Brighter Than the Sun

“Hello, Nathan,” Grace said, moving in to hug him as Shea exchanged hugs with Rio. “I’m so glad you’re taking such good care of Shea.”

“More like she takes care of me,” Nathan said with a grin. “But I’m happy to take the credit.”

Grace laughed.

“You ready to shove off?” Rio asked Nathan.

Nathan nodded and pulled Shea into his arms. “You girls have fun. We won’t be long. Standard meeting and check-in.”

Grace, Elizabeth and Shea waved as Nathan jumped in with Rio and the two drove the short distance from Nathan’s house to the war room.

Shea dropped her hand then turned to her sister and niece. “Come on in, you two. We have so much to catch up on. I don’t see you two enough.”

Grace smiled. In fact, she was all but beaming. And glowing like a star. She looked like she’d swallowed the sunshine and her smile was so happy that tears pricked Shea’s eyelids. Not so long ago the two sisters had been desperate and running for their lives, unsure if they’d ever see each other again. Now everything was perfect.

They plopped down on the couch and Shea bit her lip to suppress her own goofy grin. Sometimes? Life just kept getting better. She peeked up at Grace to see Grace looking kind of funny at her. Shea licked her lips just as Grace’s lips parted.

“I—”

“Have—”

“News!”

Both women stopped then stared back at each other in shock and then they burst into laughter. Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but Shea noticed how close she stayed to Grace and the fact that she’d slipped her hand into Grace’s and held it tightly.

“Okay, so we both obviously have news,” Shea said as she finally gained her composure. “You go first.”

Grace was fidgeting with excitement. She glanced at Elizabeth, and Elizabeth gave her an encouraging smile. Grace’s return smile was soft and full of love. Then she turned glowing eyes on Shea.

“I’m pregnant,” Grace said in a tear-clogged voice.

Shea’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious? Really?”

“Really!”

Shea fell back on the couch, holding her stomach as she laughed. She struggled to right herself but was wheezing when she tried to say something.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and grinned like a fool over at Grace and Elizabeth. Then she shook her head. “It would seem we really do share everything. I’m pregnant too,” she confessed shyly.

Grace looked thunderstruck. Elizabeth squealed and dove for Shea, latching on to her and hugging as she shook with excitement.

“Oh my God! Two babies!” Elizabeth said, clapping her hands when she pulled away from Shea.

“Shea?” Grace asked in a concerned voice. “Are you happy about this? I thought you and Nathan were waiting awhile.”

Shea sent her a smile that couldn’t be construed as anything short of absolute delirium. “We did wait, silly. It’s just that in the past several months, we’ve started talking about it. It’s something Nathan wants more than anything, but I think he’s worried about pressuring me and that it’s not what I want, so he doesn’t say much about it now.”

“So you being you, you took matters into your own hands,” Grace said dryly.

Shea grinned. “If we waited around on our men to get things done, we’d wait forever.”

Grace sighed. “This is true. So you’re happy, Shea? Really happy? And this is what you want?”

“Oh, yeah,” Shea breathed. “It’s been a regular baby factory around here the last few years. I swear I’m the only one who hasn’t been popping babies out. But one thing I have noticed is that it does seem to be catching. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a sudden rash of pregnancies in all the wives. Maren’s already pregnant, so we can blame it on her if anyone tries to blame us for an oops baby.”

Grace sucked in her breath. “She is? Oh, that’s wonderful! Steele with two babies. God, I have to have a picture of that.”

“You and me both.” Shea giggled. “Nathan said he was all out of sorts the day he found out. Said he was freaking out at a KGI meeting.”

Grace smothered her laughter with a hand. “Poor guy. Oh well, this is Rio’s first rodeo, so that should take the heat off the Ice Man. They’ll have fresh blood to torment now that Rio will be drowning in diapers and bottles and sleepless nights. Maybe I shouldn’t tell him for a while. That would keep everyone off his case for a few extra weeks anyway, right?”

Shea held up her hand. “Whoa. Wait a minute. He doesn’t know? You haven’t told him?”

Grace made a face. “I only just found out. Yes, I could have told Rio before we left the house in Belize, but if I had, he probably wouldn’t have let me come. In fact, he’d likely keep me under strict lock and key for the duration of my pregnancy.”

“He so would too,” Elizabeth muttered.

The two women laughed.

“Well, I haven’t told Nathan either, but I only found out this morning and didn’t want to tell him two minutes before you guys got here and then shove him out the door. The poor man wouldn’t be able to remember his own name after news like that.”

Grace nodded. “This is true. So I guess we’ll both be giving our husbands some news tonight, huh?”

“Looks that way,” Shea said with a grin.