Cora shook her head and placed a hand on my forearm, squeezing it as she breathed through the contraction. Damn, her grip was fucking strong. I was definitely going to have bruises when this was over.
Finally, the pain subsided, and she leaned back against the pillows. She smirked and giggled again. “I can’t believe a little baby scares you more than anything you’ve encountered on one of your missions.” I gave her a mock glare before chuckling along with her. Then I placed a quick kiss on her lips, and as I pulled back, her face contorted in pain again.
“Should you be in this much pain?”
Just then, a woman in a long white coat strolled into the room, examining a clipboard. When she looked up and saw me, she smiled. “This is the husband, I take it? I’m Dr. Bensen.”
“Why is she in so much pain? Can’t you do something?” I demanded, the soldier in me returning.
The doctor just continued to smile, ignoring my outburst as she sat on a stool and examined my wife. “Cora is allergic to the epidural, so she’s going to have to do this naturally.” She met my wife’s gaze and nodded encouragingly. “Are you ready? It’s time.”
Cora was in the middle of another attraction, her nails digging into my flesh hard enough to draw blood. “Let’s roll,” she mumbled.
With every push, my heart rate increased and my breathing became shallower.
“One last push!” the doctor called out.
The sound of a baby’s cry split the air, and my head started spinning. Then everything went black.
When I came to, I was lying on the ground, and several pairs of eyes were staring at me in shock.
“Did you say your husband was a Navy SEAL?” someone asked Cora in a loud whisper.
Shit. I was never going to live this down…
“He’s perfect, gingersnap,” I told Cora softly as I stared down at my son. She ran a hand over his fuzzy little head and smiled blissfully. When her blue and green eyes raised to mine, I bent and kissed her forehead. “Thank you,” I said reverently.
Cora smiled. “You’re welcome. But what for?”
“For this. Our life. Our family. For giving me something to fight for while I’m away and a reason to come home.”
Cora’s eyes filled with tears, and she laughed as she dashed them away. “Hormones,” she muttered with a sweet laugh. “We never would have had this if you hadn’t rescued me.” Her gaze filled with love that I felt to my very soul as she flashed me a watery smile.
“You’ve got that backward, gingersnap. You’re the one who rescued me.”
Epilogue
Cora
I wasn’t shocked when Huntley suggested we put an in-ground pool in our backyard. As a Navy SEAL, it went without saying that he swam like a fish. With a toddler and another baby on the way, I hadn’t been thrilled by the idea. I already had my hands full running after our son when Huntley was deployed. The last thing I needed was to worry nonstop about West escaping from the house and falling into the pool.
Even at two, our son was a risk-taker like his dad. I couldn’t count the number of times he’d climbed out of his crib by the time he was one year old. Although we’d turned the crib around so the higher slats were facing out and lowered the mattress as close to the floor as it would go, it never took West long to figure another way out. But Huntley had assured me that he could baby-proof the pool, and as I watched him teach our two-year-old how to swim, I was glad I trusted my husband wholeheartedly. Seeing him share his love for the water with our son melted my heart—which wasn’t that difficult to do since I was halfway through my third trimester and my pregnancy hormones were raging.
Rubbing over the spot where our daughter kicked against my swollen belly, I waddled across the patio toward the pool. Huntley tossed West into the air, and I grinned at his boyish squeal of laughter when he fell back into the water, confident that his daddy would catch him. Splashing water into Huntley’s face by slapping his palms against the surface of the pool, he spotted me out of the corner of his eye and shrieked, “Mommy! See, I swimmin’!”
“You’re doing a great job, sweetie.” West squirmed as though he was trying to break free from Huntley’s hold to swim across to me, so he carried him over as I slowly crouched down to sit at the edge of the pool and dangle my feet into the water.
Huntley’s eyes narrowed when I let out a low moan and rubbed the left side of my rounded stomach. “What’s wrong? Are you having contractions?”
West’s head tilted to the side, his bottom lip jutting out a little. “Mommy have owie?”