Millionaires' Destinies(219)
He laughed at that. “Destiny’s counting on a June wedding.”
“Well, she’s just going to have to be disappointed,” Kathleen said adamantly. “She’s gotten her way with everything else. We’re picking the wedding date.”
“Seems fair enough to me. You can talk about it at the hospital.”
“Let’s go,” she said eagerly, heading for her car.
“Kathleen!”
She turned back. “What?”
He gestured toward her car. “Not a chance in hell. We’ll take mine.”
She laughed. “Mine’s closer.”
“Then I’ll drive.”
“What’s wrong with my driving?” she asked, even as she docilely went around to the passenger side of the car.
“Too fast and too dangerous,” he said succinctly. He decided it was time to lay his greatest fear on the table, the one he couldn’t shake because he was reminded of it every single time he saw her behind the wheel. “It reminds me of the way Graciela drove.”
Her mouth dropped open and tears immediately filled her eyes. “Oh, Ben, why didn’t you say something? I thought you were just being a macho jerk.”
He shrugged. “Maybe a little of that, too,” he admitted. “Think you can slow down, just enough so I don’t go crazy worrying every time you’re on the road?”
She reached for his hand. “I’ll never go above the speed limit again,” she promised.
“That’s something, I suppose.”
“You wouldn’t want me to poke along, would you?”
“It would make my day, actually.”
“Then I’ll drive like some little old lady heading for church on Sunday,” she promised. “You’re not going to lose me in an accident, Ben. Not if I can help it.”
“I wish it were possible to be sure of that,” he told her. “But I know it’s not. I just know I don’t want to lose you by pretending that I don’t love you.”
She touched his cheek. “Then isn’t it a good thing you’ve admitted it at last? We’ve got that all cleared up.”
“Yes,” he said quietly. “It’s a very good thing.”
The best, in fact.
At the hospital they found Destiny, Mack and Beth gathered in the waiting room. There was no sign of Richard.
“Did he faint?” Ben asked.
“No, he’s in the delivery room,” Mack said. “Pity the poor doctor with Richard looking over his shoulder. I’m sure he had a plan for just how this delivery is supposed to go, too.”
Kathleen and Beth exchanged a look and chuckled.
“Fortunately, Dr. Kelly has dealt with a great many expectant fathers before,” Beth said confidently. “I think he can keep Richard in line.”
“Ha!” Mack said. “Richard is used to running a multinational corporation. Organizing a delivery room to suit him will be a piece of cake.”
“Not after the first time Melanie screams her head off,” Beth predicted.
Mack paled at that. “There’s going to be screaming?”
“Plenty, I imagine,” Beth confirmed.
He scowled at her. “We are adopting all of our kids.”
Beth gave him a long, lingering look, then said quietly, “Too late for that.”
Mack simply stared at her. “A baby,” he said eventually. “We’re going to have a baby?”
“In about eight months,” Beth said, grinning.
Mack sank onto a chair as Kathleen and Destiny rushed over to hug Beth. Ben went to sit beside his obviously shaken brother.
“You okay?” Ben asked.
Mack nodded slowly. “I didn’t know about the screaming.”
“Can’t be much worse than some football player who’s just gotten his collar bone dislocated.” He gave Mack a pointed look. “Or his knee shattered.”
“I didn’t scream,” Mack said defensively. “Either time.”
“Tell that to someone who couldn’t hear you from twenty rows up on the fifty-yard line,” Ben said. “Women have been doing this since time began. They’re tough. Tougher than we are, in fact.”
Mack glanced over in the direction of his wife and smiled slowly. “Yeah, they are, aren’t they?” He turned back to Ben. “So what about you and Kathleen? Did you work things out?”
“We’re getting married,” Ben admitted.
“Well, hallelujah!”
His exuberant shout brought the three women across the room.
“More good news?” Beth asked, her gaze on Ben.
He glanced at Kathleen. “Looks like we’re all going to steal the new baby’s thunder.”