She closed her eyes, breathing deeply and preparing to meet the next special person in her life, who had already stolen her heart.
Harley had no idea how the doctor could be so calm when his beautiful girl was in so much pain, cursing like a sailor and threatening Harley’s life with every contraction. Piper had been too far along to get an epidural when she’d arrived at the hospital, and she seemed to think that was Harley’s fault.
“I’m never letting your fucking blissmaker near me again!” Piper fumed through gritted teeth, sweat beading her forehead. “How could you do this to me?”
She was right; it was all his fault. He couldn’t keep his hands off her.
“You’re doing great, Pipe.” He brushed her hair from her forehead.
She smacked his hand away as another contraction hit. They were coming so fast, she barely got a break. He wished he could endure the pain for her.
“I’m going to make you pay for this, Dutch!” she cried.
“You’re amazing, baby.” He’d never loved her more than he did right then as she dug her nails into his hand, bearing down to birth their baby.
“Never again!” she panted out.
“You’re doing great,” the doctor said. “Coming down to the homestretch.”
“Fuck the homestretch,” Piper growled as she was engulfed in another contraction. “Get this thing out of me before it splits me in twooooo—oh shiiit!”
“You’ve got this, baby.” Tears sprang to his eyes as their baby’s head appeared. “Piper, it’s coming! I see our baby’s head!”
“Okay, Mama, one more big, hard push,” the doctor said.
She curled up as she bore down, crying out, clinging tightly to Harley’s hand as he cheered her on and watched their baby enter the world.
Tears spilled unabashedly down his cheeks as he and the doctor said, “It’s a girl,” in unison, and Piper collapsed against the pillows.
“A girl, Pipe!” Harley kissed Piper, their tears mingling on her cheeks. “You did it, baby. You did it! We did it. I love you. We have a daughter!”
“Is she okay?” Piper asked, laughing and crying at once.
“She’s perfect,” the doctor said.
“We have a girl,” Piper said dreamily as Harley leaned in for another kiss. “That was awful. I hope you’re happy with one child, because I’ll never do that again.”
“One is perfect. You’re perfect. I love you so much.” He kissed her again. “I love you both so much.”
“Would you like to hold your daughter?” the doctor asked.
“Yes!” Piper’s arms shot out faster than Harley could blink. The doctor placed their tightly swaddled daughter in her arms. Piper mouthed, Oh my God. She lowered her face toward the baby’s and said, “Hello, baby girl. I’m your mama.” She peered up at Harley and said, “And that big handsome grizzly of a man is your daddy, and he’s going to spoil you rotten.”
They were both crying as he kissed the baby’s forehead. She had a dusting of light hair, the tiniest, most adorable nose, and sweet bowed lips. “I love you, little one,” Harley said, and kissed her again.
“She’s perfect,” Piper said, tears flooding her cheeks. “Oh my gosh, I love her so much already. I can’t believe she’s here. Harley, look at her. She’s so tiny, and so beautiful. She’s going to keep us up all night, and she’s going to pull Jiggs’s ears and throw tantrums. She’s going to be a big pain in the ass when she’s a teenager, and she’ll probably try to sneak out, and I don’t even care. I want her to do it all, to experience everything good in life. Can you believe we made such a beautiful little creature?” She wiped her tears, and in a choked voice she said, “Excuse me, Dr. Baldwin?”
“Yes?”
Piper looked up at Harley and said, “When can we have another?”
Harley was sure he’d heard her wrong. “You want more?”
She nodded, crying and smiling and making his heart hurt with joy. “Don’t you? Look at her! She needs a brother or a sister, someone to talk to, to look after and to have her back, a friend to commiserate with about their crazy parents. Between you spoiling her and me being me, she’s definitely going to need an outlet.”
“I want as many as you want.” With a heart so full he felt gluttonous, he brushed a kiss over their daughter’s forehead and said, “Welcome to our family, little one. I hope you grow up to be just like your mama.”
Time blurred, and before Harley knew it, they were in a hospital room surrounded by their family. Everyone was admiring the baby, taking pictures, and talking in a hundred different directions. But Harley couldn’t stop looking at his incredible girls. Piper had just finished nursing their precious little girl, and she was gazing lovingly down at her. Her eyes flicked up to Harley’s and she mouthed, I love you.
I love you both, he mouthed back.
Marshall sidled up to Harley and said, “It’s hard to believe you made something so small.”
“Small packages pack a lot of sass,” Aurelia said.
Harley was counting on their little girl being just as feisty as her mother.
“Six pounds, eight ounces of pure adorableness.” Dan patted Harley on the back and said, “Remember that when she’s up all night with colic.”
Derek looked down at baby Evan, fast asleep in his arms, and said, “Your lives are never going to be the same.”
“They’re going to be better,” Ben reassured them.
Harley looked at his mother, who was standing beside Piper’s chair, gazing down at the baby, and said, “I wish Dad were alive to meet her.”
“He’s here, honey,” his mother said. “Can’t you feel his presence?”
Tears stung Harley’s eyes again. He swore that he’d gotten an extra dose of hormones with Piper’s pregnancy.
“Have you thought of a name yet?” Willow asked.
They’d tossed around a number of names over the months. Harper, Delilah, and Lara were their three favorite names for a girl, but they’d wanted to wait until they met their baby to decide.
Harley looked at his brave, beautiful better half and said, “Pipe? What do you think?”
She caressed their baby’s cheek and said, “What do you think about Frankie, after your father?”
“Frankie,” he said, choked up again. “That’s perfect.”
“Frankie Dalton Dutch?” Piper asked, and in the next breath, tears sprang from her eyes, and she frowned.
Harley crouched beside her. “What’s wrong?”
“I made a really big mistake. A huge one,” she said in a strangled voice, tears streaking her cheeks.
“What do you mean?” His gut seized. “I don’t understand.”
“She’s just overwhelmed,” his mother said anxiously.
Roxie hurried over with Willow, Talia, and Bridgette, crowding in on them.
“Having a baby makes your hormones go crazy. That’s all this is, honey,” Roxie reassured her.
“You’re going to be a great mother,” Willow reassured her.
“And we’ll all help you,” Talia added, glancing at Evan, fast asleep in Derek’s arms. “I know lots of tricks of the trade.”
“We’ll make sure to babysit often, so you can catch up on your sleep, pumpkin,” Dan said. “You’ll be fine.”
“Have you all lost your minds?” Piper cried. “I’m not worried about being a good mother! I don’t want to be a Dalton while my baby and husband are Dutches! I want to be a Dutch. I’m proud to be Harley’s permanent other half, and I know he’s not going to try to change me! He doesn’t have to. Frankie already has.”
Harley couldn’t breathe, couldn’t believe his ears.
“Do you think I want our daughter having to explain why her parents don’t have the same last name?” Piper gazed down at their daughter. Then she looked at her family and said, “That would suck, and sure, it would make her tougher, but what if she’s a girlie girl like Bridgette? Kids will just pick on her, and then Louie, Evan, and Christopher are going to
have to kick some little kids’ asses, which will only make Bridgette and Bodhi, Talia and Derek, and Ben and Aurelia hate me. I can’t do that to our baby.” She looked at Harley with red-rimmed eyes and said, “Will you marry me, Harley?”
He couldn’t stop an elated, relieved laugh from bubbling out. “Do you think we should wait until your pregnancy hormones level out, so you don’t change your mind in a month and blame me for trying to change you?”
Piper’s brows knitted, and she pressed her mouth into a tight line.
“Oh shit,” Ben muttered.
“Bad move, bro,” Marshall added.
Roxie nudged Harley and said, “Take it back, quick.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Piper said before he could get a word out. “Maybe we shouldn’t do it. Oh wait,” she said sarcastically. “That would be the dumbest idea ever.” She touched his face, her eyes turning warm and loving again as she said, “But hearing you say that proves how much you love me, so I’ll ask you again and again until you say yes.”
“How about if you let me do it this time?” He took a velvet bag from his pocket and withdrew the white-gold diamond eternity band he’d had made for her.
There was a collective gasp as he squared his shoulders, already down on one knee, and said, “This is an eternity band and was not supposed to be an engagement ring. I want to make it very clear that I had not planned to ask you to marry me.”
Chuckles sounded around them.
“I had it made as a thank-you gift for you, for selflessly enduring nine long months, many of which were without doughnuts, to bring us our beautiful daughter. But it’ll work as an engagement ring. Piper, my love, my best friend, and my forever girl, will you marry me?”
“Yes! Yes today, yes tomorrow, and yes forever.”
Everyone cheered and clapped as he slid the ring onto her finger.
He gazed deeply into her eyes and said, “I love you, and I promise I will make you and Frankie the happiest people on earth.”
“You already have.” Tears slipped down Piper’s cheeks. Their daughter yawned, and Piper glowed as she gazed down at her. Then she turned loving eyes on Harley and said, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For opening my eyes to everything love is supposed to be and more.”
A NOTE FROM MELISSA
I hope you enjoyed Piper and Harley’s love story as much as I enjoyed writing it. They are two of my favorite characters, and I couldn’t get enough of Jiggs! I’m looking forward to spending more time with the Daltons and all of their wonderful friends who are still awaiting their own love stories. Each of Piper’s siblings has their own book and have found their happily ever afters in the Sugar Lake and Harmony Pointe series, which are now available for your binge-reading pleasure. You might want to start with Willow and Zane’s story, The Real Thing, the first book in the Sugar Lake series.
If you’ve already read the Sugar Lake and Harmony Pointe books and would like to read more about the Daltons, they were first introduced in Wild Boys After Dark: Logan and seen again in Bad Boys After Dark: Mick. I hope you’ll also check out the rest of my Love in Bloom big-family romance collection, starting with Lovers at Heart, Reimagined, the first book in my beloved Braden series. Characters from each series make appearances in future books, so you never miss an engagement, wedding, or birth. A complete list of all series titles is included at the start of this book, and downloadable checklists, free series starters, and family trees are available on the Reader Goodies page of my website (www.MelissaFoster.com/RG).
Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to keep up to date with my new releases and to receive an exclusive short story (www.MelissaFoster.com/News).
Happy reading!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am so thankful for the inspiration I receive on a daily basis from fans and friends and to all of the kind people who patiently answer my never-ending research questions. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
If you’d like sneak peeks into my writing process and to chat with me daily, please join my fan club on Facebook. We talk about our lovable heroes and sassy heroines, and I always try to keep fans abreast of what’s going on in our fictional boyfriends’ worlds. You never know when you’ll end up in one of my books, as several members of my fan club have already discovered (www.Facebook.com/groups/MelissaFosterFans).
Follow my Facebook fan page to keep up with sales and events (www.Facebook.com/MelissaFosterAuthor).
I’m forever grateful for my assistants and friends Sharon Martin, Lisa Filipe, Lisa Bardonski, Missy Dehaven, and Shelby Dehaven, who kick my butt when I need it, talk me off the ledge, and cheer me on. Thank you for always having my back.
A special thank-you to my wonderful and patient editor Maria Gomez and the incredible Montlake team. As always, heaps of gratitude to editors Kristen Weber and Penina Lopez and to my team of proofreaders. And, of course, to my very own hunky hero, Les, and my family, thank you for your ongoing support. I couldn’t create the worlds I love without your encouragement.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2013 Melanie Anderson
Melissa Foster is the award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly one hundred books, including The Real Thing and Only for You in the Sugar Lake series, and the Harmony Pointe novels, Call Her Mine and This Is Love. Melissa’s work has been recommended by USA Today’s book blog, Hagerstown magazine, the Patriot, and others. She has also painted and donated several murals to the Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC.
She enjoys discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups, and she welcomes an invitation to your event. Visit Melissa on her website, www.MelissaFoster.com.
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