Trouble In Dixie (38 page)

"I'm six months pregnant, Karlie, give me a
break...I'm tired," she told her sister, then added, "I feel like
I'm eight months."

"That's because you've got trouble times two
in your belly, darlin'. We can't miss the window for the wedding,
or your doctor isn't gonna let you travel...you're the one who
wanted the wedding to be in Tahiti," Karlie reminded her with a
chuckle.

"I might have changed my mind now," Katie
told her then dropped her forehead to the breakfast bar. "I was
just excited about the gas find on the property, and overwhelmed
with all the money...I wanted to share it and give all my family
and friends a dream vacation."

"Too late for to change your mind now,
Kate...the people you've told have already taken time off from work
to go...hell half of them have already called the travel agency and
made their reservations."

"I know," Katie said with a sigh, then
lifted back up and picked up her pen, then started writing again.
"Let's get this done."

Tommy came in a little later, and zoned in
on her like a bee to a honeycomb. His goofy, lovesick grin made her
heart pound...so did his well worn Wranglers and the black t-shirt
that stretched across his broad chest.

"Hey, beautiful'," he drawled in that sexy
voice of his, then he pulled her out of the chair and slammed his
mouth over hers and kissed her, until her toes curled. "God, I've
missed you."

She giggled and told him, "You've only been
at the barn for three hours, Tommy."

"That's three hours too long, baby," he
murmured sexily then kissed her again.

Karlie growled then tossed her pen down.
"Alright, you two--you're impeding progress here with all your lip
locking...get busy Katie! There will be plenty of time for sucking
face after the wedding!"

Tommy's eyes filled with concern and he
looked down at her. "You sure you don't want to postpone this until
after the babies are born, darlin'? This Tahiti thing is a lot to
chew...especially when you're carrying the peanuts."

"It will be doubly difficult after their
born, Tom...we'll have three kids then," she reminded him.

He smiled then kissed her forehead, and said
in awe, his hazel eyes all dreamy, "Yeah, we will won't we?"

Katie thought his feet hadn't touched the
ground in two months. This is how he walked around all the time,
with his head in the clouds. She wasn't much better. Life was good,
but she wanted to be his wife dammit! Maybe this destination
wedding on such short notice was a lot to chew, for both of
them.

"Let's go to the courthouse and get married
right now," Katie said impulsively, then added. "We can have our
first anniversary and renew our vows in Tahiti, and have a belated
honeymoon. I don't need all this, I just need you," she told
him.

She heard Karlie gasp and Tommy jerked back
from her. His eyebrows hit his hairline, then he grinned. "Are you
being serious?"

She huffed out a frustrated breath then
admitted, "Hell yeah, I'm serious...I'm tired of all this
waiting...and it will give people more time to plan to come
anyway."

"But I thought you just said that we should
do it now, because we'd have three kids then?"

Karlie stood up and walked over to them and
said, "Gabe and I will keep the twins, and I'm sure Cassie and Luke
wouldn't mind keeping Dixie. This does sound like a better
plan...Katie is exhausted and she doesn't need this stress right
now."

Katie nodded in agreement, and looking
relieved, Tommy took his hat off and threw it in the air, then let
out a loud whoop, before he told her with a wide smile, "Go get
dressed, darlin' and I'll get cleaned up. Karlie you get the
shotgun and call Gabe to meet us at the courthouse, I'm gonna make
an honest woman of your sister."

Katie and Karlie both laughed, then Tommy
ran upstairs, taking the steps two at a time, and she and her
sister went to the downstairs bedroom to get ready. They met Gerrie
in the hallway and told her what was going on, and she suggested
that Tommy and Katie take the weekend for a mini-honeymoon, and
she'd keep Dixie. She hated leaving Dixie alone for two days, but a
break sounded good right now. For the last eight weeks, every day
had been jammed packed with planning the wedding she'd now
postponed for a year. With a smile, she thanked Gerrie then she and
Karlie walked into the bedroom.

"Okay, what are you going to wear?" Karlie
asked and headed for the closet.

"Well, since my wedding dress won't work for
the wedding anymore. I won't be pregnant when we have the ceremony
now, I probably should wear that, even though I'll look funny in
wearing it in broad daylight at the courthouse."

"Who cares what anyone else thinks,
sugar...this is your day, wear whatever the hell you want to wear,"
Karlie told her.

"Yeah, that's right! I'm wearing my wedding
dress then," she replied with a smile, excitement filling her at
the prospect of wearing the beautiful dress.

An hour later, Katie studied her reflection
in the Cheval mirror in the corner of the room, and elation filled
her. The dress she'd picked out was perfect, It was fitted at the
bodice and enhanced her newly enlarged bosom, then flowed
gracefully from right above her waist. She was so damned excited
that she'd be wearing it and marrying Tommy today.

The decision to delay the ceremony was the
right one, she'd decided after further thought. That way, they'd be
able to enjoy their time in the tropical paradise with their
friends and family, and she wouldn't be miserable, being so
cumbersome and pregnant.

"Come over here and let me do your makeup,"
Karlie said impatiently. "You look gorgeous, quit admiring
yourself."

Katie gave her sister a wobbly smile in the
mirror then said, "This is my day, you said so...and I want to make
sure Tommy thinks I'm beautiful."

"Honey, you could wear a burlap sack and
house slippers, and he'd think you were beautiful. That man is
smitten," Karlie told her with a snort as she smoothed down the
skirt of the gold bridesmaid's dress Katie had picked out for her
to wear at the ceremony in Tahiti. The dress made her skin glow and
her hair look like burnished copper.

Katie's grin widened and she walked over and
sat down on the edge of the bed, where Karlie had laid out a towel
and the makeup. She put the towel around Katie's neck and clipped
it with a hair clamp, then went to work. When she finished, she
took the hair clamp off the towel and fluffed Katie's hair then
twisted it up and used the clamp to secure it. "I have the curling
iron hot in the bathroom, let's go in there and I'll finish you
up," her sister said with a smile.

There was a knock at the door and Karlie
huffed a frustrated breath then went to answer it. She only cracked
the door open an inch and then said, "Go away--we're almost done.
Fifteen minutes," before she shut the door again.

"Was that Tommy," Katie asked her.

"Who else would it be? He's chomping at the
bit, let's hurry up, so he doesn't bust down the door and carry you
out over his shoulder," Karlie told her with a chuckle.

Katie put on her horseshoe pendant and the
matching earrings that Tommy had given her recently, then stomped
into the white cowboy boots she'd bought to go with her dress. With
one more look in the mirror, she smiled with satisfaction, then she
and Karlie walked down the hallway to the family room. Tommy was at
the breakfast bar and he turned when he heard them. The look on his
face was something she'd remember for the rest of her life. It was
like he was mesmerized by her, in awe and the love shining in his
eyes totally enraptured her.

She was sure her face looked the same way,
because not only had he cleaned up, he had on the charcoal gray
suit that made him look good enough to eat. The same one he'd worn
the day he'd come back from Amarillo, after meeting with the
Rangers and the FBI, the same one that he'd swiftly removed, so
they could have angry sex. Her blood heated, and she made a vow to
rip it off of him herself tonight, after they were husband and
wife.

"My, god, Kate, you look unbelievably
beautiful, darlin'...an angel," he said and walked toward her with
intent in his eyes.

Karlie stepped between them and put her hand
on his chest, then said, "Back off, bucko. It's bad enough you're
seeing her in the dress before the wedding, you're gonna keep your
hands off her at least."

Tommy took a step back and grinned then said
deferentially, "Yes ma'am...she's just so gorgeous, I wanted to
steal a kiss."

"You'll get your kisses after the I do, this
is a shotgun wedding remember?" Karlie told him with a chuckle.

"No shotgun needed, Karlie...I want this as
much as Katie does...more," he said seriously, then looked into
Katie's eyes, and finished, "Let's go get married, baby."

Karlie stepped up to him and straightened
his tie then asked in a low voice, so low that Katie could barely
hear her, "You have the marriage license and the ring?" Tommy
nodded and patted his suit pocket. "Good, let's go...you're driving
to keep your hands occupied and off my sister," she told him with a
grin.

Katie noticed Tommy's hands were shaking on
the steering wheel, when he pulled into a spot that opened up right
in front of the courthouse, and asked him, "You nervous, baby?"

She hoped that wasn't the case, because she
sure wasn't nervous, anticipation and excitement were her emotions
of choice, and she welcomed them. This was going to be the best day
of her life...the beginning of the rest of her life...with the man
she loved more than life.

He snorted then gave her a sexy smile, "Hell
no, that's adrenaline, and anticipation, baby...I can't wait til
this is over and you're my wife."

Gabe was standing on the steps of the
courthouse waiting for them. He had been in Lubbock meeting with
Beau and Glen to help them sort out the evidence they were going to
give to the D.A. for Mark Preston's trial, which was coming up in
the next few weeks, so it had only taken him an hour or so to get
from there to Amarillo, Katie guessed. Edith Preston was in a
mental facility, but if and when a doctor said she was fit to stand
trial, she would for attempted kidnapping, among many other
charges.

Katie smiled at her sister's handsome
husband, and then they all walked into the courthouse. As they
passed people in the corridor, eyes turned their way, and people
smiled sappily. None of those smiles though, could be any sappier
than the one she had on her own face, she thought, as they stood
and waited for the elevator. Regardless of her sister's insistence
that Tommy not touch her until after the wedding, he moved to her
side and grabbed her hand to lace his fingers with hers, then
smiled down at her softly.

Katie squeezed his hand and returned the
smile, then followed him into the elevator, grabbing the skirt of
her long dress to make sure it didn't get caught in the door. Her
heart surged to her throat, as the elevator door opened again and
she stepped out with Tommy, then walked toward their future.

EPILOGUE

How in the hell can you look that damned
good after giving birth to twins nine months ago? Karlie asked
Katie incredulously, then looked at her own expanding
waistline.

Her sister was whining and she was only four
months along and barely showing. Katie couldn't wait until Karlie
hit the seven month mark, she'd really be howling then, and she was
only carrying one baby. Katie had looked like she was wider than
she was tall, she thought with a chuckle. "Just wait sis, the best
is yet to come."

"That dress is absolutely breathtaking,
Katie...I bet you're glad you waited now, huh?'

"Damn, straight...I don't know what I was
thinking trying to do this pregnant," Katie told her and readjusted
the slightly too snug bustline of her wedding dress. The cut of the
beautiful chiffon dress definitely exposed more of her than she
expected. Her boobs were trying to escape from the sweetheart
neckline, and her back was exposed down to the very last decent
point at her lower back.

"You decided if you're wearing your boots?"
Karlie asked her and retied the side of her hibiscus print sarong,
so less of her thigh was showing.

"Nah, boots and sand aren't gonna cut it,
I'm going barefooted like any self-respecting country girl," she
told her sister with a hoot, then closed the clasp of her horseshoe
necklace, before she put in her earrings. "You think these flowers
in my hair look good?"

Karlie snorted and Katie laughed, because
the sound was just so damned funny. Thank the Lord she hadn't wound
up with the same nasal condition, Katie thought. Karlie's snort
sounded something like a happy pig rooting in a sty, and it was
such a stark contrast to her beautiful sister's appearance, people
always
lost it when they heard her.

"You look like something from the pages of
Bridal Monthly, sis...Tommy is gonna split his britches," Karlie
told her.

"I hope he waits until after the ceremony to
do that," she told her sister with a sly grin and a waggle of her
eyebrows. "I'm so excited to be able to spend some time with him
alone...the babies have been a handful."