Just Deserts - Brenda Jackson [50]
Tristan went still. He stared deep into her eyes and then a smile touched his lips. “Are you saying that you’re pregnant?”
Danielle laughed. “Yes, father-to-be. That’s exactly what I’m saying. You made my dream come true, Tris. You gave me the one thing that I wanted in life. I love you.”
“And I love you,” he said, pulling her into his arms and holding her tight. “And now I’m asking you to give me yet another title, one that I will wear just as proudly as the others. Your husband.”
He pulled back and gazed into her face. “Will you marry me, Danielle? Will you spend the rest of your life with me?”
Danielle smiled as tears glistened in her eyes. “Yes! I would be honored to be the one you call wife.”
She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, putting everything she felt and more into that kiss, knowing this was the start of the rest of their lives together.
Epilogue
Alex and Renée shared tears of happiness as they watched Danielle and Tristan exchange their wedding vows. It was a beautiful September day in Port St. Lucie, and it seemed the entire town was present at the Forest Grove Baptist Church for the occasion.
“I just knew it would end this way for all three of us,” Alex said happily. “I just knew it.”
Renée glanced over at her. “And how did you know?”
“Because I felt it. Marc’s dying was not in vain. I may have lost a husband—or someone I thought was my husband—but I gained a lot more in return. I got you and Danielle for life.”
Renée laughed. “Yes, for life.”
Their attention was pulled back to the wedding when a cheer went up. The pastor had just pronounced Tristan and Danielle husband and wife.
A few minutes later, after Tristan picked up his bride to carry her out of the church, Alex and Renée were joined by their husbands.
“We tried to tell Danielle that Tristan was in love with her,” Alex said matter-of-factly. “But she refused to believe us.”
Renée smiled. “It just wasn’t time for her to believe us, Alex.” She glanced at her husband. “A woman will eventually know when she is in love and is loved.”
Alex smiled and looked at Hunter, feeling the very essence of Renée’s words when she looked into her husband’s eyes.
“Now that the three of you are married,” Chris said, “what’s next?”
Both Alex and Renée leaned up and whispered to their husbands at the same time. “Babies.”
It took Hunter and Chris a minute to realize that announcements had just been made. Overjoyed, they swept the women they loved into their arms.
Later that night as they spent their honeymoon on the cruise ship they had boarded a few hours after their wedding, Tristan pulled his wife, the mother of his child, into his arms. Come spring, he and Danielle would have a little one to love. They had decided if it was a boy, they would name him Paul, and if it was a girl, she would be called Paulette.
“I love you, sweetheart,” he whispered to her.
“And I love you back.”
She did and she would make sure that for the rest of his life he would know it.
She thought about how beautiful their day had been, how wonderfully everything had gone, and knew she wouldn’t have done anything differently. Alex had offered the use of the Marc III for the wedding, but Danielle knew there was no way she would cheat all the good people of Port St. Lucie of being witness to an Adams and Timmons match-up.
Besides, a lot of her modeling friends had come, and she’d been elevated to celebrity status all over again.
“What are you thinking about, sweetheart?” Tristan asked.
“About how happy I am.” She looked at him. “And are you happy?”
He chuckled. “If I was any happier I’d probably burst at the seams.”
“Well, I guess now is a good time to tell you, since I’m sure Hunter and Chris know by now.”
Tristan lifted a brow. “Know what?”
“Come spring, they will become fathers, too.”
The smile that covered Tristan’s face was priceless. “No kidding?”
“No kidding. So I’m sure the three of you will have a lot of stories to swap