Sisters in Love (Snow Sisters, Book One: Love in Bloom Series #1) (26 page)

“I love him,” she whispered.

Danica leaned in closer. “You love him?”

Kaylie looked her in the eye and said, “I
love him! I do! I really, truly love him!”

The church became quiet, like everyone held
their breath at the same time, and all eyes turned toward Kaylie.
She covered her mouth, her cheeks on fire. Kaylie turned toward the
guests, looking like a kid caught with her hand in a candy jar. She
mouthed, “Sorry,” and wrinkled her nose.

A hearty, sisterly laugh escaped Danica’s
lips. She grabbed Kaylie and hugged her tight. “I’m gonna be an
auntie!”

“Don’t squeeze so tight. I’m feeling a little
nauseous these days.”

“Okay, sorry, sorry!” Danica hugged her again
gently. She took Kaylie by the shoulders and looked seriously into
her eyes. She searched for worry, discontent, something to indicate
there might be trouble brewing, but for the first time in as long
as she could remember, her sister looked content. “You’re sure?”
The therapist in her had to ask.

“One hundred and ten percent.” Kaylie
smirked. “Besides, if I flip out or something, I know this great
therapist.”

“No, by then that great therapist will be a
youth center director, but she’ll be able to refer you to a great
therapist.”

Blake waited for her in the aisle. Danica
wrapped her hand inside Blake’s arm and they fell into line behind
the other bridesmaids and headed toward the reception room.

Blake leaned in close and whispered, “I never
want to be away from you for that long again.”

Please enjoy the first chapter of the next
Snow Sisters book,

Snow Sisters, Book Two, Love in Bloom
Series

Kaylie Snow didn’t just have to tinkle. She
had to pee. If she wasn’t out of bed in two minutes, she’d very
likely not make it to the bathroom, and then she’d have to explain
to her fiancé why the carpet was wet. She pulled the sheet over her
naked, burgeoning belly and sat up, watching Chaz’s chest rise and
fall with each peaceful breath. She stifled the urge to lean over
and kiss his barely parted lips. He’d been working so hard; he
really did deserve to sleep in. The morning light streamed through
the curtains, reminding her of the morning after they’d first met.
Surely her bladder could wait one small minute while she savored
those memories. She’d had far too many margaritas celebrating her
best friend Camille’s impending wedding, and Chaz had been only
mildly tipsy when they’d left Bar None together and headed to his
place. She remembered thinking that she wanted to run her hands
through his wavy blond hair, which set off his ocean-blue eyes like
jewels. And she’d desperately wanted to kiss him, just as she did
now.

She’d waited a long time for that first kiss.
They talked until five in the morning, when—tucked perfectly into
the curve of his arm, her head against his muscular chest—they’d
fallen asleep on the couch in his living room. When she
awoke,  the sun was warming the room, and his unkissed lips
were slightly parted as he slept. She could feel their connection
as if it were another person in the room, and she’d known in her
heart that she’d found the man she’d one day marry. She reached
over now and ran her finger over the prickles of whiskers that
lined the chiseled edge of his jaw.

He rolled onto his side, snuggling deeper
into the pillow, and shifted just enough to jiggle her bladder. She
winced, pressing the heel of her hand on the mattress to push
herself to her feet—not an easy task at thirty-five weeks pregnant.
As she raised herself off the bed, she felt Chaz’s hand fold into
her own.

“Come back,” he whispered.

Kaylie turned, holding the sheet across her
heavy breasts. “I have to pee,” she whispered.

“Then come back.” He squeezed her hand gently
and then let her go.

After Kaylie went to the bathroom, she washed
her hands and inspected herself in the mirror.
Naked Buddha
.
She turned sideways.
Beached whale.
She turned to the rear
and looked over her shoulder.
Oh, God, that’s even worse.
What had she been thinking last night, believing each of Chaz’s
compliments about how gorgeous she looked? The evening before came
tumbling back to her.
The phone call from the Denver
nightclub,
the one she’d sung in for the last two years. Just
another in a long line of lost singing gigs that she’d hoped to
secure for after the baby was born. She was a good singer!
Audiences loved her, and she’d never missed a single gig. She’d
always dreamed of being offered a record deal; now it seemed as if
her pregnancy changed everything, like she had a tattoo on her
forehead that read,
Don’t hire me. I’ll have a baby soon and
it’ll make me unreliable.
She’d cried for twenty minutes,
blaming herself, the baby, and even Chaz. Later she realized she
hadn’t really meant a word of it; she’d just been overwhelmed. Chaz
had stuck right beside her, calm and empathetic, and she’d fallen
for every one of his lines about how sexy and beautiful she looked
and how wonderful of a mother she’d be. He’d reeled her right into
his loving, secure arms and whisked those worries away.

Look at me. That’s it! No more sleeping
naked
. She ran her hands along the pockets of flesh that had
somehow gathered above her waist.
Jesus, I have love
handles?
She’d been a size five since she was a teenager. How
could she have love handles? Babies grew in the uterus, not above
the hip bones.
What the hell is this all about?
She patted
her blond hair into submission—sort of—brushed her teeth, and then
grabbed one of Chaz’s T-shirts from his dresser drawer before
returning to bed.

Kaylie lay on her back, her legs bent at the
knees. She restrained herself from feeling the love handles that
now seemed to silently taunt her. Just knowing they were there was
making her cranky. She felt her chest tighten, and clenched her
fingers around the edges of Chaz’s shirt.

Chaz curled into her, his knees tucked under
hers and his arm across her narrow hips, below her enormous belly.
He rested his head on her shoulder, and she listened to his
breathing, each breath calming her nerves a little bit more. She
felt so safe when she was with Chaz. No wonder she hadn’t put on
clothes last night. She believed anything that came out of his
mouth.

“Wanna think about names?” he whispered.

“We agreed not to.” When Kaylie first learned
she was pregnant, they’d decided not to find out the gender of the
baby. There were so few real surprises in life that they wanted the
birth of their baby to be one of those moments that really grabbed
them by their hearts in a way that nothing else ever could. For
that reason, and with her doctor’s permission, she’d had only one
sonogram. She wasn’t a high-risk pregnancy, and she was so young
that her doctor saw no reason to have more; Kaylie had been
relieved. The idea of lying on the table with her baby on that
screen—close enough to reach out and touch—would have been too hard
to turn away from.

Kaylie was also adamant about not trying out
names before it was born. She’d never understood how a child could
have a name before the parents had met it. What if a Charles was
really a Michael? It would be hard to change the name to fit the
personality or looks of a baby if they’d been calling it Charles
for nine months.

 She and Chaz were so much alike. They
agreed on almost everything, and Kaylie had dated enough men to
know just how lucky she was. She closed her eyes, thinking about
the things she had to do today. She was meeting her older sister,
Danica, and her mother, whom she hadn’t seen in—gosh—a year? Had it
really been that long? Guilt settled in around her. Her mother was
once such a big part of her life, but ever since she found out that
her mother had stayed with her father after learning of his affair,
she no longer saw her mother in the same light. The strong woman
she thought she knew seemed weak and almost pathetic. Now that
Kaylie was going to be a mother, she found herself thinking of her
own mother more often, but she had no idea how to handle the anger
and disappointment she felt toward her. Once again, she tucked away
these uncomfortable thoughts about her mother. They were too
difficult to deal with right then. She had other pressing issues
that she could not ignore.

 Her nerves tightened against the
incessant nag in the back of her mind, the one that reminded her
that it had been months since her last singing gig. The one that
reminded her that her sister Danica would never let her career just
fade away, unless that’s what she wanted. Kaylie felt powerless to
change the path of her failing career, and determined, fearless
Kaylie had never felt powerless in her entire life.

Chaz moved his hand slowly across her pelvis,
then traced gentle circles on the underside of her belly.
“Gracie?”

“We’re not doing this,” she said, smiling
despite her desire to chew on her worry for just another minute or
two. She brushed his bangs from his forehead.

“Felix?”

“Chaz.”

He scooted up beside her and whispered in her
ear, “Jezebel? Bambi?”

She giggled. The stress of her love handles
and the nagging were fading.

He nuzzled against her neck, bringing his
hand over the crest of her belly, and then dragged his index finger
straight down from her collarbone, between her breasts, to the arch
where her belly joined her diaphragm. Shivers tickled her spine.
She folded her legs to the side, leaning them against his.

“I’m meeting my mom and Danica for
lunch.”

“Mm-hmm.” He kissed her shoulder, slipping
his hands beneath her T-shirt.

“I haven’t seen Mom in ages. I’m kinda
nervous.”

He slid the shirt over her head, and she
arched as he pulled it off, her hair showering down around her
face.

“Don’t be,” he said. Then he was on his knees
beside her, one arm on either side of her body.

She traced a vein running over his biceps as
he lowered his mouth to her breast. She gasped as he flicked her
nipple with her tongue. Pregnancy had heightened her senses, and
Chaz played into them with tantalizing care. She laid her head
back, arching her neck, trying to hold on to her concentration,
think through the impending meeting with her mother and her career
troubles. But he shifted to the other breast, exposing her wet
nipple to the cool air, and she grabbed the back of his head with a
wanting moan.

Chaz ran his tongue along the outside of her
breast. “Want me to stop?” He lifted her breast and lapped at the
delicate skin beneath.

“No,” she said breathlessly. Her hormones had
been on overdrive since her fourth month of pregnancy.

His mouth trailed her side, her ribs, and
then the area just above her hip.

She guided him back up, away from those newly
formed love handles, and drew his mouth to hers, opening to him as
his tongue moved slow and deep, exploring her, consuming her. She
felt his hardness against her leg, and pressed into him. His hand
dropped to her other hip, sinking his fingers into the flesh of her
thigh. Every nerve ending flamed with heat. She arched into him,
her belly an unforgiving guard between them.

She sat up, and he moved with practiced care
onto his back. Tension from the lost gig eased as his hands reached
for her hips and she straddled him, hovering just above the tip of
his desire. He arched toward her, and a sly grin spread across her
lips. This had become her favorite part of pregnant
lovemaking—taking control, making him wait. She leaned forward, her
hair circling their faces, and she kissed him gently on his
forehead, his cheek, his chin. Chaz tried to catch her lips with
his, but she was too quick. She took his hands in hers and secured
them under her knees, and then she leaned into him again, gently
licking the edges of his lips.

She lifted her body higher, then pressed his
erection flat against his belly, lowering herself onto him, teasing
him, not allowing him to enter her. She glided up and down along
him until his eyes were so full of hunger that she thought he might
beg her for more. She relished in controlling his release. She
kissed his chin, his neck, and then sucked just below his ear,
until she knew he couldn’t hold out much longer. She ran her tongue
down his chest, taking his nipple into her mouth and using her
teeth ever so lightly while he writhed beneath her, begging for her
to take him inside. Finally, breathless with her own desire, she
reached between her legs and guided him into her, sucking in air
with the shock of him.

He opened his eyes and pulled her into a deep
kiss. Kaylie felt the worry about seeing her mother ease from her
shoulders and back. His hands slid down her sides, and she
flinched, searching his gaze for hints of disgust from the
thickness of her expanding waistline. She watched his eyes fill
with desire and then flutter closed as he melted into the feel of
her. She relaxed into his touch, her worry disappearing with each
sensuous movement, until her self-consciousness, and thoughts of
her wavering career, were almost—almost—gone.