Page 48 of The Plan

George would never forget how she looked in that very moment.

Ronnie didn’t wantto let her son go, but she wanted to hold her daughter. To see her for the first time. And she was hurting too badly to hold them both. And she wanted George to see his son. They had intended to tell the family that the last ultrasound had revealed a little surprise hiding behind their son that they had not seen at first. She hadn’t had a great deal of ultrasounds with this pregnancy, but they should have at least seen some hint. But even Dr. Lewis was stumped by this one.

They’d known for one month, but there had been some concern with how healthy their baby girl would be. They had been afraid she’d be too small, that her brother was getting all the “meat and taters” and she hadn’t been getting enough, or there had been something wrong with her placenta, or… all sorts of scary things. All they had known was that something was wrong.

They had been planning to induce labor in a week and a half. They’d learned two days ago that that was the best chance for a safe delivery for both babies. But… the accident had changed all that.

“She’s healthy? Not hurt from the accident?” She remembered enough… one of the babies had been in distress.And she knew… the way a mother knew… it had been her baby girl.

“She’s a little tiny because she got here a little early, Ronnie,” Genny said, scooping the pink-wrapped bundle from her brother’s arm. “But she’s doing really well. Aubrey was in with you—do you remember?—she said the cord was wrapped around her a little, but they got her out and she was fine. She’s healthy, just… small. I have already told my new niece that I understand completely. And small is still very mighty.”

“Genesis only weighed an ounce over five pounds,” George said. “She was always small, too.”

“Her size may just be genetic,” Genny said. “She got the best DNA, just like I did.”

Then Genny was lowering the baby girl into Ronnie’s arms. And thereshewas. Her newest baby girl. Five. She had five girls and one boy now. They had decided before that this was it. Their family was complete.

She had tiny but perfect lips, that was what Ronnie noticed first. And the eyebrows. Oh, they were Hiller eyebrows. The baby’s eyes blinked open. Those were Hiller eyes, too. Only time would tell what color they would be. But everything else—Ronnie laughed. She saw it, too.

This baby girl—unlike her four older sisters Marnie Gayle, Marlie Rebecca, Madeline Isabella, and Mari Lynn Celia, who were carbon copies of Ronnie’s brothers through and through—thisbaby girl was a carbon copy of her aunt Genny.

Ronnie had wanted one to look like George. She’d gotten her wish at last.

And this baby girl was as beautiful as her big sisters, as beautiful as her twin brother—who looked remarkably like Uncle Anthony’s baby pictures. And Ronnie loved each and every one of her babies completely.

“We need to pick out her middle name,” George said, as Genny stepped back outside to be with the rest of their family, and give them more privacy. But he wasn’t taking his eyes off his son. His boy. She knew he had been wanting a son, even though he was made to be a daughter-daddy all the way. “One that means something to us.”

The name came to her immediately. Because… she wouldn’t ever forget the compassion and the kindness in big blue eyes out there on that highway, and in that operating room. “Aubrey. Mira Aubrey Hiller. Because… it just feels right. Aubrey helped me not feel so alone out there today. And would we have gotten our baby girl here in time, George? If she hadn’t been there?”

“I don’t think we’ll ever know. Mira Aubrey Hiller she is.”

Ronnie looked down. “Look what we did, Georgie. Look what we did. By loving each other.”

“Nothing can ever feel more perfect than this. I love you, Veronica Dawn Lake Hiller. For now and always. You, them, the girls—you are my world. And you always will be.”

George moved closer, then. Shuffling a little. He was hurting, but her man would never admit it. He held their son close, protectively, even though George could barely move. And he leaned down, kissed her gently. And looked at their daughter.

Ronnie looked at their children, and knew… she was right where she belonged.

InThe Truth, minister Gunn Hiller comes face-to-face with the woman he just knows he’ll love forever…Problem is, Ayla is beyond skittish wheremenare concerned. Gunn’s going to have to take things really slow. Ayla has never felt this way for a man before, ever. And her best friend’s big brother makes her want to take the risk. But someone else doesn’t want them together, and they’ll stop atnothingto keep their secret.

Sometimes he struggledwith accepting the evil that humanity could unleash upon others. Pastor Gunn Hiller of the Hope Life Church in Value, Texas, tried to reconcile what he had seen happen to his little sister today and his faith.

Not in God. That was not in question.

It was his faith in humanity that was shaken tonight.

There had been a pair of six-inch scissors jammed into his little sister’s shoulder. Twice. He hadn’t been close enough to stop it. To protect her.

Gunn had been there at the hospital emergency department to counsel an ailing parishioner. He’d seen his sister and one of his brothers in the ER where they both worked. He’d been hanging around, waiting to see if Genny needed a ride home.

Then the attack had happened.

He had watched it happen to Genny and had been completely helpless to stop it. Terror had filled him. He had started running toward her the instant she had screamed.

Just running, trying to get there before the monster who had hurt her could hurt her again and again—or the woman next to her. Her close friend, Aubrey. That monster had just kept hurting them.

Right there in the middle of the hospital where his sister worked as a nurse and Aubrey as a doctor. His brother Guthrie had been there, too. Running toward Genny and Aubrey, too.

---