One Wild Night

by Melissa Cutler

  He put on a show, gyrating his hips for her. “Then I might have to try it one time, just for that. But that’s not where I’m headed today.” He held out the RCIA study book that Father Ellwood had presented them with during the first class. “With this baby, we’re going to be a family, and I don’t know how you were raised up, but for me, that includes how we worship.”

  Skye touched the cover, her lips parting, and when she looked up, her expression was pure love. “I don’t know what to say other than thank you. Our baby is going to be the luckiest kid in Dulcet to have a dad as dedicated as you. But I want you to know that you don’t have to change for me.”

  His arms came around her as he tipped her chin up and gazed into her eyes. “I’m not changing for you. I’m changing for me. This is what I have to do. New career direction, new home town, new family, new man. Don’t you see? When you made that spell, you laid out some pretty clear parameters for what you’re looking for in a man. And seeing as how there’s never been anything or anyone I’ve wanted more than I want you—and for us to be a family—I’m setting out to do whatever it takes to be that man.”

  He kissed her again, then nuzzled her nose. “Be back soon, baby. With any luck, I’ll find you in my bed again when I get home.”

  On his way out the door, he grabbed the padded envelope he’d packed the night before. A demo tape of all the songs he’d written for the album, packed up and ready to mail to Neil Blevins, five days ahead of schedule. Gentry could have sent them digitally, but there was something about an actual recording that appealed to his old-fashioned sense. He knew it would appeal to Neil’s too. Along with the CD, Gentry had included a simple note: Your move.

  He drove through town feeling like he was floating on air. Even the line at the post office couldn’t drag him down.

  What finally knocked the smile off his face and the spring out of his step was the sight of Mrs. Martinez standing as the greeter for RCIA class. She scowled at him. “We need to talk.”

  He swallowed hard. “Sure. What can I do for you?”

  “Skye hasn’t been home at night in almost a week. She’s been with you, hasn’t she?”

  How did a man say none of your business to the woman who might someday be his mother-in-law? “Yes, she has. And we’re happy.” He’d like to see her argue with that point.

  She sniffed, raising her chin, which only deepened her frown. “You want to be Catholic, but yet you’re breaking God’s rules every night by lying in sin together. Tell me how you reconcile that. Tell me how you can sit in this class every week, and then go home and sin with my daughter.”

  Well, he had to give it Mrs. Martinez. She’d certainly found a way to argue the point. He supposed, to her, some things were more important than her child’s happiness.

  Mr. Martinez appeared in the door. He rubbed his wife’s back. “Yessica, please. It is not for us to judge.”

  Over the past few weeks, Gentry had gotten to know Beto Martinez fairly well and had developed a true affection for the man. He was the polar opposite of Gentry’s father, which was a high compliment, indeed.

  “Come in, Gentry. And welcome to class. We’ve got a great lesson planned for you all today.”

  Gentry had found his seat and stowed his book beneath it when the classroom door flew open. Skye stood in the threshold breathing hard and looking meaner than a bull at a rodeo. She pointed to her mom. “How dare you?”

  * * *

  Skye clutched the paper in her hand like a weapon. It’d fallen out of Gentry’s RCIA book when he’d left, so she’d picked it up. But before she’d set it down, she’d taken a look. Under the Our Lady of Guadalupe letterhead, was the title:

  RCIA Lesson Two: The Call of the Disciple.

  Catechists: Yessica and Beto Martinez

  She waved the paper in front of her mom’s face. “All this time you’ve been harping on me about how Gentry was no good for me, you did so knowing that he was converting to Catholicism. For me. For us. But that’s not enough for you to stop harping on me about the mistake I’m making in being with him? No one I choose to be with will ever be good enough for me unless you choose him, is that it? You don’t get to ruin this for me, Mom.”

  When Gentry had left for RCIA class that morning, before she’d found the paper, she’d watched the pride in the set of his shoulders as he walked to the front door and slipped into his boots. He set his Stetson on his head. Love filled her heart more deeply than she’d ever experienced. She’d sank onto the sofa, drunk on her love for him.

  “I’m in love with Gentry Wells,” she’d said, just for the pleasure of saying it. The realization made her laugh out loud, it filled her with such joy. She’d laid back and stared up at the ceiling, her hands on her belly. “You hear that, baby? I’m in love with your daddy. I’m going to marry him.” She’d closed her eyes. “I found my forever.”

  And yet this whole time, her mom had been working to sabotage Skye’s happiness. Then she’d found the class notes on the floor. At the sight of her parents’ names, she’d swayed back and leaned against the wall, stunned stupid. She’d been so focused on Gentry and the significance of his gesture that she’d forgotten her parents were the catechists. She’d been filled with an instant, potent rage and had been in her car on the road to town in minutes flat.

  “I deserve answers,” Skye said, her eyes on her mom. More than that, she deserved to have her family’s support of her choice of partners. An old, forgotten fear slithered into the cracks of her anger, fear that she’d be forced to have to choose between them or Gentry, like she’d felt with Mike, torn between her wild heart and her devotion to her family. “I deserve your support, damn it.”

  Her mom had the gall to gape at Skye like she was the one out of line. “Skye, please. This is a place of worship. Control yourself.”

  “That’s exactly it, Mom. I am in control of myself. I’m the one who’s in control of my life, not some spell or mystic power. And definitely not you.”

  “I do what I have to do because you have no good sense at all. Never did. As soon as you figure out what’s best for you, you do the exact opposite. There’s no getting through to you.”

  “Maybe you’re not getting through to me because you’re lying. You keep telling me I’m too good for Gentry. That he’s not a safe bet. That all he’ll do is leave me. And all this time, you knew how committed he was to changing—for me. What’s it going to be, Mom? Will any man ever be good enough for me, by your standards?”

  “The right man’s out there,” her mom said. “We just haven’t found him yet.”

  We? Since when did her life become a group project?

  Since forever, she realized. Her whole damn life. No wonder Skye rebelled every chance she got. “He’s right here, Mom.” She gestured to Gentry. “I could go on and on about how he’s everything I asked for in the spell. He moved to Dulcet for me. He’s joining our family’s church. For me. He has a good job and a good heart. But all of that is beside the point. The only thing that should matter to you is that I’m in love with him. Why isn’t that enough for you?”

  Gentry stepped forward. He draped a supportive arm across Skye’s shoulders. “I’m trying, Mrs. Martinez. I will be the kind of man your daughter deserves. I’m going to take care of them.”

  “Them?”

  “Yes, them, Mom,” Skye said. “Because I’m pregnant, okay? I’m pregnant with Gentry’s baby and I’m in love with him and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  Her mom froze, mouth lolling open. “You’re pregnant?”

  Skye’s head of steam cooled down a little. Petty as it was, it felt good to be able to wound her mom like that—and finally unburden her secret while she was at it. “Yes. I wanted to wait to tell you because I knew all you’d do is judge me for it. And I thought, why put myself through all that scorn and shame when I can wait until after the first trimester, in case I lost the baby. I’ve miscarried before, when I was married to Mike. So I’m not even sure I can carry a
baby to term.”

  Her mom shook her head in disbelief. Skye was half-surprised she didn’t put her fingers in her ears to drown out Skye’s voice. “You were? I had no idea.”

  Gentry stepped between them. “Mrs. Martinez, this baby wasn’t anything we planned, but we’re fully committed to being the best parents we can. And I’m in love with your daughter.” He closed his eyes. “So very in love. Everything’s going to be all right. You’ll see.”

  Gentry’s words seemed to snap her mother out of her trance. She screwed her mouth up and whirled to face Skye, her expression one of regret and anger and fear. “What else haven’t you told me?”

  “Nothing,” Skye said. “That’s everything.”

  “These men you fall in love with. You run off with them and they hurt you. And I hate that. I still have flashbacks from the last time you left to marry that idiot, Michael. You didn’t call or write for weeks at a time. I thought I’d lost you forever.”

  “No, Mama. Never that.”

  “This man will take you away from me again. He’s not like us. He’s not from around here and he’s no different from Mike. Same user, different skin.”

  “I’m not taking her away from you,” Gentry said. “Why would I want to leave Dulcet? I love it here. My life is here. In case you hadn’t noticed, my career crashed and burned along with me in that crash. I’m still a musician, but not a jet-setter anymore. This is where I want to be. This is the woman that I am going to spend the rest of my life loving.”

  That stopped her mom up short. Honestly, it stopped Skye up short too. It wasn’t until the room went quiet and Skye went still that she realized she had a stitch in her side. She rubbed her kidney, trying to work the cramp out.

  “You okay, Skye?” Gentry said.

  “Yeah, just … I don’t know.” By the time she got to that last word, her head had started to spin. The cramp pulsated, doubling her over. “Ow.”

  Gentry was at her side in an instant. “What’s going on? I don’t like this.”

  Skye let out a slow stream, refusing to let fear take hold of her. It was just a cramp, nothing more. Happened to pregnant women all the time. She heard her dad’s voice in her head. You can save yourself, but only if you don’t panic. “I’m trying, but I can’t help it.”

  “What? Who are you talking to?,” her mom said. “You’re scaring me, Skye.”

  Gentry wrapped his arms around her and walked to a chair, but before she could sit, she felt wetness on her leg.

  She lurched at the sight of blood trickling down the inside of her thigh. “Gentry. Oh no. Oh God.”

  Fear made her knees buckle. She collapsed, and she would have hit the floor, but Gentry caught her before she could. She surrendered to his arms and to the pain in her belly. She knew this would happen. She just knew it. This baby was going to slip through her fingers like the last one, and then she wouldn’t be able to hold onto Gentry, either.

  “Jesus, Skye, hang on,” she heard Gentry say. His voice sounded a million miles away. She closed her eyes, feeling his strong arms holding her up. She didn’t even startle at the sound of his voice bellowing for all to hear, “Somebody call 9-1-1!”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The only other time that Gentry could recall being this scared was right after the motorcycle accident, before he knew if Skye was alive or dead. He sat bedside in the emergency room while nurses came and went, taking readings off of the monitors, asking questions, and assuring them that Skye’s OB/GYN was on her way.

  Skye’s pain had subsided, which was a relief, except that the absence of it had seemed to give her way too much opportunity to worry. “We’re back in the hospital,” she croaked. “I can’t decide if I still feel pregnant or not. I have no idea.”

  He kissed her hand. “I’ve got to believe the best. If I start thinking the worst, then I’ll go crazy waiting for that doctor to get here.”

  They bent their heads together, praying and offering each other reassurances until a slim, dark-haired doctor in a lab coat who looked about Skye’s age threw the curtain open and wheeled in a machine.

  “Dr. Ghosh, finally!” Skye said.

  “It took me a little bit longer because I wanted to have one of these puppies here with me.” She patted the machine, then turned and offered her hand to Gentry. “You must be the father.”

  “I am. Gentry Wells.”

  “Oh, I know,” the doctor said with a wink. “I’m a huge fan. Huge. But enough about that.” She snapped on a pair of gloves. “I hear you two devised an elaborate plan to get another ultrasound look at your baby. Clever, you two. Very clever.”

  Gentry liked this doctor a lot. She had a way about her that put everyone in the room at ease. Except maybe Skye today. “Doctor, please don’t joke like that. We don’t even know if I’m still pregnant and I can’t…”

  Dr. Ghosh got right down to Skye’s level and looked her in the eye. “I know, honey. We’re going to find out right now. But I’ve got to tell you, given the small amount of blood loss and your stable vitals, I have a lot of hope. Twenty-five percent of pregnant women experience moderate blood loss and cramping during their first trimester and still deliver healthy, full-term babies. But let’s see for ourselves, shall we?”

  Gentry watched with curiosity as the doctor prepped Skye, then ran a wand over her belly. Immediately, grainy gray images appeared on the screen and the woo-woo-woo sound of a heartbeat filled the air.

  Skye burst out crying. Gentry held her hand and tried to soothe her the best he could, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the monitor and the sight of his little baby growing there inside of the woman he loved. He’d never truly understood the word miracle before.

  “Hi, baby,” the doctor cooed. “You made your mama worry. That wasn’t very nice. But look at your strong heart. And look at those legs kick. Dad, are you seeing this?”

  “I am,” he croaked. He cleared his throat. “But what about the blood?”

  “Not as uncommon as you might think during the first trimester. Sometimes it can be something as benign as having a lot of sex or an undiagnosed fibroid, for example. I’ll run some more tests to make sure the prognosis is as optimistic as I’m thinking it is. But the baby’s heartbeat is strong, your uterus looks healthy, and all your vitals are normal.”

  Gentry collapsed over Skye, his forehead against hers. “Thank God. I was so scared. So damn scared.”

  Foreheads together, they shifted to look at their wiggling baby and its strong, perfect heartbeat. “Mama Lita once told me that the only kind of real magic was the kind a person made for themselves, but this … this is real magic, right here.”

  Gentry knew exactly what she meant. Looking at his baby, Gentry’s heart felt too huge for his chest, it was filled with so much love. Skye must have been feeling the same way, because she asked, “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

  He smiled at her. “I didn’t used to, but I changed my tune when I saw you. Just today, I fell in love at first sight of you in my bed. And I fell in love at first sight of you on that horse under the moonlight, and then love at first sight of you taking my hand and letting me pull you onto my jet. I feel like I’ve fallen in love with you a thousand different times since that first night in the stable.”

  She stroked his cheek. “I love you, Gentry Wells.”

  “I love you, Skye Martinez. You and this little peanut.” He leaned in and kissed her reverently. The mother of his child. His lover. His life.

  “After the accident, you told me that you’d give me whatever I wanted. Does that offer still stand?” she said.

  “Yes. Always.”

  She bit her bottom lip as though working up the courage to ask. “Marry me.”

  He blinked hard. Okay, that hadn’t been what he’d expected. “Are you proposing to me?”

  “I am. Marry me. I don’t want to wait until the baby’s born. I want to marry you as soon as humanly possible.”

  He wanted with all his heart to say ye
s, because there wasn’t anything in the world he wanted more, but there was just one thing that made the moment less than perfect. “But if we get married before my conversion is complete, the wedding won’t be in a Catholic church. It won’t be blessed by God in the way you need it to be. I want to give that to you, Skye.”

  “I don’t care about that. I want us to be together. I want you. I love you.”

  He would never tire of hearing that. Never. “In that case, did you bring me a ring? It’s not a real proposal if you don’t have a ring.”

  She tousled his hair. “Then I guess you’ll just have to wait a little longer while I acquire you one.”

  From his pocket, he pulled the little black box he’d accidentally walked out of his house with that morning. He popped open the lid. “Or you could borrow mine. I mean, if you want to make it official today.”

  Her hand went to her mouth. “You didn’t…”

  “I did. I told you I believed in love at first sight. I was saving it for the right time. Waiting for you to fall in love with me as deeply as I’m in love with you.”

  She only had eyes for the ring. Not that he blamed her. He’d picked out the biggest, most beautiful diamond he could find in the whole Dallas area.

  She reached out and worshipfully touched one of the points of the diamond. “That’s a generous offer, but I don’t think I should borrow that ring to give to you to wear. I think it belongs on the ring finger of the person it was meant for.”

  “Is that so.” He liked the way she thought.

  “I think it’s only right.”

  Gentry carefully lifted the ring out the box and held it up. “Skye, would you do me the honor of—”

  The hospital room door flew open. Skye’s family stood in the hall behind her mom and dad. “We can’t wait any longer,” her mom said. “We need to know what’s going on. Skye, you okay? What about the baby?”

  Skye gave Gentry a look of panic, but he knew what had to be done. “Talk to your mom. Introduce her to her new grandbaby. I’ll still be here, with this, when you’re done.” Yet another reason she loved him so much. He would never make her choose between him and her family.