Tears are falling down my face, and I want so badly to hold Ben, and even though I didn’t write my own vows, my feelings toward him pour from my mouth.
“Ben.” I squeeze his hand and take a breath. “I stand before you today proud and ashamed. Proud to be your wife and ashamed that I don’t quite have the words to explain exactly how I feel about you. Our love is more than words, so today I’ll show you what you mean to me, by becoming your wife. My deep love for you led me here, standing before you, happier than I’ve ever been, and I’ll spend every day of the rest of our lives making sure you’re just as happy. I’ll cherish you and laugh with you. I’ll encourage you and hold you and cry with you. I’ll walk with you through this life, proud to be your wife. With every beat of my heart, I will love you.”
Ben wipes a tear from my cheek. “I love you, Danielle.”
“I love you, too.”
The pastor drapes a strand of flowers around my neck and a strand around Ben’s. “It has been an honor to stand before you today, and by the power vested in me, it’s an even greater honor to pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Bennett Wallace. Ben, you may kiss your bride.”
Ben’s lips are on mine before the pastor finishes speaking. His tongue sweeps inside my mouth. The steel drum band starts to play. I hear the quiet waves of the ocean hitting the sand and the sounds of the birds chirping, and I can hear Ben’s heart hammering inside of his chest with love…for me.
When he pulls back, his eyes are shining. “Dinner, cake, one dance, and then straight to the room.”
I laugh and push onto my bare toes so I can kiss him again. “Eager much?”
“In love. I’m in love.”
“Me too,” I say, smiling.
“And I want to make love to my wife.”
“Wife. That has a nice ring to it. You know,” I say, bringing my mouth to the outer shell of his ear. “I’m hungry, but not for food.”
That’s all it takes. Ben flings me over his shoulder and makes a beeline for our room.
He smacks my ass, making me wiggle. “You’re mine, Mrs. Wallace.”
“Bring it, Mr. Wallace.”
It’s not quite over yet epilogue
Samantha
“You what?” I yell, pushing myself up in bed.
“Sweetheart, you need to stay calm.”
“I am calm, damn it.” I shrug Lucas off and glare at my sister across the tiny hospital room. These sweet babies couldn’t wait to come into the world, and I went into labor a little earlier than expected. “You got married?”
“Y-yes.”
“And you didn’t think I would want to be there? In case you forgot, I’m your twin, Dani. Identical twin. We’re practically the same person, and I have waited my entire life to watch you marry Ben, and you just went off and did it without me?” My anger turns to sadness, and I reach for Lucas when I start to cry.
“I’m sorry.” Nice rushes across the room, tears filling her eyes.
Good. She should be sorry, and I’m going to tell her just that. “You should be.”
She nods. “I know. It’s just…we were there, and it was so beautiful and quiet, and Mom wasn’t harping on me about a caterer, and Ben’s mom wasn’t asking about the band. It was just the two of us, and it was so beautiful.”
“It sounds beautiful,” I sniff. “Oh God, this hurts.” Another contraction builds steam inside of me, and I grip Lucas’s arm. “Why did you let this happen? You and your giant cock are never coming near me again.”
Dani chuckles, but shuts her trap when I glare at her. “You think this is funny? Just wait until you’re pushing a watermelon out of your vagina. I hope you have triplets. Ahhhhh!”
“Breathe, sweetheart.”
“How’s it going in here?” my nurse asks, walking into the room. She’s too damn perky with her high ponytail and even higher breasts. I want to punch her.
“Not good,” I grunt, dropping my head to pillow when the contraction ends. I close my eyes and take a few cleansing breaths. “My sister got married without telling me. I have two humans who are trying to make my uterus their permanent home and—Christ, lady, warn a girl before you shove your fingers up her hooha.”
The nurse—I think her name is Mindy—just keeps probing, and all I can do is sit here and wait for the next contraction to pop up on the damn screen.
“Good news.” She pulls her hand out from between my legs, takes her gloves off, and tosses them in the trash. “You’re at a seven and progressing nicely.”
“That’s you’re good news? Is she crazy?” I ask, looking from my fiancé to my sister. “Good news would be telling me I’m at a ten, the first baby is crowning, and you’re ready for me to push.”
“You’ve got another contraction coming,” Lucas says, reaching for my hand.
“No.” I shake my head and pull my hand from his. “I refuse to do this. I can’t do this anymore.” My voice cracks, and I reach for his hand when I realize that despite my fear of this labor, it’s coming. “I’m sorry,” I cry, pulling Lucas down so I can bury my face in his shirt. “I’m sorry I’m being like this, and shit, this hurts.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and cry and breathe and yell through the contraction. When it’s over and I look at Lucas, tears are swimming his eyes.
“You’re doing wonderfully, Sam. You don’t have to apologize, and I can’t imagine how bad this is hurting you, but I’m here every step of the way.”
“You better be,” I whisper. “Because you did this to me.”
“I love you, Sam.” He kisses my forehead and lets me lean on him while I catch my breath.
“I love you too.”
“Maybe I should leave?” Dani says.
I blink up at Dani and shake my head. “No, I want you here. I would never shut you out of something so important the way you did me.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re not going to let me live this down, are you?”
“Not for at least another fifty years.”
“Would it make you feel better if I said we’re going to have a small ceremony here for family. Nothing big.”
“A little.”
“Please don’t be mad at me,” she says, sitting on the side of my bed.
“I’m not.” I shake my head against the pillow. “Just sad I wasn’t with you on your big day. Oh God, not again.”
“Do you want me to call the nurse? Would you like an epidural?” Lucas asks.
“No.” I cry and shake my head and prepare myself for the worst pain I’ve ever felt, all the while reminding myself of what my prize will be at the end. “No, I just want these babies out.”
Lucas stays on my left and Dani on my right as I labor my way to ten centimeters, and when the doctor walks in and asks me if I’m ready to push, I burst into another round of tears and shake my head.
“I can’t. I can’t do this. It hurts too bad.”
“You can.”
I look up at Lucas looking confident and proud—proud of me and the babies we’re about to bring into this world. He presses a kiss to my cheek. “You can do this.”
I nod, pull my legs up, and push and push and push again, and finally the doctor announces. “Baby number one is coming. Come on, Samantha, you can do this. Bear down for me. Good girl, just like that.”
A rush of pressure falls from my body, and a loud wail fills the room.
“It’s a boy.” Lucas is crying as he turns from looking at our son to looking at me. “We have a son.”
The wrinkly baby is laid on my chest, and all I can do is stare down at him in wonder. “He’s so beautiful. He looks just like you.”
Lucas takes him from my arms and hands him off. “You’re not done, sweetheart. I need you to find a little more strength and bring our other baby into the world.”
With a load roar, I grit my teeth and push.
Baby number two slides out, and I watch Lucas reach out and touch the dark patch of hair.
When he turns to me with our second crying baby, he l
eans in close. “It’s a girl.”
“A girl? We have a son and a daughter?”
Lucas nods. “Twenty fingers, twenty toes, and two beautiful babies. You did great, Sam. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I lay back and watch the babies get bathed and weighed as the doctors clean me up, and when our son is swaddled and ready to be held, Lucas walks him to me.
“Did we decide on a name?” he asks, placing our son in my arms.
We had it narrowed down to two, but we were stuck on our final choice. “I really like Jackson.”
“Jackson it is.”
“Your daughter is ready,” the nurse announces.
“Be right back.” Lucas kisses Jackson on the head and goes to get our little girl. “Hello, Rose. I’m your dad.”
If ovaries could in fact explode, mine just did.
Lucas cradles our little girl in his strong arms and sits beside me on the bed. Dani joins us. She’s a blubbering mess, just like me, as she peers down at my babies.
My babies.
I’m a mother.
“Sis, I’d like you to meet Jackson Lucas Dahlenberg and Rose Danielle Dahlenberg.”
Dani’s lips part. “You named her after me?”
“I figured she should be named after her godmother.”
Dani nods and wipes the tears from her face. “Can I hold one of them?”
“Here.” Lucas transfers Rose to Dani’s arms.
She sits in a chair beside my bed, and we all look up when Ben walks in. “Is it okay if I come in?”
“Well, you are my brother-in-law.”
At least he has the decency to cringe. “She told you, huh?”
“You’re on my naughty list, Bennett.”
He leans over Dani’s shoulders and smiles at my baby girl. “Just tell me what I need to do to get off of it, and I’ll do it. I can’t wait until we have kids,” he whispers to Dani.
“Every Wednesday you and Dani come babysit.”
“Done,” he says.
“For at least five hours while Lucas and I sleep or go out on a date or whatever else we want to do.”
“Done,” Dani says.
“This is why I love you,” Lucas whispers.
“Not because I gave you two gorgeous children, but because I secured weekly naps for as long as Ben and Dani feel guilty.”
He holds out his fist, and I bump it. “We make a great team.”
“We sure do. And I’m not even mad at them for eloping. In fact, I think it sounds like a pretty good idea.”
One more epilogue just for fun
Danielle
“You promised you’d be here every single Wednesday,” Sam wails into the phone.
I hold it away from my ear before she blows my eardrum out. The babies are crying, and I would feel guilty about missing a Wednesday, but this is my honeymoon, for crying out loud.
“I’m on my honeymoon.”
She blows out a breath and tries to calm one of the babies. I can tell by the cry that it’s Rose.
“Put the phone on speaker.”
“Why?”
“Trust me.”
The phone rustles around. “There, you’re on speaker.”
I relax against my towel and start to sing. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…” By the time I get through the third line, Rose is as calm as can be, but I keep singing until I can hear the faint sound of her baby snores.
“How do you do that?” Lucas whispers. “And why can’t you do that?” he asks Sam.
“Would you stop talking and hang up the phone? We’re missing vital nap time. Love you, sis. Have fun. Gotta go.”
“Love you—” They hang up on me. “Too,” I add, laughing.
“What are you laughing at?” Ben asks.
I hold up a hand to block the sun and look up at my husband. “Lucas and Sam are mad at us.”
“They’ll get over it.”
“Yeah, they will.”
It’s our first day on the island. The sun is shining, the ocean is a beautiful shade of blue, and I have a fun little secret.
“I got you a drink,” Ben says, taking the seat next to mine. “Your favorite, a margarita.”
I frown up at my husband. “Not today. Would you mind getting me a water instead?”
“Water? But you love margaritas, and it’s our honeymoon.”
“I know, but I think it’s frowned upon to drink alcohol when you’re pregnant.”
The glass falls from Ben’s hand, sending my margarita flying. “You’re…” He drops to his knees beside my chair and puts his hands on my still-flat belly. “How far along?”
“Not far. I think about eight weeks.”
“We’re going to have a baby,” he says, in complete awe as he stares down at my stomach. “Maybe two.”
“Whoa, there. Don’t get carried away. Have you seen how crazy Sam and Lucas’s life is?”
“I like crazy.” Ben bends down and presses his lips below my belly button. “Hello, in there. I’m your daddy.”
I thread my fingers through Ben’s hair and watch him talk to our unborn baby. After several murmured words, he looks up.
“Okay, so no drinking during the honeymoon. What about sex?”
“We can still have sex.”
“Thank God, because I’m horny as fuck.”
“You are?”
He nods and picks me up, but rather than throwing me over his shoulder like he normally does, he cradles me in his arms. “Hell, yes. You’re carrying my child. Do you know what that does to a man?”
“So this is the equivalent of a caveman carrying his woman back to the cave.”
“Me Ben.” He pounds his chest. “You Dani.”
I laugh and wrap my arms around his neck. “You’re a goofball. I hope your son gets your personality.”
“Son, huh?” he says, walking us toward our room. “You think it’s a boy?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, if he has my personality, I hope he has your golden eyes.”
“And your nose. You’ve got a great nose, Ben.”
“Why, thank you. It’s my most complimented body part.”
I laugh. “I also want him to have your heart. Because you have a beautiful heart.”
“It’s only beautiful because it beats for you.”
“You’re too good to me, Ben Wallace.”
“We’re good to each other. I love you, baby.”
“I love you, more.”
“No way.”
“Yes way.”
“Nope.”
“Uh-huh. Give up, Ben. You can’t win this argument.”
“I love you the same?”
“See, I do love you more.”
He growls, slides the key into our door, and pushes it open. He tosses me on the bed and stands before me in all of his handsome glory.
“I love you more, woman, and I’m about to prove it.”
“How?”
“Whoever gives the most orgasms loves the other person the most.” He pulls his shirt over his head, pounces on the bed, and settles between my legs.
“No fair,” I say, the words trailing off into a moan when he pulls my panties to the side and licks my core.
“I love you, Danielle.”
Also by K.L. Grayson
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