“No!” I rushed to Marc’s side, throwing myself to my knees and clutching his hand. “You’re okay,” I said through my tears. “You’re going to be okay.”
“We need an ambulance,” the Mountie who’d helped me across the border said into a walkie talkie. “We have a gunshot wound. Looks bad.”
Marc clung to my hand. “We made it. I got you here. We’re going to be okay.”
“We’re going to be okay,” I repeated.
His face twisted in pain, and I clung to his hand tighter. He had to be all right. We couldn’t have come all this way for nothing. We would be together now and happy, and no one would take our baby from us. We’d be safe. We’d be a family.
Marc closed his eyes when the Mountie pressed more firmly on the gunshot wound. I held his hand, oblivious to the cold or what was going on around us, focused only on him. I had no idea how much time passed, but vaguely, I became aware of a siren in the distance. Then an ambulance was here, and people were rushing toward us with medical equipment, and I was pulled away from Marc. I resisted but only a little because as much as Iwanted to be with him, he needed the paramedics more than he needed me right now.
“Ma’am,” a female medic said as she led me away from Marc, “are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“No,” I replied in a daze. “I’m fine.”
As if not believing me, she urged me to sit on the nearby curb. “How far along are you?”
“Thirty weeks.”
“Are you having any cramping or other signs of fetal distress?”
“No,” I replied automatically.
She kept asking me questions, and I must have answered, but I didn’t remember any of it. I couldn’t stop staring at Marc as the paramedics worked to get the bleeding under control then moved him to a gurney. Couldn’t stop praying, begging for a break. He had to be all right. We were here. We were safe. He’d done everything he could to make sure we were okay, so it wouldn’t be fair if he died now.
When the paramedics started rushing him toward the ambulance, I shoved past the woman looking me over and took off after them. “I’m going with him!”
Thankfully, no one argued.
In the ambulance with the door shut, I held Marc’s hand while the paramedics worked. His face was several shades paler than usual, and his expression pained, but he also looked at peace as he stared up at me.
“We made it,” he said.
I forced out a teary smile. “We did.”
“And now we can be together. Can be a family.” He looked at my stomach. “That’s our baby, and no one can take it from us.”
“Our son,” I whispered, feeling for the first time like it was safe to tell him the truth.
Marc’s eyes flicked to mine, widening. “It’s a boy?”
“It’s a boy,” I said in a strained voice. “It’s a boy.”
Then I leaned down and kissed him gently.
Epilogue
Islid the lasagna I’d been slaving over into the oven and shut the door, saying a silent prayer it turned out all right. Domestic stuff was still new to me, and while I was getting better, Marc and I had been forced to order food after a failed meal on more than one occasion. Hopefully, this wasn’t one of those times, because I really wanted this evening to go well.
My son’s musical laughter floated into the kitchen as I washed my hands, pulling a smile out of me. More than three years after his birth, and I still couldn’t believe how happy something as small as a laugh could make me. Happier than I’d ever been, although I couldn’t lie. Marc definitely played a part in that as well.
If someone had told me four years ago that, one day, I’d be a stay-at-home mom and wife, I would have laughed in their face. Family had never been a part of my plan, and dating had been at the bottom of the list of things I was interested in, but getting to know Marc had changed all that. He was the best person I’d ever met, the best partner and father, and he made me giddy with happiness. And we were a family. The three of us.
I turned to head into the living room so I could join them, but stopped when I remembered taking my ring off. It sat next to the sink, the white gold shiny next to the black Formica countertop. I studied it for a second after picking it up, tilting the simple band so I could read the inscription inside.
Always &Forever
Smiling, I slipped it onto my finger.
