Page 69 of Bailey

His eyes swept the kitchen, but the pronto pups had gone, and the tray that had held the mozzarella sticks, which he’d put in the oven a half hour ago, sat empty. He found Belle’s serving tray with her specialty dipping sauces in it, and he detoured into the kitchen to grab it.

Then he followed everyone outside and slid that door closed too, because while the Wyoming evening definitely cooled off, he didn’t need to be air-conditioning the backyard for no reason.

His heart filled with love as he stepped over to the table, which now bore the weight of way too much food. Adam fiddled with the remote connected to the projector, and Belle had found a seat between Codi and Joey, which only made his heart happier. Harry set down the dipping sauces next to the pronto pups and pile of mozzarella sticks, then stepped right into the fray of his family and clapped his hands one, two, three loud times.

“All right, everyone,” he said, grinning around at them as he turned in a full circle. “Thank you so much for coming. Let’s get this cousin night started.”

Three nights later, Harry woke as a vice clamped down on his forearm. It took only a moment for him to hear the moan coming out of Belle’s mouth. Panic struck his heart, and he rolled toward her.

“What is it?” he asked.

She grunted and then groaned, and Harry turned toward the other side of the bed and snapped on the lamp. He faced his wife again and found such tension in her face that he simply knew.

“It’s time,” he said, and Belle gave two short nods, her fingers still gripped in their bedding. Then, seemingly all at once, she relaxed.

“I just had a contraction,” she said. “I don’t think my water’s broken yet.”

“We’re going,” he said, because it was a forty-five-minute drive to the hospital. Harry had considered renting somewhere closer, but Belle had assured and reassured him that first babies didn’t come very fast.

He hurried around to her side of the bed and helped her sit up. Her feet dangled off the mattress, as she wasn’t quite tall enough for them to reach the floor. He held both her hands and helped her stand, and Belle sighed just before she sucked in a tight breath.

“Are you having another one already?” he asked.

She kept her gaze down on the floor and then slowly looked up to him. “No, but my water just broke.”

Joy and fear like Harry had never known tangled inside him. He’d only felt this panicked one other time in his life—when he’d been mobbed in the Nashville airport and pressed onto a moving baggage claim carousel.

“The bag is by the door,” Belle said, and Harry somehow linked his arm through hers and started moving in that direction.

She still wore her nightgown, and Harry reasoned that he could return and get her clothes any time, or Bryce, Uncle Gabe, Uncle Morris, or Uncle Luke could bring them to the hospital, as they all lived up here in Dog Valley and had to drive right by his house to get there. No matter what, they were going to the hospital right now.

Harry got Belle in the truck and ran back inside to get his wallet and keys. He took sixty seconds to change out of his pajamas and grab his phone from the bedroom before he joined her in the truck and backed out of the garage.

When he reached the main road and turned right, Belle started to groan again. He reached over and took her hand in his, giving her something to clamp down on. The contraction seemed to go on forever but did finally subside. He made the turn onto the Apple Highway and floored the accelerator. Belle didn’t complain, which told him how badly she wanted to get to the hospital too, and he smiled over to her with as much bravery as he could.

“Are we still thinking Lyric Rose?” he asked quietly.

“Yes,” Belle said. “I think it’s such a beautiful name, and I still love it.”

“Me too,” Harry said, and then he focused on getting them to the hospital as quickly as possible.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-EIGHT

Cash Young looked down at his fiancée as Lark lifted her phone up in front of her face. “They’re almost here,” she said, and she sat up from where she’d been laying in his lap. She’d been living here in her childhood home alone for the last six months, since he’d moved first into a room at the Silver Sage, and then onto the ranch he’d purchased with Boston.

He and Cora now lived in their farmhouse, and when the construction on the second homestead on the property had finally finished, Cash had moved in there. He and Boston had separate entrances to the ranch from two different roads, separate residences, and had partitioned the seventy-seven-acre ranch into two parcels.

Cash wanted to establish a cutting horse operation, and he’d been to Texas twice and had one more trip planned in August, when he’d pick up the three horses he would start working with once he made the drive back.

He and Lark would be married in mid-July, and she’d come with him on the Texas road trip, and of course, live with him in the newly remodeled house at Cousins Creek. But today, her parents were returning from their church service mission to Costa Rica, where they’d been living and serving for the past nine months.

Cash had only met them one time, when he had gone to get instructions before moving into their house. The original plan had been for Cash to live there and take care of the place in their absence, but he hadn’t felt right about staying in the house with Lark once they’d started a romantic relationship. He could barely believe he’d fallen in love with her in only a couple of weeks, though they’d been staying in the same house, and even one day was probably the equivalent of ten dates for a regular couple.

“What about Jet and Wade?” he asked.

“They’ve been waiting at the airport for about forty-five minutes,” Lark said. “They’re all together, remember?”