “Yes,” Charity said. “You should do that. Yes.”

  Twila laughed. “I don’t want to step on your toes. You know that, honey.”

  “I know that. But I need—” She groaned. “I hate to say it.”

  “You need a little extra support.”

  Charity made a face. “I don’t like the sound of it, but it’s true. And I guess I have to get used to that. For now.”

  The day before the wedding, Trey drove her over to the Miller property in his four-wheeler to see how all the preparations had come together.

  And—wow. They had come together.

  Charity’s father stood beneath a pergola in the freshly mowed front lawn, twisting vines around them wooden structure with his hands. He lifted his hat and gave a wave as they drove up. “How’s it look?”

  “It’s gorgeous,” Charity said. Vines and flowers and all of it bursting with life and hope. Just then, her mother came out the back door with a stack of white chairs in her hand.

  Someone followed her out with more chairs, and Charity’s heart leapt.

  “Layla!” she screeched, forgetting herself entirely and leaping off the four-wheeler. “You’re here! You’re here!”

  They’d talked so much over the past two weeks, and yet she’d never mentioned when her flight was. But of course, she would be here now. Of course. She collided with her best friend, who had dropped the chairs to the ground to scold Charity. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be on bed rest!”

  “Modified bed rest!” Charity shouted. “And I’m a bride. I had to see what my wedding was going to look like. I can’t believe you’re here!”

  Layla gave her a look. “What’s wrong with you? Why wouldn’t I be here?”

  “Work,” Charity said. “I can’t ask everybody to drop their entire lives just because I needed to get married in a rush.”

  Layla winked at her. “I have vacation days. And I’m your maid of honor, aren’t I?”

  “Of course, you are,” said Charity. “Of course. I hope you brought a dress of your own.”

  Her best friend grinned widely at her. “I may have had some help choosing a dress. Some…hints dropped by a little bird.”

  Everything was going better than Charity had ever hoped, and it wasn’t even her wedding day yet.

  They gathered at the Millers that evening for a rehearsal dinner, and as the guests mingled—Austin was quite the center of attention, as usual—Charity felt her phone buzzing in the pocket of her dress. It was the only white dress she would wear, but her mother had special ordered it from a maternity boutique online, so it looked…more flattering than Charity could have imagined.

  She pulled out her phone and recognized the number for Western Wear International. This was a call she should take.

  “This is Charity Miller,” she said, heading out the back door and into the yard.

  “Charity, this is Louise from the buyers’ department of Western Wear International. I’m sorry to call you in the evening like this—is it a bad time?”

  “Not at all,” Charity said. And it wasn’t. This was, perhaps, the best time in her life…until tomorrow.

  “I wanted to let you know a few things. First of all, all of your pieces have sold out, and the owners would like me to place another order for more. We can’t keep your things on the shelves. You’ve got riders in your work all over the country.”

  “That’s—that’s really good news!” Charity said. “But—what kind of order?”

  “It’s a smaller order to replenish the stock. Thirty pieces to begin with.”

  “I—” She had to be a little more careful. “I think you already know this, but I’m pregnant and it’s a little complicated.”

  “Yes,” Louise said warmly. “I remember speaking to your husband.”

  “He’s not my husband yet,” Charity la
ughed. “But he will be tomorrow.”

  Louise gasped. “And you’re talking to me on the phone? You need to be preparing for your wedding!”

  “I’m not going to turn down an order request,” Charity said. “No way. We’ve got some big life changes coming up, and I need to put as much money in the bank as I can. But…speaking of those changes, I might need a little more time than I’ve asked for before.”

  “Don’t worry about that at all. You’ve got a customer for life. I was thinking that you could send them in smaller batches, as you can work on them. We might also be sending some custom orders your way.”

  “Oh, I—” Charity’s soul lit up at the thought of doing custom orders like this. It was the best of both words. A distributor with national reach, and her own designs…it was a dream come true. “I would love to do that. But I think I should hold off on custom orders until after the babies are born.”

  They chatted for a few more minutes, outlining plans for the future, and by the time they hung up, Charity felt better than ever.

  She looked out over the yard toward Trey’s farm. He had been so close, all along. And now he was hers. The life they were living wasn’t exactly what she’d planned on, but in a lot of ways it was even better.

  Kepler was out there, too, waiting in the barn for her. She felt a twinge of sadness. She’d loved her career in the rodeo, but now, standing here the night before her wedding…she wasn’t sure it was something she’d return to. It wasn’t like she wanted to stop working entirely, but her designs had filled a part of her she didn’t realize needed filling. Maybe she would want to go out on the circuit again after the babies were born, but…

  Maybe not.

  Maybe it would be better for them all if she worked on her clothing business and spent more time volunteering at the 4H program. That way, she could still be with Kepler.

  Now that was an idea.

  Kepler was thriving there, and the children loved him. He would get plenty of riding time teaching the kids about the circuit, and so would she. But it wouldn’t come with all the pressure of the circuit. And she could focus on growing her business…and raising her children with Trey. This way, they’d still have two incomes. She wanted that, even if they were married—she didn’t plan to be the kind of wife who relied on her husband for everything. No way.