Cart Before The Horse (23 page)

joy herself around others and to be free with herself, it was new for both of them. “I think we all needed this.”

Gabe reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, and Holly knew she was right at home.
She was a Maguire.

After they’d eaten their first round of dinner, they cleaned up the tables and Gabe turned on all the TVs to different foo
tball games. Tracy stopped by and Holly watched as she and Gladys holed up in a booth and were in deep conversation about fashion and textiles.

Gabe’s father and hers had made a wager on a college foo
tball game, and each jabbed the other with his elbow when one of the teams made a great play.

Holly wandered from conversation to conversation, amazed at the differences and similarities that melded bet
-ween them.

“Quite a sight, isn’t it?” Meghan walked up behind her.

“I love it. In my family it’s just Mom, Dad, and me. Who would have thought one man and one woman could have five children and they’d all grow up, have families, and join together for one dinner.”

“It’s not that odd.
Next year you’ll have to come out to Boston with your family.”

“Oh,
Mom and Dad would love that.”

Meghan laughed lightly.
“Well, of course they’re always welcome. I mean your family.” She placed her hand on Holly’s stomach, and the baby did a little flip.

“Oh.”
Family. She had her own family, and that little member was obviously making as much noise inside of her as his family was around her. What a wonderful feeling to feel enveloped in such love on the inside and out.

As Meghan walked away, Holly stood in the middle of the room absorbing the thought.
She’d never had siblings. She put her hands on her stomach. What a thing to have missed.

“Something wrong?” Gabe came up behind her, laced his arms around her, and settled his hands with hers on her
 

st
omach.

“No, it’s all great.”
She turned into his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m loving having family. I love your family. I want a family.”

Gabe let out a chuckle and cupped her face in his hands.
“We are a family.”

“I know.
It’s wonderful too. But I want what your mom and dad have. I want more than I had.”

Gabe lifted his head and looked around then back down i
nto Holly’s eyes. “You’re saying that you’ve decided that maybe you’ll have more than one baby with me?”

Holly smiled.
“I think that’s what I’ve decided. Although…” She put her hands back on her stomach. “I suppose I should see how this goes first.”

“Look around.
You’re hours away from being a Maguire. Maguires build good, solid families. With lots of kids.”

Maguires did build good families, and they pulled together little ones who never had quite found their way.
Holly was almost overwhelmed with every happy feeling she’d ever had. But she’d learned well from her soon-to-be husband that it was a moment to cherish. You never knew when that moment might be gone.

Chapter Fourteen

H
olly stirred awake and looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was six o’clock. The morning of her wedding day.

When she’d climbed into bed the night before she was sure she’d never be able to get to sleep.
Her head buzzed from the many conversations and the amount of laughing she’d done. They had eaten three times, played card games, watched sports all day, and when the day was over, she had hugged and kissed each member of Gabe’s family goodbye.

Holly rolled over to kiss Gabe good morning, but instead she was met with a single long stem rose on his pillow with
a note.

Good morning, my love.
It’s not good luck to see the bride before the wedding. So I leave you in the good hands of your mother, who will arrive at six thirty. The photographer will arrive at nine to take portraits of you. I love you and in a few hours you’ll be my wife, forever. Love, Gabe

She held the note to her chest and smelled the rose.
A month ago she never would have thought she would be ready for marriage.

There was a quickening in her stomach as she lay there in her bed, and she knew it wasn’t the baby. She rested her hand on the small bump under Gabe’s oversized shirt she wore, and thought the baby bump was much bigger than before.
Perhaps it had been the three helpings of turkey the day before. But she knew the discomfort taking over was raw nerves, and it made her as sick as her pregnancy had in the beginning.

Today was her wedding day—the day she’d promise herself to another person and expect the same in return. She squeezed her eyes closed tight and tried to ease the nauseous feeling inside. This was one of those moments when a person had to decide whether she would run away from the unknown or walk right into it.

Holly put her feet on the floor. When she crawled back i
nto bed tonight, she’d be a Maguire. Backward and unknown no longer worried her as they once had, but she couldn’t seem to convince her stomach of that.

She heard a knock on the front door, and then it opened
and closed.

“Holly, are you awake?” Her mother’s voice rang through the apartment. “I have a very exciting day.
I want to get it started right away.”

She was already feeling uneasy about the changes that ma
rriage would bring to her life, and though she and her mother had done a great deal of bonding in the past few weeks, knowing she was just outside waiting for her made Holly’s hands shake. Would today still be all about Holly, or would her mother find a way to make it about herself? “I’ll be out in a moment.”

“I have breakfast for you from Gabe and a surprise.”

Holly let out a soft laugh at the thought of surprises from Gabe and the giddiness in her mother’s voice.

She crawled out of bed and found a robe that someone had purchased for her.
With all the bags that had come in since the fire, she wasn’t even sure anymore who had bought what
for her.

Quickly, she ran a brush through her hair and took a m
oment to brush her teeth before walking out to the living room, where her mother stood looking more beautiful than Holly had ever remembered. Hadn’t that always been Trudy Jacobs’s way? Turn all heads in her direction so she’d be the center of

the room?
Holly took a deep breath and reminded herself that

no matter what the day belonged to her and not her mother.

Her mother moved to her and kissed her on the cheek. “Good morning, darling. Come eat before your breakfast
gets cold.”

Holly noticed her mother had brought the wedding dress and it was draped carefully across the back of the couch.
Her mother’s dress lay right next to it with Tracy’s dress on the recliner.

She uncovered the plate on the table and smiled. Eggs, b
acon, and toast waited for her under a silver dome. Gabe had set a note in the middle.
I love you. Only six hours to go.

As she pushed around her eggs and nibbled at her toast, she looked at the note and simply smiled.
She had never been
happier.

“Okay, Tracy will be here soon.
Gabe has the photographer coming up to do a special sitting with you. He wants his own set of pictures of his bride.” Her mother actually blushed as she grinned as wide as Holly could ever remember. “My gift to you is that my stylist and her makeup artist are coming up in the next hour to gussy you all up.”

“Mother.” A pang of disappointment pierced Holly’s chest, but she reminded herself that her mother was trying.
She was really trying. It wasn’t fair to keep assuming that she’d only send up her stylist because she didn’t think Holly could do her hair right for her own wedding.

“This is my gift.
I want you to have your day. I know you don’t want a lot of fuss, but this is so special for me. Let me do this.”

Holly nodded and choked back tears.
Her mother thought the wedding day was special. In her eyes Holly saw pride and she’d never seen it so clearly. “Okay.”

The morning buzzed around Holly. She’d showered and stepped into her robe just as the stylist and makeup artist
 

arrived. Tracy arrived only a few moments later.

“Oh my!
You colored your hair!” Holly couldn’t believe it.

Tracy swung her hair behind her shoulders. “Had an inch taken off too.”

“It looks wonderful.” Holly’s voice rose as the excitement began to sink in.

Tracy lifted her arms in the air and her signature bracelets clanked together and she dropped them.
“I never thought this day would come. And to be a part of it…” She stopped and held her hand to her chest. “Oh, Holly. I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you.” As Tracy passed by her, Holly reached out for her hand.
“By the way. Thank you for making me go out on my birthday.”

Tracy clasped Holly’s hands in hers. “I knew you weren’t as stuck up as you pretend to be.”

Holly enjoyed every moment she was pampered.
She’d never seen her hair look so beautiful, and her makeup made her look like she’d walked out of fashion magazine.

When she walked down the stairs with the photographer, her mother, and Tracy to head out to take pictures at a local park, she was assured that Gabe had been taken to the hotel with his family.

The photographer spent an hour and a half with Holly in some of the most beautiful settings in Denver. She couldn’t wait to see the pictures. But at the very last stop, in City Park, on the boat launch stood her groom in a tuxedo. That flutter in her stomach from earlier in the morning was back

“You’re not supposed to see the bride before the we
dding,” Holly said as she walked toward Gabe, who, posed and dressed for the wedding, was more handsome than she’d ever seen him. “It’s bad luck.” She’d never been superstitious, but a worrier, yes. At this point she couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong.

“And if I didn’t, that would be traditional—and we just

can’t have that, can we?
In fact, I realized we really messed this all up. We should have gone on our honeymoon last week, before we got married.”

Holly laughed easily as she fell into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder.
“I’m so happy. I’m ridiculously happy.”

“Good.”
Gabe lifted her chin with his finger and lingered a soft kiss on her lips. “I think the photographer is getting some great pictures. Maybe we can hire her to take some more before the baby is born.” Holly turned her head and smiled, but she couldn’t hold back the tear that broke free.

Gabe brushed it away.
“What’s the tear for?”

“I’m so happy that I’m scared.
Gabe, what if this
doesn’t work?”

A line formed between his brows.
“Not a very positive outlook.”

“Oh, I want it to work.
I really want it to work.”

He ran his thumb over her cheek.
“I promise you forever, Holly. I won’t take that lightly.”

The photographer continued to snap intimate pictures of them as they stood on the dock.
Then she posed them around the lake and the park.

As they posed for the last picture, an old Rolls Royce pulled up and Holly’s eyes widened.
“What is this?”

“You deserve to ride to your wedding in a fancy car.”

“Oh, Gabe. This is wonderful.”

Gabe cupped her face in his hands.
“Forever, Holly. I want to surprise you and make you happy, forever.”

The chauffeur opened the door and Gabe and Holly rode in luxury to their wedding at Maguire’s.

Gabe’s family had transformed the restaurant.
The tables were gone and rows of white chairs lined the usually crowded dining room. Ribbons and flowers had been draped along the booths, and Gabe’s nieces scattered the ground with rose
petals.

Holly held her father’s arm and took a deep breath. He patted her hand. “It’s not too late to back out. No matter what.” He gave her a serious rise of his eyebrows.

Holly smiled and kissed her father on the cheek.
“I didn’t know this was exactly what I wanted, but it is. I’m so
happy, Daddy.”

“I know you are.”

Tracy, who stood at the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room, looked back over her shoulder. “Let’s make this happen.”

Holly gave her a nod and followed her into the other room while a harpist filled the room with music.

As Tracy made her way down the aisle, all heads turned to look at Holly. She’d never felt more beautiful or loved than at that very moment. And though the room was filled with many more people than she’d expected, she only noticed them briefly, because at the end of the aisle the man she loved stood before her smiling grandly.

Holly was grateful that someone was taping the ceremony, because she knew she wouldn’t remember it.
All she could do was look into the smiling face of her groom.

When the minister asked who gave Holly away and her f
ather answered, “Her mother and I do,” Holly felt an amazing sense of freedom. And when Gabe took her hands and gazed into her eyes, she felt the baby move. She reached for her stomach. Gabe’s eyes flashed worry, but as she smiled they quickly softened. He reached to her and touched her stomach, smiling widely as they felt their baby move, surrounded by their loved ones, and ready to pledge themselves to each other forever.

She couldn’t have imagined a better ceremony.
But the amazement of the day only grew when Gabe slipped an enormous ring on her finger and she gasped aloud.

He winked and pulled her close to whisper in her ear. “Remember, I said I’d buy you a big, gaudy diamond. You de-

serve it.”

She couldn’t say a word.
Her eyes caught between the glimmer in Gabe’s eyes and the sparkling diamond on her finger.

Vows were promised, rings exchanged, and as her husband kissed her gently on the mouth, Holly knew nothing could make the day the simple formality she’d once thought it would be.
The ceremony might be a blur, but it was a day she’d never forget. The day she married the man of her dreams and together they moved forward into marriage and family.

Laughing, the newlyweds ran up the back stairs to their apartment while their families transformed the restaurant for the reception.
Outside the door, Gabe grabbed Holly’s hand away from the knob as she reached for it.

“I get to carry you inside.”

“Oh,” her voice teetered. “I thought that was just for our new house.”

“I’ll carry you then too.
I’ll carry you every day if
you’d like.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a noisy kiss on his lips.
“You’ll take back those words in a
few months.”

“No.
I’ll especially carry you then. Anything for the woman I love and who is carrying my child.” He laid his hand on her stomach. “C’mon.” he scooped her off her feet. “I only get twenty minutes with you before I have to dance with my mother and my sisters.”

They danced the entire night. Holly hadn’t thought it possible, but there were even more of Gabe’s relatives there than before. The Maguires were a tight bunch and now she was one of them. She and the baby. As she looked around the room, she noticed her mother on one side engaged in a conversation with Gabe’s aunts, and her father on the other side talking to Gabe’s cousin. They’d all been welcomed into the inner workings of