by Becky McGraw
"I promise," she told him then leaned up on her toes and put a kiss on his lips, "On the way to our honeymoon destination, which I still am in the blind about by the way, we will stop at the first emergency room to get all of us checked out."
She heard her daddy let out a whoop behind her and then it was followed by one from Cole and Sabrina, with a final "Yee-Haw" from Imelda. As a group, they walked over to the reception tent and told their guests that there would be a wedding after all, and asked them to take their seats.
Cassie and Sabrina ran back in the house and hurriedly washed their faces and reapplied a minimal amount of makeup, then combed out their hair and put it up in a ponytail, then finally changed into jeans and dressy western shirts Cassie had in her closet.
Cassie cleaned up her white boots with a wet rag and then put them back on, and then cleaned and dusted off her white wedding hat, the one Cole had rescued from the yard, before putting it back on her head. She had another white straw Stetson in her closet and took it down for Sabrina to wear.
They hugged each other then ran back downstairs, grabbed their bouquets from the kitchen table, then ran out the back door where her daddy was waiting to walk her down the aisle. She put her fingers between her teeth and whistled loudly to signal the fiddle players by the gazebo to start the music.
Her daddy laughed then mumbled under his breath, "You can take the girl out of the country...."
"Amen to that daddy," she smiled at him then put her arm through his.
Cole took Sabrina's arm and they started down the white carpeted aisle that led to the gazebo, where Luke stood waiting for her looking disheveled, but more handsome than any man had a right to be. After Cole and Sabrina reached the front, and split to stand on separate sides of the gazebo, she and her daddy started walking and her eyes met Luke's. Her heart twisted inside her chest and she felt like she was floating toward him.
As they moved past each aisle of guests, applause sounded behind them, until the whole crowd was standing and clapping by the time she reached the gazebo. Her daddy took her hand, then kissed her cheek, before he placed her hand in Luke's with tears in his eyes. "Have a good life, darlin'," he said in a choked whisper then walked over to stand in front of his chair, beside the empty chair with a bouquet of white roses, her mother's place.
Cassie swallowed down the emotion churning inside of her and turned to face Luke and look up into his eyes. He gave her a sexy relieved grin, then leaned down next to her ear and whispered fiercely, "You look beautiful, cupcake."
The pastor stepped forward to the top step of the gazebo and raised his hand to quiet the crowd, then he proceeded to say the age old words that would make Cassie and Luke one forever. When he was done, and they'd made their vows, the pastor told Luke to kiss his bride.
Luke grinned at her and then gave the crowd a show they'd be talking about for a long time, as he bent her back over his arm and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. When he finally swung her back up the crowd erupted in laughter and applause.
EPILOGUE
Cassie moaned loudly then hissed out between her teeth, "Luke Matthews, you---are a dead man," she said bearing down and gritting her teeth. "You did this to me."
"Calm down, cupcake...." Luke told her then picked up a few chips of ice from the cup in his hand and put them to her lips, "Here have some ice chips."
"I'm going to shove those ice chips up your a--," she grated and sat up, then moaned, and fell back against the bed clutching the sheets with beads of sweat dripping into her eyes. Her hair was wet and stuck to her face, and she was panting.
Luke took the chance of moving closer to her and then rubbed her belly, "Just breathe darlin', that'll make it better."
He thought her head was going to spin around on her shoulders when she leaned her face up to his and said in a low fierce whisper, "How the hell would you know?" Her eyes were wild and glazed.
"It's what the book said, sugar." Luke was doing everything he could to keep her calm and focused, but he was way out of his element here. He'd read the books, but none of them said he'd be dealing with a possessed madwoman who wanted to kill him...or cut his nuts off as she'd said earlier. He squeezed his legs together and swallowed hard.
"I want you to go find every one those damned books, and burn them. Now," she said on an inhale as she pressed down again, then huffed out a breath and then panted.
He'd read about six books on pregnancy and childbirth, so he could help Cassie, but they didn't anyhow prepare him for what he was seeing her go through. Luke almost felt every contraction that racked her body. "What can I do to help you then, darlin'?"
"Get me drugs...lots and lots of drugs."
"The book says those aren't good for the ba--"
She leaned up to him again and pinched his cheeks with one hand. "Say it and you really are going to die," she hissed and Luke believed her...she was that convincing. She gasped then let go of his face and clutched her belly, moaning through another contraction.
"Go get the nurse, I think it's time," she said in a breathless whisper, her face was a mask of pain.
Luke stood and almost ran from the room to go find the nurse. She was behind the round station right outside the door. "She's ready, come quick," he said desperately.
The fiftyish nurse glanced up at him then back at the chart she was working on and said, "I'll be there in a second."
Luke walked up to the counter and slammed his hands down. This time the woman looked up at him startled. "You don't understand--I need you to go check on her now. She's in pain."
The nurse's lips twitched, "This your first baby?"
The woman had evidently just come on duty, she wasn't here when he was at the desk last...or she would fucking know this was his first baby. Luke clutched his gut as a pain racked him that made him want to drop to his knees. "Oh, god..." he moaned and felt beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
"You okay?" the nurse asked tilting her head to the side to study him.
"I feel like my gut is about to split open. No, I'm not okay..." he said in a pained whisper. "I need you to go see about my wife...NOW!" he yelled the last word as another excruciating pain ripped through him, and this time he did sink to his knees to ride it out.
Once it passed, Luke sucked in a deep breath then used one hand to push back up to his feet and glared at the nurse.
"Oh, gosh...you're one of those. This is going to be a fun delivery."
"What the he--" Luke roared as another pain hit him and he staggered back to the door of Cassie's room, then stumbled over to sit in the chair beside the bed. The nurse came in behind him with a syringe. Instead of giving it to Cassie however, she walked toward him.
He leaned away from her and she just smiled. "I'm going to give you something to help you calm down Mr. Matthews.
He felt the blood drain from his face as he stared at the large needle, then back up at the nurse. "Is this because I complained?"
"No, it's because you're having sympathetic labor pains. This will help," she assured him then said, "Roll up your sleeve."
"I'm the one in pain over here and you're giving him the drugs?" Cassie shouted incredulously, then moaned as another contraction squeezed her and she inhaled deeply, then pushed and huffed out breaths then panted.
Luke moaned at the same time and clutched his stomach squirming in the chair. "What the fuck?"
The nurse smiled smugly at him then asked in a sing song voice, "Want the shot now Mr. Matthews?"
He quickly jerked up his sleeve and the nurse stuck him and pressed the plunger to send the medicine into his muscle. It hurt like hell, but nothing like the stomach pains he was having. Sympathetic labor pains? What the hell was that?
He felt the drug move into his system and his brain got a little fuzzy, and he thought the tenseness in his belly had eased some. Breathing a sigh of relief, Luke went to get up to go and help Cassie, when another pain hit him full force, one that almost sent him in a facer to the floor. He grabb
ed behind him and sat back down huffing through the pain. Just like he heard Cassie doing in the bed.
Jesus, this was just too fucking weird. He had to call Cole to come in here and help him...he was in the waiting room. But the pains were less than a minute apart, and he was falling apart...not even able to get up and help Cassie.
He saw the nurse put on rubber gloves, then go give Cassie a dilation exam. "Yep, she's crowning. I'll go get the doctor."
The woman left the room and Luke and Cassie had two more contractions before the doctor came into the room and grinned at Luke. "How're your labor pains, Mr. Matthews? Did the shot kick in yet?"
Cassie bore down on another contraction and Luke spat out through the pain, "No!"
"Well hopefully it will before you deliver," the doctor told him with a chuckle then went over to check on Cassie.
Luke sure didn't see what was so fucking funny. He was a man--and he was having a baby--literally! This had to be some kind of strange cosmic joke. God, if this was what women went through, he was surprised the world's population wasn't dwindling. Surely women talked! He knew he sure as hell would!
When another contraction hit her, he noticed that his was a little less intense, but it still made him want to howl. He heard the doctor announce that the head was out, and Luke was thankful, because both he and Cassie would be out of pain soon. Or so he thought until they had another contraction, this one longer and more pronounced.
"That's it Cassie, bear down...hold it...hold it...and let it go." The doctor coached her and Luke was right along with him. "This looks like a big baby...I thought it was from the ultrasound, but wow."
Cassie had decided she didn't want to know the sex of the baby was before it was born, and Luke had reluctantly agreed. He was surprised, because his wife wasn't long on patience. She hated a secret being kept from her. How he'd managed to hold out against her less than fair interrogation procedures about the honeymoon, he'd never know. He should have gotten some prize for managing to surprise her with a visit to several Kentucky horse farms, and their nights at the races at Churchill Downs were amazing...their whole honeymoon had been amazing.
Cassie had even managed to buy two great broodmares to add to their stock. It was a good thing they'd doubled the size of the barn they'd rebuilt to replace the one that burned down. The way Cassie collected horses, they'd need every stall soon.
Luke tensed up when he heard Cassie have another contraction, then he relaxed and sent up a silent prayer of thanks when he didn't have one. The medicine must have kicked in. He was exhausted from the ones he did have...he could only imagine how Cassie was feeling.
Weakly, he got up from the chair and went to her side and picked up her hand to hold it, then bent down and kissed her cheek. "You're doing good, baby..."
Amazingly, she grinned at him then said, "So are you..." before she gave a belly laugh.
He wondered why she wasn't having contractions anymore then looked down at the doctor who held his daughter up by her feet and spanked her ass. It made him want to go punch the doctor in the nose. Luke could see it was a girl from her lack of male equipment.
Then he heard his baby girl wail, and tears rushed up to his eyes, and a lump formed in his throat. The doctor cradled her then handed her off to the nurse, who suctioned out her nose and mouth, then took her over to weigh her and clean her up.
Luke held Cassie's hand and watched the doctor finish the delivery and then the nurse brought them their baby girl wrapped in a pink and green striped blanket. Her head was covered with a pink knit cap, but Luke could see her dark hair curling around the edge of the cap by her tiny pink ears. Gently, the nurse put the baby in Cassie's arms and the baby found her thumb and began sucking. Luke sat on the bed then leaned down and kissed Cassie gently on the lips, then pressed a kiss to his daughter's head.
"So what are we going to name her?" Luke asked, since they hadn't really decided yet on a boy and a girl name yet.
She looked up at him with love shining in her sky-blue eyes and said, "What do you think about Annabelle after my mother? Daddy always called her Bella...that means beautiful in Spanish."
"I think it's perfect, darlin'," Luke's eyes filled up and he swiped at them with his arm then drew in a shuddering breath.
"You pick a middle name..." Cassie told him.
"Hmm..." Luke said trying to come up with something. He hadn't know his mother...he knew from his birth certificate that her name was Jewel though. "How about Jewel?
"Beautiful Jewel. That's perfect, Luke...why did you pick that?"
"It was my mother's name," he told her and felt blood rush to his face.
Cassie's eyes filled with tears this time, "I think that's wonderful, darlin'."
Luke leaned down to hug her and Annabelle at the same time, and he thought his life couldn't be anymore complete. He had the family that he'd always yearned for, and so much more. He had a lifetime of triumphs and trouble to look forward to with them and he couldn't be happier.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Becky McGraw is a married mother of three adult children, and a Southern girl by birth and the grace of God, ya'll. One of several career changes transplanted Becky and her family to Indiana, where she now lives with her husband and dog Abby.
A jack of many trades in her life, Becky has been an optician, a beautician, a legal secretary, a senior project manager for an aviation management consulting firm, which took her all over the United States, and now a graphic artist, web designer and writer.
She knows just enough about a variety of topics to make her dangerous, or to put that knowledge to work for her in her romance novels. Being a graphic artist, is a good thing for her too, as she can do her own cover art as well as write the novels.
Becky has been an avid reader of romance novels since she was a teenager, and has been known to read up to four novels of that genre a week, much to the dismay of her husband, and the joy of Barnes & Noble.
She has been writing fictional short stories and novels for fun, as well as technical copy for her jobs for many years. She was a member of the Writer's Guild on AOL during her last venture into writing romance, as well as a founding member and treasurer of the first online chapter of the Romance Writers of America, From the Heart Romance Writers.
With the advancement of online publishing opportunities, Becky has started writing again as voraciously as she reads, and is self-publishing her debut e-novel My Kind of Trouble, Cassie and Luke's Story. My Kind of Trouble is the first in a series called Texas Trouble. Please be looking for the second release which will be The Trouble with Love, which is Sabrina and Cole's story.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
EPILOGUE
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