Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 15575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 78(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 52(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 78(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 52(@300wpm)
“Marry me,” he said.
“Ward?”
“I don’t care. I love you, Kirsty and we’ve wasted enough time. Fighting with you is fun. Saying crazy shit is great, and I won’t stop teasing or tormenting you, but I’ve got to have you. I love your crazy ass. I want to be with you, every single part of you, forever. Please marry me. I want to be your husband and the father of your babies.”
She didn’t think, she didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”
He got to his feet, cupped her face, and then sealed it with a kiss. Kirsty’s heart fluttered.
“I don’t have a ring yet, but I’ll get you one.”
“I don’t need a ring,” she said. “All I need is you.”
“You’ve got me—for the rest of our lives, you have me.”
For months, they had been sneaking around, where every prying local seemed to be there, to talk about what they were doing and with who. The moment Kirsty tells him she’s pregnant, and Ward proposes, there’s not a single person to bear witness, and it’s a tale she and Ward have to tell repeatedly, and sometimes even reenact.
Epilogue
Ten Years Later
“I want a tattoo,” Claire, his oldest daughter, said.
“Not on your life,” Ward said this time even before Kirsty could say a single word.
Claire folded her arms and began to sulk, and this he was used to. She was at that age, nearing her tenth birthday, and believed she had all the answers.
His son, Timothy, well, he was someone who actually knew the answers. Their eight-year-old was a clever little guy, who was currently sitting on the grass, hat on, reading a book.
Their twins, Benjamin and Ruth, were playing in the sandpit.
The heat was beaming down, the barbecue pit warming up. Bethany and Randall, as well as Christopher and Michelle, were all there for their annual summer get-together. Ward had wanted to start a new tradition with his friends, and Kirsty had been more than happy to help.
Michelle had also joined Bethany and Kirsty in their make-ahead Saturday. When that day approached, he and the guys had to figure out what to do with the kids, and seeing as the day rotated between the houses, whoever didn’t have the cook-off was where they would go.
Where his and Kirsty’s eldest was ten years old, Randall and Bethany’s daughter was twenty-two years old, and already away at college.
It turned out that on the day he and Kirsty finally got married, the bet, which had become a few thousand dollars by the time it was finally through, went to Randall. When the bet first started, Randall had taken a few days to decide, but then had said he and Kirsty would get married just before they turned thirty-one years old, and they’d have a baby on the way.
It was kind of freaky how accurate he’d been, but that was exactly what happened. He and Kirsty had been pregnant, and he’d married her in a quick wedding before they both turned thirty-one. The whole town had been invited, and it had been a day of festivities. For two weeks after, he and Kirsty had enjoyed a honeymoon of doing absolutely nothing. It would seem he and Kirsty had a lot in common, including, but not limited to, their love of the town. Neither of them wanted to go abroad for their honeymoon.
They spent it in bed, making love, and generally him being balls-deep inside his woman. If she’d not already been pregnant, he had no doubt she would have been pregnant by the end of their honeymoon.
“She’ll forgive you,” Kirsty said, looking toward their eldest daughter.
“I don’t care if she doesn’t. There is no way I’m putting a tattoo on her. Not happening. Not under my roof.”
“Have I told you how much I love it when you get all bossy?” Kirsty asked.
“No, not today, and here’s the thing—when I get all bossy with you, you don’t like it,” he said.
She chuckled. “Well, duh, but when you’re being a dad, it makes me a little weak.”
Fuck, she did that breathy talk that made him think of taking her inside, regardless of their guests, and making love to her in the afternoon.
“Tonight?” he asked.
“Do you promise?”
Staring into her eyes, he saw that glint, the one that said she wanted him. He looked toward Randall.
“Hey, man, you know that favor you owe me? I’m thinking about cashing it in.”
“What do you want?”
“You and Bethany, take the kids,” he said.
“For the night, sure—”
“The whole weekend.” He missed his wife, and he knew what that glint meant. He had a feeling by the end of their weekend, his wife would be pregnant with their fifth child.
The End