Guessing she’d need no more than a minute—two tops—to locate the engagement ring, Seth used the time to calm his racing heart and regain his equilibrium. Not an easy task, especially when the facts of their situation hadn’t changed. He still had to leave. There wasn’t any choice there. He was due on base tomorrow morning, simple as that.
And the knowledge he’d return didn’t alter how much he wanted to stay.
A squeal of pure delight drew his attention back to Rebecca. Her movements were hurried, as if she worried the ring would somehow disappear now that she’d found it. Grasping the band, she tugged hard, breathed in deeply and then turned toward him with jubilation and triumph sparkling in her gorgeous aqua eyes.
Opening her fist, the ring lay in her palm, none the worse for wear. “Look! I found it. I found your ring. I found it, Seth!” A smile as bright as the sun wove across her face. She clasped the ring tight and brought her hand to her heart. “Now we can talk.”
“I am very happy you found the ring, Becca, and talking sounds like a fine idea.” Seth stood and rounded Rebecca with one goal in mind. “However, I think we should—”
“No you don’t, bucko,” she said, scurrying out of his reach. Frankly, he was surprised she could move so fast. “You are not picking me up until I’ve had my say.”
“Be reasonable. You’re covered in dirt and your arms need tending to,” Seth coaxed, once again readying himself to lift Rebecca and carry her off. “We can talk inside.”
“You had your say earlier. Now, it’s my turn.” She held up her free hand and shoved it against his legs. Hard enough he almost stumbled backward. Eyes that no longer held a trace of a tear darkened and narrowed. “You made me quite angry, you know.”
“Is that so?” His knees jiggled—just a little—at the quick shift in her mood. Deciding to play along until he understood why, he sat down. “How did I make you angry?”
“You picked beautiful flowers for me and tied them in a ribbon! You brought me a romantic picnic, which you served on my bed! And then…then you ruined all of it by giving me…chopped liver and a side of freaking chocolate sauce!” She pantomimed gagging. “Do you know how disgusting chopped liver and chocolate is? Do you?”
He blinked in confusion. Flowers, check. Picnic, check. Liver and chocolate? “I have no idea what you’re referring to. Perhaps you could…expand?”
“Oh, I’ll expand all right. You gave me two options. One is stupid.” She sneered. Sneered! “I withdraw my choice of option number one as of now. And option number two is…is asinine. Put them together and we have chopped liver and chocolate.”
Ah. Now they were getting somewhere. “I take it you’re unhappy with the options.”
“Damn right, I am.”
“I see.” Rubbing his jaw, he tried to appear thoughtful. “Well, the problem here, darlin’, is those were the only two options. If you’re unhappy with both of them, I’m not quite sure where that leaves us.” A solitary strand of hope shot through him. “Do you have a suggestion?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Leveraging her hands on the ground, Rebecca pushed herself forward a few inches. “I suggest we add another option to the mix. Option number three.”
“Three options? Interesting idea, Becca. I hadn’t considered beyond one and two.” Following her lead, Seth planted his hands on the ground and moved a few inches closer to her. “I am curious, though. What would option number three entail?”
“We’ll get there, but first, I have a question for you.” She crept another inch in his direction. “And I expect you to answer in complete and utter honesty.”
He mimed crossing his heart.
For some reason, her lips curved into a goofy grin. “When you make a promise to someone, is your intention to keep that promise?”
“I never make a promise I don’t intend to keep.” He slid forward, erasing the remaining gap between them. Now sitting knee-to-knee, he said, “Of course, I can see how in certain situations a promise might have to be reconsidered. Once all extenuating issues are known.”
“Uh-huh.” Rebecca wrinkled her nose. “Such as someone picking you up all of the time, whether you want to be picked up or not, and hauling you around as if you’re a bag of…of—”
“Exactly. Or being called a surly name in tense moments.”
An eyebrow shot up. “What surly name?”
“Bucko, for instance,” Seth said with a light shrug.
“Hmm. I’m not sure I would describe ‘bucko’ as surly.” Rebecca’s lashes fluttered. “What about people who just show up unexpectedly…constantly?”
“Now that is annoying,” Seth agreed, leveling his gaze with hers. She was, he admitted, a bit of a mess, and yet, so lovely to look at, his eyes could hardly see anything else. “But I have one better. What about a man who loves a woman with his entire heart, but is too damn stupid to tell her?”
One blink, then two, then three. “Oh, I can forgive that,” she said, her tone husky and warm with a hint of a tremor. “But what about a woman who loves a man with all her heart, but couldn’t find the courage to face a future with him?”
“Couldn’t or can’t?”
“Past tense,” she whispered. “I’m so done with allowing fear to form my decisions.”
“Now, sweetheart, this isn’t something you want to tease a man with.” He was somewhat dismayed to hear a tremor in his voice. “This is too important and—”
“I’m ready to discuss option number three,” Rebecca interjected, her tone even and strong. Determined. “And I would like you to hear me out completely before you offer any opinions or ask any questions. Can you do that?”
Good thing, because with his tongue tied in knots and his throat closed tight, he’d be lucky if he could get a grunt out, let alone actual words. He nodded and gestured for her to give him the details of option number three.
“We will continue on as we are, with you in the Air Force and the baby and me living here.”
At those words, Seth’s back stiffened and his foot started shaking in agitation. How was this different from option number one? He opened his jaw to ask when Rebecca gave him a quelling look. Fine, then. He closed his mouth tight.
“You will stay in the Air Force until you and I together decide it is no longer a good fit for our family. As to the pilot bonus, we will also discuss that together. Do you understand me so far?” she asked in a crisp, precise voice.
He replied with a weak nod and leaned forward, every muscle tense, waiting for the rest of it to pour out of her mouth. When she was done, regardless of what she said, he was going to kiss her. And then, he was going to carry her butt into the house.
“Good. Now, my timing here gets a little sticky, as I’m not positive how long it will take for my house to sell or for us to find a proper house in Tacoma. Maybe a few months?” She brushed a clumped chunk of hair off her cheek. “I’m sure you’re now wondering about the partnership possibility at my firm. The truth is, your job is far more important to you, to who you are, and my job is nice but it’s just a job. There are CPA firms all over the country. I’m sure I can find a good fit in Tacoma. If you had asked, I would’ve told you that.”
“Are you—”
“I am not done, Seth Foster, so you just hush.” Fire lit her voice, her eyes, and warmed her cheeks to a rosy pink. And even with the leaves in her hair, the dirt on her face and a stomach the size of Mount Rainer, he found her intoxicatingly beautiful.
He parodied zipping his lips shut.
“At some point, and I’m not entirely sure when, we will get married. You promised you’d say yes when I proposed to you, and while this might not be the most romantic proposal of all time, this is, indeed, a proposal, and I expect you to live up to that promise.” She winked saucily and he just about laughed. “What do you say, Bucko, will you marry me?”<
br />
Seth didn’t answer right off, just pretended to give the question some thought. “You realize,” he said seriously, “that once I say yes, this is a done deal. There will be no backing out of a wedding down the road. And once we are married, divorce is not an option.”
Her shoulders firmed. “I am in complete agreement.”
“What about the surprises? I like them, you don’t.” Seth scratched his jaw, still playing a man who had a lot to consider. “And darlin’, I have to be honest…I enjoy picking you up and hauling you around. I’m not so sure that will ever change.”
“Hmm.” The corners of her lips quirked. “Well, we might have a dilemma, then.” She opened her hand to look at the ring. “Such a shame, though. I had my heart set on wearing this.”
“If you’d like to try it on…”
“If I try it on, I’ll never take it off,” she said quietly, contemplatively, almost serenely. “In case you missed it before, I love you, Seth. With all of my heart. And if you’ll just say yes, I think we’ll have a pretty fantastic life together. But I won’t beg.”
“Sweetheart? Look at me.” When she did, his heart cracked in two at the love he saw there. Love she felt for him. “I say yes, Rebecca. I will absolutely, without a doubt, marry you.”
Rolling to his knees, he held out his arms, wanting nothing more than to hold her. God, he’d missed holding her. She came to him then, this remarkable woman he’d had the damn good sense to fall for, and his arms wrapped around her, bringing her as tight to him as he could.
“In case you missed it, I love you, too, Rebecca. And I will love and care for you and our children for the rest of my life. That’s another promise, sweetheart.”
Again, her chin lifted and fire lit her eyes. “That better be a very, very long life.”
“I will do everything in my power to make it so.” Drawing her closer, he kissed her with a hunger no other woman had ever raised. Passion sparked, hot and fast between them, just as always. But along with the passion and the hunger came a bone-deep contentment at knowing that this woman was the woman for him. She was his and he was hers.
And that was about as glorious a gift as any man could ever hope to receive.
Breaking the kiss, he whispered, “I love you, Rebecca. Fiercely. Completely. But darlin’, that compulsion is coming over me again and I am a weak, weak man.”
“What compulsion might that be?” she asked with a breathy little laugh.
“I’m sorry, I truly am, but I’m going to have to pick you up and carry you inside. And I’m going to have to do that right now. I hope you understand.”
And then…well, then he lifted the woman he loved in his arms, kissed her soundly on the mouth, and carried her inside.
Epilogue
Rebecca experienced her first contraction on July third at precisely 2:33 in the afternoon. A fact she decided to keep to herself until the contractions were either five minutes apart or she could no longer hide the pain from those around her.
She made this decision for one very important reason: Seth. He had two days off for the holiday, and would arrive at Rebecca’s sometime the evening of the third. She very much wanted the man she loved, her future husband, to be present when their baby was born. So…she figured she’d hold off as long as possible and hoped like crazy their impatient daughter would comply.
All went well for a while. Neither Rebecca’s mother nor sister noticed anything amiss. Seth’s parents didn’t, either, when they stopped in at four. Grady and Jace, her designated watchdogs until Seth appeared, arrived together at six, and that was about the time Rebecca knew she’d likely have to ask them to drive her to the hospital. Her contractions were eight minutes apart, dropping from ten in less than an hour.
By 6:30, pain and pressure stretched across her abdomen every seven minutes, by 7:00 she was down to six-and-a-half. Seth, she knew, was over two hours out, and as she sat in her living room with Grady and Jace, she tried—oh, how she tried—to act normal.
Unfortunately—or fortunately, as the case might be—Grady had gone through this before, and he began to watch Rebecca very curiously at the 7:13 mark. Her fault, she supposed, for stopping midsentence to suck in her breath while gripping her belly.
Jace, as she’d learned from their encounter in January, was also a very observant guy. When Rebecca’s next contraction rippled through her stomach at 7:19, he noticed. Probably due to her tiny—really and truly miniscule—yelp of pain.
The brothers looked at each other and had some sort of Foster-mind-meld moment that somehow didn’t surprise Rebecca in the least. Without saying a word, Grady retrieved a notepad and pen from the kitchen to track her contractions while Jace climbed the stairs and returned with Rebecca’s overnight bag. Then, both brothers calmly and methodically retook their seats.
By 7:52, Rebecca’s contractions were coming every six minutes. She was uncomfortable, overheated and heading straight for grumpy without passing go. Grady suggested they leave for the hospital and Jace quickly seconded that motion. Rebecca testily explained that she far preferred to stay home until her contractions were five minutes apart, and unless something really wonky happened, Seth would show in plenty of time.
At 8:04, Rebecca’s water broke.
And okay, perhaps this fell on the childish side, but she was embarrassed to tell Grady and Jace. The idea of discussing something so intimate with either of them, regardless of how much she might like them, was too much. Way too much.
Except…well, again, both men had proven to be very observant. Another strange mind-meld moment occurred, and without one word of warning, Grady hauled her up in his arms and Jace grabbed a handful of towels and her overnight bag, and she was on her way to the hospital.
They stood in for Seth until he arrived, helping Jocelyn with everything from rubbing Rebecca’s back to spooning ice chips in her mouth. Jace kept Rebecca entertained in between her contractions, while Grady kept her calm through them. One by one, other Carmichael and Foster family members pooled into her room and joined in the effort.
It was crazy to the nth degree, but it was also…warm and comforting.
When Seth flew into Rebecca’s hospital room, his eyes wild and full of love—so much love for Rebecca—she almost forgot she was in labor. Well, until the next kill-me-now contraction rolled in. He held her hand, whispered words of love and support, found little ways to make her laugh and gave her strength when she didn’t think she had any left.
Shortly after midnight, the nurse kicked everyone except for Seth out of Rebecca’s room. With fireworks blasting outside the window, Grace—lovingly and appropriately named after her two uncles—entered the world. She was perfect in every way: ten fingers and toes, a very healthy set of lungs and dark blue eyes that Rebecca felt sure would one day be a matching set to Seth’s.
Later that day, when the Foster and Carmichael families took turns meeting Grace, Rebecca was reminded again of the terrible mistake she almost made. Her daughter had grandmothers and grandfathers and uncles and aunts, all of whom would cherish and love her.
The circle enlarged by one six weeks later when Levi Foster, Grady and Olivia’s precious and beautiful son was born. Rebecca cried when she met her first nephew, when she stared into his eyes. Connections were…miraculous. She was a mother, an aunt, a sister and a daughter. Soon—before the year was out—she would be a wife. Seth’s wife.
And that made her one exceptionally lucky woman.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781459230415
Copyright © 2012 by Tracy Leigh Ritts
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An Officer, a Baby and a Bride Page 20
