The Cowboy's Triplets (14 page)

“Goodness,” he said, his tone admiring, “come to daddy.” And then his mouth was on her breasts, and Jackie forgot to be embarrassed about the size of them. Her dress seemed to melt off her, and Jackie clutched Pete to her, pulling off his shirt, shoving his jeans down, craving his warmth.

“Hi, boys,” he said to her stomach, kissing the whole rounded size of it, and the last worry Jackie had floated away. “If they're napping,” he told Jackie, “I'm about to wake them up.”

“Pete!” Jackie tried not to laugh, but his playful spirit washed away her insecurities. All she wanted was him. “We don't know that we're having twins.”

“It's either that, sweetie, or a linebacker. Or you swallowed several pumpkins.” He kissed her stomach again. “I'm going to have to turn you around so I don't hurt you.”

“Why?” Jackie put her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her so she could kiss him. “You're not going to hurt me.”

“I don't want to jostle them.”

“Let's find out if they like being jostled.”

“I don't know,” Pete said, “you were hiding a lot under those baggy clothes, Jackie. I don't want to press my boys flat as pancakes.”

“Either you get inside me right now,” Jackie said, “or there will be hell to pay.”

“Yes, ma'am,” he said, sliding between her legs. And then he was inside her, and Jackie gasped as he kissed her hard, driving her mad with feeling him again.

He only hesitated once. “Am I hurting anything?”

“For the love of Mike,” Jackie said, practically growl
ing, wanting him never to stop doing what he was doing to her.

“Pete,” he said, “I prefer for the love of Pete.” And then he found the sweet spot, and Jackie forgot to be mad. Closing her eyes, she let the sweet waves of pleasure claim her, going boneless and mindless and utterly content to be in Pete's strong arms. She felt him stiffen, heard him cry out, and holding him close to her, finally allowed the pleasure she'd held back to wash over her like rain.

“Pete,” she murmured, “I missed you.”

“Say it,” he said, rising above her, still inside her, “go ahead and say you can't live without me.”

She slapped his rump smartly. “I can't live without you.”

“Good,” he said, groaning, “because I'm pretty certain I can't live without you, either. I don't get munchies like my brothers. I get the Jackies, and I just have to have you.”

She giggled as he buried his face in her neck, nibbling on her. It was so hard to be mad at Pete that it wasn't worth the effort.

I just love him too much. And I don't know how to fix that.

 

A
HALF HOUR LATER
, Pete realized he'd fallen asleep. “Oh, hell,” he said, pushing himself up on an elbow so he could look down into Jackie's face, “I think I short-circuited.” He kissed her to make up for the lack of pillow talk.

Jackie giggled. “You have been acting strange lately.”

“It's sympathetic pregnancy pangs. They're blowing all my fuses. Are you hungry?” God, he was a louse.
He shouldn't have fallen asleep like that. All his good intentions flew out of his brain when he got in Jackie's bed. He didn't think he needed food, even. He could probably just live on sex with Jackie for the rest of his life. “Starving.”

“I'll get the steaks on.” He hopped up, grabbing for his jeans.

“Pete?”

He turned to look at Jackie. “Uh-huh?”

“About that other position you mentioned we might try.”

Had he hurt her? He felt his heart rate jump. He'd never touch her again—at least not until his little guys were born—if he'd caused her the slightest bit of pain. “What about it?”

She crooked her finger at him.

“Oh, boy,” Pete said, throwing his jeans back on the floor.

Forty minutes later, Pete knew he was wearing a very self-satisfied smirk. “We've got to stop meeting like this.”

Jackie giggled. “Naked?”

“Once a month. Let's go back to our old routine, at least.” Pete wondered how he could convince her that they needed to meet like this every night—married. “We have to buy a bigger house.”

“
We
have to buy a bigger house?”

“Mmm.” He kissed down her neck to her collarbone, lingering at the spectacular view. Pregnancy certainly brought out the best in his turtledove. “Now that the whole town knows we've been living in sin, we might as well go ahead and do it.”

“The whole town doesn't know it.”

He grinned, running a palm over her tummy. “Even if you hadn't branded me in the middle of the street today, my love, I think they suspected. It's time you make an honest man of me.”

Jackie tried to roll out of her bed, but he caught her and brought her back, sneaking a hand between her thighs. He heard her breath catch, and grinned. “Say yes.”

“To what?”

She sounded like she might be relaxing to the point of mindless, so he decided to press his advantage. “To the bigger house, for starters.”

“Pete,” she said, moving away from his hand and pushing him down on the bed so that she straddled him. He grinned at her serious expression. She was going to try to read him the riot act, and it was so cute when she tried to do it naked. It took all the seriousness right out of it. He could feel her warmth and wetness on his stomach, and if she only but knew it, his soldier was standing at attention right behind her. Waiting patiently for her to finish.

“If I'm having one baby, and that's what I think, there is no need for me to move. This house is plenty big enough. And I never said I'd share a house with you.”

“This is a two-bedroom, one-bath house. We need a bigger house, Jackie, one that's far out in the country. You yell loudly when you're aroused.” He kissed her fingertips, nibbling at them and then up her wrist. “You came so loudly Fanny ran under the bed. She may never come back out.”

Jackie took her hand from him and crossed her arms, which did nothing but stiffen parts of him that were already at attention. He put his hands behind his head, enjoying the delicious sight of rounded, nude Jackie.

“I did no such thing. I made barely any noise.”

“My sweet.” He gave her a mock-ashamed look. “You're so loud that the chandelier is still swinging in the living room. I think the house moved on its foundation.”

He lifted her hips and sat her on himself, grinning at her gasp. He reached up to tweak her nipples as she moved on him, enjoying watching her find the spots
that pleasured her. But then she leaned over, and her breasts fell into his face so he could lick and suck on her nipples, and all Pete could think of was how much he loved Jackie Samuels, no matter how hard she tried to run away from him.

He was fast. He'd catch her yet.

 

“I
ADVISE COMPLETE BED REST
,” Dr. Snead said on Monday, turning to glance at Jackie and Pete.

Pete didn't think Jackie on complete bed rest sounded all that bad. Bed was exactly where he wanted her. But Jackie looked concerned, so Pete said, “Is there a problem with the pregnancy?”

Pete had driven Jackie to Santa Fe Monday morning after the longest weekend of lovemaking he'd ever enjoyed. He thought he just about had her under his spell. Things were looking positive, anyway, since she used to shoo him off on Sundays and not open the door again until the next Saturday.

He looked at the screen the doctor had returned his attention to, and held Jackie's hand. She was squeezing him until his fingers were numb, and he squeezed back, letting her know that everything was going to be fine.

“No problem,” Dr. Snead said. “It's just that the three babies are taking up a lot of space inside Jackie. And she's already mentioned having spasms. We need to keep the babies in as long as we possibly can.”

The room swam around Pete. Now he was clutching Jackie's hand. The nurse pushed a stool underneath him.
“Three?”

Dr. Snead nodded. “Three heartbeats. Three well-established babies. It's hard to make out the different bodies because they seem to be tangled up in there. But here's an arm.”

Pete brightened. “Can you tell the sex?”

“Girls,” Doctor Snead said. “It'll be clearer later on, but unless someone's got a thumb down there I can't see, you're having three girls, Jackie.”

Jackie's face was ashen. Pete rubbed her hand in his. “I always knew you were an efficient woman, Jackie. We're going to have an entire family.”

“I never even thought I could get pregnant,” Jackie said, sounding close to tears. But she was smiling, and Pete realized she was pretty much in shock. “But I can't be on bed rest,” she told Doctor Snead. “I have a shop to run.”

“Get a recliner and a portable phone,” the doctor said. “I'll send a nurse out once a week to check on you. And I suggest you, Mr. Callahan, learn how to cook and clean.”

Pete grinned at Jackie, his face creased with mischievous laughter. “I can cook and clean, Doctor.”

“And I'm afraid no marital relations,” Dr. Snead said.

Pete patted Jackie's hand. “There goes your plan of driving me mad with sex, sweetheart. You'll have to do without the pleasure of me until after the children are born.”

Jackie looked as though she had plenty to say but was refraining until the doctor and nurse had left the room. Pete was so happy he couldn't stand it.

He was having three little girls. All those squiggles and lines he couldn't make sense of on the screen were three little Callahan cowgirls.

After having nothing but brothers, he was looking forward to being the only man in the house.

“Jackie,” Pete said, “it'll be hard on me to wait on you
hand and foot, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for the cause.”

She looked as though she was about to kill him as he helped her up from the table. “What cause is that?”

“You, darling,” he said. “You're my new cause in life.”

“Great,” Jackie said. “I'll only be half insane by this time next month. By the time the babies are born, I'll be stark raving mad.”

“I've got to buy a baby name book. And a house. And baby furniture. Have you even been thinking about all this, Jackie Samuels, or has your mind only been on your new business?” Pete gave her a light pat on the rump as she bent over to slip her shoes on.

“Ugh. The next several months stretch before me endlessly.” Jackie let Pete give her his arm.

“Just because you can't have sex with me,” he said. “Good thing you had a lot of me this weekend.”

Jackie sighed and Pete grinned. “We have to get married. We don't have a second to wait. You're not going to want to get married in a recliner, Jackie. Let's let the romance of Santa Fe lure us in to just doing it. Spontaneously.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Pete, I can't.”

“We'll redo the vows later, if you want, after the babies are born and you've got your figure back. That's what you're worried about, isn't it? Your sexy little body fitting into a wedding gown?”

“No,” she said, and he could practically hear her teeth grinding. “I just found out I'm having triplets. And I'm in love with a numbskull. That's what is worrying me.” She sailed off toward the truck, and Pete followed, happier than he'd ever been in his life.

She'd said she
loved
him. Maybe that had just slipped
out from between her pretty little tightly clenched teeth, but he'd heard her. And he wasn't going to let her forget it, either.

Whistling, he followed her, feeling like a king. It was a beautiful day in Santa Fe, and he was going to be a dad—he
was
a dad—and he had a woman who loved him. All was well until he realized Jackie was raining tears like a leaky faucet.

“What is it? Are you in pain?” He leaned across the seat to look into her face.

She shook her face and blew her nose. “I wanted change. Have I ever gotten change.”

“Yes, we have. Isn't change awesome?” He wanted her to cease the waterworks, though. He didn't want his little girls getting scared by all the noise their mother was making. “Change is good, right?”

“Change is great, but too much change is scaring me.”

He pondered that. “Will it help if I tell you I have a surprise for you?”

She looked up at him through beautiful, watery brown eyes. His love had such limpid pools of suspicion beaming at him that all he could do was smile at her. “You look like I'm about to give you a vacuum cleaner.”

“Not if you want to keep your handsome face on your block-shaped head.” She sniffed.

He laughed. “Here.” Reaching into the backseat of the double cab, he handed her a bag from her own wedding shop. “Be very careful how you open it, my love. My heart is in that bag.”

She stared at him, more cautious than ever, and slowly pulled his gift from the bag.

“The magic wedding dress,” she said, her voice awed, and Pete grinned.

“Darla said it was your dream come true. So I sneaked off with it.” Pete kissed Jackie, and swept her hair back from her chin so he could see her face. He hoped to see a smile.

Instead, Jackie cried harder.

“Oh, crap,” Pete said, “I knew I didn't believe in magic.”

“No,” Jackie said, trying not to cry, “it's sweet. You're sweet. It is my dream come true. I'm just not sure I'll ever fit into it now.” Tears ran freely down her cheeks. Pete dug into the glove box for tissues. “I hate being all hormonal and emotional, especially when you're being so romantic and princely.”

“You might fit into it if we hurry,” Pete said, trying to tease her but really meaning it. “There's a chance you'll only grow another inch by the time we make it to a drive-through wedding chapel.”

Jackie looked at him. “You're serious.”

“Yes.” He nodded. “Is there a better time than the present? I'm wearing my best jeans. You've got a dress. My chariot can take us there.” He pounded on the dashboard. “It'll be as romantic as running off to Hawaii.”

“It won't.”

“I think it will be. And Callahan is a sweet last name. You might as well give in, Jackie. Remember when you told me there was no need to buy the steer if you could get the steak for free?”

“Yes,” Jackie said, blowing her nose, “but now I'm not going to be getting any steak, according to the doctor.”

“All the more reason to go ahead and reserve the steer for later.” He kissed her cheek, and then her lips. “You can't resist me, Jackie. And those little girls are going to want to know they're fully claimed Callahan.”

“I don't know, Pete. There's an awful lot to marriage besides having kids. My parents nearly got divorced when my dad went through malepause. It's bad when the parents aren't entirely suited to each other. The kids suffer.” She looked at him. “Marriage is a very serious thing. You can't approach it like a rodeo, all just ride and hang on.”

“Sure, that's exactly what it is. You can hang on to me for dear life.” He snapped his fingers. “I knew I was forgetting something. I forgot to ask your father for permission to marry you.”

He looked so upset that Jackie smiled. “You can ask him later, when we say our vows at your ranch. I always thought that if we did get married, I would love to do it at your family's ranch.”

“Oh.” Pete looked out the window for a second. “I don't know. Ranch weddings are kind of overdone. Eloping sounds a whole lot more spontaneous and romantic. Don't you think?” He looked at her eagerly.

She sighed. “I give in.”

“Whee-hoo!” Pete yelled, punching the air with his fist. “I knew you couldn't wait to be my bride, Jackie, though you played hard to get. Awfully hard to get.
Pfew.
” He didn't want to think about that anymore. She'd agreed, and that was all that mattered. He pulled out his phone. “Now,” he said, punching some buttons, “let's see how far we have to drive to get someone to marry us on the spot. I hope you have the money for this. It's bound to be expensive.”

“Pete,” Jackie said, laughing.

“Well, I'm not cheap. And there's still the matter of your house. If you're going to be on bed rest, I'll have to pick out the new house. Well, what do you know?” he
said with satisfaction, “we can get married right here in Santa Fe. Actually, we could get married back in Diablo, but why wait? There's no blood test, you just need your license, social security number and twenty-five bucks. Do you have twenty-five bucks to buy me a marriage license?” He glanced over at her. “No? Lucky for you, I brought some spare change just in case.”

“You planned this,” Jackie said, and he grinned.

“Come on,” Pete said. “Let's find a willing justice.”

“Hang on a sec,” Jackie said, “you should know I have no intention of moving.”

“You just sit over there and imagine three girls fighting over one bathroom, and us waiting our turns, while I find the justice of the peace. I talked to one this morning who thought she had plenty of room in her schedule.”

“Is this your version of sweeping me off my feet?”

Pete grinned. “Consider this my first act of sweeping, just like the doctor suggested.”

“I don't think that's what he had in mind when he said you'd have to cook and clean.”

“That's okay,” Pete said, “you just visualize yourself into that so-called magic wedding gown, and let me take care of everything.”

 

T
HE WEDDING DRESS
fitted like, well, magic. Jackie looked at herself in the mirror, admiring the tiny crystal beads and sequins delicately placed on the white satin. It was the most lovely gown she'd ever seen. She
did
feel magical. Pete had overthought the situation as usual, slipping a pair of Cinderella-awesome shoes into the bag he'd “just happened to pick up” along with a darling bouquet of white roses he grabbed at a florist's. Jackie felt like a princess, and the glow in Pete's eyes told her she looked like one, too.