Page 83 of Embattled Ever After

“Was that why you were so sad when you came back to see Shannon?”

She nodded, tucking hair behind her ears. “Yes. It had only happened a few days before I flew out here.”

“Oh, honey.” Duncan cupped her neck in his hand and tugged her to look at him. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to help you.”

He understood why she’d just wanted to lay with him that night, and the exhaustion he’d seen in her eyes. She’d gone through hell alone and walked out on the other side.

“I had to come out and check on Shannon. I needed good news. Then it all went to hell in a different way.”

She laughed, and he laughed with her. Then he kissed her, his mouth gentle on hers.

“Yes, it did, but we’ll all be stronger for it, I promise you.”

She nodded. “I know. If I’m a little cautious on the baby thing, maybe you can understand why now.”

He smiled at her. “I understand completely. I love you, Alex, more than I ever could have hoped. I had kind of reached the point where I didn’t expect this kind of relationship in my life, but I don’t think I will be able to let you go now. So you’d better put on your seatbelt and strap in, because I want you to marry me.”

She barked out a laugh and rocked back to look at him. “Are you serious?”

He nodded, and though it had been spur of the moment, the rightness of it settled into his bones like it was supposed to be there. “I am, absolutely and completely. I didn’t plan on asking you here and now, but there it is. So, what do you think? Can you put up with a grumpy old man who doesn’t need a cane any more?”

She laughed and leaned in to wrap her arms around his neck. “Yes, I definitely think I can do that. I love you, Duncan. I’ve loved you for so long and I would be thrilled to marry you. And we’ll have kids, too. Later on down the road.”

They kissed to seal the words to their hearts, and it was the most amazing feeling Duncan had ever experienced. Yes, there was still a haunting sense of loss because of the miscarriage, but he knew they would overcome that.

Epilogue

July…

Shannon lifted her shirtaway from her sweaty skin, leaning over the air conditioning vent. It was hotter than hell in this house. “Why isn’t the air working right?”

John looked up from his tablet. “The air is working fine,” he laughed. “Your body is just overheated. Quit doing laundry and sit down. I told you I would do it.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I just feel like I’m running out of time.”

Moving to the couch she used the arm to help lower herself down, all five hundred pounds of her. She didn’t actually weigh that much, it just felt like it. “I’m so ready to have these kids.”

John laughed. “Don’t say that. It’ll happen today.”

As if in answer to his thoughts, a funny little muscle spasm crawled across the breadth of her belly and she gasped. Wow. She’d had Braxton contractions before, but never like that.

John was looking at her like she’d grown a second head. “Don’t you dare,” he told her firmly.

A second spasm gripped her stomach in a vise and didn’t let go. By the time Shannon could focus her eyes again, John had rolled to her side and was holding her hand. He waited with her, rubbing her hand patiently, but there was white showing around the dark irises of his eyes. John was always a laid back guy, so to see him spooked shocked her.

“I think,” she said finally, “that we should get ready to go. Put Carmela in the garage where it’s cool and throw some toys out for her. Stock up the cat food. My case is by the door.”

John lunged into action, the wheels of his chair squealing on the hardwood floors as he did everything. Shannon pulled her cell phone from her bra and checked the time. When the next contraction came, she had a better—more terrifying—idea of where they stood. “John, I need to get to the hospital. We’ll call the doctor on the way.”

Within a couple of minutes they were packed in the truck and on the road. Shannon breathed through the pain and pressed a number on speed-dial. Willow’s calm voice answered on the first ring. “Yes?”

“We’re on the way to the hospital. How fast is too fast for contractions?”

Willow gasped in excitement. “If they just started, they should be several minutes apart. I headed to the hospital when mine were about four minutes apart. They get closer together the closer to delivery.”

“The last two were two minutes forty-five seconds apart.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “Shannon, I love you. You need to get your ass to the hospital or John is going to deliver those babies on the side of the road.”

---