by Helen Conrad
“I love you more, Kat Clay,” he countered.
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“See.” She grinned at him. “We are incompatible. We’ll never agree.”
“Then we’d better quit talking and do some serious making out,” he said comfortably. “After all, we only have three hours before we land.”
“Three hours.” She sighed, luxuriating in his embrace. “Kiss me quick. There’s not a lot of time.”
And he complied with relish.
EPILOGUE:
Double the Fun
Kat put her hands on her very large and rounded belly and listened as though she could hear voices inside. And she could.
“We’re coming out,” the voices said. “Ready or not.”
“No, not yet. Stay put, you two,” she whispered, but she knew they wouldn’t listen. She was going to have these babies today. She looked at the window of the chalet. Snow was piled against it and a blizzard was raging outside.
“Uh-oh,” she whispered to the two little bundles of joy within. “Daddy’s not going to like this.”
It had been a year and a half since she and Tanner had flown off together to begin their experiment in a love relationship. It had been a year since they had declared the experiment a success and confirmed it with a wedding. It had been about eight months since they’d started to expand the family. It had been about six months since they’d discovered they were going to have twins. And it had been three long days since they’d come up to the chalet for a winter weekend and had been snowed in for the duration.
Kat lay back and groaned. This couldn’t be happening again! Memories of Shelley’s birth adventure in Mexico still curdled Tanner’s blood. Whenever anyone brought that episode up, he got that panicked look in his eyes. “Never again,” he would say, shaking his head. “Never, never again.”
And now here they were, stuck in a snowstorm in Colorado, miles away from anywhere, just the two of them and the cook Tanner had hired to help make the stay more relaxing for her.
“The phones are still out,” Tanner announced, coming into the room restlessly. “We’ve got to get back to Destiny Bay. I’ve got the Newman deal and...”
Suddenly he noticed her face. Without hesitation, he sank to his knees beside her and put a hand on her belly.
“What is it?” he asked anxiously, searching her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Oh, Tanner, I hate to tell you this...”
He paled visibly. “No.”
“I can’t help it.”
He was breathing quickly, shaking his head in denial. “It’s too early. They’re not due for weeks yet.”
She tried to smile. “Early births seem to run in the family, don’t they?”
A white line appeared around his lips. “No, Kat, don’t do this to me!”
She patted her stomach. “Talk to them. I can’t help it.” She bit her lip, her huge brown eyes full of remorse, “I’m sorry.”
He sighed and closed his eyes, his head back. “Are you sure? Really sure?”
She nodded, pressing her lips together as another contraction took hold of her, bearing down like a vise. She panted quickly, just as she’d learned to do in the classes, and Tanner counted for her.
“I’m sorry,” she said again as she came out of it. “Don’t worry, Tanner. We’ve done this before. We know what to do. Don’t we?”
He didn’t answer and she didn’t dare look at his face. She was trying her best to reassure him, but she was panicking inside just as surely as he was. There was no hope of running out and finding a doctor this time. They were all alone here. All alone, in the snow.
A clumping sound made her turn to see what he was doing, and she found him already in his heavy coat, putting on snowshoes. She sat up straighter, alarmed.
“You can’t go out in this. Where are you going?”
He frowned with concentration. “I’m going to get a doctor.”
Fear flashed through her. Was he losing his mind? There were no hospitals here. And there was a very wild snowstorm raging outside.
“Tanner, no....”
Turning back, he dropped to one knee beside her and kissed her hard on the mouth. “Yes, Kat,” he said firmly “Do you remember that hunter we waved to on the old mil road as we drove in?”
She nodded, puzzled, holding on to the sleeve of his coat as though she could keep him beside her that way. “Yes. What about him?”
“His name is Dr. Culpepper, specialist in newborn complications.” He got up and clumped toward the front door again. “I hired him to wait in the old cabin by the tracks, just in case.” He grinned at her openmouthed astonishment. “And remember that little country store you thought looked abandoned until you saw smoke coming out of the chimney yesterday? Dr. Alex Barnes, obstetrician, is staked out there.”
He pulled the door open, wincing at the cold wind.
“Oh, by the way. Cook Collins, the woman we brought along from home who’s been preparing those delicious meals? She’s really Joyce Collins, head of pediatrics at County General.”
He gave her a triumphant grin.
“I hired them all to hang around, just in case. Kat, darling, there was no way I was going to risk anything this time. Especially not with the woman I love, the mother of my children.” He winked at her, “And you thought you were going to regret marrying a rich man. Ha!”
The door slammed and she was left alone to wait for his return with a full complement of specialists to make sure this birth went just right. As the shock began to fade, Kat began to laugh. He was right. Being rich wasn’t so awful. Not if you knew what you were doing. And that was one thing Tanner excelled at.
The snow glistened in the morning sun, as pure and sweet and new as the babies she held on either side of her. The trees were full of icicles and the birds made dinosaur tracks on the fresh crust. Kat sighed, looking out on the beautiful scene, and then she bent her head and took in the scent of just one newborn head, and then the other.
“Matthew and Michael,” she agreed. “After both our fathers.”
Tanner stared at the two heads in awe. “They’re so perfect,” he said again for what must have been the forty-third time. “I can’t believe...”
“Believe it, mister,” Kat said proudly. “We did it. You and me.”
“We did it,” he said, shaking his head in wonder. “This is like the icing on the cake, you know? I mean, I get you and these guys, too?” He kissed her gently. “That’s what being rich really means. And right now, I’m the richest man in the world.”
She laughed. She’d been doing a lot of laughing since she’d married Tanner. But something told her that the real laughs had just begun.
Right on cue, Michael began to squirm.
“Uh-oh. He needs changing.” She raised him for Tanner to take.
But the father of her children merely stared at the baby she was holding out for him. “Uh... We’ve got a pediatrician in the next room,” he reminded her. “Why don’t I just call her and...?”
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Kat grinned. “When you’ve got twins, it doesn’t matter how rich you are—you change diapers. That’s just the way it goes.”
Michael opened his eyes and stared up at his father. Tanner stared back. Instant bonding took place.
“Change diapers?” Tanner scoffed, walking off with his new charge. “Hell, I’ll change the world for this little guy. He’s going to be president someday.”
“Great,” she called after him. “And when you finish with the president, come on back and get the quarterback for his changing.”
“Hey.” Tanner stuck his head around the corner and looked at her. “I’m doing all the work. What are you going to be doing?”
She grinned at him. “Loving you all. It’s a full-time job, you know.”
He grinned back. “You’ve got a point there, lovely lady.”
He went back to changing and Kat sat back dreamily in her ch
air. She’d never known true happiness before. But she knew it now.
“I love you, Tanner,” she whispered to the walls. And two fat, hot tears coursed down her cheeks. “I love you, you crazy rich man.”
And that was all that was left to be said.
************
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The Destiny Bay Romances available now!
All Available from my website: http://helenonthecoast.wordpress.com/
or
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Destiny Bay Romance-Forever Yours
Book 1-My Little Runaway
Book 2-Wife For a Night
Book 3-Too Scared to Breathe
Book 4-Make Believe Wife
Book 5-Promoted to Wife
Book 6-Not the Marrying Kind
Destiny Bay Romance-Baby Dreams
Book 1-Husband Wanted:Will Train
Book 2-The Baby Invasion
Book 3- Waiting for Someone like You
Book 4-Just In Time
Book 5-Jilted
Book 6-Dream A Little Dream
A Destiny Bay Romance~The Ranchers
Book 1 - Native Silver - 99c
Book 2 - Destiny Ranch
Book 3 - Sweet Desperado
Book 4 - Stealing Shane’s Girl
Book 5 - Luck Be A Lady
Book 6 - Don't Tell Me You Love Me
Destiny Bay Romances-Islanders
Book 1 - Saved by You - 99c
Book 2 - Found by You
Book 3 - Tempted by You
Book 4 - Rescued by You
Book 5 - Charmed by You
Book 6 - Blessed By You (coming soon)
Destiny Bay Romances-Forever Yours-Sweet Editions
Book 1- Run, Run, Runaway - 99c
Book 2- A Little Blackmail
Book 3- Moving Too Fast
Book 4- A Piece of Heaven in Utah
Book 5- A Cowboy in the Castle
Book 6- A Time to Choose
ABOUT AUTHOR
Helen Conrad is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than 90 romances published under various pseudonyms with Harlequin, Silhouette, Loveswept, and others. She is currently revamping and rewriting much of her backlist--some available in the US for the first time--to present on Kindle.
Meanwhile, she and her husband are living in a California beach town very much like Destiny Bay and loving it.
"The Destiny Bay Romances take place in the sort of beach town I've always loved--and now I live in one! But writing about beach towns came first and this series is centered on the rich, influential Carrington family living along the California Coast and its interior valleys, and in Hawaii. These are good-looking, fast-driving, hard-hitting men and women whose impulses lead them into trouble every time--and inevitably to fall in love.”
