Just What I Need (The Bradfords) (2 page)

“He’s a doctor, Dani. We need him to be aware in case something happens. You know he’ll keep it to himself.”

Dani sighed. She was right. Ben was a great guy. He’d understand and he’d keep the secret as long as he could. Plus, he was the one member of the group that knew they were having twins and knew that one of the babies was quite a bit smaller than the other. He was the one who’d gone straight to his friends in the neonatal intensive care unit to research the situation and had reassured her and Sam that the little one would be fine. He’d also prepared them for the fact that no matter when they delivered, the babies would spend some time in the NICU. Their obstetrician had said the same thing, but hearing it from Ben somehow made them feel better. At least they were prepared for that part.

“Fine.”

“Want me to go get Ben now?”

“No.” Crap. The minute she stepped out of this room, Sam would be at her side. A fact she typically loved, of course. But he’d instantly know something was up. “I don’t know if I can talk to Ben without Sam noticing and wanting to know what’s going on.”

There weren’t many secrets in their group. In fact, a lot of the time, the guys shared more information than they really needed to about…well,
everything
.

“So, we go out there and pass him a note,” Eve said reasonably.

“We’ll pass notes?”

“Sure, why not?”

Looking into Eve’s eyes, Dani saw that Eve was a little worried, but there was also a twinkle of excitement. She grinned. Everyone was going to be excited when they found out. This was going to be
the
day of all days. Dooley Miller would finally be married and Sam Bradford was going to become the father of twin girls.

Another contraction started and built and Dani just breathed for a moment. They still weren’t lasting long and it had been almost twenty minutes since the last one. But yeah, these weren’t Braxton-Hicks.

Once it quieted, Dani took a deep breath, checked her hair, then smiled at Eve. “Okay, let’s do this.”

She followed Eve out of the dressing room and down the hallway that led to where the wedding party, sans the bride, was gathered.

Sam saw her immediately and came forward, the usual huge grin on his face. Her heart melted a little and she felt like crying. Good crying though. He was going to be an amazing father and she knew he’d be right by her side through every step of the labor and delivery.

He would not, however, let her get away with being a bridesmaid while having contractions. He was a laid-back, fun-loving guy, but he could be as protective as any of the men when it came to her—and now their babies. He was also very tuned in to her so it was going to be a challenge to keep him from knowing anything was going on.

“Thank God you’re here. I didn’t have anyone to grope when the other girls came out,” he told her, sliding his hand around her much-bigger-than-usual waist. “You okay?”

“These shoes are killing my feet, so thought I’d take a chance to sit as long as possible,” she said, picking up a foot to show him the two-inch heels Morgan had chosen. It wasn’t a complete lie. The extra thirty-five pounds she was carrying definitely made the shoes less comfortable. For that matter, the extra weight made most things less comfortable.

“Last night at rehearsal the ceremony was about thirty minutes. Can you handle it?” he asked.

Thirty minutes. Sure. No problem.

The way things were going she’d only have two mild contractions during that time. She could totally make it through that. As soon as Dooley kissed his bride, things could go…however they were going to go.

“God, you look gorgeous,” Sam said, kissing her cheek.

She grinned in spite of mentally rolling her eyes. She loved him so much. Even when he was full of crap.

“Thanks. I knew Morgan would pick fantastic dresses.”

“I like your hair up,” he said, fingering a tendril that had escaped the up-do.

“You do?” The last time she’d worn her hair up was at Sara and Mac’s wedding. She didn’t spend any more time than necessary on hair and makeup for work and at home she was more of a ponytail girl.

“Well, I like taking it down.” He gave her one of the classic Sam Bradford sexy grins that she was not immune to even after knowing him so well.

In fact, she thought maybe she was more of a sucker for him now than she had been when they first met.

Sam leaned in closer, his lips near her ear, his voice husky. “I like taking the pins out one by one, watching your hair fall down, imagining it spread out on my pillow while I—”

“Sam!” Eve nudged him out of the way with her hip and plucked the bobby pin he’d removed from Dani’s hair from his fingers. “You can’t mess with her hair right now.”

Sam didn’t look apologetic as tucked his hands into his pants pockets and kept his eyes on Dani. “She’s not complaining.”

No, she wasn’t. She was too busy imagining what Sam might have been doing while her hair was spread out on his pillow. Was it hot in here?

Eve shook her head. “You guys know how to turn it on, I’ll give you that.”

“Turn what on?” Sam asked innocently.

Dani snorted. Innocent didn’t apply to Sam Bradford in any way.

“Turn on that sexy charm that makes us girls forget where we are and what we’re doing,” Eve said.

Sam grinned at her. “Even the good Christian boy?”

Eve nodded. “Oh, Kevin’s the worst. He gets you thinking he’s good and sweet and the next thing you know your bra’s dangling from his fingers.”

Sam chuckled. “Nice.”

“And he has a grin on his face kinda like that when he does it.” Eve pointed a finger at Sam. “Now, stop messing with Dani.”

Eve turned to Dani and started tucking and pinning the strands of hair back into place.

“She’s all mine to mess with,” Sam said.

Dani felt a shiver of heat slide through her. She was all his, for sure. And clearly weak and highly distractible. She wished she could blame it on pregnancy hormones, but the truth was that she was always like this for Sam.

The thought of pregnancy hormones snapped Dani back to the issue at hand. She was
in labor
. At least, kind of. It was early, but it was the beginning of the end of her pregnancy…and the beginning of being a mom. To
twins
. She was ready. Or as ready as she could be. She couldn’t wait to meet her daughters. But was anyone ever really ready for
twins
? She puffed out a breath of air. Holy crap, Sam was good if he could divert her from
that
fact.

“Well,” Eve said, turning back to Sam, “Morgan’s borrowing her from you for the next half hour. Do
you
want to explain to Morgan why her sixth bridesmaid’s hair is all messed up?”

“Nope.” Sam held up his hands. “You’re right. Fine. Thirty minutes. That gives me time to come up with some plans for you, babe.” He gave Dani a wink and she immediately had a few ideas of her own.

Then a contraction twinged in her back, and she sucked in a quick breath.

Right. Their
daughters
had plans for later.

Eve must have noticed something change in Dani’s face change, because she immediately stepped in front of her, blocking Sam. “Oh, hey, there’s another spot we need to re-pin.” Dani concentrated on smiling as Eve pretended to fix her hair.

“Hey, Sam, can you go make sure Drew has the rings?” Eve asked.

“Yep, no problem.” And he moved off.

Dani sighed and rubbed her back. “Thank you.”

“You bet.” Eve smiled and patted Dani’s head. “I’m going to give Ben the note and then check on Morgan and get her butt out here.”

Dani grabbed Eve’s wrist. “Wait, maybe we don’t need to tell Ben.”

Eve tipped her head. “Uh, huh. Okay. Well…it’s Ben or Sam. You pick.”

“’Kay.” She nodded. “Fine. Ben. Okay. Let’s get this going.”

“I’m all over it.”

Dani leaned back against the wall and eased one shoe off, as she watched Eve make her way over to where Ben was standing with Kevin. Eve hugged her husband and gave him a sweet smile, then she pointed at something that got Kevin to turn away and she slipped a piece of paper into Ben’s pocket.

Dani noted the questioning look on Ben’s face, but Eve gave him a nod, then took Kevin’s arm and moved him off in the other direction. Ben pulled the note from his pocket, opened it, then swung to find Dani. His eyes were wide.

She lifted a hand and gave him a little wave.

He looked down at the note again, then back at her.

She nodded.

Ben made a beeline for her and Dani straightened quickly, then leaned back again, trying for nonchalant.

“How far apart are they?” he whispered with a smile.

Her eyes widened at his smile. “Very far apart. They’re just starting. Why are you smiling like that?”

“Can’t wait to be an uncle.”

She looked around to make sure no one was paying attention. “I know. I’m excited too. I just kind of wish it wasn’t
today.
”

His eyes went to her stomach. “Dani, this is kind of like rolling a snowball downhill. It gets faster and bigger from here.”

She snorted, then quickly slapped her hand over her mouth when everyone turned. She smiled at them and ignored Ben for the moment.

When they’d all resumed conversation, she whispered, “So you’ve got my back, right, Doc?”

“I’m not sure that’s where you’re going to need me, but yeah.”

She worked on not laughing too loudly that time.

“What are we dealing with specifically?” he asked, clearly trying to be vague in case anyone overheard.

She looked him straight in the eye and said firmly, “We’re dealing with the wedding of two of our best friends.”

Ben gave her a little nod. “Okay. I’m officially your accomplice.”

“Awesome.” She gave him a sincere smile. She’d never had brothers until she married Sam. Now she couldn’t imagine her life without men who would protect and help and tease her any chance they got.

“Sam’s gonna kill me,” Ben muttered.

“Nah.” Dani rubbed both hands over her belly. “Sam’s going to be way too busy really soon to worry about anyone else.”

Ben didn’t comment on that. He didn’t have to.

“This is going to be okay,” she assured him. She just felt it. Yes, things were starting a little early, but she wasn’t worried. Surely that counted for something. She’d put all her money on mother’s intuition.

He nodded. “Of course it is. You made it to thirty-five weeks with twins, Dani. The little one is still little but she’s growing. You’re healthy, no other risk factors. Your water hasn’t broken yet. And I watched some ‘how to deliver a baby’ videos on YouTube.”

Dani felt her eyes widen. She was at the mercy of YouTube videos? “You did what?”

He grinned. “I did. Seriously. But that was just for fun. I delivered a lot of babies in Africa.”

Ben had been a missionary’s son and had returned to his beloved Africa after med school until his mom had needed him back in the States. He’d trained as a surgeon, but in a place like the villages he’d served, a doctor was a doctor—they did it all.

It might have been the hormones, or the wedding, or the fact that her feet really were killing her, but Dani felt tears well up. “I couldn’t pick someone better to be here with me, Ben.”

He chuckled and squeezed her again. “And this works out for me really well too. Jess thinks it’s hot when I’m a big hero.”

She shook her head. “Glad I could help you out, Doc.”

He grinned and leaned in to kiss her cheek, then said softly. “If I thought you needed to be at St. Anthony’s right this second, I’d pick you up and carry you there myself.”

She smiled and patted his cheek. “I know, Ben. I know.” And in about thirty minutes she might just take him up on that.

Chapter Two

Morgan was jittery. She couldn’t stand still. She was at the back of the church watching everyone walk down the aisle in front of her and she couldn’t stop pacing and shifting and fidgeting.

She could see Ben, Mac, Sam, Kevin—Doug’s best friends—and Lance and Tim—his brothers-in-law—standing next to him, grinning widely. But no one was grinning as big as Doug. Her heart flipped and she had to resist the urge to sprint up the aisle, grab Doug, yell “I do” at the minister and hightail it for their honeymoon.

The flower girls, Doug’s nieces and Ava Torres, were to the end of the aisle and the ring bearers were starting out and Morgan wanted to nudge Drew, Kevin’s ten-year-old brother, in the back and tell him to hurry up. But Drew held Elijah’s hand and talked softly to the two-year-old, keeping to the pace set by the short little legs, but preventing him from getting too distracted by the oohs and aahs from the crowd—or his shoestrings. The kid never left his shoes tied.

Elijah was the third foster child that had been placed with Mac and Sara since they’d been approved as foster parents. The whole gang had done the necessary paperwork and interviews when Kevin and Eve had been going through the process to be Drew’s guardians, but Sara and Mac were the first to have a child placed with them. Elijah had blossomed in their home over the past few months and they all loved him dearly. It would have felt strange not to include him in the wedding.