Precious Lace (Lace #4) (11 page)

  "Carter…" I whispered as I watched his intense gaze staring at the screen. He didn’t respond to me, just stared straight ahead, holding my hand tightly. 

  "Carter?" No response. Oh God this wasn't good at all. Please don't let him have a meltdown right here in front of the doctor. He'd just wrapped his brain around one baby. My stomach flip-flopped at the idea that we would now be bringing two babies into our home. 

  "Carter?" I squeezed his hand to shake him out of his shock. 

  "Twins?" he whispered. 

  "Twins, Mr. Morgan," the doctor replied with a gleam in her eye. 

  "Fucking hell," he whispered and collapsed on a chair next to the table. My mouth dropped open in shock. That certainly wasn't the reaction I was expecting. 

  "Are you okay?" I held his hand as we stepped out into the chilly December air. I directed us both toward the car. Carter still had a dazed look on his face. 

  "Yeah," he grumbled. We reached the car and I stopped. 

  "Are you okay to drive?" 

  "Of course." He helped me into the passenger seat and then strode around to the driver side. I twisted the strap of my bag in my hands. He was so clearly not fine. Not fine at all. I had just gotten the news that we were expecting twins too; it was a shock, but I certainly wasn’t going
into
shock. I wanted to haul off and deck him at the moment. 

  "Where are you going?" I looked out the window and took notice of our surroundings. 

  "Home," he replied. 

  "I thought we were going to lunch." My stomach was empty and not happy about it. 

  "Oh, right." He moved into another lane of traffic. "Anywhere in particular?"

  "You're asking me?" I arched an eyebrow in surprise. 

  "Of course."

  I rolled my eyes. Of course my ass. Carter never asked my opinion on where we were eating. Ever. 

  "Wherever. Somewhere close, and fast. I'm starving." I rubbed my tummy. 

  Carter slid into a parking spot in front of a deli. I jumped out of the car and bee-lined for the door with Carter a step behind me. We ordered sandwiches and then sat at the only available table in the crowded room. 

  I took the pickles off my sandwich and ate them separately. Carter huffed from across the table and then picked them off his sandwich and set them on my plate. I smiled up at him. It felt like he was coming back to normal, at least marginally. I ate his pickles and then took a bite of my sandwich. I chewed and watched him. 

  He inspected his sandwich before taking each bite, but I knew he wasn't really seeing it. His mind was racing with the information we'd just been given. I took another bite and chewed and then set my sandwich down. I took a drink of my lemonade, my eyes on him the whole time. I could see that his beautiful steely blue irises were a million miles away. 

  "I know it's a shock," I offered. 

  "Yeah," he breathed a sigh. 

  "Are you okay?"

  "Yeah," he answered again without looking at me. 

  "Carter, seriously. You're worrying me. Or killing me. Or I’m going to kill you. I haven't decided yet."

  He finally looked up and his eyes met mine. They melted before my eyes and came back to normal. I reached for his hand across the table. 

  "We're going to be okay. It's a lot, but we can do it." It was my turn to reassure him. He'd been telling me throughout our entire relationship that I was it for him; that we were meant to be together. Now it was my turn to tell him that this was exactly how it was supposed to be and somehow we would manage. I had complete faith that not only would we survive two screaming toddlers ransacking our house, but we would also thrive together. I smoothed my thumb over the knuckles of his hand. "I promise."

  A half-hearted attempt at a smile lifted the corners of his mouth. 

  "I love you more than my own life." He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a soft kiss there. 

  "I know." A happy smile lifted my cheeks. He rolled his eyes at me with a grin. "I love you, too." I beamed back at him.

  "I’m sorry I was a basket case back there." He dusted his lips along the knuckles of my left hand. 

  "And that you swore in front of the doctor?" I arched an eyebrow. 

  "I did?"

  "I believe the exact words were 'fucking hell'." 

  "Oh, right. I'm sorry for that too." His eyes danced with amusement. 

  "Are you okay now?"

  "Yes. I just needed a minute to process." He set my hand back on the table and sipped through his straw. 

  "I know. Me too." I plucked a pickle off my plate and popped it in my mouth. "So no more breakdowns?" I watched him cautiously. 

  "Nope." He grinned at me. 

  "Good, because I thought we could shop for baby clothes. Maybe furniture, too."

Carter coughed on his drink. I laughed at him and took another bite of my sandwich.   

  My parents had driven down for Christmas and stayed with us for the long weekend on Beacon Street. We spent Christmas day at Carter's parent's house in Belmont where Carter's mom had pulled out all of the stops for dinner. I was thankful for many things in my life—one, I’d been blessed with a mother-in-law that had amazing skills in the kitchen. I let Carter spill the news around the table of our impending surprise. 

  Carter said he was thankful that we could all be together. He said family was a wonderful thing to be blessed with and I'd made him the happiest man alive when I'd agreed to marry him. He then proceeded to say the second happiest day of his life was the day he saw two tiny heartbeats on the ultrasound screen.

  Everyone's eyes whipped to me, and my mother's green gaze looked terrified. She probably thought there'd been a mistake. 

  "Evangeline?" she whispered. 

  "Twins mom." A sob escaped my throat as she came around the table and held me in her arms. Congratulations spread around the table and we left that evening happy and exhausted. 

  It was now New Year's Eve and I was feeling better than ever. The morning sickness had passed, the constant peeing had subsided—at least for now, and I had more energy now than before I found out I was pregnant. 

  "Why are you all dressed up and looking delicious? I thought we were staying in tonight? I believe you said you required sweatpants and ice cream only?" Carter walked in the bathroom off our master suite. 

  "I have a surprise for you—reservations at Anthony's on the Pier. Jump in the shower. We leave in twenty." 

  His eyebrows arched in surprise. "I quite like this new controlling you." He wrapped his arms around my waistline and nibbled on my earlobe. I giggled and leaned back into him. His warm palms caressed my expanding belly and then one hand trailed up to the V-neck of my wrap dress. "I also quite like this dress on you. Are you sure you don't want to stay in tonight, Mrs. Morgan?" He fingered the edge of the fabric that revealed my ever-increasing cleavage. 

  "Later you sex fiend," I giggled. 

  "Or maybe round two at the restaurant?" He swayed me back and forth and I felt his growing erection against my bottom. I sighed as my body began to hum and my nerves tingled with desire. 

  "Can I persuade you to join me in the shower?" he whispered in my ear. 

  "No, now go." I turned and pushed him away from me, smacking his bottom as he turned toward the shower. I turned back to the mirror and ran a brush through my hair. 

  My eyes darted to Carter shrugging off his dress shirt in the reflection in the mirror. It dropped to the floor and he popped the button of his trousers and slid them down his hips. I moaned as his lean naked form bent over and twisted the knob in the shower.

  "See something you like, Mrs. Morgan?" He'd turned and quirked an eyebrow at me in the mirror. My cheeks reddened in embarrassment. 

  "Always," I grinned. He shook his head with a laugh and stepped behind the glass door.  

***

  "Dinner was perfect, baby." He wrapped me in his arms as we stood on the chilly boardwalk overlooking Boston Harbor. We'd just stepped out of the bustling restaurant. Carter looked delicious in Oxfords, wool pants and a double-breasted coat, completed with a scarf around his neck. I stretched on my tiptoes and brushed his soft lips. The cold wind whipped around us as I tucked tighter into his form. Damn myself for wearing a dress in winter. I was wearing a wool knee-length white coat that blocked the majority of my body from the chill. Thankfully the winters in Boston weren’t as freezing as they were in Upstate New York. 

  We walked a few steps away from the restaurant and found ourselves alone overlooking the water. 

  "I have something for you." I stopped and looked up at him. 

  "Oh, yeah?" His eyes gleamed with love. 

  "Yeah." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a black box. His eyebrows rose in surprise. He took the box from my hand and opened it; I saw emotion pool in his steel blue depths. I took the box back from him and held the wedding band up in the light. The beveled platinum band shined in the light of the streetlamps.

  "I love it," he grinned. 

  "It's engraved." I tilted the band. "It says, ‘
You and Me. Always
.’" I smiled up at him. 

  His eyes held mine and I saw love and passion reflected back at me. He held his left hand up and I slipped the ring on his finger, twisting it lovingly. 

  "It's perfect," he whispered. 

  "It's true." I wrapped my arms around him and snuggled into his warm embrace.

I stood looking out over the landscape laid out before me like a postcard. The summer waves crashed on the shore, meeting the blond sand and leaving ripples in their wake. Sea grass blew in the wind; the smell of sweet summer on Cape Cod filled my nostrils. Voices and soft music hummed from down the beach and I inhaled a breath of fresh sea breeze, thankful for the small moment of peace. 

  "There you are, beautiful." Carter came up and slipped his hands around my waist. I laid my head back on his shoulder and closed my eyes, reveling in the moment. "I’m thankful for so many things today, but seeing you in this dress again is the one I am most thankful for." He smiled and turned me in his arms, placing soft kisses up the line of my neck and running his fingers into the hair pulled softly off my shoulders. The wind grabbed fallen tendrils and swirled them around my face. 

  "I’m so glad we could do this—have everyone here when we renewed our vows. My mom has guilt-tripped me since I told her we married without her." I shook my head with a smile. 

  "It meant the world to my mom that you let her plan it, and have it here." We had just completed a small vow renewal at Carter's parents summer home on the Cape with family and close friends.

  "It meant the world to me that she did it. Everything was beautiful."

  "Most of all my girls," Carter whispered in my ear. I grinned remembering their sweet little toddling steps walking down the aisle to meet Carter and me. They were meant to be flower girls, but they'd dumped the petals in a pile at the end of the aisle and giggled and jostled into each other the remainder of the way. 

  "They were precious." 

  "Completely." Carter continued to nuzzle into my neck. "Caroline has your beautiful green eyes." His fingertips played with the edge of the lace fabric of the wedding dress I’d worn more than two years ago in Aspen. 

  "I think Kaitlyn got her chocolate brown eyes from my dad. And they both have your toffee-colored hair." I wrapped a hand behind his neck and tugged on his locks for emphasis. 

  "Toffee-colored, huh?" 

  "Didn't I ever tell you that you have toffee-colored hair?"

  "I don't think you mentioned it." He captured my lips with his own and ran his tongue along my bottom lip. I parted my lips and our tongues tangled together in a slow dance. I inhaled his sweet scent and the ocean breeze that swirled around us.

  "I’m hoping this one has your gorgeous brown hair." He ran his fingers through it and rested his palms on my cheeks, nipping at my lips. 

  "When are we going to tell them?" I asked in between light caresses. My hand instinctively trailed down to hold the very small bump of my belly. 

  "I vote for when we get back. I'll do it during the toast?" He placed a warm hand over my own on my belly. 

  "Sounds perfect."

  "Just like you." He ran his thumb along the curve of my mouth. 

  "Just like us," I corrected him. 

  "You and me always?" He lifted his left hand and spun the platinum ring on his finger with his thumb. 

  "You and me always." I smiled and leaned in for another kiss. 

The End

Thanks to Karen Lawson, my proofreader, who is still worth her weight in gold, and provides a running commentary that makes me giggle when I'm about to pull my hair out from all the editing.