Page 66 of The Virgin's Baby
“That’s okay because I want to do the talking.” I got up to take her hand and pull her to a seat. “Sit down, please. You know I hate for you to stand up too long and get all swollen.”
“This really isn’t going to work, Ransom,” she said.
I put one finger to her lips as I went down on one knee in front of her. “Hush now. Just listen to me, baby. First and foremost, I want you to know that my grandfather was just bluffing. He hasn’t changed his will. You, me, and the babies are all equal heirs in it. And that’s whether or not you marry me. You’re his blood too. And you don’t have to marry me to get a dime.”
She gulped. “I’m an heiress?”
“You are. And you don’t have to marry me to get your just due.” I took her left hand in mine. “And now I would like to tell you another thing. You see, I searched my soul all day yesterday and last night. And I dug deep. I didn’t want to say this to you until I knew it was the truth.”
Tears began to well up in her eyes. “Ransom.”
Shaking my head, I looked earnestly at her. “Hush now. Let me talk. As I dug around inside my head and heart, I found you at every turn. You are everywhere in me, Aspen Dell. You are in my head, my heart, my soul. I felt like we were one person when we made love. I’ve never felt that way in my life. You are my beginning and my end. I will never love anyone the way that I love you.”
“You love me?” she whimpered as tears began to fall down her cheeks.
“I do.” I pulled out the black box and opened the lid. “And I would like to show the world how much I love you.” I had to take a sec to get myself under control as she looked too beautiful for me to breathe. “Aspen, you don’t have to do this. No one is or will ever make you do anything again. Everything you do will only be because you want to. So, I am asking you if you will make me the luckiest, happiest, and the most grateful man on this planet and become my wife? Whenever you want that to happen, let me add.”
She kind of floored me as she asked, “Even if I want to wait like five years?”
It took me a minute to say, “Even if you want to wait five years.”
She smiled as she wiped away the tears. “Even if I want to marry you as soon as possible?”
My heart leapt, and I sighed. “Even if you want to fly off to Vegas in our private jet and get married as soon as possible. I want you with me. Forever and always. But I want you to want that too.”
“Forever and always.” She looked up at the ceiling. “I found him, Daddy. I found the one man for me. You always said I would. I waited and waited and then one day I found this piece of paper with his phone number on it and called him. And he asked me to have his baby. And I said yes. What should I say now, Dad?”
Margo chimed in as she used a deep voice to mimic Aspen’s dearly departed father, “Say, yes, daughter.”
Aspen and I laughed and then she wiggled her ring finger at me. “Seems he thinks I’ve found Mr. Right too. I would love to marry you, Ransom Whitaker. And the sooner, the better.”
I couldn’t stop the tears then. As I slid that engagement ring on her finger, I let those tears flow. “You have no idea how much I love you, girl.”
She threw her arms around me. “You have no idea how much I love you, boy. Now, let’s get on the private jet and make this thing real. It’ll be a pleasure to bring our kids into this world as a married couple. And I do believe Doctor Larson will be thrilled when she comes to visit the babies she helped us create.”
I had no idea how overwhelmed I would be with her answer. Like a bolt of lightning had just shot through me, I knew my life would never be the same again.
Chapter Thirty
Aspen
Lubbock, Texas – February 12th
I’d known it for the last three hours. I was in labor. The contractions were thirty minutes apart, but they were steady. Since there were three babies inside of me, the delivery a bit on the dangerous side. Plus, they were a month early, but the doctor told us that was normal in our case.
The reason I’d kept my mouth shut about the onset of labor was because we were already in the hospital. Lucius had to have some tests done to find out if the cancer had come back.
None of us wanted to imagine that it had. But Lucius told us that he’d been feeling tired and chilly often. At first, he wouldn’t even go to the doctor about it. He fought us so hard—the stubborn old goat.
Finally, I’d appealed to the human part of him, telling him that his great-grands wanted to meet him. And they wanted to know him, if only for a little while. If he could see fit to fighting this battle at least one more time for them, I knew they would love him always for doing it.
After a few days of letting that all sink in, Lucius made an appointment with his doctor. We brought him in for bloodwork, and they told us to return in three days.
So, we waited outside the lab until they brought us the results.
Being that Lucius had already been through the whole thing not long before, he knew what was ahead for him. And he wasn’t happy about it.
A twinge of pain began to radiate around my body, and I tried to take breaths through it without being noticed by Ransom or his grandfather. But Ransom sat next to me holding my hand. His arm rested on one side of my stomach. It must’ve gotten very hard with the contraction. “Do you feel that, baby?”
