by: Marty Chrisman
Slowly, Shelby opened her eyes. It took her a moment to realize that she was in a hospital room. Then she turned her head and found herself looking into Luke’s sapphire blue eyes. He smiled when he saw that she was awake.
“Hey, baby…” he said softly, gently brushing a strand of hair back out of her face. “Welcome back…”
“The babies….” Shelby said in a frightened voice, her hand automatically reaching for her stomach. Her face filled with sheer panic when she felt the flatness of her belly beneath the bed sheet.
“Shhhh….” Luke said soothingly “The babies are fine. The doctor had to do an emergency C section but they’re just fine.”
“You’ve seen them?” Shelby asked, starting to calm down “You’re not lying to me…they’re really okay?”
“They’re fine…” Luke reassured her with a grin “They’re already raising a ruckus.”
“I wanna see them.”
“You will….but right now you need to rest. You hit your head on the table and have a pretty bad concussion.” Luke told her “What happened?”
“I had a really bad pain in my stomach…..I lost and my balance and fell….that’s all I remember.”
“Good thing we came in for lunch and found you when we did.” He bent down and gently kissed her lips “Don’t ever do anything like that again…you scared me to death…”
“Stay with me. Okay?” Shelby said “Don’t leave me…I hate hospitals.”
“I won’t leave.” Luke said, taking her hand in his and holding it gently. “Just let ‘em try to kick me out.”
“Feels funny not to have them in there wrestling around…” Shelby said quietly
“I bet it does…” Luke said with a grin “Now you’re gonna have to deal with ‘em wrestling around for real.”
“Not for awhile I hope.” Shelby said with a laugh. She winced in pain as the stitches in her stomach protested. “Guess I won’t be laughing for awhile…”
“All that matters is that you and the babies are okay.” Luke said, gently kissing her again. “I..uh…wanna talk to you about something.”
“What?”
“Well…uh…I…” Luke said suddenly finding himself at a loss for words.
“Go on…” Shelby said trying to hide a smile “You’re doing so badly at it … .”
“You got that right.” He said. He looked deeply into her eyes and tried to work up his courage to say what he wanted to say. “I love you, Shelby…..and I want us to get married. As soon as possible.”
Shelby looked at Luke without speaking for several long minutes. She had been expecting this sooner or later. “I love you too, Luke….” She finally admitted “And I wanna be with you….but I can’t marry you…..not yet.”
“Why not?” Luke asked the pain of her refusal to accept his proposal showing clearly in his eyes.
“Because I can’t…” she said stubbornly “I don’t expect you to understand…”
“How am I supposed to understand if you don’t tell me why you won’t marry me?” Luke said in an exasperated voice “What have you got to lose?”
“You…” Shelby whispered, tears pooling in her eyes
“You’re not going to lose me….” Luke tried to reassure her “I wanna spend the rest of my life with you and with our children. Are you telling me that you don’t want that?”
“No….I do want that….it’s just….”
“Just what?” Luke said, trying hard to understand “Shelby, what are you so afraid of?”
“Luke…please, just don’t push it…okay?” Shelby said, silently pleading with her eyes for him to try and understand and give her some more time.
Luke didn’t understand what was going with Shelby and why she was so dead set against marriage but he wouldn’t push her. He loved her enough to be patient and to wait until she was ready to either marry him or explain why she wouldn’t.
He glanced up as the door opened and two nurses came in. He grinned when he saw that each one of them was carrying a tiny bundle wrapped in a blanket. One of the nurses handed one of the babies to Shelby, while the other nurse handed the other baby to Luke. He took the tiny bundle in the blue blanket gingerly, awkwardly cradling his son his arms. Smiling, the two nurses left the room leaving the young parents alone with their newborn twins.