Quade's Babies - Brenda Jackson [44]
It was about Cheyenne, the woman that he knew he loved. Some people would actually think it was crazy considering their history, but as far as he was concerned, it made perfect sense. A part of him had known it would take a special woman to capture his heart and it wouldn’t take months or years for her to do so. His parents had met and fallen in love rather quickly, so had his uncle and aunt. Then there were his brothers and cousins, some of whom had claimed they had fallen in love with their wives the moment they had set eyes on them. Now he was a living witness that such a thing was possible. Cheyenne had been a part of his life, a part of him from the moment they had made love. He had probably fallen in love with her the exact moment they had met on the beach.
Now all he wanted to do was keep her and his babies safe. He had to believe that Venus would get better and return home to them and everything with her would be all right.
He took his finger and lifted up Cheyenne’s chin to look into her tear-stained eyes. Her tears were for his baby—their baby. “We have to believe she’s going to be okay, sweetheart. If we both believe it, then it will happen. We bring it into existence. Do you believe me, Cheyenne?”
Cheyenne nodded. For some reason she believed him. More than anything she wanted to believe him. At the moment he was her rock, she needed his strength. And one day, she would have his love and if not, he would have hers whether he wanted it or not. Needing to be connected to him in an intimate way, she reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck and then stood on tiptoes and brought his mouth down to hers.
His kiss was gentle yet deep, passionate. He made her feel protected and cared for—even cherished and loved, although she knew she was imagining those two. But still, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he was here with her, the father of her babies, and they had to believe that everything would be all right.
She broke off the kiss and met his gaze. He took her hand in his and kissed the knuckles. “You and I are a team,” he said. “Right?”
She smiled through the tears that continued to mist her eyes. “Yes, we are a team.”
“And we believe everything will be fine. Right?”
She nodded. “Yes, everything is going to be fine.”
And then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again.
Cheyenne clung to those words when she and Quade were able to see their little girl hours later. It took all of her strength, as well as some of his, to look down at Venus and see all the tubes that ran from her little body and not cry out in pain.
Quade’s arm tightened around her shoulder and he brought her closer to his side before leaning over to place a kiss on Cheyenne’s lips. “Remember, she is a fighter.”
Cheyenne nodded. She then forced a smile and said in a soft voice. “I’ll never consider Troy a troublemaker again. It was his crying that brought me to the room to find Venus in respiratory distress. I don’t want to think of what might have happened if for once he hadn’t made a sound.”
Quade didn’t want to think about what would have happened, either. He was trying to hold his emotions in check and was finding it difficult to do so. At that moment he knew how it felt to love someone so much you would willingly give your life to save theirs. He felt that kind of love for his offspring. He felt that same kind of love for their mother. The woman he wanted for his wife.
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave for a moment while I make some adjustments with the machines,” a nurse came up and said in a soft voice.
Instead of answering, Quade nodded and took Cheyenne’s hand in his and stepped out of the room and began walking down the hall. He knew her family would be in the waiting room. They’d want an update. Quade would give them the same message he’d given them earlier. Venus’s condition hadn’t changed. The doctors were still waiting for some of the test