Rena considered the possibility a moment. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “Better not hang him. Carol would never forgive us.”
“Well, thank you for that small kindness,” Pete said grumpily, and started after them. “And after I hauled these kids all the way over here, too, thinkin’ y’all might need a little help in ironin’ out your problems. Havin’ to stop four times for pit stops along the way. Twice for burgers and fries. Hellfire!”
He stopped when Rena and Clayton both turned on him again, then he held up a hand and started backing up. “Now wait a minute. That was just a slip of the tongue. I didn’t mean to say hellfire. I meant to say shoot. Yeah, that’s it. Shoot.”
When Clayton continued to frown at him, Pete dragged off his hat and lifted his head, sniffin’ the air. “Do you smell what I smell?”
“What do you smell, Uncle Pete?” Brittany asked.
“Cotton candy. Mmm-mmm. Don’t it just make your taste buds stand up at attention and cry for some that sweet spun sugar?”
“I smell it, too,” Brittany cried. “Can I have some, Daddy? Please?”
“Me, too,” Brandon chimed in.
Clayton frowned at Pete. “Mighty fancy foot-work,” he said as he set the squirming Brittany down on her feet.
Pete just grinned and took both Brittany and Brandon by a hand. “Yep. Pulled myself out of tighter scrapes than this one. In fact, I remember doing some mighty fast talkin’ for your daddy one time,” Pete began as he led the twins away. “We were in this country and western dance hall in Oklahoma City, and there was this blonde your daddy had the hots for—”
“Pete!” Clayton and Rena cried in unison.
He glanced over his shoulder and grinned. “Ya’ll remember that one, too, huh?” He chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ll give ’em the Walt Disney version of the night y’all met.”
Rena and Clayton turned to look at each other.
“Surely he wouldn’t—” Rena began.
“Nah,” Clayton said, and looped his arms around her waist, drawing her abdomen to his. “Not even Pete’s that crazy.” He dipped his head to drop a kiss on her lips, then slid his hands down to cup her buttocks. “We got more than we bargained for that night, but I have no regrets. Do you?”
“No,” she said, lifting her arms to wrap around his neck. “Though we still have to discuss where we’re going to live.”
“Now I’ve been thinking about that,” Clayton said, leaning back to look down at her. “And I’ve come to realize that I had developed a false notion that the ranch represented home to me.”
Rena furrowed her brow in confusion. “But it was our home.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “It was. But what I realized was that it wasn’t the place that signified home. It was you. And I want you to know that if you’ve got your heart set on living in that falling-down house in Salado, then that’s where I’m hanging my hat, too.”
“Do you mean it, Clayton?” she asked hopefully.
“Damn straight. In fact, I think we need to get busy and make us some more babies. There are a lot of empty rooms in that old house.”
“How about right now?”
He glanced around, then dropped his gaze back to hers. “Right now?”
She pulled her arms from around his neck and grabbed his hand, tugging him along behind her. “You’ve still got that bed in the loft of your trailer, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah,” he said, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder. “But what about the kids?”
She stopped beside the trailer and rose to her toes to drape her arms around his neck again. “Pete can handle the kids,” she said, and began to nibble at his lower lip. “And, if he can’t…well, Pete’s a pretty sharp guy. He’ll figure something out to keep them entertained.”
Epilogue
At the sound of a sniffle, Clayton slipped his arm around Rena’s waist and drew her reassuringly against his side. She glanced up at him, her eyes brimming with tears.
“He looks so happy, doesn’t he?” she whispered.
Clayton glanced toward the beaming groom and his very pregnant bride, who were making their way back up the aisle of the church, then down at his wife and smiled. “Yeah, he does.”
Pete leaned from the pew behind them, sticking his face between Rena’s and Clayton’s and forcing their heads apart. “You’d think after marrying Shelby three times,” he muttered irritably, “that some of Troy’s jubilation would have worn off by now.”
Frowning, Clayton planted a hand against Pete’s face and gave him a shove, then drew Rena back to his side and smiled down at her. “Sometimes there’s more to celebrate the second and third time around, isn’t there sweetheart?”
Rena leaned into him, her eyes filled with love for her husband. “I can’t speak for the third time around, but I certainly found much more to celebrate about the second time we exchanged marriage vows.”
Remembering the vows of renewal they’d repeated just two weeks before, Clayton felt his heart squeeze in his chest. “Yeah,” he murmured and dipped his head over Rena’s, pressing a kiss to her lips. “So did I.”
Brittany climbed up onto the pew and squirmed her way between her parents. “I want a kiss, too, Daddy,” she complained jealously.
Laughing, Clayton scooped his daughter up into his arms. “Sure thing, shortcake.” He popped her a kiss square on the mouth, then leaned back to look at her. “How was that?”
She pushed her lips out into a pout. “You kissed Mommy longer than you kissed me.”
Chuckling, Clayton shifted her to his opposite hip and drew Rena back against his side. “That’s because Mommy’s my wife and you’re my little girl.”
He felt a tug on his sleeve and glanced down to find Brandon peering up at him. His son held up his arms to him. Smiling, Clayton hooked an arm around Brandon’s waist and hefted him up to his hip. “What’s the matter, cowboy? You feeling left out?”
“No,” Brandon replied and leaned to peer over his daddy’s shoulder. “But everybody’s leavin’.”
Clayton glanced around and noticed that the wedding guests were filing out of the church. “Guess we better be headin’ out, too.”
As he stepped out into the aisle, Pete snatched Brittany from his arms, handed her off to Carol, then took Brandon from him, hitched him on his hip and took off after Carol.
“Hey!” Clayton called after them. “Where are y’all going with my kids?”
Pete glanced back over his shoulder, grinning. “Thought I might give ’em a few pointers on the art of rice throwin”’
Rena slipped her arm through Clayton’s. “Do you think we should warn Troy and Shelby of the coming attack?” she asked uneasily.
Clayton glanced down at her and grinned. “And ruin all the fun?”
She laughed and slipped her arms around his waist, tipping up her face to peer at him. “I love you, Clayton Rankin.”
“No more than I love you, sweetheart.”
With a sigh of contentment, she rested her cheek against his chest. “Clayton?”
Sure that he’d never grow tired of telling his wife how much he loved her or of hearing her declare her love for him, he hummed a lazy response. “Hmm?”
“Were you serious about wanting to fill our house in Salado with more children?”
Puzzled by the hesitancy he heard in her voice, he leaned back to look down at her. “Sure I was serious. Why?”
She dropped her gaze to his chest and drew a small circle on the front of his shirt with her fingernail. “Well…” she lifted her head. “I think in about eight months you’ll get your wish.”
Clayton stared at her a moment before her meaning set in. “You mean…”
She nodded her head, her lips trembling in a smile. “Yes, I mean.”
He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly against him. “A baby,” he murmured, then said again awed by the thought. “A baby.”
“Clayton?”
He nuzzled his nose ag
ainst her hair. “What, sweetheart?”
“Better make that babies.”
He froze, his eyes flipping wide, his nose still buried in her hair. “Twins?”
Her hair rubbed against the side of his face in silent ascent.
“Twins,” he repeated, releasing a long breath.
“Yes, twins,” she said tearfully.
He quickly pushed her to arm’s length, searching her face. “You’re not upset, are you?”
“No,” she said, sniffing. “Are you?”
“Heck, no!” he cried and tugged her against his chest again. He vised his arms around her, holding her close, then just as quickly pushed her to arm’s length again, his face creased with worry. “If the babies are boys, you won’t name ’em Pete and Repeat, like Pete wanted you to when we had Brittany and Brandon, will you?”
Rena tossed back her head and laughed. “Not a chance.”
“Thank goodness,” he murmured in relief as he drew her back against his chest. Pressing a kiss to her temple, he sighed, his heart swelling with the love he felt for his wife—a love that he would never again take for granted, and a love he would cherish always.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1068-4
SLOW WALTZ ACROSS TEXAS
Copyright © 2011 by Peggy Bozeman Morse
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*Trouble in Texas
†Texas Brides
‡Texas Grooms
Slow Waltz Across Texas Page 15
