Arya
Three months later
“Auntie Arya?” Eloise looked at me with big eyes.
“Yes, dear?”
“When is the baby coming?” she asked me as she patted my stomach. I smiled down at her.
“It should be here in six months.”
“Is it a boy or a girl?”
“I’m not sure yet, my love.”
“Is the stork going to bring it?”
“No. I’ll go to the hospital when it’s time for them to come, and then I’ll bring the baby home.”
“And I’ll be a big sister?” she said.
“Yes, you will. Have you finished gathering the blackberries?”
“Yes.” She smiled up at me happily and took my hand. “Grandma Amelia said she’s going to make a blackberry and apple pie, and I told her that sounds delicious.”
“Yes, it does, and I think Chet said he’s going to make homemade ice cream.”
“Yes. Daddy Chet said he’s going to make me vanilla ice cream to go with my pie.” She beamed. “When am I going to be the flower girl at the wedding for you and Daddy?”
“Well, that’s going to be this weekend.”
“I’m so excited. It’s too bad that the baby won’t be there, too.”
“Yes.” I laughed, already thinking about what I was going to tell my unborn child when they got older and found out that I got married when I was three months pregnant.
“There you are.” Chet came running out of the house. “You got those blackberries from me, Eloise?”
“Yes, Daddy Chet.” She let go of my hand and went running up to him. “I was just telling Auntie Arya that I’m excited to see the baby so I can be a big sister.”
“I know. I’m excited to see the baby, too.” He smiled at me lovingly. “Come on inside, guys. Mom’s waiting on the blackberries.”
“We’re coming, you darling man.” I smiled at him lovingly. I couldn’t believe that this was my life. I couldn’t believe that I was pregnant with his baby, and we were getting married in just a couple of days.
“You okay?” Chet said, as he stood back and waited for me to reach him.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re walking kind of slow. Is your back hurting?”
“I’m fine, honey. I was just walking at my normal pace.”
“Do you need to lay down or sit on the couch? Can I bring you anything?”
“I’m fine. Thank you.”
“I just want to make sure everything’s okay.” He gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“Everything’s fine. The doctor told you everything’s good.”
“And are you sure we can’t find out the gender before the baby is born?” he said. “I really want to know if I’m going to have a little boy or a girl.”
“We already agreed that we’re not going to find out until the baby is born,” I reminded him.
“I know, I know.” He sighed. “So you know Beau and Austin are completely mad at me.” “Well, I can understand why.”
“For what?” he said. “I didn’t blow the wind out of anyone’s sail.”
“Is that the term?” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know.” He laughed. “But it sounds vaguely right.”
“Yeah. I’m just lucky that Olivia, Lucy, and Sadie are so excited about the baby that they don’t mind that we’re getting married before them.”
“I told you I’d be first,” he said, grinning. “First to be married and first to have a baby.”
“Well, we were the dumbasses that had sex without protection.”
“Hey, when you got on me in that car and started riding me, I couldn’t care less about protection.” He winked at me, and I shook my head.
“We are not going to tell the baby that they were conceived in a car.”
“But it’s such a romantic story,” he teased me. “I can tell them that Mommy was about to be a stripper, and because I didn’t want everyone in Montana to see her boobs, I saved her.”
“Very funny, Chet.” I swatted him on the ass.
“Hey,” he said, “hoping for some happy-go-lucky time?”
“No, I’m not. We’re going to the kitchen, and we’re going to help your Mom bake this pie.”
“No, we’re not,” he said. “We’re going to the bedroom because I have something to give you.”
“Chet, I do not need you to go down on me. Thank you very much.”
“You know the doctor said it’s fine if we make love. I just don’t want my penis all up in there next to my baby.”
“But your tongue is okay?” I cocked my head at him.
“Well, my tongue is not reaching the same sort of places my penis is. I mean, yeah, I got a long tongue, but my dick is huge.”
“Chet. Oh my God.”
“What?” He grinned. “You don’t agree with me?”
I blushed. I didn’t want to feed his ego, but I couldn’t lie. He did have a beautifully well-proportioned penis, but I was not going to say that to him now.
“You cannot be saying these sort of things. You’re about to be a dad.”
“And a husband,” he grinned. “I’m really excited about Saturday, by the way.”
“Really? You’re not scared we’re rushing into anything?”
“I’m not scared. I’m happy. Now come with me to the bedroom.”
“But I told Eloise and your mom that—”
“You can go and help them in a minute, okay?”
“Fine,” I said. As we walk past the kitchen, I could hear Eloise and Amelia laughing about something. “This better be quick, Chet.”
“It will be quick. Don’t worry.” He winked at me.
“Chet, I told you, you’re not going down on me.”
“You want to go down on me instead?”
“No,” I laughed. He pouted, and I grinned at him. “Maybe tonight.”
“Oh yeah, baby.” He laughed. “But no, that’s not why I want you to come with me.”
We walked into his bedroom, and he closed the door. “I got these for you.” He handed me a dozen red roses.
“Wow, this is really nice. Thank you.”
“I wanted to give these to you before the wedding because I know you have a different bouquet and it’s not roses. But I wanted to give you red roses because I’ve never given you red roses before, and it’s kind of something you’re meant to do when you’re in love.”
I closed my eyes and breathed in the scent of the roses. “That’s sweet. But it’s fine, Chet. We kind of skipped a lot of steps before the marriage and baby thing, but I think it’ll be okay.”
“I know it will be okay, but I wanted to do things properly.” He walked over to the side of his room and opened his closet.
“What are you doing?”
“Just hold on, Arya,” he said, as he opened the closet door. He opened a small box and took out a key and handed it to me. “And this is for you.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“It’s a key.”
“I can see that.” I nodded. “A key to what, though?”
“It’s a key to my heart.” He pressed his lips against my forehead.
“Thank you. That’s really sweet,” I said, as I kissed his lips. “I didn’t know you could be so romantic.”
“I’m sorry.” He started laughing. “That was totally ridiculous.”
“What?” I asked him in confusion.
“Sorry, I was being corny. It’s not a key to my heart. You already have the key to my heart.”
“Um, okay. So then, what’s it a key to?”
“Our house.”
“Our what?” I stared at him in shock. “What do you mean, our house?”
“I mean our house.”
“But we live here on the ranch with your family.”
“And we’re about to start our own family.”
“But you can’t afford it. You got—”
“As I’m sure you know,” he said, cutting me off, “all of us brothers have a trust fund that is not connected to the ranch. It’s our own personal money to do with what we will. I’ve used some of it as a down payment on a small ranch about ten miles up the road.”
“But we can’t do a ranch. It’s too much work!”
“It’s not going to be a working ranch,” he said. “It’s only five acres. I got it for the land so that we can have horses. Eloise loves to ride, and I want her to be able to get her own pony.”
“But—”
“But nothing. We’re starting a life together. You, me, Eloise, and the new baby, and I want to start it right. I’ve already gotten things a little bit out of order, and I apologize for that.”
“You don’t have to apologize for that.”
“No, I do because you deserve the best.”
“Are you saying me getting married pregnant isn’t the best?”
“No, I’m saying that I want you to know that I love you, and I’m marrying you because I love you. I’m not marrying you because we’re having a baby.”
“I know that,” I said softly, “though that had been a fear in my mind.”
“I can read you like a book, Arya,” he said softly, cradling my face. “I know a part of you wonders if I still want to marry you if you weren’t pregnant. I do, and I would, and I just want you to know that this is forever.”
“I love you so much, Chet. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
“I don’t know how I got so lucky, either,” he said. “I mean, maybe it’s because I’m just really good-looking and really funny and really…” He started laughing. “Okay, I’ll stop.”
“You really are so obnoxious, aren’t you?”
“Well, they don’t call me the most obnoxious cowboy in Montana for anything,” he said. “But I’m all yours now,” he said. “So whatever you want to do for me or whatever you want me to do for you, it’s done.”
“I love you, Chet.” I kissed him, melting against his body. “You are going to make the most wonderful father to our child. I’m so blessed to have met you.”
“And I’m so blessed to have met you and to be marrying you and to be able to knock you up 10 billion more times.”
“We’re not having 10 billion babies, Chet,” I said with a laugh.
“Oh, yeah?” he said. “Let’s just see.”
“Very funny.” I shook my head. “Now, come on. We should go back to the kitchen. Your mom is waiting on us.”
“Aw, do we really have to go just now?” he said, tugging on my shirt.
“Chet!”
“What? Your boobs are growing so big and I just want to touch them and kiss them.”
I giggled slightly, as he pulled my top off and before I knew what was happening, my bra was on the ground and his face was buried between my breasts.
“Let me pleasure you, Arya.”
I sighed happily, knowing I couldn’t say no. I grabbed his hand and led him towards the bed. “Take off your shirt,” I said.
Eagerly, he pulled it off, and then before I could say anything else, he was pulling off his pants and his boxers so that he was standing naked in front of me. He was already hard, and my jaw dropped at the sight of him.
“What?” he said.
“I can’t believe you’re that hard already.”
“Why not? All I have to do is look at you and I’m ready for you,” he said. He stepped forward and pulled my skirt down and my panties, too, before laying me down gently on the bed. I pushed him back and rolled over on top of him so that I was cradled in his lap.
“Um, what are you doing?”
“I’m about to ride you, Chet Hamilton. I’m about to ride you until I can’t ride no more.”
“Oh my God,” he said, as he reached up and grabbed my breasts and I positioned his cock between my legs. He slipped inside of me easily, and I gyrated my hips on top of him, moaning as he grabbed my waist and lifted me up and down.
“Fuck, this shouldn’t feel so good,” he said.
All I could do is murmur in response. We fit together like a glove. Being with him was like coming home, and I never ever wanted us to lose this loving feeling. He was my everything, everything I could ever ask for.
“I love you, Chet Hamilton.”
“I love you even more, Arya. And I will love you for the rest of my life.”
* * *
“I used to sing a little song and then you came along, my love.
You came along and swept me off my feet and I don’t think I will ever be the same.
I used to sing a little song when riding on my horses.
I looked out to the mountain, at the sky, and thought about a different life.
Never once did I realize that you would be the one to complete me. I
used to sing a little song and then you came along…
Arya, Eloise, you are the world to me and you are, and always will be, my family.”
Chet stopped singing and looked at me and Eloise. I couldn’t stop the tears from pouring down my cheeks.
“That was beautiful,” I said, standing next to him at the altar in front of his family and friends. Eloise stood beside me, a small bouquet of pink and peach flowers in her hand and a white chain of daisies on her head. She looked like a little princess and I’d never seen her happier. But I understood why because I’d never been this happy myself.
“Your turn, Arya.” The priest nodded at me and I took a deep breath.
I looked out at the crowds of people, some familiar, some unfamiliar. I saw Amelia and Ranger beaming with pride as they gazed at us. Sadie and Wyatt, looking lovingly at us both. Beau, Austin, Flint, and Huck, all looking proudly at Chet, and Olivia and Lucy looked happy and excited.
I cleared my throat. “I came to Horseshoe Ranch in search of a new beginning. I didn’t know exactly what I was hoping to find, but I knew that there was going to be something there that would change my life.” I looked around the crowds of people and then at Chet. “This might sound crazy, but I had a dream before I came here. I had a dream that told me that Horseshoe Ranch would provide me happiness, and I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t want to believe it. I thought, Horseshoe Ranch, what’s that? And then I came here and I met the wonderful Hamilton family, who embraced both myself and Eloise without a second thought. Amelia, who has been like a mother to me and a grandmother to Eloise. Ranger, the father I always wished I had. Beau, Austin, Huck, Flint and Knox and Wyatt, the brothers I’d always longed for, and Sadie, Olivia and Lucy, the sisters I never knew I needed.”
“But, Chet, you are my happiness. You are the reason I was meant to come here. You are a strong, proud, handsome, loving man. You are the sort of man I’ve dreamed about my entire life. The prince, the king, the knight, all of the men young women want to be with in one. I love you. I will always love you, and I am so happy to become your wife today. I will never forget this moment and I will never forget how happy you have made me.”
I was shocked to see tears running down Chet’s face. I’d never seen him cry before. He grabbed my hands and squeezed.
“I love you, Arya,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“I love you, too.”
He reached down and touched my belly. “And I love our baby.” He looked at the priest guiltily. “Oops, sorry.” Laughter rippled throughout the crowd.
The priest smiled and shrugged. “It’s okay. At least you’re getting married now. That’s all that matters.”
I beamed at him, happy that he wasn’t going to judge us.
“Can I say something?” Eloise spoke up, and I looked down at her in surprise. She hadn’t told me that she would want to say anything.
“Of course, my darling. You can say whatever you want.”
“Thank you,” she said, softly. She looked up at me, a happy expression on her face. “I just wanted to say that even though Auntie Arya is my auntie, she’s the best mommy I’ve ever had and I am so glad you came to take care of me, and I’m so glad we came to Horseshoe Ranch and I got to meet Grandma Amelia and Granddad Ranger and Daddy Chet, and I’m going to be a big a sister soon and I just want to say I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my whole entire life, even more happy than when I went to a birthday party at McDonald’s,” she said.
Everyone laughed and clapped. The priest smiled at her adoringly.
“Well, now, from the mouth of babes,” he said, and cleared his throat. “Everyone, we are gathered here today so that Arya and Chet will come together under the eyes of God in holy matrimony.”
He continued talking, but I wasn’t really paying attention. All I could do was stare at Chet and the love in his eyes. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. I couldn’t believe that this was my life and this was my family. I would never take them for granted. This was the happiest moment of my life and I was going to make sure I was the best wife, mother, sister, and daughter-in-law that I could be.