The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(110)

I follow his eyes as he glances over his shoulder and points to the cubicle behind him where Lacey is sitting with Reina. My feet take off, leaving Blackie and whatever words he’s blabbing behind me and head straight for my girls. My eyes dart between them and the monitor that Reina is hooked up too. I can’t hear the familiar sound of our baby’s swooshing heart beat but I spot the steady numbers flashing next to an image of a heart. The wedding dress she was wearing has been cut off her and she’s in a hospital gown with a big strap across her belly. Her eyes find mine and I can tell she’s both exhausted and in pain.

Ignoring the burning sensations rippling over my back, I make my way to her bedside. I kiss Lacey’s cheek, trading spots with her and turn my eyes back to Reina.

“Someone tell me what’s going on,” I say, lacing my fingers with Reina’s and turn to my daughter. I draw in a deep breath and try my hardest to remain calm and patient as she speaks and I try to read her lips.

“Slow down,” I tell her as I continue to concentrate on her mouth and each word she enunciates I try to read from her lips.

Stopped labor for now.

Continuing to monitor.

Bedrest.

I lift her hand to my mouth and hiss in agony as the skin on my back feels as if it’s being torn apart. My eyes zero in on the bracelet on her wrist and the name it reads.

DeCarlo, Reina.

That’s not supposed to be.

Turing my eyes back to hers I shake my head.

“We’re supposed to be married,” I say, not giving a fuck if my voice is loud or low. I may not have taken my vows today, but I made a promise to Sunshine, told her there wasn’t anything that would keep me from marrying her.

Some fucking wedding, I gave her.

“Can’t hear shit, Reina. Don’t know if it’s permanent or some fluke shittin’ thing but my heart still works and that thing beats for you, always will. Made you a promise and I like to think I’m a man of my word. If you don’t mind marrying someone who can’t hear you but someone who’ll always love you, then let’s do it.”

She opens her mouth in a perfect little ‘O’ and her eyes widen through their exhaustion and I see the inner struggle she’s battling. She thinks I’m crazy, knows I am but, there’s a piece of her that wants to believe what I’m saying isn’t the crazy talking. She wants to believe this beaten down man’s heart is the one asking her to marry her.

Believe, Sunshine.

Keep believing in me.

Squeezing her hand tight, I turn to Blackie and Lacey.

“Where’s the priest?”

I feel Reina squeeze my hand to bring my attention back to her.

“Jack,” she says slowly.

Blackie rips the curtain next to us down off the clips and the priest Reina hired is in the bed next to her.

“You believe in signs, Sunshine?”

Nodding, she smiles at me and mouths the words that completely undo me and put me back together all the same.

“I believe in you.”

Words to heal the soul.

Blackie lays a hand on my shoulder and looks between me and Reina then settles his gaze on me and points to his lips.

“He’ll marry you.”

More healing words.

I glance over at the priest and watch as he lowers the oxygen mask from his mouth and speaks. I don’t know what he’s saying, he’s too far away for me to read his lips but I know the words he’s saying are more for Reina than they are for me. There are only two words that need to be said to make this union official.

I stare at Reina, remembering how stunning she looked walking toward me before the mayhem exploded and I can’t spot the difference, even in a hospital gown she’s the most beautiful bride.

Lacey moves across from us and stands at Reina’s bedside, next to the baby monitor where our baby’s heartbeat is singing strong. I don’t need to hear it to know that kid’s a fighter, just look who his parents are.

The priest continues to talk, taking a break for oxygen here and there while Reina hangs on his every word. The doctors I ditched stand close by, once this marriage is official I’ll make them play with my back and these burns some more, but for now they can stand there and wait for me to collapse in pain. Blackie pats my shoulder and I turn to him to see him holding Reina’s ring.

Talk about signs.

That yellow diamond weathered a bomb.

It almost makes me want to be a believer.

I take the ring from his hand and look back at Reina. This isn’t my first rodeo and I vaguely remember the words I’m supposed to say when I slide the ring on her finger. The priest is instructing me on what to say but I don’t even try to read his lips.

Instead, I go with what’s inside. I speak from the heart and give her my solemn vow.

“You.”

I say as I slide the ring onto her finger and stare into the eyes of the woman that saved my soul and my mind. The woman who holds my future. The woman this heart beats for.

“Me,” she replies.

Nothing else matters.

It’s that moment when we become Mr. and Mrs. Jack Parrish and I become property of Sunshine. Deciding I don’t need a priest to give me permission to kiss my wife, I fight through the pain in my back and lean over the rail of the bed to press my lips to hers.

It’s not perfect, nowhere close, but in a Jack and Reina way it is.