Providence Series Books 5-7

by Mary B. Moore

  The sonographer went over everything and pointed out different things to us just as the baby made a waving movement with its hand.

  “It’s waving at me,” even I could hear the wonder in my voice, and I’m sure I looked like a dribbling window licker, but I didn’t care. “Our baby is advanced,” I stated proudly, looking down at Sabine. All of the love that I knew I felt for her already just came rushing forward and I leaned down and gave her a kiss.

  It was brief, it was nothing that Hollywood would produce movies based on in years to come, but it conveyed all the feelings that I had. I knew that was true when I pulled back and looked down at her again and saw her staring up at me with tears in her eyes.

  “Okay, folks,” the sonographer broke the moment. “Are we definitely finding out?” She turned and looked at us with a huge grin. We both nodded back at her making her grin even wider. “Here goes, my lovelies!” There was some clicking and we saw more of our baby as she moved the wand lower. I don’t know how she made it out, but obviously what she was looking at made sense to her, because she squealed and filled us in. “Well, we have a boy. That is definitely a little peeny weeny!”

  “Can you give us a minute?” I asked her. I had a sudden feeling of urgency, I had to have this moment with her right now.

  I caught the Sonographer’s eye and moved my hand so she could see what I had and why I was asking her to leave so abruptly.

  “Oh yes,” she nodded and moved the wand so that the baby’s face was now on the screen. Picking up Sabine’s right hand, she told her, “Hold this right here so you can see baby while I’m outside. Shout me when you’re done.” And with that she hurried out of the room leaving a confused Sabine with a sweating me.

  “Luke, what’s going on?” She sounded worried and I wanted to kick myself. She was safe though, that was the priority.

  “Sabine,” I started and then walked around the bed to get closer to the screen with my son, holy shit my son, on it. “I’m sorry, so fucking sorry I can’t put it into words. But you’re safe, and from now on I’ll keep you safer than safe. Nothing will ever get to you.” I grabbed her left hand, pulling it across her body to me. “I love you more than I can say. In fact, I’ve loved you since the second I met you. The last three months have been hell and I’ve missed you so much; hell, I even slept with your pillow!” She looked at me like I’d grown a second head when I said that, but I just shrugged because I wasn’t ashamed of my feelings. “I can’t imagine spending any more of my life without you and I don’t want to even spend a minute without you,” I continued rambling. I knew what I wanted to get to, it was just finding the words to fucking get there. “What I’m saying is, and badly,” I cringed. “Will you marry me?”

  She lay there absorbing everything I’d said until she got to the actual proposal and her eyes widened in shock. They almost popped out of her head when I lifted my hand and held the ring up. I knew she had her grandmother’s wedding ring and loved it, but she’d never wear it because it was in gold and Sabine didn’t wear that. I’d found a white gold version of it in an antique shop in London, it hadn’t even been hard to find so I’d taken it as a sign.

  Well, at least I had taken it as a sign. The longer she stared at it, the more I sweated and started to doubt my choice as I waited for an answer.

  “Yes,” the word finally came out so quietly that I wasn’t sure I’d heard her right.

  “Yes?”

  Nodding her head rapidly, she held her hand out and made a noise of impatience. Slipping the ring on her finger and seeing that it fit her perfectly, all of the tension left me and a feeling of everything being right replaced it. The relief almost had me collapsing at the side of the table.

  Her hand moved quickly after it as she grabbed the neckline of my shirt and pulled me so that we were face to face. “But, if you ever, ever, throw me away again, ever keep me out of the loop again, I will cut your balls off and paint them into Christmas decorations. Comprendre?”

  I tried to hold the groan back when she spoke that single French word, I really did, but I failed miserably causing her to glare at me.

  “Yes, I promise,” I nodded, giving her an innocent grin in return.

  There was a timid knock at the door and the young sonographer poked her head around it with a grin. “I might be getting into a tidge bit of trouble if I let this go on any longer. Are we all done?”

  Looking back down at Sabine and seeing her grinning over at the girl and holding her hand up, I looked back at the screen at my son and said the first thing that came to mind.

  “Ren’s gonna have a shit fit when he finds out.”

  Her excited nod showed exactly why we got along so well. She was looking forward to rubbing it in his face too.

  Chapter Nine

  Sabine

  W e were in the car with Coleman driving us home when it occurred to me to ask about the stranger from the first day that they’d arrived. Some might find it strange that it hadn’t hit me before now, but so much had happened since that it had completely skipped my mind.

  “Coleman, who was the man that was at my house when you all arrived?”

  I met his eyes in the rearview mirror briefly as he just muttered, “Wrong place, wrong time.”

  It made sense, we had a lot of tourists in Appledore so he must have been out for a walk. “So, a boy eh?” He grinned as he congratulated us. “Well done, Brett.” Brett’s chest puffed out again with pride. “Your brother is gonna have a shit when he finds out too!” It seemed that we were all happy about that. Poor Ren.

  “Hey, we should stop and get a blue hat or something,” Brett suggested and brought out his phone.

  “Look for a Mothercare,” I suggested giving the name of the only baby shop that I knew of. “I think there’s one in Exeter which is about twenty-minutes away from where we are now.”

  Nodding, he found it and gave the details to Coleman who put it into the SatNav, and off we went for our first baby shopping adventure.

  “Cole would go nuts doing this,” he laughed as we pulled up in front of the huge baby store. “Let’s go!”

  An hour later…

  “I think it’s time to go,” I yawned standing beside Brett who was holding up the millionth outfit. I was drained and my patience had run out half-an-hour ago.

  “I just think it wouldn’t hurt for us to get some things now,” he repeated for the millionth time.

  “It’s still quite early,” I rubbed my tiny bump. Really, it looked like I’d just eaten a couple McDonald’s, but hey a bump was a bump. “Let’s just get what we came for and go home.” I yawned again. This baby was exhausting me.

  At the checkout, Brett told anyone who would listen that we were having a boy. He placed the four blankets, six baby-grows and nine, yes nine, hats on the counter and then paid for them, still grinning proudly like he’d conquered the world.

  I couldn’t stop laughing as he strutted back towards the car like a cockerel, even Coleman had to hold back the laugh that was making his lips twitch.

  Once we were in the car and heading home, Coleman asked the next question that I hadn’t even thought about yet. Today had been such a big day all round.

  “So, when are y’all getting married?”

  Brett stopped digging in the bag of baby clothes and looked over at me. “Do you have a Vegas here?”

  My initial reaction was to smack him, but then I remembered that I didn’t have anyone from my family who would come. The only person who would be there would be Finlay because there was no way that my parents would let my sister attend. I also wasn’t close to my brothers thanks to them, so they would make the short trip over either. With that as the reality, did it really matter where I got married?

  Before I could answer though, Coleman told Brett about a place that I’d completely forgotten existed. “There’s a place in the south of Scotland called Gretna Green where you can get married without all of the normal bullshit. What about going there?”

  I l
oved Gretna Green, I’d been there as a child and it was gorgeous. Now that I thought about it, a wedding there would be perfect and absolutely beautiful, so I squealed and nodded my head at Brett with a huge grin on my face.

  “Coleman, could you help us get that sorted out?” I asked him, not taking my eyes off my fiancé.

  “Absolutely,” he mumbled from the front. “Fucking A, another Townsend bites the dust!”

  Brett burst out laughing and pulled me into him. I was so happy I started crying making both of the men panic. One emergency stop to a corner shop and a box of chocolate fingers later and I was okay. Fucking hormones, but oh the chocolatey biscuit goodness!

  Brett

  Walking into the house behind Sabine, who was still happily munching her cookies, I looked around at all of the sulking faces. I probably should apologize, but I wasn’t going to.

  “We’re home!” I stated the obvious just to rile them up a bit. I think I’d earned the right to do it after all of the shit they’d put me through. All of the women sniffed and looked the other way as the men stayed where they were just glaring at us. For a few seconds, the only noise that could be heard in the room was the crunching from Sabine as she munched her cookies. “Don’t you want to know what we’re having?” I shook the bag at them.

  That did it.

  “I’ll bet it’s a girl,” Ren said smugly, then the smile dropped and he looked over at Crystal who was happily playing with the twins in the cage/baby container thing that they’d bought. He loved his daughter, but he was terrified of boys coming into her world when she was older so he kept hoping that a peen would peek out. Either he was dumb to biology or just special, or maybe both?

  The volume rose in the room as everyone started talking at once, and then there were bets being passed around.

  Knowing it could take a while, and actually being quite happy to wait, Sabine and I went and sat on a couch making ourselves comfortable. Once they were done and Gramps was holding a wad of money, they turned and looked expectantly at us. Mom was almost jumping in her seat she was so excited.

  Reaching into the bag, I pulled out the softest blanket I’d ever seen. It was all different shades of blue made into what Sabine had been adamant was a tartan, and was so fuzzy and soft that even I wanted to curl up with it.

  Everyone gasped apart from Ren who stood up and glared at me.

  “You big fat bitch,” he snapped. “You’re lying.”

  “Nope!” I popped the ‘p’ for emphasis. “Not even a little. We got to see the sausage and everything. In fact,” I shifted my ass on one side so that I could get my wallet out. “We thought you’d say that, so here’s the proof.”

  Yeah, I had the sonographer print a picture of the kid’s weenie for this exact reason. I wasn’t going to miss the look on his face when he saw it for anything. His reaction was fab-u-las!

  “That’s the cord!” He fumed.

  Shaking my head, I pointed above it. “No, that’s the cord.”

  “It’s just the way the water and whatever other shit is in there was at the time,” he tried.

  Sighing, I walked up to him and rubbed it in a bit more as I hugged him. “Congratulations on your new nephew, Uncle Renny! It’s a boy!” I shouted, holding the blanket up in the air like the scene in the Lion King.

  Everyone started screaming and celebrating around us as Cole clapped me on the back and welcomed me to ‘the weiner club’ and said no ‘burger buns were allowed’, deliberately bating our brother. Ren sat down on the arm of the couch and sulked until I, accidentally, knocked him. He fell on the floor next to Tom who was holding his hand up waiting for anyone at all to give him a high-five. He’d been like that since we all started talking, though, so I figured he might be there for a while. Now that Ren was with him, he could do it. I was too giddy that I was actually having a son, a beautiful healthy little boy.

  “And, there’s more news,” I said over all of the noise.

  “It’s twins,” Isla shrieked clapping her hands.

  “Um, no,” I corrected her quickly as everyone got ready to celebrate. “We’re getting married!”

  Sabine was standing beside me now, so I held up her hand proudly as all of the women rushed forward to check out the sparkly shit.

  “Vegas?” Gramps asked.

  “No, Grotty Green,” I replied.

  “Gretna Green,” Sabine corrected as she leaned around me to hug Gramps.

  “Where the shit is that?” Cole asked.

  “Southern Scotland.”

  “We’re going to Scotland,” Isla and Maya started jumping up and down.

  Looking down at Sabine who was still getting hugs, tummy rubs and congratulations, I had a soft moment and appreciated the fact my family had hijacked my trip here. If they hadn’t, would I be here celebrating my son and soon-to-be wife?

  As always, though, they proved why it wasn’t a blessing having them around.

  Chapter Ten

  Townsend Wedding, Gretna Green

  The secret to a happy marriage is to always keep his stomach full, and his balls empty – fact.

  T he day before the wedding…

  Brett

  It had taken a week to get it all prepared, but we’d done it. There was the dress, the rings, the clothes, the hotels, the travel, Cole’s morning sickness…it had been a week of hell. I refused to touch Sabine until she was my wife which she’d been pissed about until I explained that I’d done her wrong before, but now I was going to do it right.

  Then Maya’s best friend Tony and his boyfriend, Lars, had arrived. Like they’d ever miss anything, including the birth of all of the babies in the family. Even though Tony hadn’t wanted to witness them, he’d been up front and center for all of them and had seen just as much as the doctors had. Every time someone mentioned taco Tuesday now, his eye started twitching and he turned a weird shade of green. I felt bad for the guy, but at the same time he put himself in the situation…

  So, here I was with balls so blue that even Papa Smurf would wince and it wasn’t just through lack of use. It was fucking freezing here. Scotland had the type of cold that went right through you to your bones. And the wind, a lot of it coming from Gramps as always, was insane.

  It was now the night before the wedding and although they were used to doing quickie marriages, they were also no strangers to the planned drawn out weddings too. As ours was a mixture of both, we were having a rehearsal. At least, I think we were having a rehearsal. The only people who understood what was being said were Maya and Sabine.

  “Noo, when yer done, ye come and hammer it wee thus,” the woman raised a hammer and hit the anvil that was in the place where the ceremony would take place for some reason. “And ye’ll ken it’s aw ower.”

  Sabine and Maya nodded their heads furiously with big grins as they each hit the anvil with the hammer, while the rest of us watched on with our mouths open.

  “What did she say?” Cole whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “Oh shit, she’s coming your way.”

  The lovely lady walked up with a gentle smile on her face.

  “Morag, hen,” she held her hand out and I shook it hoping that she wasn’t asking me anything important. “Yer looking a wee bit peely-wally. I ken it’s aw a lot tae take in, but we’ll do yous right, son. Dinnae you fash yersel,” she added, then patted my shoulder and walked away.

  “What the hell did that mean?” Cole was the first of us to talk. “I got hen so I take it we’re having chicken for dinner.”

  “Masturbating,” Tom added randomly.

  “Excuse me?” My eyebrows must have disappeared under my hair, because I had no idea what the hell was he talking about? Where did masturbation come into it.

  “She told you not to masturbate,” he said like it was just a run of the mill everyday type topic in a venue where weddings were held. “She said you weren’t to ‘fash’ yourself and something about peeling your willy. You know,” he added a little wanking motion onto it.

  Co
le nodded beside me, obviously agreeing with our youngest brother. The whole thing made me shudder. That sweet little old lady telling me not to wank before the wedding? Maybe it was acceptable conversation here?

  Shuddering again, I went to get Sabine. We were all going out to dinner and then would go back to our separate rooms and I wouldn’t see her until the actual wedding itself. I hated the thought of not cuddling up to her tonight, but it was worth it if she was going to be Mrs. Townsend tomorrow.

  Fucking traditions and superstitious bullshit, though!

  The wedding day…

  Whose idea was it for ties to be so tight around the neck? Fucking sadistic bastards. I was in a horrible mood on the one of the biggest days of my life.

  Firstly, I hadn’t slept at all. Apparently, I was the biggest pussy in the world and I couldn’t sleep without Sabine.

  Secondly, I had to wear a shirt and a tie that for some reason, even though they were my size, didn’t fit around the neck so I could hardly breathe.

  Thirdly, I’d just gotten a call and I was needed back in the States for work. The problem couldn’t be fixed with me working here, so I was going to have to break the news to Sabine that we were going home.

  Fourthly, I couldn’t understand a word of what was being said and had ended up with haggis last night. I didn’t have a clue what it was, but was really enjoying it until just before the last mouthful Cole explained I’d basically just eaten sheep’s anus. Well, no not quite, but that’s what I was picturing now. As if that hadn’t been bad enough, I’d been asked if I wanted a ‘full English’ for breakfast. I’d thought that sounded safe enough so I’d agreed as had the other guys. There were slices of a black sausage on the plate, so I’d dug in. Just as I was almost licking the plate clean, Cole did an online search of the name of the sausage, black pudding, and we’d all had to run to the bathroom when he read out what it was. Blood sausage. I’d grown up on a ranch, but holy shit, blood sausage just sounded wrong when he’d read the description out to us.