Alex's Destiny (Racing To Love) (24 page)

“Oh!” Jesse stood back up, his shot in one hand, a lime in the other, talking to his wife, but loud enough to address not only their group, but the entire section of the restaurant. “My dear, Em…how could I have forgotten…you weren’t there when Molly taught us all…just
exactly
how to do a shot. Come on, Mol…show ‘em what you’ve got, girl.”

“Jesse Frost, I will freaking kill you.” Molly pointed at him, grinning, but ten shades past mortified. “My kids are here
and
my parents.”

“It’s the perfect time then, don’t ya think?”

“Yeah, the perfect time for me to beat your ass.”

Carter wiggled his eyebrows. “Come on, gorgeous. Just once? For old time’s sake?”

Alex’s jaw dropped and she glanced at her twin. Jack was the mild-mannered one of the entire bunch, conservative and quiet, brooding and professional with hint of steel under his exterior. She knew him better than most and could get away with teasing and torturing him. To most, he came across as cold, but in reality, he was just shy. He was extremely good at what he did, and he would be a sought-after architect like their grandfather, someday. Now though, he stared at their parents as shocked as she was, but he had a fiery smirk tugging at his mouth.

That was the Jack only his family got to know.

“This is the problem with you boys. You forget nothing. Can’t you just leave the past where it belongs? In the past?” Molly shook her head trying not laugh.

“Now, baby girl. If you think your mother and I haven’t heard this little story, you’d be sadly mistaken.”

“Dad! You’re not helping. And by the way, remind me to call George tonight when we get home and thank him, since I know that’s who ratted me out.”

“Come on, Mom,” Jack taunted.

“Hey, Dallas, just warning you this is how they ended up with twins.” Eli smarted off right before Honor smacked at his arm. “Hey Mol, don’t forget it was me you batted your eyes at before asking for the salt.”

“Oh, E…bite me.”

“That’s my girl.” Eli winked back.

“Fine. You all are going to hell for this.” Then pointing at the younger family members, Molly shook her head. “If I ever hear of any of you speaking even one word of this, I’ll ground you all myself.”

Alex glanced at her dad as he started rolling up his shirt sleeve. Eli and Jesse started laughing uncontrollably and acting like two twenty-somethings instead of the grown men they were supposed to be. Right then, she knew a lot more of the stories she’d heard from them growing up were actually true, as opposed to being the ‘tall tales’ her mother claimed.

Sitting back in her chair,
Dallas’s arm rested on the back. Sliding it across her shoulders, he grinned.

“Alex, honey, I’m only doing this for you. Just so you’re not the only one who will still be a tad embarrassed come tomorrow morning. All right, Carter, may I borrow your arm?”

Molly smiled at him differently, unlike any other look she’d seen from her mom. It was a playful look of a girl Alex’s age. As her mother seductively licked her father’s wrist, Alex covered her eyes, but found she had to peek to continue watching. “Mom!” Her eyebrows went up in shock.

“Happy birthday, Lex. I love you,”
Dallas said laughing as he pulled her tighter to his side. “Promise me, please, we’ll still be this much fun when we’re their age.”

His words made her smile. This was her family. Loud, fun, strong, crazy and
there
. Everything she was, there was a piece of each of them within her, and she couldn’t be more proud. Alex nodded.

“Yeah. I promise.”

“I’ve told you for years, this is where Alex gets her spunky side from, Mol,” Eli shouted just as her mother picked up the lime with her mouth from the palm her father’s hand. Removing it with her fingertips, she finished the show off by running the tip of her tongue over her top lip. Her mother winked at her father, but it was Alex’s face that heated.

“And I love it, Lex,”
Dallas said as he kissed her and held nothing back for the first time in front of their family.

Heat spread from her already pink cheeks through her blood. She forgot the crowd around them and forgot her family’s eyes on her. Alex surrendered to the man holding her, sinking into his hold, and let herself be swept away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“Come on. Come on, come on, come on,” he gritted out at the red light as he squeezed the steering wheel tight enough to become white-knuckled.

His mind raced as he hit the gas, weaving in and out of traffic, enough to make any Nascar driver proud. The brick campus was in sight, though he wasn’t sure if that helped to relax him or amped up his anxiety. A horn blared as he switched lanes one last time. “Bite me, jackass.”

The same large red letters came into view and his stomach turned. Swallowing hard, he slowed down for the speed bump. Parking as close as he could,
Dallas rushed toward the Emergency Room sliding doors. Pushing his way through, the lights, smells, and the noises all came back to him. He hated this place.

Growing up, hospitals had never bothered him. They weren’t exactly where he would opt to spend his free time, but he hadn’t been afraid. After the attack on his wife last year though,
Dallas almost couldn’t force himself into the building. Necessity was the only thing pulling him through the doors and pushing him down the brightly lit hallways now.

It was all his fault.

He still felt remnants of guilt that flooded him once in a while when a memory triggered, and he’d think back to the attack. He still blamed himself. He didn’t physically hurt Alex, but he hadn’t been with her, and that was always going to make his heart hurt. Tonight though, was one hundred percent his fault.

Well, maybe not totally. It was Alex’s fault she was beautiful. It was her fault he adored her, and worshipped the ground she walked on. It was her fault she was so sweet and perfect. It was her fault he wanted to spend his days by her side, and his nights inside her.

Seeing the pain flash across her face and deepen the lines in her forehead had him dropping her bag and rushing to her side. “God, baby. I’m so sorry.” Without an answer back, she grabbed for his hand and squeezed. “Breathe. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Blow out. Alex, blow out, honey.”

“Here sweetie, here’s a gown. When she’s ready, have her put it on, and then we’ll get her into the bed and get the monitors hooked up. By the looks of things, things are going pretty fast.”

“We were always told it takes forever with the first?”

“Everybody’s different, Dad. It’ll be okay. I can tell just by looking at her she’s in great shape. That helps things along sometimes,” the nurse reassured him with a pat to the arm.

Dad.

Alex dropped the thin cotton gown and grabbed her stomach, wiping the realization away for the moment.

They’d joked she would get pregnant on their wedding night. Then he teased her about working his magic on her during their honeymoon. Dallas wasn’t that far off. Here they were, ten months, three weeks and one day after their wedding.

Once he had her tucked in the bed and the beeping filled the small room,
Dallas pulled out his cell. “Carter.”

“Hey, son. How’s it going? Are you two headed this way soon? Dinner will be ready in a little while.”

“No. It’s time.” Alex doubled over again, blindly reaching for him. “Call my folks.” He disconnected the call, and tossed the phone on the bed. “Shh. Okay almost there. Damn, this one is a big one.”

“No fucking shit?” she spit out. “What was your first clue?”

If she wasn’t in pain, he’d find her spunky attitude amusing. But with the vice grip she had on his fingers, he was afraid she’d go ahead and break them for laughing at her. “Okay, it’s going down, Lex. Here we go.”

“There’s no
we
here, babe.”

Dallas
couldn’t help it, the snicker slipped out with no warning. Pulling up a chair beside her, he took her hand again, and started speaking softly to her as the nurse worked on the IV in her other hand. “I remember the first day we met like it was yesterday.” A smile tipped her lips, but the cringe of pain wiped it away almost immediately. “You had these big white bows tied up in your hair and long golden curls, but it was those big blue eyes I will never forget. And as soon as I got out of dad’s car, you dragged me up the stone pathway to Grandma and Grandpa’s front door.”

“I didn’t drag,” she panted, “you.”

“There you go. It’s over, Lex.”

“I don’t know honey. We’ve got a call into your doctor, but at the rate you’re going, I’m not sure he’s going to make it.” The nurse read the strip of paper the monitor was spitting out as another contraction hit Alex right on top of the one she just endured. “I’m going to check you, but—”

“I need to push!”

“Oh, no. Wait just a second, hon.”

“Now!”

Dallas
’s heart sped up as the nurse hit the call button, and told the desk to get the on-call doctor headed their way.

“When did the contractions start, sweetie?”

Alex’s eyes were screwed shut, and Dallas didn’t think she intended answering. “She woke up this morning with a pain in her lower back. She said she was just uncomfortable. We still worked this morning, but after lunch I took her home and had her rest. She was just so exhausted. She tossed and turned, but couldn’t really find a spot she could get comfy in. We were going to go to her parents for dinner in a little while, but she just started having intense pains all of the sudden. And as we were headed to the car, her water broke.”

“Sounds like she’s been in labor all day.”

“But, we thought it was supposed to be like this. The bad pain, I mean, for hours?”

Pulling her gown back down and rolling the blankets to the foot of the bed, the nurse shook her head.

“For the majority, yes. But, Dad, she’s ready. It’s time.”

Alex laid her head against the pillow, already her hair was starting to stick to the sweat beading along her forehead. “But when will the epidural be here?”

“Sweetie, I’m afraid we’ve missed that window.”

“What!” Her eyes flew open and panic had her panting. Then another contraction had her gritting her teeth and whimpering. She reached for the strings of her gown and started to pull. “
Dallas. Take. Me. Home,” she hissed and held her breath for a long moment. “I’ll come back when we can get the—”

She doubled-over, unable to finish her sentence, and
Dallas’s pulse jumped to double-time. “No drugs? She gets nothing?” Dallas asked, pleading for help for his wife. “But, she needs something. You have to do something, she’s in pain!”

“It will be okay, Dad. I promise. I have done this for eighteen years. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a woman come in here not knowing she was ready to deliver because her pain tolerance was that high. If anyone can do this, she can. I can tell, she’s a strong one.” The nurse wiped Alex’s forehead with a cool wet cloth. “I’ll be right here, sweetie. I’m not going anywhere. And just think, before you know it you’re going to be holding a brand new baby in your arms.”

“Hi Alex. I’m Dr. Morris. Sounds like you didn’t want to wait for Dr. Ketting. So let’s do this and show him what he missed, shall we?”

In a moment of clarity, the look that washed over Alex’s face relaxed
Dallas. She went from panicked to determined in one breath. He had never been so mixed up in his life. Extreme joy and excitement on one hand, and pure unadulterated fear on the other. He was ecstatic to become a father, and had been from the day they took turns pacing the bathroom waiting on the test to change. He couldn’t wait to see Alex holding their baby in the nursery they’d spent months lovingly creating for their precious little one. It was time, and when he didn’t think he could love her anymore, she squeezed his hand and looked to him to help her.

In those ice-blue eyes was a love so honest and pure, he couldn’t help but tear up.

“I love you, baby.”

~~~

Scrubbing his hands over his face, he wiped his palms over his eyes a second time. The tears still wouldn’t stop. Rounding the corner, the voices ceased immediately. Looking at the large group of people that had commandeered the waiting room, every one of them was hanging by a thread. Pure love coursed through him. “Well, he’s here!”

Joy and laughter erupted.
Dallas was hugged, patted, and tugged twenty different directions as the congratulations continued.

“So?” Molly bounced from foot-to-foot. “Tell us everything. Is he all right? How’s Alex?”

“Mama and baby are both perfect. She worked so hard—nine pounds, four ounces.”

“Oh my God. What a little chunk!” Jesse shouted.

“Tell me about it. His little face is just as round as it can be.”

“What’s his name?”

Dallas shook his head grinning, “Nope.”

“But, you’ve made us wait all this time. Dallas, you two are killing me here.” Molly hugged him.

“Come on back. I’ll let his mom introduce you. She did all the hard work.”

When only Molly and Honor started to follow him,
Dallas paused and waved the rest to come with them. “She’s doing great and she is so excited to show him off. Come on.”

With a soft knock to the door, he peeked his head in to make sure she wasn’t feeding him. “Lex, you ready for a few visitors?”

With a thousand watt smile, she nodded.

The
ohhs
and
ahhs
lasted for several long minutes, then Alex removed his tiny little hat to show the head full of light brown curls he was born with. Shifting in the bed, she handed their baby to him.

Nuzzling his sweet smelling face,
Dallas kissed his silk soft cheek, then glanced at his wife. “I told them you did all the work. You get to introduce him,” he whispered.

With a fresh wave of tears pooling in her eyes, she scanned the room.
Dallas could have sworn his heart would burst seeing her happily taking in each one of their family members as the sleeping angel in his arms made a faint squeak. Finally, with a tilt to her head, she looked at her uncle, then her grandfather, “James. His name is James Michael.”

Mike’s eyes teared instantly and James sifted through the crowd, pulling
Dallas’s head to his mouth and kissing his temple, then laying a soft kiss on his namesake’s forehead before he moved and folded Alex into his arms. In that moment, in a small room full of tears and smiles, laughter and a soft bundle of joy in his arms, Dallas’s life was perfect. Alex’s destiny, intertwined with his own, and with the child asleep in his arms, their legacy would carry on.