Secrets Collide (Bluegrass Brothers)

this way, husband.”
    “I’d follow you anywhere, wife.” And he would.
     
    Marcy Davies smiled to herself as her family talked around her. Cy thought he was so sneaky, but she always knew when he had slipped out of the house as a boy and tonight was no different. She had seen the look in her son’s and new daughter-in-law’s eyes. And definitely didn't miss them sneaking out of the tent.
    Marcy nudged her husband of forty years and nodded to where Cy and Gemma had just been standing, “It looks as if your son couldn’t wait to begin the honeymoon. Oh, Jake! I just know there’ll be more grandbabies on the way soon,” she whispered as she wiped a tear from her eye. Her family gave her so much happiness.
    “Just make sure you don't die of happiness too soon,” he whispered back with a grin on his face that Marcy still found sexy. Oh no, she was very much alive tonight and if her husband kept smiling at her like that, Cy and Gemma wouldn’t be the only ones sneaking out of the tent.
    “You’re right, honey. I can’t die happy until I have all my grandbabies. Tammy and Pierce . . .” Marcy’s eyes narrowed on Tammy and Pierce and the rest of the Davies family gathered around Gemma and Cy. “Tammy? Is that apple juice?”
    “Um . . .” Tammy stuttered.
    “And your dress looks different than it did last month.” Marcy paused as she looked Tammy over. Tammy fidgeted under the examination. “Oh my gosh. You’re pregnant!”
    “We are, but we wanted Gemma and Cy to have their day before we announced it. So, thanks for blowing the surprise, Ma,” Pierce tried to chide.
    “Well, bless y’all’s hearts,” Marcy cried as she wrapped her dear daughter-in-law up in a hug.
    Miss Lily and a group of townspeople came over to offer their congratulations. “Keeneston will be in full bloom by spring,” Miss Lily said as she and her sisters dabbed their eyes.
     
    Ahmed stood by the door and watched his love dance. She was beautiful. But the man dancing with her didn’t deserve her. He had to remind himself he couldn’t claim her by punching the guy out. She couldn’t know his feelings until Sergei was dead. Until then, he had to love from afar. It was starting to hurt, but Ahmed tried to keep the hope alive that someday he would be where Cy was today—married to the love of his life.
    “Sir,” Nabi said as the serious young man approached him with a piece of paper, “this popped up in a Pakistani newspaper. One hundred people and counting are dead in a train explosion.”
    “He’s back,” Ahmed said as he glanced at the picture of destruction.
    “You’re sure it’s Sergei?”
    “I’m sure. He must've found a new employer. See, the minister of energy was on the train. Instead of just killing the minister, he blew the whole thing up. The high body count hides the assassination. It’s one of his old tricks.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    Ahmed thought about his deceased wife and child before looking up from the newspaper. His eyes automatically fell on the woman he had to love in secret as she danced around. “End this.”
     
    Cy swung his wife around the dance floor as the crowd cheered. No one seemed to notice when they slipped back into the tent thirty minutes later. The music was fast and the floor was full of couples laughing and talking the night away. He couldn’t imagine a better night—marriage to the woman he loved more than life itself.
    He pulled Gemma to him and kissed her enthusiastically before spinning her away again. “Hey, Cy,” Gemma called as she lifted her skirt and twirled.
    “Yes, my love?”
    “I love you.”
    “I love you, too.” He pulled Gemma back to him and leaned down. “I think it’s time to go and let me show you how much I love you. Maybe if I’m a real good boy, you’ll do that thing you just did with your . . .”
    Gemma blushed. “So soon? We just got back,” she giggled. “Well, if you’re a real good boy and dance with me some more, then I might show you what I can do when I bend my back like . . .”
    Cy feigned shock. “You’ve been keeping secrets.”
    “Not anymore. No more secrets. Just us and our new family.”
    The sound of clinking caught their attention as Jake raised his glass. “A toast . . . I want to welcome Gemma to our family. Over the past couple of years, our family has more than doubled in size. By the end of next year, I'll be bouncing more babies than I can hold and my wife will be able to die happy.”