My sputtered laughter from the mental image of him scaring boys away from our daughter changed to a watery sigh at his compliment. “You’re getting way ahead of yourself.” I pressed my palm against my stomach. “I’m not even showing yet, and from what I read online, we won’t find out what we’re having for another two months, at least.”
He covered my hand with his and asked, “When is our girl going to pop this belly out and let everyone know she’s in there?”
I loved how easily he’d started calling the baby a girl. “Probably another month or two.”
“That doesn’t give us a lot of time to plan a wedding.” A wrinkle popped up in the middle of his brow. “Do you want to do a big ceremony? Or would you be okay with eloping? Barring an emergency, I should be good to take a couple of days' leave as long as we don’t travel too far. I’d just need to clear it first.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I pressed my palms against his chest. “We don’t need to rush off and get married just because I’m pregnant.”
“The pregnancy isn’t why I want to make you my wife. I already told you that I was going to marry you our first night together, remember?” he reminded me before brushing his lips over mine. “Beyond being able to tell you some details I wouldn’t be able to share with you otherwise, there are benefits you’d get as my spouse. With a baby on the way, I want you to have access to every bit of assistance the Navy provides as soon as possible.”
What he was saying made sense, but I didn’t want to hear all the sensible reasons I should marry the guy I’d fallen hard and fast for. Pressing my lips together, I scrunched my nose while I thought about how to respond. “Getting married shouldn’t be a decision based on logic. The start of our lives together should be about emotion. About what we feel for each other.”
My voice wavered at the end, and I had to fight tears. Talking about getting married was already hard, and the pregnancy hormones were making me more emotional than usual.
“Hey, now.” Huntley cupped my cheeks with his palms and tilted my head back to brush his lips over mine. “Don’t cry, gingersnap. The baby and getting married are supposed to be happy things, not sad.”
“I know,” I sniveled as tears started to stream down my cheeks. “But this isn’t exactly a normal situation. We only had one night together before you had to leave. There wasn’t any time for us to do all the normal relationship stuff, and now here we are—I’m knocked up, and you feel as though you have to propose.”
“You’ve got it backward, Cora.” He kissed away my tears and smiled down at me. “I don’t feel pressure to marry you. If anything, it’s the opposite, and I’m using your pregnancy to my advantage. It’s the perfect opportunity to tie you to me permanently, and I’m not above doing whatever it takes to make you mine forever.”
That sounded an awful lot as though he wanted this for himself, but I still asked, “Because of the baby?”
“No, Cora. I want to spend the rest of my life with you because I fucking love you.” He captured my mouth in a deep kiss, leaving me breathless when he lifted his head again. “If I hadn’t wasted so much damn time after we met, I have no doubt you’d already be my wife. I want to kick my own ass for giving you reason to doubt my intentions, but please don’t hold my mistake against me. Make me the happiest man on earth. Say yes. Marry me.”
“You love me?” I echoed in wonder.
“Damn straight, I do. You were already on my mind every single day I was gone the last time we were deployed, but it was different this time. After our night together, I yearned for you with every cell in my being.” He shook his head and chuckled. “Ask any of the guys. They’ll tell you I’m head over heels for you. Hell, Deacon didn’t even react when I jumped out of his vehicle before he stopped. He just tossed my bag after me and laughed as he drove away.”
I peered up at him in surprise. “Did you really do that?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I was impatient to get back to you after being gone longer than I should’ve been.”
Huntley’s lack of embarrassment while making that confession gave me the boost I needed to admit, “I love you, too.”
“Hooyah.” His grin turned cocky before he kissed me again, our tongues tangling together until my knees went weak and I was gripping his shoulders for balance. “And you’re going to marry me as soon as we can set things up however you want.”
He didn’t word it as a question, but I answered anyway, “Yes, I’d love to be your wife. With my parents down in Florida, I like the idea of going to the courthouse or eloping and then doing something later to celebrate.”
“Fucking fantastic,” he rasped. “Figure out what you want to wear, and I’ll grab some flowers on my way back from my place to get my whites. Then we can head down to the courthouse.”
“Today?” I asked with a giggle.
He stepped away and nudged me toward the door. “Yup, there’s no time like the present.”
I was moving a little more slowly than usual because of the pregnancy, but Huntley more than made up for it. In the time it took me to get ready, he changed into his dress uniform, rounded up several of his friends to act as our witnesses, got me an engagement ring plus wedding bands for both of us, and bought a gorgeous bouquet of white roses. Less than four hours later, we stood hand in hand in front of the judge and exchanged our vows.
Epilogue
Huntley
“Huntley!”
I halted on the way to my car in the parking lot and turned to see Deacon running toward me. “What?” My tone was filled with annoyance, but I didn’t care. I was anxious to get home and see my wife.
“Why aren't you answering your phone, dipshit!”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Deacon stopped when he reached my side. “Your wife has been calling.” He gave me a dry look. “She thought you might want to know that she’s in labor.”
“What the fuck?” I dug in my pocket and yanked out my phone to see twenty-five missed calls. I wanted to kick my own ass up and down the street when I realized I hadn’t turned my phone off silent after the debriefing. It was bad enough my leave got cut short when there was an emergency and I had to deploy—not knowing if I’d be back for the birth of my son. Now, I might miss it anyway just because I was a complete idiot. Not to mention the fact that I should’ve been there for Cora.
I ran the rest away in my car, my mind spinning over the fact that I was about to be a dad. Holy shit. I tried to put my keys in the lock, but my hands were shaking so bad I couldn’t line it up with the opening. Deacon grabbed them from my hand and quickly unlocked the door. Then he opened it and shoved me inside. He tossed my keys at me and then jogged around the other side to drop into the passenger seat.
Once again, I couldn’t get the key in the hole. Deacon sighed and threw me a look that suggested I’d lost my mind. As quickly as he entered, he popped out of the car and appeared at my still open door. “What the hell is wrong with you, man?”
I was as shocked as him. I constantly put my life on the line and was known for being cool under pressure. But now, when I needed it most, I was a fucking wreck. Deacon grabbed my arm and yanked me out before shoving me toward the rear. “Get in the car, asshole!” he shouted as he dropped into the driver seat. I hurried to do as instructed, and he started the car. He took off like a bat out of hell, but I still urged him to speed up. “Hurry the fuck up! My wife is in labor!”
“No shit,” he responded.
He turned down the opposite road from Cora’s and my house, and I glanced in the other direction, confused. “Where are you going, Deacon?”
“She’s already at the hospital.”
Well, shit. “Get there!”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing?”
After what seemed like an eternal ride—that would have turned a civilian’s hair gray—he squealed into the hospital parking lot and screeched to a stop in front of the entrance. I flew out of the car, n
ot bothering to shut the door or say a word, and ran inside.
When I approached the desk, I demanded to see my wife in the same tone I would use to train a batch of new recruits. The nurse behind the counter was not impressed, and she raised an eyebrow. We had a stare down, but I broke first and lowered my voice to ask politely how to find Cora.
She gave me instructions, and I sprinted down the hallway to the elevator. I jumped on, but Deacon slipped inside before the doors closed.
“What are you doing here?”
“No way am I gonna miss this,” he said with a wide grin.
“You are not watching the birth of my son, asshole!” I snarled.
Deacon’s smile stretched even further. “I meant watching you freak out. The guys want updates. Mind if I take some pictures? I wonder if I can get some popcorn around here?”
I cuffed him on the back of the head, but he just laughed heartily.
The elevator whooshed open, and I jogged down to another set of double doors that led to the maternity ward waiting room. I pointed at a chair and gave Deacon a look that said he better sit down and shut up.
Another nurse sat behind a glass window, and she looked up at me as I neared. “Reed. Wife. Cora. Um…” I couldn’t string two damn words together.
The nurse’s eyes twinkled, but she held back her smile and calmly gave me the room number. I left Deacon laughing behind me as I burst through yet another set of doors.
My shoes squeaked on the white linoleum floor as I found my way to room four.
Cora was reclining on a hospital bed, her expression worried. When she saw me, her blue and green gaze filled with joy and relief. Then her eyes narrowed, and she glared at me.
“Cutting it kind of close, babe.”
“I am so sorry, gingersnap,” I sighed as I ran my hands through my hair. “I couldn’t get my car in my keys,” I sputtered as I strode to her side, the words coming out all wrong. “Deacon ran me here, and I drove to your room as fast as I could.”
Cora’s lips pinched for a second before she broke out into a peal of giggles. “Who are you, and what have you done with my cool and collected husband?”
I gathered her into my arms and touched my forehead to hers with a deep sigh. “I can’t get over it. I’m going to be a dad. I don’t know what to do with a baby! What if he breaks when I hold him? What if—”
“Huntley,” Cora interrupted my rambling with a chuckle. “I can’t—”
Panic rose in my throat when she stopped and grimaced in pain, leaning forward to put her hands on her large belly. “Are you okay? Is something strong with the baby? Should I get the doctor?” A small part of my brain muttered that I was overreacting, but it was overpowered by all the irrational emotions.
Cora shook her head and placed a hand on my forearm, squeezing it as she breathed through the contraction. Damn, her grip was fucking strong. I was definitely going to have bruises when this was over.
Finally, the pain subsided, and she leaned back against the pillows. She smirked and giggled again. “I can’t believe a little baby scares you more than anything you’ve encountered on one of your missions.” I gave her a mock glare before chuckling along with her. Then I placed a quick kiss on her lips, and as I pulled back, her face contorted in pain again.
“Should you be in this much pain?”
Just then, a woman in a long white coat strolled into the room, examining a clipboard. When she looked up and saw me, she smiled. “This is the husband, I take it? I’m Dr. Bensen.”
“Why is she in so much pain? Can’t you do something?” I demanded, the soldier in me returning.
The doctor just continued to smile, ignoring my outburst as she sat on a stool and examined my wife. “Cora is allergic to the epidural, so she’s going to have to do this naturally.” She met my wife’s gaze and nodded encouragingly. “Are you ready? It’s time.”
Cora was in the middle of another attraction, her nails digging into my flesh hard enough to draw blood. “Let’s roll,” she mumbled.
With every push, my heart rate increased and my breathing became shallower.
“One last push!” the doctor called out.
The sound of a baby’s cry split the air, and my head started spinning. Then everything went black.
When I came to, I was lying on the ground, and several pairs of eyes were staring at me in shock.
“Did you say your husband was a Navy SEAL?” someone asked Cora in a loud whisper.
Shit. I was never going to live this down…
* * *
“He’s perfect, gingersnap,” I told Cora softly as I stared down at my son. She ran a hand over his fuzzy little head and smiled blissfully. When her blue and green eyes raised to mine, I bent and kissed her forehead. “Thank you,” I said reverently.
Cora smiled. “You’re welcome. But what for?”
“For this. Our life. Our family. For giving me something to fight for while I’m away and a reason to come home.”
Cora’s eyes filled with tears, and she laughed as she dashed them away. “Hormones,” she muttered with a sweet laugh. “We never would have had this if you hadn’t rescued me.” Her gaze filled with love that I felt to my very soul as she flashed me a watery smile.
“You’ve got that backward, gingersnap. You’re the one who rescued me.”
Epilogue
Cora
I wasn’t shocked when Huntley suggested we put an in-ground pool in our backyard. As a Navy SEAL, it went without saying that he swam like a fish. With a toddler and another baby on the way, I hadn’t been thrilled by the idea. I already had my hands full running after our son when Huntley was deployed. The last thing I needed was to worry nonstop about West escaping from the house and falling into the pool.
Even at two, our son was a risk-taker like his dad. I couldn’t count the number of times he’d climbed out of his crib by the time he was one year old. Although we’d turned the crib around so the higher slats were facing out and lowered the mattress as close to the floor as it would go, it never took West long to figure another way out. But Huntley had assured me that he could baby-proof the pool, and as I watched him teach our two-year-old how to swim, I was glad I trusted my husband wholeheartedly. Seeing him share his love for the water with our son melted my heart—which wasn’t that difficult to do since I was halfway through my third trimester and my pregnancy hormones were raging.
Rubbing over the spot where our daughter kicked against my swollen belly, I waddled across the patio toward the pool. Huntley tossed West into the air, and I grinned at his boyish squeal of laughter when he fell back into the water, confident that his daddy would catch him. Splashing water into Huntley’s face by slapping his palms against the surface of the pool, he spotted me out of the corner of his eye and shrieked, “Mommy! See, I swimmin’!”
“You’re doing a great job, sweetie.” West squirmed as though he was trying to break free from Huntley’s hold to swim across to me, so he carried him over as I slowly crouched down to sit at the edge of the pool and dangle my feet into the water.
Huntley’s eyes narrowed when I let out a low moan and rubbed the left side of my rounded stomach. “What’s wrong? Are you having contractions?”
West’s head tilted to the side, his bottom lip jutting out a little. “Mommy have owie?”
“Not an owie.” I gently wrapped my fingers around his wrist and pressed his palm over the spot where the baby was kicking. “Your sister is just reminding me that she’s in there.”
Excitement shone from his hazel eyes—the same shade as his dad’s. “Mommy have baby now?”
“Not yet.” I lifted four fingers. “We have four more weeks to go before your sister comes, sweetie.”
West nodded and pulled his hand free to pat Huntley’s cheek. “And Daddy take nap.”
“I’m never going to live that down.” Huntley groaned, his eyes narrowing as he shook his head. “I can’t believe my little man is getting in on the action of making fun of me for what
happened when he was born.”
I giggled so hard that I snorted, earning me a glare from my husband. “Uncle Deacon reminded him of the story when he dropped off about twenty pounds of strip steaks for tomorrow.”
When the pool was finished a couple of months ago, we’d started having everyone over for a barbecue almost every Saturday. Huntley did most of the cooking on his new propane grill, smoker, and flat top grill. He basically had a whole kitchen setup outdoors, and the guys had a lot of fun putting it all to good use whenever we got together. “Remind me to burn his steak,” Huntley grumbled.
I clutched my belly as I laughed again. Deacon was picky about how his red meat was cooked, preferring it medium rare. He always tried to bump Huntley out of the way to take over at the grill when steaks or burgers were involved since he thought he was the only one who could get them done right. “That’ll teach him to get our sweet, innocent little boy involved in your manly insults.”
“Nuh-uh.” West puffed out his chest. “I not little. I big boy now. See, I swim!”
Our son wiggled his little body until Huntley set him free so he could show me the progress he’d made during today’s lesson. He only let West swim within easy reach, moving with him while our son showed me how he could kick his legs and put his face in the water before tilting his head all the way back to take a breath. After he swam around for a few minutes, Huntley guided him back toward me. “Show Mommy the bubbles you can make.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgoted,” West cried before plopping his face down in the water again and blowing bubbles in the surface of the water for a few seconds. When he lifted his head again, he had to blink his eyes a few times to clear them, but he didn’t whine about it at all. I wasn’t even sure if he noticed.
If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought he’d been born in the water with how quickly he’d taken to it. “Wow, West! You’re getting so good. You’ll be swimming with Daddy in the ocean before you know it.”
Rescued by the SEAL Page 6
