Providence Series Books 5-7 Read online

  That’s when the words of the song we were dancing to registered, and the truth behind them and how perfect they were hit me. I really would give up forever for her.

  Sonya

  As soon as the dance with Tom ended, I was grabbed away by Tony.

  “I get to dance with you next,” he declared as he motioned to the DJ.

  “Why do you get to do it? Why can’t we?” I looked behind him at Taint, Hurst, and Jack who were all waiting to do the same thing.

  What the hell was this?

  “As her grandfather, I get to dance with her first!” Hurst stepped forward to take me away from Tony.

  “What about me? I’m her father now, so I get to dance with her first.” Came from Jack.

  “Whatever, I already said I was dancing with her first,” Taint walked up and looked down at me nicely for once. I almost tripped over my own feet I was so shocked.

  They argued it out, and when they couldn’t decide, they all decided that they’d dance with me at once.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, leaning against Tom.

  “You’re one of us,” Taint explained. “Instead of a father-daughter dance, you’re having a family one so that you know how much we love that you’re one of us now.”

  The sound that came out of me reminded me of the baby calf that Tom had taken me to see on the ranch a couple of days ago, but I gave not one shit as I burst into tears after it blasted out of me.

  “Now look what you’ve done!” Tony snapped at Taint and came over to me. Tom had me in his arms, so Tony just wrapped his around both of us. “We love you, sweetheart,” he whispered in my ear, making me bawl harder. When I didn’t stop, he rocked the three of us back and forth on the dance floor. After a couple of minutes, I started to calm down, but the dizzy feeling was back. Proving that he was the best distraction in the world, Tony chose that moment to lean down and whisper, “Sweetie, I don’t want to upset you even more, but…is your makeup that brand I gave you in your bridal hamper? Because if it isn’t, you’re in deep shit and those photos just aren’t gonna look right, you dig?”

  Bursting out laughing after wiping my nose one final time on my husband’s chest, I pulled back and wiped under my eyes. I wasn’t sure if Tony was relieved or if the makeup had let me down when he rolled his eyes. After my epic wedding face, I don’t think it mattered!

  Frowning, he reached over and did a quick swipe under each eye, pulled a compact out of his pocket and then dabbed the sponge from inside it on my face.

  “Gotcha!”

  Turning back to face the other three men who were waiting and looking worried, he gave a nod and then gestured to the DJ.

  It took me a minute to figure out what song was playing, but then it all made sense. The Van Morrison version of Have I Told You Lately was playing, and Hurst was the first one to make it to me and grab me up.

  Don’t cry, flappy fageena. Don’t cry! Sometimes insulting myself helped, sometimes it just pissed me off – and flappy fageena’s were just disgusting and oh so, so wrong.

  “We had a list of eight songs to choose from. It took us a full day of arguing to narrow it down to eight and then picked this one from a hat because it was becoming…physical.” He winced as he said the last word making me chuckle. “This one says perfectly how we all feel about you, and how much we love you.”

  Ah, fuck, just fucking cry. It’s not like a flappy fageena could hold anything in any way as it flaps in the wind like dogs' ears.

  “Thank you,” I croaked. It sounded painful even to me because I was crying at the same time. “I am so proud to be one of you, and I love you all very much!”

  He gave me a kiss on the forehead and passed me off to Tony who was grinning.

  “Ready?”

  When people say that, they should really pause afterward so you can prepare for whatever is coming. Tony wasn’t one of those people who had heard this theory though because he spun me around as soon as he said it.

  Spinning me back to him again, I grabbed onto him and tried to get my equilibrium back. I wasn’t given time to do that though as I was passed off to my father-in-law who grabbed me up in a hug.

  “We love you, and we’re proud to call you a Townsend.”

  More tears fell, some of them were because the room was still spinning, and I was starting to worry that I was going to be sick down Jack’s beautiful suit.

  Just as I was about to say something to him, I was passed off to Taint.

  “You are wonderful and unforgettable in every way. The day I saved you is the proudest and best day of my life. If you need anything at any time, all you have to do is say…but can you please call me fucking Tate? Just once?”

  I never got the chance to reply. I never got the chance to hug him.

  The next second, he swung me out, looping me around in a circle. The room was spinning like crazy and black started to take over my vision. I remember stumbling. I remember Taint’s worried face. I also remember Tom running over.

  And that was it.

  Chapter 12

  Tom

  N one of us saw it coming. It was meant to be the best day of our lives, and it had been until that point.

  When she passed out in Tate’s arms, we all went into panic mode. We didn’t know if someone had poisoned her or if she was dying – we didn’t know anything.

  There are moments in life when you realize everything you had once it was gone. I knew what I had, I’d known from the moment I met her. The possibility we might never get to live the lives that I had planned for us was something I never wanted to think about.

  Ren’s best friend, Parker, had been at the wedding, so he’d taken her stats and made sure she was okay before the ambulance arrived. When the EMT’s got there, they quickly set her up on the gurney and wheeled her into the ambulance.

  Parker had left before the ambulance had so he could be there to meet them and take her at the hospital. The whole way there the guy was writing down numbers, looking at screens, sticking shit to her – and the whole time she lay there pale with her eyes closed.

  They’d wheeled her away from me and I’d been left to fill in the paperwork while I waited for my family to arrive. I felt like I was going to lose my shit at any second.

  How could this happen? What did I miss?

  “How is she?” Gramps yelled as they all ran toward me.

  “I don’t know,” I croaked around the pain in my throat. “They have her in there,” I pointed behind me to the door.

  Ren nodded and walked around us, heading to find Parker. I hadn’t thought about doing that, but then I was also filling in all the forms they had handed me. I should have just taken them with me and made Parker let me stand beside her while they did their thing.

  I’d just finished the last bit on the form when Ren came back with Parker in tow.

  “Yo,” he waved and then went pale when he saw my cousin, Ariana. She was getting payback on him for me and it was working from the looks of things. Looking back at her, I caught her giving him an exaggerated wink and blowing a kiss. Once Sonya was okay, I was totally getting the lowdown from her on all of this. “Uh,” he stuttered, “She’s okay. We’re doing more blood tests because a couple things were coming up fucked.” Dude just said it how it is which I could appreciate. When doctors came out and spoke medical jargon, it freaked the shit out of me. I needed it said in a way I could understand. “She’s awake if you want to see her?”

  Stepping quickly around him, I went in the direction he’d come from and found her in the first cubicle looking as pale as the sheets on the bed she was lying on.

  “I’m so sorry,” she wailed when she saw me. “I ruined our big day all because of my fucking ear!”

  Being careful of all the wires and shit that were attached to her, I gathered her up and just held her. I had so much that I wanted to say, but right now I just needed to feel her and make sure she was here with me. It didn’t even bother me she was getting snot on me, or that people were walkin
g past and looking at us like we were a circus show.

  Once she started to calm down, I kissed her forehead and moved so I could see her face. She had her head pointing down at her lap, so I lifted it with a finger under her chin.

  “You are perfect,” I said it making sure she could see how serious I was. “The day was perfect.” When she started shaking her head to disagree, I moved, so I was holding her face between both hands. “It was. And I love you.” Grabbing her back up, I whispered the next thing into her hair. “I’m so relieved that you’re okay and that you’re still here with me. You were so still I thought I’d lost you before we’d even started.” Fuck, now I was starting to cry.

  Figuring that now was a good time to shut up, I continued to hold her until the rest of my family walked in. The room was close to bursting at the seams, but they all needed that confirmation she was okay too.

  Tony was the one to walk up and break the tension in the room. Lifting her chin like I’d done not long ago, he turned her face this way and that – most likely making sure for himself that she was okay – and then said, “What did I tell you? It hasn’t even moved at all. Your eyeliner and mascara are on point and even your lips look good.” My family burst out laughing at how smug he sounded. “They should really use you as a commercial for the brand, you know. Does anyone have the video of her passing out? Take a picture of the after effects.”

  Right then, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. Which is why I knew I was going to have to do everything that I could to find that fucker and stop him before he took one of these people away from me.

  Sonya

  It had been an hour since I’d woken up in the hospital, and since then I’d been surrounded by family. Layla had cried a couple of times, but Maya’s cousin Mark had been there to give her a hug each time it happened. They would make such a great couple. They’d known each other their whole lives, they were close, they got along, and they really had good chemistry.

  “Don’t!” Tom ordered quietly in my ear.

  Turning around and smiling at him, his face softened, and he brushed his nose down mine in an Eskimo kiss.

  The sound of a throat clearing made everyone turn toward the door as Parker stood there with a chart in his hand. He looked worried which made everyone stiffen up.

  “Um, maybe we should keep this to just Mr. and Mrs. Townsend?” he suggested, looking around the room at everyone. His eyes stopped on Ariana for a brief second longer than everyone else and although he was wary of her, there was definitely something going on inside his head about the beautiful woman.

  “Do we have to?” Gramps whined at the same time as Cole.

  “We’ll shout you back in,” Tom reassured them, sounding tense.

  Once they were all out and in the hallway, Parker walked around and sat down on the end of the bed with a sigh.

  “Well, we have your results,” he tapped the chart in his hand to emphasize what he was saying. Where was the fucking iPad? I’m telling you, this guy was a quack!

  “How do we get rid of it?” Tom asked, holding me closer.

  “You don’t want it?” Parker sounded flabbergasted as he jumped up from the bed and looked at me for confirmation. “I thought this is what you guys all lived for?”

  “Why the fuck would she want to keep it? Look what it’s done to her,” Tom almost yelled at Parker as he got up off the bed too.

  “But that’s normal! It did the same thing to Isla, and I remember the other ones getting like this too.”

  I was so confused. What the hell were we talking about now? I hadn’t heard any of the others complain about an ear infection or dizziness. Well, unless they were…nooo!

  “They have this too?” Tom sounded horrified at the thought. He definitely hadn’t clued into what was going on.

  “Maya and Ebru have it now. How didn’t you know that?” Parker asked looking at Tom like he was crazy now. We’d had a celebration for the pregnancies a couple of days ago, so his reaction to what Tom was saying was understandable.

  “An ear infection?”

  “No,” Parker said slowly. “A preg-nan-cy.” He practically spelled it out to Tom who stood looking confused.

  “In her ear?”

  The shock of the news wore off, and I could finally add my own two cents to the conversation.

  “Who has a baby growing in their ear, you dickhead?” I snapped. “What he’s saying is I’m pregnant!” Then the full meaning of the word hit me. “Holy shit, I’m pregnant.”

  The door burst open and Gramps, Layla, and Tony fell through it onto the floor with the others almost joining them.

  “Ah, fuck. We have a wiener!” Parker yelled, reaching down to pick Tom up off the floor where he’d landed when he’d fainted this time.

  Sitting back, I looked down at my stomach in shock. I was carrying a Townsend.

  A figure stopping beside me grabbed my attention, and I looked up to find Gramps glaring at me.

  “When you have my beautiful great grandbaby, who I will love more than anyone in the world will, I’m getting you a bottle of Tylenol.”

  “What for?” I asked, looking at him like he was crazy. Was being a parent that painful?

  “For contraception. You hold one pill between your knees at all times. Don’t drop it, don’t lose it, don’t take it even if you have a migraine. It stays right there.”

  Each one of them was in the room when they did the scan and discovered that I was only slightly ahead of Maya in terms of gestation. That meant that two Townsend babies would be born close together.

  When Tom came around and heard the news again, he was like a little kid telling everyone in the hospital and running to the shop to get a teddy bear. The whole time he was doing it, he held one of the scan photos in his hand, checking it every five seconds.

  Everything that I’d planned on having was now a distant memory. Everything that I’d never planned to have was now my reality - and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

  Epilogue

  Tom

  I watched as Sonya made her way down the aisle and stood opposite me at the altar. My beautiful wife- my heavily pregnant, beautiful wife - was looking pale and kept shifting around. I couldn’t blame her, she was three years pregnant with Dumbo by the looks of it and kept telling everyone that her bajinga was a goner.

  As she shifted, I narrowed my eyes and tried to get her to look at me. Some might think she didn’t know I was trying to get her attention, but the little shit totally did because she tipped her head back and looked up at the ceiling, instead of the star of the day who was about to walk toward us.

  I was considering waving my hand or saying her name to get her attention when I got an elbow in both sides thanks to my asshole brother and Lars who were standing either side of me. Turning my attention in the direction of the door, I tried not to turn back to Sonya. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what and it was driving me crazy. All night she’d been restless and then when she got up this morning she was huffing and groaning. Then again, if her vagina really was a goner thanks to the Orca in her belly, I could totally understand it.

  That said, it still felt like the tight heaven it always had, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. This morning when she’d woken up, she’d literally jumped at me. There had been no warm up, no foreplay, nothing. I’d been lying there thinking about the day ahead and what I had to do, then she’d sat up and the sheet had fallen down around her waist. The sight of her body, round with my baby inside her and her breasts fuller than they’d ever been was an instant green light for my dick. Apparently, just opening her eyes had been an instant green light for her pussy. She’d turned around, looked at me and then did a twist -that I was sure wasn’t a good idea for a pregnant woman - and sat right down with me inside her. Normally, I liked it to last a bit longer, but she was so hot and wet and was moving so fast it only took both of us a couple of minutes before we were coming.

  Then, I’d had to make up for being a ‘quick dick’
, so I’d taken her again in the shower. I’d started off slowly, making sure she wasn’t uncomfortable with her nipples rubbing the tiles because they were so sensitive just now. Then she’d moved her hand to rub her clit, and the next second, we were both coming down from a shower sex orgasm.

  There’s a difference between orgasms based on location, and a shower orgasm was normally wet, really hot and steamy. The steam made it harder to breathe, so it left you panting which heightened the feelings of euphoria going through your system. Or maybe we just took our showers too hot? Fuck if I know, but shower sex was one of my favorites.

  Standing beside Lars as Tony walked down the aisle toward us was a proud moment. My brother from an ungrateful mother was finally getting married. Lars had chosen to wear a black tuxedo and kept fidgeting as Tony walked down, the Swarovski crystals that decorated his white tuxedo glittering the whole way. The groomsmen all had the same on their vests and it was uncomfortable as hell. Even worse, when Sonya had laid her head down on my chest on the way here, her hair had gotten caught up in them and was now looking a little less awesome than it had initially. Every time I looked down, I’d see another blonde strand hanging from the damn things. I’d picked that many off that I was going to discreetly check for a bald patch later. So long as she had her pineapple, I wasn’t sure she’d care though. We’d gone through every type of fruit possible with her cravings, including prunes which was something I’d rather forget.

  Tony had struggled to choose who walked him down the aisle today, but in the end they had made the choice for him. Dad, Mom, Gramps, and Grams were all marching him toward Lars who gulped at the glare in Mom and Gramps’ eyes which were focused on him with laser precision.

  Mom and Dad were holding onto Tony’s arms, and Grams and Gramps were leading them all - with Gram throwing glitter the whole way. I shuddered as I saw it all sparkling in her hair and cleavage. Glitter was the herpes of the craft world – once you even went near it, it was with you for life. You could shower, vacuum, shake yourself off, but that shit held on for dear life. What made it worse was that Gramps kept looking at the sparkly shit in her cleavage and licking his lips.