by Zoe Matthews
Stephanie, Emma, Sierra, and Megan began sorting through the decorations, already discussing a crafting party to take place over the next few days.
“Ladies, might I suggest we all take a break for the night?” Sheridan asked, snagging Megan’s arm. “Let’s all go sit in the Great Room and take a breather. I know Spencer and the rest of the crew that traveled to Denver have had a busy day, and I would love to hear how Stephanie’s doctor’s appointment went.”
At the mention of the doctor, all thoughts of food and decorations faded away and within a few minutes, everyone was headed to the large room, finding seats on the couches, or on the floor pillows. The fire in the hearth was crackling away, the lights on the Christmas tree were twinkling, and the lighted angel on the top of the tree seemed to be smiling down at the humans below.
Bridger had taken a seat in the oversized arm chair, pulling Stephanie down onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her middle, his hands covering her still flat stomach in a very protective gesture.
She leaned back against him and then looked around the room, feeling her heart so full it felt like it was about to burst forth. “I love Christmas,” she told everyone in the room.
Several people met her eyes and nodded their heads, agreeing with her wholeheartedly.
“So, what did the doctor say?” Sheridan asked, not willing to put off the conversation, regardless of if the news was good or bad.
Stephanie turned her head and met Bridger’s gaze, but he simply smiled at her and whispered in her ear. “You tell them.”
Stephanie looked around the room, pausing for a moment when Annie and Misty came into the room; the six younger children either in their arms, or following close behind. “Hi kids.”
“Hi Aunt Stephanie,” Brooklyn told her, dressed once again in her princess nightgown and carrying a baby doll in her arms. Rather than joining her parents, she skirted around the couches and stood in front of Stephanie and Bridger. “I wants up.”
Stephanie laughed and then reached down and settled Brooklyn next to her on the arm of the oversized chair. Bridger wrapped an arm around the toddler’s waist to keep her anchored in place, and when Brooklyn leaned against Stephanie, laying her head in her lap, he found he couldn’t wait to see his own child doing the same.
“What did the doctor say?” Sierra asked.
“Well, I found out why I haven’t been feeling good,” she told everyone.
“The meds?” Sadie inquired.
“No. Well, not exactly.” Stephanie took a breath and forged ahead. “The last time I saw the doctor he changed my meds because I asked him to. He changed them to less potent and less dangerous ones.”
She watched as her siblings and the others looked at each other in confusion. “Why would you do that?” Sheridan asked.
“Wouldn’t you risk relapsing by doing that?” Stella asked in concern.
Stephanie nodded her head, “It was a risk Bridger and I were willing to take.”
“But why?” Sierra asked, looking at both of them as if they’d lost their minds.
“Because…,” Stephanie paused, looking back at Bridger and taking his free hand in her own.
“Steph, whatever it is, just tell us already,” Sheridan told her impatiently.
Stephanie looked back at him and nodded. “Okay. We asked him to lower the potency of the meds because the ones I was on would be dangerous to a baby.”
She felt tears come to her eyes and blinked rapidly to try and dispel them. “I really wanted to have children, but when I was diagnosed, it seemed like a really bad idea. But watching you all with your kids, I knew that I was willing to chance relapsing if it meant Bridger and I could have a child of our own.”
Sheridan shook his head. “I’m so sorry it didn’t work out.”
Stephanie smiled. “But it did. The reason I’ve been sick has nothing to do with my MS, and everything to do with the little miracle that will be joining our family in about nine months. I’m pregnant!”
Congratulations erupted around the room. Stephanie found herself pulled off Bridger’s lap, hugged and then passed onto the next family member for a repeat performance. Brooklyn complained loudly at having her aunt’s lap taken from her, but moments later she was safely ensconced in her daddy’s arms and all was right in her little world once again.
“Stephanie, that’s fantastic news!” Sadie told her. “Is everything else okay?”
Stephanie nodded. “Great! In fact, the doctor told us that many MS patients get a reprieve from their symptoms when they are pregnant. There’s no harm to the baby with the meds I am taking, and the doctor wants to monitor me a little more frequently.”
“What about…?”
Bridger shook his head, wrapping an arm around Stephanie’s shoulders. “I know you have more questions, but honestly, she’s been barely holding it together the last few hours. Maybe we could table the rest of your questions for another time.”
“Of course,” Sheridan agreed readily. “I think maybe we should all head for our own homes and beds. We have a lot to do around the ranch to get ready for the wedding over the next few days.”
“We’re heading home,” Logan told the room at large, both of his boys in his arms. Sierra grabbed her twins’ hands and followed behind him.
Sheridan patted Bridger on the shoulder and then escorted Megan, who held a sleeping William in her arms, out of the room and up the stairs as well.
Stephanie yawned and Bridger led her towards the suite of rooms they were using in the Ranch House. Their own home had been delayed because of a storm in the Midwest and would be delivered sometime in January. Until then, they were enjoying the comforts of living in the Ranch House, and he was grateful for the presence of other people on those days that he was out on the ranch all day long. He liked knowing there were others around to help watch out for his wife, especially when she had bad days.
A fact that would become even more important in the coming months.
Chapter 6
Four days later, Thursday, December 11th …
“Well, that’s makes sixty-three guests that have sent back their RSVP cards.”
“What about the people who didn’t respond?” Emma asked, still trying to wrap her head around having that many people roaming around the big house.
“Well, we’ve heard from more than a dozen of them with their apologies for not attending. Having the wedding this close to Christmas, we knew there would be some people out of town visiting relatives already.”
“So, we could have another dozen people?” Stella asked, making a few notes on the tablet in front of her.
“I think it would be safe to plan for another dozen. Better to have too much than not enough,” Stephanie added.
“Got it!” Stella told her with a smile. She was in her element, planning everything from finger foods to the dessert tables. They had decided upon a very simple, and yet elegant menu that would include finger sandwiches, small kabobs of cheese and fruits, pinwheels, and of course – the dessert table.
Stella had suggested they serve dessert in the same manner as dinner, finger-sized. Mini cheesecakes, brownies with a peanut butter filling, cream puffs, and the children’s favorite – sugar cookies.
Coffee, tea, water, and a sparkling apple cider based punch would also be available for the guests to help themselves. Trays of the food would be prepared the day before and stored both at the Ranch House and at the lodge. Kathy and Jed had offered to make sure the tables were monitored and to retrieve additional trays of food as they were needed.
Sheridan had offered to hire several people from the diner in town to help manage the food, but since most of the guests were long-time family friends, Kathy and Jed had seen no point in paying people to do what they were more than happy to do themselves.
A seamstress from Pinedale had been hired to make the final adjustments to the bridal dresses, as well as the outfits William and Brooklyn would be wearing. Since they were the youngest, it had been decid
ed that they would be the official ring bearer and flower girl.
Father Alexander from the Pinedale church would be conducting the ceremony, and since this was his first double wedding, he’d allowed the two couples to pretty much write their own version of how the ceremony was to go.
The two grooms, Cade and Spencer, were hard at work finalizing their portion of the wedding vows. Emma and Stella had already accomplished their portion of the vows, and were refusing to share them with their fiancées until the men had finished their own.
They had entrusted the keeping of their vows to Sheridan, who had promptly locked them away in his late father’s safe, pocketing the key and daring Spencer or Cade to try and peek.,
“Do we have enough supplies?” Emma asked, joining Stella at the kitchen counter.
Stella smiled at her. “We sure do. In fact, we have plenty of everything.”
“That’s good. With the weather taking such a drastic turn for the worse, I don’t think Spencer would feel comfortable flying back to Denver before the wedding.”
Stella shook her head. “I wouldn’t want him to do that. And I know for a fact that Sheridan would throw a fit if he even considered flying in such terrible weather.”
Over the last two days, more than a foot of snow had fallen, and the forecast wasn’t showing a break in the weather for at least another three days.
“Is the weather always like this?” Emma asked.
“We get our share of snow up here. But it is Colorado, don’t forget,” Stella replied.
“I actually love it here. When it snowed in New York, you never really got to enjoy it. There were so many cars and pollution, the white snow quickly turned grey and became a muddy, sloppy mess.”
Stella nodded her head in agreement. “I can only imagine. I haven’t actually been here for a Christmas in a long time.”
“Where did you live?” Emma asked.
“California. I enjoyed the year-round sunshine at first, but now that I’m back here, I find I enjoy having a little bit of all four seasons. At least, right now I can say that. You’ll probably hear me complaining long before March is over about hating snow,” Stella grinned.
“I think that’s just human nature. Especially when you know something better is just around the corner, and where you’re at has grown old.”
Stella looked at the woman who was going to shortly become her sister-in-law and wished she could have one more conversation with her father. Being one of the youngest siblings, and having carried around such a burden of guilt over her mother’s death, she’d never been that close to her father.
She’d been very upset with her father’s last request and she’d come home, with a large chip on her shoulder. She’d managed to lose that chip, and the self-imposed guilt that she’d been responsible for her mother’s death.
She was still sitting there, the other women conversing around her, when Sheridan walked into the room. He tried to get Stella’s attention, but could tell she was completely into her own thoughts.
When someone clasped her shoulder, Stella jerked and then lifted her head to see Sheridan looking at her in concern. “Is everything alright?”
Stella smiled at him and nodded. “Yeah. Emma and I were talking and I told her this was the first time I’d been home at Christmas in a longtime.”
Sheridan squeezed her shoulder. “It’s the first time in years we’ve all been home for Christmas. That makes it pretty special, huh?”
“Yeah. I was wishing I could tell dad…”
“Tell dad what?” Spencer asked as he walked into the room as well.
Chapter 7
Stella smiled at her twin. “Thanks for making us all come home.”
Spencer grinned at her. “I don’t know that any of us would have wanted to thank him back in May.”
Sheridan shook his head. “No, I don’t think we would have.”
Stella looked around and met Stephanie’s eyes across the room. “Are you glad you moved back here?”
Stephanie nodded her head. “I am so glad. Even though I didn’t live that far away, I still didn’t come home very often. I cannot imagine trying to deal with my medical condition by myself. Dad was right that we needed to learn to lean on each other. Do you know, I didn’t even have any close friends back in Denver? I always thought I could handle everything on my own.”
Spencer nodded his head. “You weren’t the only one. But it feels good to have each other’s backs now. Right?” He looked at Sheridan who wrapped an arm around his neck and nodded his head.
“What’s going on in here?” Sadie asked as she walked into the room with Sierra at her back.
Stella looked around and chuckled. “I guess we were having an unplanned family meeting?”
Sadie groaned, taking the joking comment seriously. “Can we not?” She sat down tiredly and dropped her head onto her folded arms.
Stella raised her brows and shook her head at Sierra, mouthing, “What’s wrong with her?”
Sierra rubbed a hand over Sadie’s shoulders and then smiled, “Brooklyn has definitely placed herself onto the naughty list as of half an hour ago.”
Stephanie smiled. “What did the little imp do now?”
Sadie only groaned and sounded like she was crying.
Sierra sighed. “Well, Brooklyn was watercoloring with my crew this morning. You know the books where you just apply water with a brush and move it around on the pre-painted page?” When her siblings nodded, she continued, “Miss Brooklyn wasn’t happy with the way her picture turned out. She told me she was going to play with her dolls in her bedroom.”
Stella had a bad feeling about the rest of the story, but she was helpless to not ask, “She didn’t go play with her dolls?”
Sierra made a face and shook her head. “Not quite. She got into her mother’s paints and decided to help her picture look pretty. In the process of adding watercolors to her paper, she also doused the carpet, splattered the walls, and managed to paint most of herself. Might I add that cerulean blue might look good on cartoon characters, but is not a good look for one little angel.”
“Angel?” Sadie asked, lifting her head in disbelief. “Sierra, you saw the mess she made. Hunter was speechless! She’s in no way in the running of angel status. Not now. Maybe not even years from now!”
“Now, it can’t be that bad!” Spencer chimed in.
“Oh really? You go help Hunter clean-up the mess then!” Sadie dropped her head back onto her folded arms.
“Where is the little angel?” Stephanie asked.
“Kathy and Annie took her down to their house for a much needed bath with some baking soda to help lessen the staining on her skin.”
Hunter chose that moment to enter, his hands full of multi-colored throw rugs. “Uhm…I’m guessing there’s no reason to try and wash these?” He asked the room in general, and when he lifted the blankets, everyone also got a glimpse of his brightly colored hands.
Spencer couldn’t keep quiet and commented to everyone with a chuckle. “Looks like someone else might be needing some baking soda and a bath.”
Sadie lifted her head, took one look at Hunter’s hands, the ruined carpets, and burst into tears. “I can’t even contain one, how am I going to handle two?!”
“What?!” Stella asked.
Hunter shook his head. “Hang on a minute, and let me get rid of these.”
“Allow me to open the door,” Sheridan told him, preceding him from the room and towards the back door and the trash dumpsters located there. The two men returned a few minutes later with Hunter’s hands looking much lighter in color.
He immediately went to Sadie and pulled her into his arms for a much needed hug. He whispered into her ear for a moment, and when she nodded and lifted her head up, he wiped her tears away, and turned her to look at the rest of the room.
She leaned back against his chest and stated, “We’re pregnant. We didn’t want to say anything and steal Steph’s thunder, but I’m so tired right now, and t
ruthfully, I’m not handling things well at all.”
Her siblings surrounded her with their love and support. “When’s the baby due?” Sadie asked.
“It’ll be okay. The first three months are always the hardest, remember?” Sierra told her. “You won’t be tired forever.”
Stephanie wrapped her in a hug, pulling her from Hunter’s arms as she did so. She whispered into her ear. “You’re not stealing my thunder. Just think, this time our babies will have a cousin right around their same age to grow up with. It will be like twins without getting as big as a house.”
Sierra overheard her comment and joined their hug. , “I heard that! And for your information, I wasn’t as big as a house while carrying Ashley and Elysha. It was more like an apartment building. I couldn’t see my feet for so many months, Paul kept assuring me they were still there, but then they started swelling and I felt like I was walking around on two balloons about to burst.”
Everyone started talking at once, and no one noticed Kathy and Annie escort a very contrite Brooklyn into the room.
Sadie felt a little body pushing between her and her sisters and looked down to see her daughter trying to get to her, tears streaming down her face. The tears did it, and instantly Sadie felt her energy return and she bent down to wrap her daughter in her arms.
“I’s sorry mommy. I was making you a pretty picture.” Brooklyn was still wearing a decidedly blue tint in several places, and Sadie gave her a sad smile and hugged her close.
“I know sweetie, but there’s a reason why mommy asked you not to play with my paints. They don’t wash off.”
“Miss Kathy said I look like a blueberry!”
Everyone chuckled softly and Sadie tried to contain her own giggle, “It will wear off. In time.”
Brooklyn seemed to think about that for a minute and then she pushed away from her mother’s arms and looked up at her daddy, “Will Santa still come visit me? I said I was sorry.”
Hunter was helpless to stay upset with her when she had tears spilling down her little baby cheeks and he nodded his head, “Yes sweetheart. Santa knows you didn’t mean to make a mess.”