Bundle of Love: A Western Romance Novel (Long Valley Book 7)

by Erin Wright

  If she didn’t say something right this very minute, he was going to throw up all over her shoes, which were not cowboy boots but were instead tennis shoes, which meant they were fabric, which meant that they would soak up his throw-up and—

  Please, please, please…

  Except this time, he realized that he was saying the words out loud. “Please…” he whispered again.

  “YES!” she shouted, finally moving, throwing herself at him, knocking him over with the shock of it, apple pie and dirt flinging everywhere. “YES!” she shouted again, laughing and crying and then they kissed long and hard and all thoughts about discussing the wedding date – before the baby was born would make the logistics of claiming their little girl as his even easier – flew right out the window.

  Turns out, that sort of thing can be discussed just fine after he showed her how much he loved her with his mouth and lips and fingers and soul.

  Epilogue

  Kylie

  October, 2018

  Kylie put her hand on the small of her back and groaned. If this baby didn’t come out soon, her back was going to give out from the pain of it. Carrying what the doctors estimated was a nine-pound baby upfront, sticking out of her like she swallowed a beach ball for breakfast…

  It was rough on a person’s spine, she could testify to that much. It really was too bad her mother had been spot on all those months ago, when she’d warned Kylie about this stage. Kylie had hoped that she’d somehow miraculously escape this fate, but nope.

  She was her momma’s daughter.

  “Hurting?” Adam asked, rubbing the muscles at the base of her spine as she groaned in pleasure. Ollie looked up from the box he was picking up, worry etched across his face, and she waved him off.

  “It’s fine,” she told the teen. “Keep going. I’d love to have everything inside by tonight if we can.” He nodded and headed for the front door, box in hand.

  “Watching Oliver hover over you,” Adam said in her ear as his hands continued to work magic on her back, “well, it’s a little surreal. I keep wondering where the awkward teen went that I hired over a year ago. You know, the one who refused to speak to girls.”

  Kylie let out a little laugh that segued into a sigh of pleasure when Adam hit a particularly sensitive spot. “Bavarian cream donuts,” she murmured. “They’re the key to Ollie’s heart.”

  “Donuts…hmmmm…I knew there was a reason I liked that kid.”

  Kylie shook her head and laughed. Despite her best efforts, Adam still had a sweet tooth more appropriate for a four year old than an almost 40 year old. At least he was eating more veggies now, if only because she gave him the stink eye when he pushed them to the side of his plate.

  A shiver ran through her at the cold wind beginning to whistle through the pine trees. It was almost Halloween, and the weather had already turned, the leaves long gone, the flowers killed with the first heavy frost.

  Almost Halloween. Which meant that it was almost her due date. Halloween had never been a favorite holiday of hers – Thanksgiving and all of its baked goods was much more her style – so she’d spent the last five months of her life hoping and praying that her baby would either come early or be late. Anything but a Halloween baby. Everyone thought she was crazy (“But a baby all dressed up in a Halloween costume would be adorbs!” Sugar had protested) but Kylie was adamant. Even if she had to cross her legs for 24 hours straight, no baby was coming out of her womb on October 31st.

  After their rushed (if amazeballs) wedding, Ruby signed her house over to Adam free and clear as her wedding present to them. Since she’d happily settled into the retirement home, she didn’t need another house, and her one request had been that the house would stay in the Whitaker family. “I don’t mind leaving it,” she told Kylie a few weeks ago, “as long as Adam, you, and our grandchild lives there. That home is the legacy of the Whitaker bunch.”

  It was a request Kylie had been happy to comply with, considering it had a lot more room and was a bit more updated than Adam’s rental. But, it meant that they were busy moving just days before her due date. They’d brought the animals over to the new barn yesterday, and Dumbass was already doing her best to chew through the fencing.

  “Any day but today,” she told her belly sternly. “Well, or Halloween. But I’ve got to put your nursery together before you can make your appearance.”

  Adam gave her a light hug from behind and a kiss on the top of her head. “I better get back to work,” he said regretfully. “You stay here and continue to supervise the troops. Don’t lift a thing!”

  She waved and nodded, watching him as he walked over to chat with the Miller brothers – Wyatt, Declan, and Stetson – and Luke Nash, another friend of Adam’s, all there to help them move. It seemed like everyone in the valley loved him, and for good reason. She’d never met a more solid, thoughtful, understanding man in all her life. Even when she insisted, in a fit of pregnancy cravings, that jalapeños and Fuji apples absolutely went together, he didn’t call her insane.

  Well, at least, not out loud.

  Just then, a truck pulled up, its headlights cutting through the growing darkness, and Kylie shaded her eyes against the brightness.

  Who is this…

  The headlights cut off and it was only then that Kylie could see that it wasn’t a truck but rather an SUV – a bright green one. Ah. Sugar’s husband, Jaxson, the fire chief. He was just about the only guy in town that Kylie could name who drove an SUV instead of a truck, and he was certainly the only one to drive a bright green one.

  But instead of just Jaxson hopping out, a bunch of guys started pouring out, like a cowboy version of a clown car. Sugar walked over, squinting in the fading light, trying to pick out faces. It looked like the local volunteer fire department had shown up to help – Moose, Jaxson, Levi, Troy, and Dylan were swarming towards Adam, asking him what it was they could do. A shaggy looking Dalmatian was trailing after them, tail wagging as it went.

  Kylie came up behind the group, listening to Adam give orders, divvying up the workload between everyone. He caught her eye and after all of the men got to work, hauling in boxes from the moving truck, Adam came over and put his arm around her. “Still feeling okay?” he asked worriedly. “You’ve got that ‘I’m in pain but I’m not going to admit to it’ look on your face.”

  Kylie shook her head and laughed a little. “I’m fine, I promise. I can’t believe everyone came over to help.”

  Adam squeezed her lightly. “I know. Me either. I sure am a lucky guy.” With another squeeze to her shoulders, he headed to the group of guys to help them maneuver a dresser when…

  “Oh. Ohhhh…Ohhhhh!” Kylie began moaning as she felt a rush of liquid run down her legs. “Adam!” she hollered. Everyone froze, and then as one, began yelling, all hell breaking loose.

  “Get her into the truck – I’ll drive her!”

  “No, take the SUV! The backseat lays down.”

  “I’ve got leather seats – that’s easier to clean up. Take her to the hospital in that!”

  Adam swooped her up into his arms and, ignoring them all, headed straight for his truck. Kylie was shivering, her teeth chattering from the cold wind against her wet legs, and from the fear of what she was about to endure.

  Suddenly, all of her wishing for the baby to just come already seemed premature. Giving birth was damn terrifying. Maybe the baby could just stay where she was for a while longer.

  A lot longer.

  Another year or two would be fine.

  Adam slid her into the passenger seat carefully and shut the door behind her. He shouted something to the guys that she couldn’t hear through the glass, and then hurried around to the driver’s side.

  “What did you tell them?” she asked, her hands clutching her stomach, rubbing at the skin, trying to ease the wave of pain building up inside of her.

  “Tell what? Who?” Adam asked, tearing down the road just short of the speed of light.

  “The guys. I couldn
’t hear you through the window.” She honestly didn’t give a damn about what he’d told them – she just wanted something to take her mind off the pain in her stomach.

  “To just put everything into the living room and we’ll sort it out later. Wyatt said that he’ll return the rental truck tomorrow for us, so we don’t have to worry about it. Oh my God, why am I talking about rental trucks? Shit! Where’s your birthing bag? Is it in here or the car?”

  The pain radiated from her head down her body, squeezing her like a tube of toothpaste. “Ummm….uhhhhh…….ummmm…” She couldn’t breathe or think. Why was I hell bent on doing this again? Is it too late to take it back? JUST KIDDING! I DON’T WANT A BABY AFTER ALL! HAHAHAHA!

  “Kylie!” Adam yelled, jerking her back to the present. She looked over at him, eyes woozy. The pain began to recede and she could breathe again.

  “Yes?” she asked, panting. Drugs. She wanted all the drugs. She wanted drugs that hadn’t been invented yet.

  “Yes, it’s too late to take this back,” he said, turning the corner on two wheels. Kylie gripped the armrests, knuckles white from panic.

  When all of the wheels were safely back on the ground, she un-gritted her teeth enough to ask, “Too late to take what back?” She was confused. What was he talking about? Hadn’t he just been talking about their move? She didn’t want to take that back.

  “You were mumbl…never mind. How are you doing? How’s the pain? Where’s the birthing bag? You forgot to tell me.”

  “Oh. Right. Bag. Behind us. In the backseat. I put two together, just in case. One for each car. Exact duplicates of each other.”

  Adam let out an admiring laugh and shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a more organized person in my life. Giving birth before your due date is probably the most spontaneous thing you’ve done in the past year.”

  “Are you kidding me? I’ve been praying for this for months. Before or after, I don’t give a rat’s ass. Just not on…aaahhhhhh!” she started yelling, the pain squeezing her again.

  “We’re almost there!” Adam shoved his foot down harder on the gas pedal, the diesel engine roaring through the darkness. “I am not going to help someone give birth in my truck again! Not, not, not.”

  “You never did tell me that story,” Kylie said through pants. “What were you doing playing doctor on the side of the road?”

  “Ummmm…” he stumbled, and Kylie could tell that panic was making it hard for him to concentrate. She just wanted something to take her mind off the pain, and finally, Adam started in on the story he’d been hinting about for months.

  “Chloe was driving through Sawyer when her car broke down, a blizzard hit, and then Tommy decided to make an appearance. I was trying to make it home myself when I saw her on the side of the road, emergency flashers on, and so I pulled over to see if I could help. I was expecting a flat tire or the car to be out of gas, not a woman in labor.” The Long Valley County Hospital came into view and Adam let out a whispered thank you. “So, I helped her into my truck, right back there,” he jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the backseat, “and that’s where she gave birth. I always said I’d never be around a birth again. Animal births? Fine. Human births? Not so much. And then…you came along.”

  He pulled to a sudden stop in front of the ER doors, jumped out of his truck, and ran around to her side, not even giving her a chance to climb down from the truck but rather just scooping her up into his arms and running for the door. “I can walk,” Kylie said weakly, wrapping her arms around his neck, trying to make it sound like she really meant it. It was only polite to insist, after all, even if walking sounded torturous just then. Actually, everything seemed torturous just then. Breathing, thinking, talking, blinking her eyelids…

  “Nurse Knutsen!” he hollered as soon as the automatic doors opened, ignoring her mumbled protests. “Kylie’s in labor!”

  Things happened in a blur after that. There was a lot of screaming and crying and ranting and raving, and at one point, Kylie may’ve told Adam that she wanted Norman out of jail so she could kill him or at least yell at him, and apparently she was too far along for an epidural which made absolutely no sense to her, and between begging for death and threatening to kill the next man she laid eyes on, she continued to beg for something, anything, to take the edge off. A shot of whiskey. Cocaine. Whatever.

  Okay, and so there might’ve been that part where she told Adam that if he ever knocked her up, she’d kill him with her bare hands. And that part where he passed out and Kylie demanded that the nurse pour water over his head because dammit all, if she was going to be awake through all of this, he should be too, and then a repeat fifteen minutes later when he passed out again…

  But all of that sweat and tears and blood and puke and poop was a distant memory once she heard the cry of her baby, and the nurse saying, “It’s a girl!” as if they hadn’t already known that and planned for it for months. But still, it was good that it was for sure a girl, because Kylie really didn’t want to repaint the nursery and buy all new clothes, and then they laid the squalling, red, slimy baby girl in her arms and she cried. Not tears of pain – no, she’d shed way too many of those over the past year.

  These were tears of sheer joy and happiness. She looked up at Adam, whose hair was dripping from the second dousing of water over his head, and whispered, “Isn’t she the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your life?”

  “She is,” Adam said, but he was looking at her when he said it. He wiped a few strands of sweat-soaked hair from her face and then looked back down at their precious baby. “So are we sticking with the name we chose?”

  “We are,” Kylie murmured, running her fingertips lightly over the baby’s skin. She couldn’t believe how tiny her daughter was. She hadn’t felt tiny just a half hour before, of course, but now that she was out, she looked ridiculously small for a human. “Hi, Ruby Carol Whitaker,” she whispered to their baby girl. “Welcome to the world. You’re gonna love it here.”

  * * *

  Hi, amazeballs reader!

  I sure hope you loved Bundle of Love. ❤️ I know that for me, it was one of my all-time favorite books to write because I could finally give Adam the happily ever after that he deserved and has been waiting for since Book 1 in the series.

  Speaking of, if this is the first book you’ve read by me, you ought to start back at the beginning with Stetson and Jennifer’s love story (Accounting for Love) and work your way forward. Although all of my books are standalones, it’s a whole lot more fun to read them in order. Because everything takes place in Long Valley, people show up in each other’s books all the time. Want to know how Sugar and Jaxson ended up together? That’s Flames of Love. Want to know the backstory of Juan, the about-to-be adopted son of Abby and Wyatt Miller? That’s Arrested by Love.

  On the other hand, if you’ve read everything by me that I’ve ever written, first off, thank you. I can’t even tell you how much it means to me to have such dedicated, wonderful fans. I’m so damn lucky.

  Second of all, do be sure to flip the page to check out “The Story Doesn’t End” section, where I list out all of the upcoming books in the Long Valley world, and their release dates.

  Levi, Moose’s best friend and a fellow volunteer firefighter, is getting his story in July; Troy, the quiet firefighter of the bunch and the one to adopt Sparky, gets his story in September. Meanwhile, Miss Lambert, fifth grade teacher extraordinaire, gets her time in the spotlight in August, and Gage, the sexiest baker alive, finally finds love of his own in December.

  So as you can tell, I have lots planned for the Long Valley world, and I’m just getting started. Be sure to preorder my books on your favorite storefront (I’m available everywhere – that will never change!) so you never miss an installment in the life and times of Sawyer’s residents.

  Last but certainly not least, if you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll get a FREE novella (Stampede of Love) and also be the first to hear about sales, new
releases, and a chance to win some really great prizes. I only send out once a week (every Wednesday in the Wright’s Wednesday Recs newsletter) and because I am a real person who hates spam as much as you do, I will never sell, lend, or give away your information to anyone else. Ever.

  (I am absolutely militant about that, can you tell??)

  With that, I’ll let you check out all of the other books in the Long Valley world.