“I don’t need to see this shit. I’m happy for you guys. Invite me to the wedding!”
Then my friend drives off and leaves us there, smiling like idiots.
“Let’s go home,” I tell her.
She nods her head, tears in her eyes, her hand clasped tight in mine.
I pick up her bag, help her in my truck and then drive us home, my fingers entwined in one hand of hers, the other on the steering wheel.
And when I get us home, I lift her out of the truck and carry her to the door, smiling.
“Welcome home, Mari, my love.”
She laughs and wraps her arms around my neck, a pretty pink blush staining her cheeks. I carry her over the threshold just like I will one day when she carries my name and I know that I’ve finally got everything I’ve ever wanted right here in my arms.
The love of my life. My past, my present and my future all rolled up into one beautiful, perfect woman that has always held my heart.
And she always will now. Just like I will hold hers.
Epilogue: Marina
The Sheriff smirks at both of us and I grin at him even though I’m sweating so much that I look like I’ve run three miles in ninety degree heat.
“I’m telling you. She’s in labor. That’s the only reason I’m speeding.”
“Uh-huh. Well, you can slow down now because I’m gonna give you a police escort to the hospital.”
My husband mutters under his breath, his big, scarred hands shaking on the steering wheel.
But he slows down and we follow the sirens and lights all the way there.
My head is swimming and the tightness in my belly is worse than ever.
“Ugh,” I groan. “I feel like I need to push.”
“Don’t you dare push until we get you in that building, woman!” he hollers.
But I can’t move. I’m gasping for air and my whole body is locked tight, the pain moving down and down until it’s ratcheting in my back and my belly.
I grit my teeth. “I need to push.”
He jumps out of the truck, yelling at the top of his lungs. People come streaming at us but before they get there the Sheriff ducks inside. “Let me look at you, sweetheart.”
I nod my head, the pain so intense I think I’d let anybody look as long as they took away the agony shredding my insides.
He flips up my skirt and groans. “We need a nurse or a doctor here right now! I can see the head.”
And my big, burly, hot as hell husband who could kill you three different ways with a pinky takes a look at me and then falls sideways into the truck, his face white as a sheet.
His friend eyes him with disgust. “I can’t believe this fucker.” But he pushes me back on the seat carefully and comes around to bolster my back as a doctor shoots out the door and into the open car door. “I saw the head. We can’t move her yet.”
He nods and hollers for a stretcher and a nurse to bring a portable incubator and a bunch of other shit. And my husband’s friend smiles at me. “You ready to bring this little one into the world?”
I nod my head and grit my teeth. And when the doctor says push, I bear down and give it everything I’ve got.
Ten minutes later, I’m struggling and crying, the pain so intense I just want to roll over and sleep.
But Sheriff Adams grips my hand tighter. “Just one more good push, darlin’.”
