Expecting His Brother's Baby (Baby Bonds #3)
Page 20
Now Conchita moved to the kitchen where the table was laden with food, including a birthday cake. “Come on, everyone. Dig in.”
A few minutes later as all filled their plates and returned to the living room, Molly played with Timmy on the floor near her parents. She’d make a great babysitter in a few years, Kylie thought. Her relationship with her parents was solid again. They’d made the decision together to wait until Molly was sixteen to contact her birth mother. Molly had told Kylie more than once she’d always think of Amanda and George as her real parents.
Brock settled Sarah into her high chair beside his armchair. “I remember exactly where I was one year ago tonight.”
“It’s not a night we’ll ever forget.” Kylie set a plate with cake in front of their daughter.
Sarah immediately stuck her thumb into it.
Gwen laughed and Garrett hung his arm around her.
“Is it time?” Gwen asked, looking fondly at little Amy sitting in a high chair beside Tiffany.
“It’s time,” Garrett assured her.
All eyes suddenly focused on Gwen.
“Well, since the gang’s all here and this is such a happy occasion, we have an announcement to make.”
“You’re pregnant!” Shaye erupted with glee as Dylan bounced Timmy on his knee.
“Now how did you guess?” Gwen asked smugly.
When everyone clamored, “We knew it,” and “It’s about time,” Gwen laughed. “I’ll be due at the end of August. Can’t you all just wait?”
Dylan glanced at Molly and Timmy. “When all of us get together, we’ll need a couple of babysitters to keep the kids in line. Just wait until Shaye and I have another one.”
“When’s that going to happen?” Kylie asked slyly.
“We’re discussing it,” Shaye said blandly. “And we promise to let you all know just as soon as it happens.”
Fondly she glanced over at Tiffany. “Gwen, Kylie and I couldn’t be more content. And I heard you’re taking an accounting course.”
“I am. I’ll be a bigger help to Garrett if I learn more.” Looking shyly at Gwen, she added, “My life’s moving along, too.” She grinned. “I’m dating somebody.”
Garrett scowled. “Yes, and I’m not sure I approve. He’s two years older.”
“But he wants a career in business management, he’s going to school, and you said, yourself, he seems mature. What more could you ask for?”
Garrett looked over at Brock. “Think about Sarah Marie being twenty. What more would you ask for?”
“I’d ask for a man to come along who would love her as much as I love her mother,” Brock answered surely.
Kylie knew there was no better answer than that.
“She’s not going to sleep straight through,” Kylie told Brock a few hours later as she undressed in their bedroom. “All that sugar is rolling around inside of her.”
He laughed. “It was a great party. I wish Dix would have joined us.”
“You know he’s shy of crowds. He gets all tongue-tied when there are more than three people in a room. Sarah’s going to love his present, as soon as she can fit onto it.”
Dix had gotten their daughter a saddle, her very first. “I’m glad he has more time on his hands just to enjoy life now since you’ve hired more help.”
“Yep. That’s why he’s with friends in town tonight playing poker.”
Brock came up behind Kylie, lifted her hair and dragged his finger around the chain on her neck until he came to the mustang dipping between her breasts. “I could get you one of these with diamonds.”
She raised her hand and the ring there sparkled. “My engagement ring is big enough. I don’t need more diamonds.” It was a beautiful, heart-shaped diamond surrounded by a gold, wraparound wedding band that protected it.
Brock rubbed his thumb over the mustang. “I like knowing this is close to your heart, even when I’m not nearby.”
Every now and then Brock still took geological consulting work and Kylie didn’t mind at all. He loved that work, too. They were building Saddle Ridge up to be more than it had ever been. They had fifteen horses now, a hundred head of Angus. They gentled mustangs, two of which they’d adopted this year, and spent as much time as they could with Sarah Marie.
Kylie turned into Brock’s arms. “You’ve never thought of Sarah as anything but yours, have you?”
“From the moment I held her in my hands, I was her father.”
“With all the talk about babies tonight, I was just thinking.”
“Thinking? Or planning? One isn’t far from the other in your head,” he claimed with a smile.
“How would you like to be a daddy again?”
Pulling her closer, he asked, “Are we discussing it or are we going to do something about it?”
“I think we should do something about it.”
“So do I,” he murmured, scooping Kylie up into his arms and carrying her to the bed. As he came down beside her, he said, “I’ve got to be the happiest man in the world.”
“And you’ve made me the happiest woman.”
Kylie kissed her husband, knowing they were going to make another beautiful memory to relive when they turned one hundred and were still fantastically in love.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1841-3
EXPECTING HIS BROTHER’S BABY
Copyright © 2006 by Karen Rose Smith
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