What Were You Expecting? (48 page)

His eyes rose to hers. “The heartbeat?”

She nodded as more tears spilled out of her eyes. “It was strong. It sounded like a gallopin’ pony. It was the most amazin’ thing I’ve ever heard in all my livin’ life.”

“I want to hear it,” he said, leaning his head down as though pressing his ear to her belly would produce the sound.

“Then come with me to my appointment next month.”

His blood went cold as his neck whipped up to look at her. “Next month? I thought you said everything was okay?”

“Oh, my love,” she said gently, reaching up to cup his cheek with her hand, love and compassion and understanding softening her eyes as she gazed back at him. “I have to go once a month. For checkups. It’s standard. And as we get closer, I’ll start goin’ once a week.” She swallowed and looked away from him for a second before taking a deep breath and continuing. “I told Dr. Sweetwater about Veronica and Jens.”

“Good,” he breathed, his hand still molded protectively over her abdomen.

“But I’m goin’ to be fine.”

He looked up at her, finally dropping his hand from her belly and pulling her against him gently, as he would a fragile or beloved thing. His eyes closed as she laced her hands behind his neck. “I love you. I love Bean.” He leaned back to open his eyes and look into hers. “But I’m not going to lie. I’m worried, too. It’s going to be a long nine months.”

She tilted her head to the side like all of the Lindstroms and smiled gently through tears. “Then it’s a good thing you only have to wait seven.”

“April?” he asked, doing the math quickly in his head.

“May Day. Where it all began,” she said with a grin.

And because words weren’t nearly enough to express the fullness of his heart, he pulled his wife snugly into the loving haven of his arms as their baby grew safe and strong between them.

Maggie looked around the hospital room, smiling as she realized that visiting hours really didn’t apply to the Lindstroms, who’d arrived an hour ago and looked as if they intended to stay the day and treat the event of Britt Lily Lindstrom’s birth like a reunion.

She looked over at Nils, who held baby Britt as he chatted with his father, Carl, who stood with his arm around Graham, who held hands with Julie.

We didn’t do things the conventional way
, she thought.

Most people see each other, say hello, start datin’, become friends, fall in love, get engaged, get married and start a family.

Next to Julie, Jenny held a wiggling Erin, while Sam talked to Erik. Beside him, Kat carefully transferred a sleeping Dagmar to her stroller while Jane, who was sporting a shiny new engagement ring, bounced Dagmar’s twin sister, Heidi, and looked like she was just about ready for a baby of her own.

We saw each other, fell in love, said hello, became friends, got married, started an accidental family, got engaged, got married and had the most beautiful baby girl who ever lived.

All out of order. All perfect.

Lars stood beside his fiancée, Jane, talking to Paul, who had his arm draped around the shoulders of his wife, Zoe.

Family. My family, every single one of them.

As her eyes roamed around the room, Nils caught them, whispering something to his father before coming to her side, careful not to bump the stitches in her still-tender abdomen as he placed their sleeping daughter in the crook of Maggie’s arm. He leaned down to press his lips to the baby’s downy red hair before shifting slightly to kiss Maggie’s lips reverently, lingeringly.

Sometimes, Maggie thought, when he looked at her and Britt as if God had given him a second chance at life, she loved him so much it hurt a little bit, in the most wonderful way.

He squatted down beside the bed, eye level with her. “Tired? You want me to get rid of everyone?”

Maggie shook her head. “I love them. All of them. I want them to stay.”

She was a part of this family. She didn’t just belong to Nils or Britt. She belonged to all of them and all of them belonged to her. And all because of the man hovering beside her, who had figured out how to open his heart to love again, even after it seemed he’d lost all hope.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“We stay together,” she murmured, glancing at Britt as the wee baby sighed in her sleep. “Forever
, mo muírnin
. We’re a family.”

“Of course,” he said, smiling at her tenderly before brushing her lips with his. “What else were you expecting?”

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KATY REGNERY, Amazon best-selling author, has always loved telling a good story, and credits her mother with making funny, heartwarming tales come alive throughout her childhood. A lifelong devotee of all romance writing, from Edwardian to present-day, it was just a matter of time before Katy tried her hand at writing a love story of her own.

As it turned out, one love story turned into a series of six
Heart of Montana
romances, following the love lives of the Yellowstone-based Lindstrom siblings. When Katy’s fans asked her to turn up the heat, she wrote the NA/Contemporary hybrid,
Playing for Love at Deep Haven
, which offered steamier romance to her readers. Katy was proud to offer the stand-alone romance,
The Vixen and the Vet
, just in time for Fourth of July 2014, written as a fundraiser for Operation Mend. Katy’s new series,
The English Brothers
, offers sexy, contemporary romance to her readers.

Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, and two dogs create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories of all are the messy and unexpected ones.

Want to connect with Katy? She loves her readers! Find her on Facebook at:
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