AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I laugh at her, wiping the moisture from my face. “Shit, I’m so ready to tell Holden now.”
My mom pats my leg, handing me a tissue. Her eyes are red-rimmed too. “He’s going to be thrilled, sweetheart.”
Suddenly, the nurse’s smile drops, right along with my heart. She stares at the monitor, squishing the tool around more.
“What is it?” I’m barely breathing.
She smiles, sending relief through me. “Um, well, I hope you’re ready to hear this. You see that?” She points to the screen, where the first little circle now has two. “That’s another baby. You’re having twins!”
I gasp, my hand clapping over my mouth. “Shut up. You’re lying.”
Dolly starts jumping up and down, laughing hysterically. “Holy shit! HOLY SHIT!”
I look over at my mom’s face, which is just as stunned as mine.
“Well, I guess there’s just more to love.”
I walk out of the office on shaky legs. The babies are both healthy, and I’m exactly eight weeks along. Dolly and I rode together, so after telling my mom goodbye, we head home.
When we walk through the front door, we can hear the guys upstairs, playing pool. Holden comes down the stairs when he hears the front door. He smiles at me, pulling me in close for a hug.
“Hey, gorgeous. Where’d you two run off to?”
Dolly pivots away from us, speed-walking down the hallway. Holden frowns, lifting my hand up to his lips to kiss the top of my knuckles.
“Is everything okay?” he asks.
The sonogram picture of the babies is in the back pocket of my jeans. My hands shake when I pull back from him and nod toward the front door.
“Can we take a walk?”
He stares me down with dark eyes, looking right into my soul. He’s grown out a closely shaved beard on his face. He’s wearing a straw Stetson, and the soft blue T-shirt he put on this morning with Wranglers and boots. It stretches over his broad shoulders deliciously.
“Okay,” he says, walking after me.
He loops his finger through the belt loop on the back of my jeans. I lead him outside toward the patch of oak trees by the fence line. It’s one of my favorite places for us to sit and talk while watching the sunset. It rained this morning, and the fields are all starting to turn bright green. The horses are grazing in the pasture beside us. The two new foals are following their mamas around as the sun starts to dip down over the horizon.
Holden leans up against the fence, resting his boot on the bottom slat. “What’s wrong, Rosie Lou?”
He has every right to be shocked and to react with fear, anxiety, all the things. It took me two weeks to warm up to the idea of becoming a parent unexpectedly.
I reach into my back pocket, pulling out the sonogram pictures. He stares at my outstretched hand, blinking slowly.
“What is it?” he chokes out. “Just tell me.”
I exhale, unfolding the pictures. “It’s twins … we’re having twins.”
His body freezes. He doesn’t move for five whole seconds as anxiety crawls up my spine. I start yammering to fill the silence.
“I know we wanted to wait to start having a family. I guess my birth control just failed. I didn’t miss any pills. I still think the dress will fit, so as long as I don’t throw up on the way down the aisle, people won’t even know I’m pregnant, not that it’s any of their business anyway?—”
He laughs, reaching out for my waist and lifting me up into the air. “Baby … baby, slow down. You’re telling me that you’re pregnant? With twins? And everything is okay, healthy?”
He sets me up on the top slat of the fence, holding me in place. I slowly nod, studying his face as his features morph into the biggest smile I’ve ever seen.
“I thought you were dying from cancer. You’ve been acting so strange and out of it lately; I’ve been living in fear that you were about to tell me you had six months to live.” He chokes out the last words, emotion overwhelming him. His eyes are wet and red-rimmed.
He pulls me down off the fence, crushing me into a hug. “Having a baby, two babies, ten babies with you will make me so fucking unbelievably happy.”
