by Becky McGraw
When she got closer, she saw Dixie struggling with Edith Preston, who was trying to drag her to the open door of her car, where Cookie stood twisting her hands. Dixie was screaming, and kicking the old woman in the shins with her boots. Snuggles was dancing around dragging his leash, and barking and growling at Edith for all he was worth. Cookie evidently saw them she went over and grabbed Dixie’s arm to try and help Edith get her into the car, and Dixie dug in her boot heels and screamed louder.
Dixie was losing ground though, because they almost had her shoved into the back seat when Gerri and Katie got there. Without thinking, Katie headed for Edith, and grabbed her hair with her good hand, and yanked as hard as she could. Edith let go of Dixie, but swung her fist in a wide arc and connected with the side of Katie’s head, which stunned her for a second.
She let go of Edith’s hair and balled her fist and swung at the woman’s nose. Edith sidestepped the blow, so she missed and the forward momentum sent her crashing to the ground in a heap. With only one arm free, she landed pretty hard on her left hip, and it took her breath, as pain shot up her broken arm. When she recovered, Katie tried to get up, and Edith kicked her, a glancing blow to her arm, and she groaned and fell to the ground again and curled up to protect her stomach, in case the woman got an idea to kick her there.
She glanced over and saw Gerry, sitting on top of Cookie with her knee in her back, and breathed a relieved sigh. At least one of the crazy bitches were under control. Katie saw Dixie slide out of the back seat of the car once Cookie was subdued, then watched in horror as instead of running to the house to get away, she stalked toward Edith with determination. “Don’t you kick my mama!” she yelled in a high-pitched voice right before she kicked the old woman in the knee, and Edith collapsed to the ground.
When Edith hit the ground, Snuggles stopped dancing and ran over to Edith and sunk his teeth into her arm, tossing his head from side to side. She screamed, then swatted him hard in the snout, and he let go, and whined. Edith pushed to her feet, then raised her hand high above her and brought it back down toward Dixie’s face.
Dixie flinched and put her hands up to shield herself, and Katie surged to her feet, but she couldn’t get there before the blow landed, and Dixie flew backwards and landed on her butt, and wailed.
Katie rushed up behind Edith and pushed her as hard as she could. Edith pitched over face first into the dirt, and Katie went over to her and cocked her foot to kick her in the head, but Edith’s arm shot out and she caught Katie’s ankle and jerked. Katie felt her feet leave the ground then she hovered in the air a second before her back hit the ground and her breath left her.
Edith got up and stared down at her malevolently, her breathing fast and her eyes wild. Katie cringed as she pulled her foot back in preparation to kick Katie in the stomach, because she knew there was nothing she could do to protect her babies from the blow that was coming, so she drew her legs up reflexively and prayed. Suddenly, Edith’s eyes widened, and then she flew off her feet and was thrown down in the grass, then Tommy was on top of her with his fist drawn back.
Katie flew to her feet and ran over to him and grabbed his arm. “No, Tommy…she’s crazy, she needs help.” Katie told him, then repeated it. He dropped his head and huffed out a breath, then shoved up off of her to stand beside Katie.
His chest was heaving, and his face was green, but that was nothing compared to the anxiety, disgust and red hot anger that burned in his eyes. A broken sob escaped him, then he pulled her into his arms and held her tight asking in a raw voice, “Are you okay, sweetheart…are the babies okay?”
“I think so, but I want to go get checked out…she kicked me in the arm, and I landed pretty hard on my hip,” she told him in a trembling voice. Katie wasn’t taking any chances, her body had been through a lot, the babies had been through a lot, in the last couple of weeks. For her peace of mind, she had to make sure they were okay.
“I called Gabe, and the posse is on the way here, they have Mark Preston in custody…this one got away,” he told her with a nod at Edith, who was laying on her back with her arm over her eyes.
Katie looked around and asked with concern, “Where’s Dixie?”
Right then she looked over to the side of the house and saw the little blond haired sprite run around the porch with a hoe in her hand. When Dixie saw the action was over, she stopped, then dropped the hoe and fell to her knees and hugged Snuggles, who was right by her side. Katie grabbed Tommy’s hand then walked over to her, and dropped to her knees and put her arm around her. “Thank you for trying to save me, sweetheart. I love you, Dixie…are you okay baby?”
Dixie nodded, then her body trembled as she threw her arms around Katie’s neck and started crying, “I thought she was gonna hurt you and my babies, I had to do something to help,” she said and cried harder.
Katie heard Tommy let out a strangled groan, then he was beside them, and had his arms around them both, hugging them fiercely. “I love both of you with all my heart,” he told them, then added, “My two warrior princesses.”
Katie’s heart expanded in her chest, and the peanuts started playing inside her belly. With a giggle, she put her hand on her stomach. “I think we have two little warriors in here too,” she told them, so happy to feel proof that her sons were alive and kicking.
Tommy put his hand over hers and squeezed, then kissed her hair. The sound of faint sirens got louder very quickly, then an entourage of police cars, black SUVs, and sedans came barreling down the driveway toward the house, and Katie breathed a sigh of relief, and her shoulders slumped. When the lead police car stopped, Gabe jumped out and took off running toward her. When he got there, he dropped to his knees and demanded frantically, “Are you hurt, sugar?”
“I don’t think so, but I want to go and get checked out to make sure…my arm…and the babies,” she told him and he nodded, then got to his feet and ran over to another man in a black suit. The other man talked into a handheld radio, then Gabe came back over to her, and pulled her into his arms and hugged her.
“God, I was so scared…if something happened to you, your sister would’ve killed me,” Gabe told her with a chuckle, then he stood back up and grinned. “I’m going help clean up the trash…an ambulance should be here shortly.”
“Thanks, Gabe…” she said smiling up at her brother-in-law.
Tommy sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms, and held her tightly. “I would’ve killed him too…” he told her gruffly, then added, “And Edith.”
“It’s over now, Tommy…and we’re all okay.”
Katie watched as a man in a black blazer with FBI in big yellow letters on the back pulled Cookie to her feet, then cuffed her hands, before he did the same with Edith. He and another agent led them to separate vehicles and stuffed them in the back seat. The cars followed one another down the driveway, passing an ambulance speeding toward the house on the way out.
“I sure will be glad when we have a helluva lot less drama in our lives,” Katie told Tommy, then leaned back against his chest and sighed.
“Me too, sugar. My life was pretty sedate, before you and your sister came along,” Tommy told her with a chuckle.
What Tommy said was true, Katie thought. Before he’d helped Gabe and the crew save Karlie from Jake Johnson the bull rider trying to kill her, Tommy Tucker had been a successful quarter horse rancher, raising his daughter alone. He didn’t have to put up with a daily dose of drama, or fear that he’d lose his daughter. Back then, from the outside, it looked like Tommy had been happy with his life the way it was, before he’d hired Karlie to work for him, before Jake Johnson tried to kill them, and he’d chosen to step in and help save both her and Karlie, since then his life hadn’t been one drama after another. Katie’s had too.
Her sister had left him high and dry to marry Gabe, then Katie had turned his horse operation on its ear and put the fear of God in his employees, straightened up what probably didn’t need straightening, and led him a merry chase from
here to Bowie when she ran away from him, then she’d gotten pregnant…with twins.
Now the poor man had almost lost his daughter, because he’d chosen to make Katie a fixture in his life, and his mother-in-law had gone off the deep end because of it. Looking at it that way, made Katie wonder if he’d been happier before she’d come into his life.
Fear that he’d finally reached the end of his rope with the trouble she and her sister had caused him surged through her, and her body tensed. Her parents had dumped her and her sister on Uncle Jerry’s doorstep when they were ten, because they had been too much trouble, maybe Tommy was planning on dumping her too. “I’m sorry we’ve caused you so much trouble, Tommy,” she told him with a tremble in her voice.
He turned her in his lap and looked at her intently, then said, “Honey, I welcome every minute of trouble you and Karlie have caused me. If ya’ll hadn’t come into my life…” he cleared his throat and took a deep breath then finished, “Edith would have made sure I was miserable and alone for the rest of my life, wallowing in my guilt, and I wouldn’t have you and the twins. You are the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you, sweetheart…thank you for shaking up my life.”
The ambulance came to a stop at the end of the driveway, and two blue uniformed men hopped out, then went to the back and grabbed kits of some sort. They met Gabe in the middle of the yard and he pointed toward her, and they headed toward them.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Katie’s hand cramped up and she threw the pen she was writing with down on the breakfast bar, then huffed out a tired breath. It had been two months since the showdown with Edith at the Rockin’ D, and Katie couldn’t believe all that had happened in that time.
Karlie snorted then looked at her and said, “Don’t quit on me now, sis, we still have a hundred invitations to finish. Your damned wedding is in a month, and if we don’t get a move on, people aren’t going to be able to make plans.”
“I’m six months pregnant, Karlie, give me a break…I’m tired,” she told her sister, then added, “I feel like I’m eight months.”
“That’s because you’ve got trouble times two in your belly, darlin’. We can’t miss the window for the wedding, or your doctor isn’t gonna let you travel…you’re the one who wanted the wedding to be in Tahiti,” Karlie reminded her with a chuckle.
“I might have changed my mind now,” Katie told her then dropped her forehead to the breakfast bar. “I was just excited about the gas find on the property, and overwhelmed with all the money…I wanted to share it and give all my family and friends a dream vacation.”
“Too late for to change your mind now, Kate…the people you’ve told have already taken time off from work to go…hell half of them have already called the travel agency and made their reservations.”
“I know,” Katie said with a sigh, then lifted back up and picked up her pen, then started writing again. “Let’s get this done.”
Tommy came in a little later, and zoned in on her like a bee to a honeycomb. His goofy, lovesick grin made her heart pound…so did his well worn Wranglers and the black t-shirt that stretched across his broad chest.
“Hey, beautiful’,” he drawled in that sexy voice of his, then he pulled her out of the chair and slammed his mouth over hers and kissed her, until her toes curled. “God, I’ve missed you.”
She giggled and told him, “You’ve only been at the barn for three hours, Tommy.”
“That’s three hours too long, baby,” he murmured sexily then kissed her again.
Karlie growled then tossed her pen down. “Alright, you two—you’re impeding progress here with all your lip locking…get busy Katie! There will be plenty of time for sucking face after the wedding!”
Tommy’s eyes filled with concern and he looked down at her. “You sure you don’t want to postpone this until after the babies are born, darlin’? This Tahiti thing is a lot to chew…especially when you’re carrying the peanuts.”
“It will be doubly difficult after their born, Tom…we’ll have three kids then,” she reminded him.
He smiled then kissed her forehead, and said in awe, his hazel eyes all dreamy, “Yeah, we will won’t we?”
Katie thought his feet hadn’t touched the ground in two months. This is how he walked around all the time, with his head in the clouds. She wasn’t much better. Life was good, but she wanted to be his wife dammit! Maybe this destination wedding on such short notice was a lot to chew, for both of them.
“Let’s go to the courthouse and get married right now,” Katie said impulsively, then added. “We can have our first anniversary and renew our vows in Tahiti, and have a belated honeymoon. I don’t need all this, I just need you,” she told him.
She heard Karlie gasp and Tommy jerked back from her. His eyebrows hit his hairline, then he grinned. “Are you being serious?”
She huffed out a frustrated breath then admitted, “Hell yeah, I’m serious…I’m tired of all this waiting…and it will give people more time to plan to come anyway.”
“But I thought you just said that we should do it now, because we’d have three kids then?”
Karlie stood up and walked over to them and said, “Gabe and I will keep the twins, and I’m sure Cassie and Luke wouldn’t mind keeping Dixie. This does sound like a better plan…Katie is exhausted and she doesn’t need this stress right now.”
Katie nodded in agreement, and looking relieved, Tommy took his hat off and threw it in the air, then let out a loud whoop, before he told her with a wide smile, “Go get dressed, darlin’ and I’ll get cleaned up. Karlie you get the shotgun and call Gabe to meet us at the courthouse, I’m gonna make an honest woman of your sister.”
Katie and Karlie both laughed, then Tommy ran upstairs, taking the steps two at a time, and she and her sister went to the downstairs bedroom to get ready. They met Gerrie in the hallway and told her what was going on, and she suggested that Tommy and Katie take the weekend for a mini-honeymoon, and she’d keep Dixie. She hated leaving Dixie alone for two days, but a break sounded good right now. For the last eight weeks, every day had been jammed packed with planning the wedding she’d now postponed for a year. With a smile, she thanked Gerrie then she and Karlie walked into the bedroom.
“Okay, what are you going to wear?” Karlie asked and headed for the closet.
“Well, since my wedding dress won’t work for the wedding anymore. I won’t be pregnant when we have the ceremony now, I probably should wear that, even though I’ll look funny in wearing it in broad daylight at the courthouse.”
“Who cares what anyone else thinks, sugar…this is your day, wear whatever the hell you want to wear,” Karlie told her.
“Yeah, that’s right! I’m wearing my wedding dress then,” she replied with a smile, excitement filling her at the prospect of wearing the beautiful dress.
An hour later, Katie studied her reflection in the Cheval mirror in the corner of the room, and elation filled her. The dress she’d picked out was perfect, It was fitted at the bodice and enhanced her newly enlarged bosom, then flowed gracefully from right above her waist. She was so damned excited that she’d be wearing it and marrying Tommy today.
The decision to delay the ceremony was the right one, she’d decided after further thought. That way, they’d be able to enjoy their time in the tropical paradise with their friends and family, and she wouldn’t be miserable, being so cumbersome and pregnant.
“Come over here and let me do your makeup,” Karlie said impatiently. “You look gorgeous, quit admiring yourself.”
Katie gave her sister a wobbly smile in the mirror then said, “This is my day, you said so…and I want to make sure Tommy thinks I’m beautiful.”
“Honey, you could wear a burlap sack and house slippers, and he’d think you were beautiful. That man is smitten,” Karlie told her with a snort as she smoothed down the skirt of the gold bridesmaid’s dress Katie had picked out for her to wear at the ceremony in Tahiti. The dress made her skin glow and her hair look
like burnished copper.