hooked up to her arm.
Carlo reappeared with another man behind him. He appeared to be a doctor but she wasn’t sure anything made sense anymore. “What’s going on?” she croaked but her mouth refused to work properly.
Carlo grabbed her hand while the doctor ran some tests. He checked her pulse and scanned her eyes with a tiny flashlight, then pronounced her on the road to recovery. He wanted her to stay for the night, but he didn’t see any reason to keep her longer.
“The baby is fine but you’ll have to be on bed rest for a while. You’ll need to check with your obstetrician as soon as possible. We would have already contacted her or him but Mr. Attracelli wasn’t sure of the name. I’ll leave you two alone to talk,” he said seriously.
Carlo stood beside the bed until they were alone again. Then he sat down on a chair beside the bed and took Kate’s hand. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant, Kate?”
Kate looked at the ceiling, unable to look at his handsome face. “I only figured it out myself last week. It took a while to let it sink in.”
“Were you going to get rid of it?” he asked and her hand was gripped painfully.
“No!” she said immediately and pulled her hand away. “I was going to tell you about it today, but then I overheard that awful conversation. But I’m not getting rid of this child,” she said. Kate was furious with herself for crying again. She felt like a faucet that couldn’t be turned off.
Kate continued despite her weepiness, wanting to get it all out now that he already knew about her situation. “I know you probably don’t want your life complicated with this so I won’t bother you with this baby. But I’m not getting rid of it no matter what you say.”
“Thank god!” he replied, and the tension left his face. “I was so afraid you were hiding it so you could have an abortion.” He stared at her right in the eye. “Why are you trying to push me away?”
“Because I’m pregnant. I don’t understand how it happened. But it did. I understand how you feel about children and, like I said, I promise I won’t bother you with this baby.”
“What do you mean?” he demanded harshly. “How do you think I feel about children? And this is our baby. Stop referring to it as if I were already out of the picture.”
Kate looked away, unable to face him. “The afternoon we had lunch with your family, in the car you mentioned that kids were wonderful if you could hand them back after a while.” She sniffled before she continued. “Then there was the time you were talking to one of your brothers or sisters in law and you mentioned that you weren’t going to be sucked into the daddy thing again.” She accepted his offered tissue. “I know you don’t want kids. It wasn’t my intention to get pregnant. It just happened. And I know you were going to have a serious discussion with me when you came back. I just didn’t want to hear that you didn’t want to see me again. I know I’m a coward but I just didn’t want to have those words spoken out loud.” Kate wanted to run but was attached to the IV.
Carlo touched her face so she was looking at him. “Kate, I want you. And I want your children. I want lots of children. You know how much I love my nieces and nephews. How could you think I didn’t want children?”
“But that day! You said that they…”
“Forget what I said that day. I said it after being surrounded by nine children. I definitely want kids. I just want to have them one at a time. I guess you don’t know this, but I fight to baby-sit my nieces and nephews at every opportunity.”
“I love you!” Kate said, a smile forming on her face for the first time in the past week.
“I know you do. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for months now! I’m glad you’ve finally realized it,” he said and bent down to kiss her gently.
Pulling back, he laughed at her tear stained face. “Will you marry me now that we’ve gotten that out of the way?”
“Yes!” she said. Then gasped, “But what about David? What’s going to happen to him? He’s not going to get away with whatever he’s trying to pull, is he?”
“No,” Carlo said. “He was arrested for insider trading about the same time you came to tell me about his plan. We’ve known about it for the past month and have been working with the SEC. The man in David’s office was an agent who was gathering information. You weren’t supposed to be involved in that discussion though.”
“Oh, sorry. I do tend to walk in at the wrong moments lately,” she laughed then pulled his head closer for another kiss.
“No, all the right moments, in my mind,’ Carlo corrected.
Epilogue
Kate held six month old Ashton in her arms, still in awe of the tiny little girl. Carlo walked over to where Kate and Ashton were settled on the sofa of the large family room of Sal’s house. The family Christmas tree was standing ten feet tall in the corner of the room, wrapping paper covering the entire expanse of floor and toys surrounding the furniture and tree.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“More than okay,” she replied, kissing him gently. Carlo leaned down and kissed his little daughter who was sound asleep, oblivious to the chaos surrounding her.
Kate looked down at her child and said a silent prayer, grateful for the gift of her child and her husband.
Emma interrupted her thoughts. “Aunt Kate, you have so many presents to open. When are you going to start?” she asked, horrified at the idea of unopened presents.
Since Emma was the leader of the nine children, Kate was instantly overwhelmed with other children cheering her on to open her presents.
“Let Kate open her presents when she’s ready,” Antonia said, smiling down at Kate. “Sorry for the interruption,” she whispered. “Did Emma wake up Ashton?”
Kate shook her head. “No, this one can sleep through anything during the day. It’s the nights that a breath will wake her,” Kate laughed. She was exhausted but happy. During the days, she ran all of the Jamison Department Stores. She’d been assigned that task by Sal himself, at the recommendation of her husband. At night, she loved her husband and enjoyed quiet times with her daughter.
“Is this what you wanted growing up?” Carlo asked.
Kate glanced around Sal’s family room. There were so many presents scattered around but the best part was the number of family members. Even her mother had traveled up from Florida to take part in the celebration.
She remembered her lonely Christmas’s from the past and sighed in relief, incredibly happy to be a part of the Attracelli clan. “Yes. This is what I always wanted,” she said and hugged her daughter closer, her eyes showing her love for her husband. “I love you,” she said, not able to tell him that enough.
Carlo kissed her gently, showing her his feelings. He didn’t mind hearing it from her though.