I Do! by Rachel Gibson Page A

barn, where Daisy Parrish took more wedding photos. She’d been there all day, snapping pictures while Sadie dressed and the super perky Becca Ramsey worked magic on all their hair. Stella liked Becca. She seemed thoughtful and had a genuine love and caring for Vince and Sadie, but her energy was exhausting. Or perhaps Stella thought so because she easily tired these days and was generally exhausted all the time.
    While wedding guests were served hors d’oeuvres in the long cookhouse made of cinder block and stucco, Daisy took photos of the wedding party in the hayloft. Lily and another stylist touched up lips and cheeks, while Becca, in a little floral dress and cowboy boots, fussed over Sadie’s hair and tucked it into the pearl comb after she’d removed the veil. Vince and Sadie posed with pitchforks and on hay bales and looking out the loft door at the JH. Once Stella had done her part, she and Beau left to find a bathroom. They moved down the stairs with Beau directly in front in case she “toppled forward.” At the bottom, she moved wrong and pulled a muscle at the bottom of her belly.
    “Ouch.” She paused and sucked in a breath.
    Beau turned, worry etching the corners of his gray eyes. “Is it the baby?”
    “No. I pulled something.” The pain subsided and Beau helped her onto the four-wheeler. He drove her to the closest bathroom in the bunkhouse, then on to the cookhouse. Hunger pangs burned her stomach next to her heartburn, and she didn’t know if she could stand two more weeks of feeling like a whale with bladder issues.
    “You still okay?” Beau stood behind her and softly rubbed her belly.
    With her mouth stuffed with little chicken kabobs, she nodded. Next, she nibbled on stuffed mushrooms and cucumber cups stuffed with crab. Vince’s aunt had brought something she called Frito pie, but Sadie passed. If water gave her heartburn, Frito pie would burn a hole in her esophagus.
    At the far end of the cookhouse, Conner LeClaire ran across the polished floor, then dropped to his knees and slid about twenty feet.
    “Stop that, Conner,” his mother called out to him. “You’re going to hurt yourself and someone else.”
    He completely ignored his mother as if he suffered from convenient hearing loss.
    Autumn called out one more time, then said something to her husband standing by her side.
    “Conner.” He set Axel on his feet and said, “Your mother is talking to you.”
    “Just one more time,” he called out over his shoulder.
    “Okay,” Sam said at the same time his wife said, “No!”
    Axel took off after his older brother. He was fast but he wasn’t coordinated. He fell and plowed into several other kids, knocking them over like bowling pins. Those little nuts didn’t fall far from the tree, Stella thought as she watched the chaos. They were like their father, famous for knocking around opposing hockey players and getting bloody.
    Boys , Stella thought as Autumn and Sam did damage control. No one got hurt, but Stella was glad she was having a girl.
    “What have you done to little Stella?” Beau’s twin, Blake, asked as he and his girlfriend, Natalie, moved toward them.
    “Made sure she couldn’t run very far.” The twins laughed, an identical deep sound of amusement. They tipped their heads back at identical angles and smiled identical smiles. As much as the two were identical, they were different, too. Stella didn’t have any problem telling them apart anymore.
    “How are you feeling?” Natalie asked her.
    “Tired. Huge.” She rubbed the top of her belly as heartburn gripped beneath her sternum. The baby kicked as if she felt the heartburn, too.
    “Are your feet swollen? That’s one thing I did not enjoy about pregnancy.”
    Natalie had a cute little girl named Charlotte. Stella had met them both twice now. “They look like bricks.”
    Natalie groaned. “I don’t know which is worse. Sore, swollen feet or the heartburn.”
    The two women chatted about third trimester