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Although she’d been pushing me away a second before, she was clinging to me again. No, clutching. No, crushing.
But I didn’t care. After what our child was putting her through, she could damn well do anything she wanted.
“That’s right, Jillian,” the doctor said. “I see the head.”
Against my internal wishes, I leaned forward and looked down between my wife’s legs. How the doctor knew that the thing bulging from my wife was a head was beyond me, but I had to trust that he knew what he was seeing.
What I was seeing was pure disgusting.
The contraction loosened its hold, and the pain in my hand reduced to a manageable level as Jillian fell back onto the bed. The little bulge disappeared back into her body.
Great. Just great.
But before I knew it, another contraction hit, and the bulge was back, this time coming out even more.
“Perfect, Jillian,” the doctor said. “Just perfect. A little more. Bear down hard.” Jillian screamed in my ear as she pushed even harder. “Head’s out.”
And it was.
Before my very eyes, the doctor turned the baby and a little, tiny, gross looking face appeared.
My baby.
“One more push, Jillian. Not so hard. Just enough to deliver the shoulders and you’ll have a baby to love. Now.”
As I watched Jillian bear down that last time, a shoulder appeared, then another. Then, in a rush of liquid, the baby came gushing out.
And I burst into tears.
I wasn’t the only one. Jillian was crying too. And after some bulb-like thing was stuck in its tiny mouth and nose, our daughter joined the chorus. The sweetest little sound in the world.
Within moments of being thrust so abruptly into the world, our daughter was on Jillian’s chest and the nurse was wiping her off. She opened her little eyes and looked directly at me.
“Hey there, little one.”
Did she smile?
Probably not, but I was calling it one. Her first. The first of a million, billion firsts.
Pressing my lips into Jillian’s sweaty hair, I wrapped my arms around my family and held them close.
I’d reclaimed my wife. Now I was claiming my family.
Claiming every beat of my heart.
Jillian
Six months after that…
“This is really not the time or the place,” I whispered as I reached down to the bag that was nestled in the grass. The morning had started out well. My dress was cleaned and ironed, and I’d pressed Brendan’s suit. Knowing that he would lose track of time with the horses that he’d bought at auction, I pulled him out of the fields well before we needed to get ready and ushered him into the shower.
I’d originally picked out the peach outfit for Emily, but she immediately got it dirty when Janice let her play outside while I finished getting ready. Our little girl was obviously growing up to be a rancher just like her daddy. Keep her inside for too long, and she started throwing a fit.
Changing her had taken time, so of course we were late.
And of course, Brendan wouldn’t let go of the argument we’d started in the car.
“All I’m saying is that he wasn’t the greatest person,” Brendan whispered back. I found what I was looking for and pulled the hat over Emily’s head. She cooed happily and blinked those gorgeous dark eyes up at her daddy. He beamed as he leaned down to kiss her.
It turned out that my husband was the best father that a woman could hope for. After the land deal had been finalized, he’d been a busy man trying to merge the two ranches, but he made sure that he was never away from my side for long. The pregnancy went fairly smoothly, and after a billion hours of labor, Emily Quinn Ward was born into the world with our heartstrings already wrapped around her little finger.
“Do you, Debra Anne Andrews, take this man to be your wedded husband?”
“I do, and it’s about time,” Debra said. We all chuckled, and I straightened. After a year of what Ben liked to call courting and Debra called the slowest relationship on earth, Ben finally had the good sense to marry the woman. As a wedding present to them, we rented out a corner of the park next to the ranch and hosted a wedding that they’d remember forever.
A wedding that we were late to.
“And do you, Benjamin Thomas Jessup, take this woman to be your wife?”
“I do.” His voice was soft and confident.
“May I have the rings?”
“With this ring, I thee wed,” Debra said softly. Ben echoed the vow, and before the officiate could even give the command, she was in his arms. The small crowd jumped to their feet and clapped wildly. Even Emily clapped her chubby hands together in happiness.
When I turned to my husband, he was looking down at me with nothing but love in his eyes. “When are you going to let me give you a proper wedding?” he whispered as he bent down to kiss me.
