Only One Kiss

by Madison, Natasha

  “This is so pretty,” she says when she gets close enough, and I see she’s barefoot also. “You look handsome,” she says of my blue linen shorts and white linen shirt. “And don’t you look so pretty with that flower,” she says, and Ari leans down and kisses her lips. “What is she wearing?” she asks, and I put Ari down in front of me and finally let her see her outfit.

  “Mommy, will you marry Daddy?”

  “Oh my God.” She puts her hands to her mouth when she sees the shirt, and I get down on one knee right next to Ari, and now Candace sobs out and puts her head down and then back up again.

  “Candace,” I say. “I never thought I was capable of love.” I start to talk, and I have to wipe away my own tears when I think about her. “Then I had Ari, and I knew I could love. It was a love that you couldn’t explain.”

  “Me,” Ari says, pointing at herself when I say her name.

  “Then I met this woman who was a gift from heaven really. You came into my life with your sweetness and your gentleness. You came into my life without even blinking an eye or shying away. I love you with everything that I am. I love your smile and your frown. I love the gentle way you hold my hand. I love the way you kiss me just because. I love the way you let Ari bake with you, knowing that she is going to make more of a mess than anything else. I love that you love our daughter with everything that you have.” I look down. “I want to walk down the aisle with you. I want to promise to love, honor, and cherish you for the rest of my life. I want to have a baby with you. I want to sit down and tell them stories about how much I love you. I want to hold your hand now and for the rest of my life.” I grab the blue square box in my pocket and open it. “Will you marry us?” I ask her, and she still has her hands over her mouth, and she nods. “She said yes, Ari,” I say, getting up and grabbing Candace’s face and kissing her. “I love you,” I say, and I’m interrupted by Ari, who sneaks in the middle of us and holds her hands up to Candace.

  “Yes, I’ll marry you both,” she says, kissing Ari who lays her head on her shoulder.

  “I’ve dreamed about this moment for my whole life, I think,” she says. “Felt it in my heart that you were the one for me. Felt it in the very first kiss. It’s stupid. I know it is.”

  “No, it’s not. All it took was one kiss for me, too. I thought it was strange, but all it took was,” I say, “only one kiss.”

  Epilogue Two

  Candace

  Two years later

  “That’s it; you can do it,” Ralph says, pushing my hair back. My eyes close as I try to breathe through the contraction. “You are doing so good,” he says, and I open my eyes now as the pain subsides. Rubbing my swollen stomach, we’ve been in the hospital for three hours now. My water broke at home while I was picking up Ari. Needless to say, he wasn’t thrilled with that either. For the past eight months, he’s treated me like I was glass, and every single time I moved or had a pain, he was on the phone with the doctor. He even had my mother fly in when he was going to be gone for more than two days.

  “That one was hard,” I say, and he nods and gets up to press the button again. “What are you doing?” He stands there dressed in shorts and a polo, his hair showing how nervous he is by the number of times he’s run his hands through it. “You seriously need to relax,” I say and look over at the monitor that shows the baby’s heart rate. “I’m fine; the baby is fine.” He ignores me, waiting for the nurse to come in.

  Sandy, the nurse, comes in, and this time, she is less in a rush than she was the first ten times. “What is the problem, Mr. Weber?”

  “She said the last one hurt and was a hard one,” he says to the nurse, and she rolls her lips, trying not to laugh. “I’m sure it was, but I checked her five minutes ago, and she was at three centimeters.”

  “But what if,” he says and looks at me and then at her. “Are you sure she’s okay?”

  “I can tell you one hundred percent that all her vitals are good.” She puts her hand on his. “We’ve got her.” She turns and walks out of the room, and I look at him.

  “What?” he says, throwing up his hands. “You can never be too safe.” If I didn’t love him with every single beat of my heart, I would now.

  “Why don’t you go and call my mother and check on Ari for me?” I try to change his mind, and he nods, walking out of the room, but I can see him standing in the hallway. I look down at the engagement and wedding ring on my left finger, actually two wedding rings. The day of our wedding was the day I officially adopted Ariella. She was mine before the piece of paper was signed, but on the day of our wedding, he slipped an extra ring on my finger for her.

  “Who let you in?” He looks down the hall and then over his shoulder, smiling at me. “Take off that fucking shirt.”

  “Not a chance in hell,” my brother, Evan, says. “What does this say?” He stops in front of him. “I’ll help you since you look like you can’t read. It says Stanley Cup Champions.”

  “It also says two thousand and fifteen,” Ralph says, shaking his head, and Evan pushes him by the shoulder, walking in.

  “Hey there,” he says, coming into the room. “You are huge,” he says of my big belly. He comes to me and puts a hand on my belly. “It’s your favorite uncle,” he says to the baby and kisses my cheek then sits on the bed next to me.

  “Don’t crowd her or my child.” I look over at Ralph, who stands there with his phone in his hands. “She’s having sharp pain.”

  “What’s his problem?” Evan asks me, and I’m about to answer him when a stabbing pain hits me right in the stomach, and I yell out.

  “Oh my God,” Ralph says, rushing in. “Press the button.” He rushes over and presses the button, and I’m trying to tell him not to, but he does, and she comes in. “She just yelled.”

  I wait for the contraction to pass me before I can talk. “It’s normal. All of this is normal.” I look at Evan. “Would you tell him?”

  “You know what you should have done.” Evan looks at Ralph. “You should have hired a separate private nurse to sit in the room and make sure she’s okay.” I look at both of them in shock. My husband actually thinking that was a good idea.

  “If you don’t stop, I’m kicking you out of here,” I say to my brother and then look at Ralph. “I’m fine.” I wince. “Okay, maybe not fine, but this is my body getting ready for what is to come.” I smile at him and hold my hand out to him. To say I was thrilled to be pregnant was the understatement of the year. We had officially started trying, and by the next month, I was pregnant. I had the easiest pregnancy that you could have. I was not sick, I was only tired at the beginning, and I swear every single time I felt him or her kick, I would cry.

  “I don’t know if I can take this,” Ralph says, and for the next five hours, he paces the room every single time I’m done with a contraction.

  “Okay,” Dr. Brown says when she comes in. “Let’s see what is going on with the baby.” She sits on the stool and rolls over to me, putting my feet in the stirrups. “How is dad doing?”

  “Worse than mom,” Sandy answers for us, and I have to roll my lips but not for long because another contraction comes. “Looks like someone is ready to push.”

  “Is that safe?” Ralph says from beside me. “Wouldn’t it be easier to have a c-section?”

  “I want to have this baby natural if possible.” I look at Dr. Brown, who looks over at Sandy.

  “Get everything ready,” she says. Sandy presses the button, and a nurse comes on the intercom.

  “We are getting ready to push in room seven,” she says and then looks at Ralph. “Do you need a chair?”

  “No.” He hisses at her and then grabs my hand, bending to kiss it. A tear escapes his eye, and I just look at him.

  “I’m going to be okay,” I say. “We are going to be okay.”

  He comes to me now, putting his forehead on my temple. “I can’t live without you,” he says softly. “Don’t leave me.” He kisses my cheek, and I want to tell him that I’m n
ot going anywhere. I want to tell him that it’s going to be okay; it’s going to be fine.

  “Okay,” Dr. Brown says. “We are going to count to ten, and I want you to bear down and push.”

  I nod at her, and she starts counting as I hold my breath and push. At the end of ten, I let out a big breath. “That was good,” she says. “Let’s go again.” I don’t know why I thought it would be right away. I was wrong, so wrong. I push for thirty-nine minutes. Sweat is now forming at my hairline, and I’m exhausted.

  “I don’t think I can do this.” I look at the doctor and then back at Ralph. “I’m tired.”

  “You can do this,” Ralph says, kissing my lips. “You can do this.”

  “Okay, go,” the doctor says, counting, and I close my eyes and push. “Stop pushing. Daddy,” she calls for Ralph, “come and see your baby’s head.” He looks down and then looks up at me with tears welled in his eyes. “Another big push like that one, and you can meet your baby.” It happens so fast when they get to six, I hear Ralph cheer out and then look down when the doctor places the baby on my chest.

  This overwhelming feeling rips through me, and all I can do is sob. “My baby,” I say over and over.

  “It’s a boy,” the doctor finally says, and I look at Ralph, who is crying beside me.

  “Our baby,” I say, kisssing our son’s head. The nurse rubs the baby’s back and then takes him from me, and I look at Ralph. “Go to the baby.”

  He shakes his head. “I’m not leaving you until the doctor tells me you’re okay.”

  “She’s fine,” the doctor says. “Perfectly fine.” Our son’s crying now fills the room, and I start to panic.

  “Why is he crying?” I ask the nurse who is weighing him and putting a diaper on him. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s perfect.” She comes over with the baby. “Nine pounds, five ounces. Time for skin to skin, Mommy.”

  I lower my hospital gown and place my baby on me. “Hi,” I say and feel Ralph sit on the bed beside me, his arm around us. “I’m your mommy, and this is Daddy,” I say, and all he can do is look at us. Blinking and looking around, his mouth opening and closing. “We have a son.”

  “We have a son,” Ralph says. I put my head back exhausted. “You are so brave.”

  I look over at him. “Is it too soon to tell you I want another one?” I smile at him, and he just shakes his head.

  “I’ll give you however many you want.” He bends and kisses me and then kisses our son. “Whatever you want.” My husband has given me my white picket fence, he’s given me a daughter, and now he’s given me a son.

  He’s made all of my dreams come true, and it all started with only one kiss.

  THE END FOR CANDACE AND RALPH

  BUT ONLY THE BEGINNING FOR

  LAYLA AND MILLER

  Only One Chance

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  The Only One Series

  Only One Kiss

  Only One Chance

  Only One Night

  Only One Touch

  SOUTHERN SERIES

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  This Is

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  Faux Pas

  Acknowledgments

  Every single time I keep thinking it’s going to be easy. It takes a village to help and I don’t want to leave anyone out.

  Becca: I don’t even know where to start. Thank you for telling me when it’s good and when it sucks.. Just in nicer words…

  Dani: Thank you for taking me on and not quitting on me when I started to message you twenty times a day! I don’t know what I would do without you.

  Beta girls: Teressa, Natasha M, Lori, Sandy, Yolanda, Yamina, Sarah, Jan, Mary and Layla. Thank you for holding my hand, telling me when things sucked and for being by my side.

  Madison Maniacs: This little group went from two people to so much more and I can’t thank you guys enough. This group is my go to, my safe place. You push me and get excited for me and I can’t wait to watch us grow even bigger!

  Julie: You’ve been with me since book one and I trust you with anything and everything. Thank you for loving me and for making my words looks pretty!

  BLOGGERS. THANK YOU FOR TAKING A CHANCE ON ME. You give so much of yourself effortlessly and you are the voice that we can’t do this without.

  My Squad: Sabrina, Melanie, Lydia, Shelly, Stephanie, Marisa. Your support during this whole ride has been amazing. I can honestly say without a doubt that I have the best Squad of life!!!!

  And Lastly and most importantly to YOU the reader, Without you none of this would be real. So thank you for reading!