"Muirnín, if I had thought that just carrying you out of a hospital twelve hours early would do that for you, I would have done it a long time ago."
"I know it sounds crazy," Katie said, pausing to kiss her sister in law goodbye as Kelli went home leaving Katie in the best of hands. "But I felt trapped. I felt as though I had lost my freedom. Kind of like when you tell me I can't go somewhere or do something because of some reason you have, but I don't get much or any say in it. I get panicked like I'm trapped."
Ciarán turned the engine on and started pulling out of the parking lot. "Is that why you fight me so much? You think that you have no control and you are feeling panicked? Maybe a bit trapped?"
"A lot of the time. And if I feel out of control, I get angry but I think that is normal, and then I do something to make me feel as though I have control again."
"Good to know. So, you are about to lose some control because I spoke to Doc Ames and he had some stipulations to releasing you tonight?" Ciarán looked over at his wife and waited for her response.
"I expected as much, but it was worth the trade off."
"I hope you remember that because for the next three weeks, that brings you to thirty-eight weeks, you are on restriction. For some reason, you have hit some bumps in the road but we can do our part by keeping you off your feet for more than an hour at a time, which will keep down the swelling. We have a diet plan that is rich in nutrients to make sure we add in your diet. I didn't look at it so it may be no real change, but not so much salt, I know is one of them."
"Hmm, I remember giving that diet and instructions to women so I almost know it by heart. I'll do what I need to because we don't want to have this baby early. Ciarán, I know what the baby's sex is. The tech let it slip. I know you wanted a surprise and since it was an accident, I couldn't get mad as she didn't read the chart thoroughly enough to see that we didn't want to know."
"Aw, that's okay. I'm sorry you almost made it and then the surprise was given away. Do you want me to know or not?"
"I think that is your decision. Did you want to know?"
Ciarán waited a moment, and then said, "I think if you know already, it would be too hard to keep it a secret, so what are we going to have, mac nó iníon, son, or daughter?"
"Mac."
A slow grin spread across Ciarán's face and he was feeling like the full reality of this family, his child, his son, was upon him and the worry he had been having was replaced by pride and expectation.
"Well then, we had better start nailing down this new O'Connor beag amháin's name, don't you think?"
"Oh, I guess we can do that now, huh? You think and I'll think and we can compare names and decide, all right?"
The agreement struck, they parked at home, and while not the way either had wanted to spend their night, they did a few things and crawled into bed, cuddling the only thing allowed on the activities list, and Katie slept the sleep of exhaustion; Ciarán, of relief.
The next day, Ciarán reviewed the new arrivals in his home setting, and he began to settle the plan for the breaking of the horses. Katie knew that Ciarán took the task of breaking wild or feral horses very seriously and that he wanted to do it on his own. After he had spent time, sometimes several weeks of gaining trust and gentling them, he broke them. If he were careful, he could break a horse in a day but it took all day, then he would put his best horse handlers on them afterward to further gentle them and get them ready to ride.
Katie loved to watch Ciarán break his horses and loved the firm gentle way he dealt with them, and she realized he used that same loving manner with her. Sure, she wasn't a horse but his manner was so kind with the horses, she knew he would be gentle with their wild and crazy children when the time came. She already knew that he had a more benevolent manner than any of the brothers except, possibly Cián, but he also had a love for the animals and she thought that might have been why.
Mom O said that she believed it was because the boys' father was more relaxed by then and didn't push so much. She also thought their temperaments were just that way. The other boys were tender, but there was a sternness that was almost a hardness, that Ciarán and Cián didn't seem to have. A sternness that you could readily see in Quinlan and Liam for sure and Katie had experienced it with Shane.
Caoimhe had also married a man with a softer manner in Andrew and she was thankful for the way he had cared for her in the days Ciarán was gone. She and Ciarán had both thanked him several times since she came home yesterday, and he just grinned and waved it off. She decided to call Caoimhe and let her know that she had a wonderful husband.
"Why don't you and the girls come and visit? The weather is beautiful and the girls would love it."
"Well, Éiren would anyway, don't know that Aleigha will know the difference, being only seven months old," Caoimhe said and laughed.
"Well, why don't you come and we'll have some fun. I have some fruit trees I'm working on and some herbs that you could take back fresh and dried. Ciarán isn't letting me do much, but we could go shopping for baby clothes since we know what the baby is. Ciarán doesn't want me to tell everyone yet, but if you go shopping with me, it would be self-evident."
"That's the way to get around my brother. I knew you weren't losing that zest for landing on top even if Ciarán has become the mother hen of the ranch. Let me call Andrew and find out what he thinks. Maybe, the girls and I could ride down with Shane. We would go home with Andrew so we could only stay a few days, but that would be enough, right?"
"Well, not enough but I would be happy with a couple of days."
Two days later, Shane came down bringing his sister and nieces for a visit. Katie let her and Andrew spend some time alone while she occupied her little nieces playing with Aleigha and answering all of Éiren's questions. She took the girls over in her car because walking with a twenty-pound child on her hip was more than she thought she could do; never mind the uproar it would bring when she arrived. Therefore, she popped the extra car seat she had for Paddy in the back seat and put Aleigha in it. She buckled in Éiren because she wasn't going onto the main road, and off to the breaking/training pens, they went.
Katie pulled up close enough to see well, but not so near that she couldn't keep an eye on the girls. She put Aleigha on her hip and allowed Éiren to play in the grass, gathering flowers and pretty rocks. Katie stood and watched Éiren play and watched Ciarán gently break the mustang with careful, slow movements and soft, persuasive conversation. He put the harness on him finally and walked off letting the horse get used to it. As he was dusting off, one of his better trainers said something to him and he looked up, waving when he caught Katie's wave.
Grabbing his hat, he jumped over the corral fence and strode towards her, grabbing Aleigha off Katie's hip and leaned down to kiss Katie first then kissed and swung Aleigha up in the air.
"What brings you out here and where is Caoimhe?"
"I gave her some non-mommy time with Andrew. It was the least I could do after he was so sweet to me while you were gone."
"And you," Ciarán said looking at Éiren, "What are you doing so quietly over there?"
Éiren looked up and grinned at her uncle. "I'm getting my house really nice for my company to come over, Uncle Kie."
"Oh, I see, and who is coming over?"
"Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit said they would stop by, and they said they wouldn't come if Mr. Dog was going to come because they just couldn't be in the same house with him."
Katie stifled a laugh while Ciarán was able to keep a very straight face. "I can see how that might not work. Speaking of dogs, would you like to walk over with me to see the puppies we have?" Éiren's face lit up as she eagerly abandoned her house in the grass for puppies in the kennel. Ciarán placed little Aleigha in the car seat and told Katie to just drive over there because it looked like Aleigha was about to crash. He and Éiren would walk through the meadow. Katie was eager to have a look as well because she had not been at the Circle C Kennels for a while.
Katie was very proud of the work that her husband did and the Circle C businesses that he handled.
After a few hours gone from the house, Andrew dropped Caoimhe off at the Kennels once he located where his children were to give them some daddy time. He went back to work to start the hand-off process. They would go back home the day after tomorrow and so Katie went back to the car with Caoimhe and kids as Ciarán stayed to work on some things he needed to oversee at the kennels.
The women and children, after gathering supplies and restocking for the trip, went into town to do some shopping. Katie was too tired to go into Missoula so they went into Elk Ridge and spent a pleasant few hours thinking of a color scheme that Katie purposely lead into the blues and greens arena. Armed with crib sheets, carpet for the middle of the nursery floor and a matching wall hanging, Katie was satisfied for the day. Clothes would come another day.
Spending time that evening with Kelli, Cheyenne, Jocelyn, Caoimhe, and the children was a pleasant if a noisy affair. The four little ones, while not seeming like much, added to the chaos and noise level, at times, unbelievably.
However, once the two babies were sleeping, the volume shut right down, with Éiren putting a puzzle together quite contently with Bailey, who had become her closest companion. The women could hear their husbands back in the family room with Ciarán, laughing and joking, quite content with themselves.
The next day was Saturday and all the women decided to help with the gardens, starting first at Katie's, thinking, if they got distracted, she was the one who needed the most help, being pregnant. Then, they had lunch and moved on to Jocelyn's house, putting down the children to nap. Next, they went out into Jocelyn's greenhouse and garden that was considerably larger than Katie's. "Yes, we can see who has the greener thumb, can't we?" said Katie with a laugh.
"Not necessarily, it was just that this year we already knew you were going to be big and pregnant and so it made sense to do it this way. Besides, look at the crowd we have to feed."
"True, but vegetables aren't my thing. I like herbs, berries, fruit, and nuts. That is my thing."
"I wonder if we plant the winter veggies soon if you would like that, like pumpkins, brussel sprouts, and broccoli."
"Maybe, but having to work on them every day isn't what I like to do. I like flowers, though. I thought I would landscape this fall and then follow up with spring plantings to see what I could do. I would love a patch of wildflowers in the back of the house or the side yard over there so that I could let the kids just pick them. Then they will leave my others alone. What do you think?"
"That is an excellent idea. I wish I had thought of it. I'm going to steal that idea," said Caoimhe.
The men had gone off to the new property and to Quinlan's house to look at the progress and to discuss cattle, Ciarán's last run of mustangs, and the expectations of that. The breeding cycles, how the winter had been, and the next round of ranch growth plus the ranch profits were all areas of serious debate.
Finally, both groups of visitors were talking about their families, the ones they had, they were expecting and what they expected in the future. Then they spoke of dreams and desires for those groupings and the trials and tribulations of the Clan O'Connor. The men discussed another fall gathering for hunting, fishing and putting up provisions like last year. It lasted most of them all through the winter and saved a lot of money.
"Got to say I had to add some pork and chicken in there, but my goodness, it was a lot of food we walked away with."
"Katie will be fully recovered by then and she did have a good time so since no other babies are on the way, we should be able to do this without too much concern for overworking the ladies," said Ciarán.
"I sometimes think we worry too much. Our women figure things out pretty well on their own and they watch each other. Like when Katie wasn't eating well those few days you were gone, Ciarán. I was telling Caoimhe when I called her and she said for Katie to spend the night over with us, but since she wouldn't do that, she told me to make sure she ate enough and drank enough. She asked all sorts of questions about her and then said, she might better tell the doctor. By the time I had that to tell Katie, the doctor had already called her back and told her to go in. I can guarantee you that if I had left her before a relief had arrived, I would have spent weeks trying to explain myself to my wife." The men laughed and recounted their own experiences of woman's intuition.
Dinner was a cookout so the women could just do the prep work and relieve Mrs. O'Malley, who was going to see her children the next morning. She was able to go, pack, and then sit down to enjoy dinner without it having been her who prepared it. Katie kissed her sister in law good-bye and the little ones because she was finding it hard to get up as early as they were going to get up. She said she would see them in the fall and went home with Ciarán, who now drove her home instead of walking it with her. Tonight, she didn't want to complain because she was tired but content.
Epilogue
Katie struggled to get through the day near the end of May. She was approaching the last of her long wait to meet her little one. She would assist Jocelyn by keeping Hunter or Cooper when they were having difficulty dealing with their siblings and Bailey when she wanted to visit her 'Auntie Katie'. Katie had not been able to pick up Paddy for a while so she left him with his mom who found a way to keep him occupied and still get her paperwork done.
Quinlan was enjoying his work and was growing a real friendship with Parker. Cheyenne was settling in easily with her accounting business at capacity for one person and working out of her home gave her no overhead. Liam and Ciarán each gave Cheyenne space in their office when she needed it to work on the books from the ranch when she wanted a different view.
The fireworks coming from their house at the south gate could be heard on a quiet night when another wife slammed into a vehicle or stomped to the stables for a ride. The men laughed and the women worried but it was how the O'Connor families settled into their lives, boisterously.
Quinlan never quite forgave Jocelyn for introducing the 'escape' that a horse could provide nor Katie, who accompanied her on her first 'frustration ride' before they were even married. Katie said it's safer than driving like a crazed person down the main road, and after looking at her husband's face, quickly stated, "Which I don't do anymore."
Kelli was quite content working in the legal office and staying as far away from her brothers as possible for she still hadn't forgiven them for keeping her at home in the last crisis and their proclivity for disciplining their wives, secret.
Parker had his hands full and until he had learned more tricks of the trade from the O'Connor husbands and his own menfolk, he was content just to have a ring on Kelli's finger and the key to her heart. So long as she didn't use that key as a weapon, they were good.
Sitting on the porch in a big rocking chair that her father had gotten his old buddy to build for her, Katie contently rocked while Ciarán, seated on a tall, Adirondack chair was rubbing Katie's belly.
"We are going to have a good summer but I worry you will have too much to do and we won't see you much."
"Muirnín, there isn't anything in this world that will keep me away from you and then from our little one. There is a good side effect of owning your own businesses and working on your own land; you can leave to go home at any time for as long as you need. I will be putting that to the test this summer, don't you worry. Is your bag packed for the hospital?"
"Mmm, are you sure you don't want to have the baby at home like Liam and Jocelyn? I know that you said you wanted the hospital, but…"
"Mo chroí, this is your decision and I will just agree. Honestly, I will be more comfortable at the hospital, even if it won't be in my home. After Jocelyn's experience, which was a good one, I am greatly relieved. I won't worry that we will have to deal with any complications and risk harm to you or our baby."
Contented companionship and love shone through the two on the porch that night. Later, Ciarán carefully expres
sed his love in as many ways as he could and Katie basked in his tender loving care of her. They fell asleep with Ciarán spooning Katie, his arm settled just below her baby balloon, rubbing in circles, stopping periodically for kicks, with a smile.
Katie was terribly restless these last couple of hours, thought Ciarán when her moving around woke him up again. He looked lovingly at her and thought, life was about to get crazy but he was so thankful that they were able to tackle it together. He kissed his bhean chéile lómhara, my precious wife, as he dozed off again.
The End
Alyssa Bailey
Alyssa Bailey is a dyed in the wool Texan living in the beauty of Southeast Alaska with her husband, her youngest four (of eleven) children, two dogs and two cats. Her first memory of books was when her mother read to her as a small child. She began writing as soon as she could put letters together to form words. Her first story at the age of six was about a performing horse that ran away from the circus. As she got older and read more of a variety of books, she would say, “I can do better than that” and then rewrite them in her head. She was writing fanfiction before fanfiction was a ‘thing’.
In high school and college, she won journalism and special recognition for her academic and fictional writing. Alyssa is a firm believer in all things spanking. She loves writing about domestic discipline and power exchanges between strong, intelligent women who are not afraid to make a stand and men confident enough to give them their space but Alpha enough to keep his woman safe, in spite of herself. Her characters predominately live in Regency England amongst lords and ladies, in the contemporary realm amongst men and women of the world, and all things Cowboy. Contact her, she loves to chat, and as always, have a Spankolicious day!
You can find Alyssa online:
Katie Consents (Ciaran O'Connor Book 3) Page 15