Wednesday morning Cady and Jacob went to her OBGYN.

"Do you want to know the sex?" Doctor Paula asked as she prepped Cady.

"Not right away. Maybe later." Cady and Jacob had talked about it. There were so few real surprises in life that they were thinking of waiting.

Paula watched the monitor closely. She frowned and repositioned the transducer. Cady and Jacob glanced at each other.

"Anything wrong?" Jacob asked.

"Just trying to get the best image to confirm something." She pointed out the heartbeat and the outline of the baby. "Now keep it together because that was Baby Number 1." She moved the transducer. "Here's Baby Number 2."

"Twins?" Cady said at the same time Jacob said "Twins!"

"It was a possibility early on," Paula explained. "Cady got bigger than average sooner than usual and I suspected a second heartbeat although there can be an echo effect so I wasn't sure. But twins are confirmed now and everything looks very good, very normal." She smiled. "At this point the babies are often doing better than the parents. How are you holding up? Feeling faint? Jacob, do you need to sit down? Don't be a hero. Cady is already lying down; it's okay for you to sit."

"I think I will." Jacob pulled a chair close to the bed and sat without letting go of Cady's hand. Their smiles were wide.

"Can we have pictures?" Cady asked.

"Of course."

"Five sets." Jacob added.

"No problem."

"You, me, Dad, Vic and Henry?" Cady asked.

Jacob nodded. "This is definitely going to be an ice breaker tonight."

Cady sighed. "There's that smug look again."

Walt and Vic came out on the porch as they pulled up to the cabin. Cady went up the steps and hugged her father. "Hi, Dad." She turned to greet Vic.

Walt stuck out his hand and said "Jacob." Jacob took the hand and said "Walt." The dreaded moment was over painlessly. Jacob kissed Vic's cheek and they all went inside.

"Well," Vic demanded. "Do you have a picture of the baby?"

"Nope," Cady said.

"Was the appointment cancelled?" Walt sounded disappointed.

"The appointment went fine," Cady said. "There is no picture of a baby but maybe you'd like to see a picture of the babies! Jacob, show them."

Cady told them her doctor said the twins were fraternal, so they could have two boys, two girls, or one of each.

"Jacob doesn't know if there are twins on his side but there must be. There aren't any on my side, are there?"

Walt cleared his throat. "Actually, you were a twin, Cady."

"What!"

"A boy miscarried. The umbilical cord got twisted."

"Why didn't I know this?"

"Didn't seem necessary to tell you that you would have had a brother. We almost lost you, too."

"Is that why you and Mom didn't have more children?"

"Doctor didn't recommend it. And you were all we needed, Punk."

After dinner Jacob asked to speak with Walt privately.

"I'm going to ask Cady to marry me."

"But you're not asking my permission?"

"Just informing you."

Walt nodded. "Fair enough."

"I disagreed with Cady over not being with her when she told you she was pregnant. I don't want you to think I was being a coward."

"I've thought you were a lot of things over the years but coward wasn't one of them. Cady was right with how she handled it."

That night in bed, staring at the printout of the ultrasound, the previous night's conversation hit Cady. "Wait a minute. Knowing what happened our first time, does that married woman have a child? Do any of your other women?"

"They do not. I meant it when I said I didn't expect to be a father. I was careful because I didn't want that when I was younger. By the time I was ready I thought I'd left it too late."

"The age of the mother matters more than the father."

"We're a prime example. But you have to find someone you want to be the mother of your children. That didn't happen for me until I knew you."

"Did you really think of having a baby with me when we met?"

"At that point I was only thinking of the act that makes the baby."

"Me, too. I thought of it a lot, actually."

"Then I started imagining what it could lead to."

"You got there before me. I was still obsessing about sex with you."

Cady stopped by the casino to give Henry a picture of the ultrasound. He looked pleased about her news of the twins.

"It is good that you are having two at once. Jacob does not have time to spread them out."

"Okay, that's two jabs. That's all you get."

Henry held up his hands in surrender. "I am done. I promise."

That night Jacob cooked again.

"So nice to come home and not have to make something to eat. I could get used to this," Cady said.

"I hope you will get used to it. If you want to be sure of it, you could marry me."

Cady dropped her fork, eyes wide. "I was going to ask you after dinner."

"My answer is yes."

"So is mine. I told Vic last night that I wasn't going to wait for you to ask."

"At the same time I was telling Walt that I was going to ask you."

Cady laughed. "So, when should we do it?"

Jacob's eyes dropped to her stomach. "Let's not have a long engagement."

"I want a Cheyenne ceremony and a civil ceremony, just to cover all the bases."

Jacob nodded. "I don't care how many times I marry you."

The civil ceremony was performed by Judge Mayhew two weeks later and witnessed by Walt, Vic and Henry. Jacob had a ring made for Cady of nephrite, known as Wyoming Jade, the state gemstone. He chose the rare blue color to match her eyes, rather than the more common green. It was set in platinum and surrounded by diamonds, also from Wyoming. Matching platinum wedding bands completed the set. Cady gave Jacob a blue nephrite stud for his left ear.

Henry hosted a party at the Red Pony in the evening. It was early October and the weather was still warm enough to block off part of the parking lot for dancing. It would be more rowdy than romantic, which Jacob and Cady preferred; they could be romantic at home in private. They agreed on the first song but not the version. Cady was familiar with Toploader's cover; Jacob wanted – insisted – on the original by King Harvest. They listened to each and Cady caved.

A band wasn't needed. They gave Henry a list of songs, he loaded the juke box and rolled it out to the lot. Cady and Jacob danced alone to the first verse of Dancing in the Moonlight then everybody joined in. They had picked the date and the song because there was a full moon.

[A/N: Search for 'King Harvest Dancing in the Moonlight with lyrics']

It was Friday night and the sheriff's department was closed but someone had to be on call. Zach Heflin volunteered. Cady had broken off their short-lived affair long ago so it caused him only a slight pang when he heard she was with Nighthorse. They had remained friendly but he had hardly seen her the past year and there was no reason for him to show up.

"It was kind of romantic after all. For awhile," Cady said when they got home.

"Until the fight broke out and somebody vomited." Jacob sounded amused.

"You threw the first punch. And you know I wasn't drinking, I felt sick from dancing."

"Your father and I have wanted to beat each other up for years. We finally did."

"At our wedding!"

"It was almost over; a lot of people had already left. And Vic stopped us after one punch each."

"By pulling a gun."

"From a thigh holster. It had to have chafed in that dress."

Cady giggled. "And this was our 'civil' ceremony."

"Walt has an imprint of my ring in his cheek." Jacob sounded pleased. He had moved his signet ring to his right hand before he and Cady exchanged wedding bands.

"And your jaw is swollen. It'll be black and blue by morning." Cady handed him an ice pack. "You'll both look terrible for tomorrow night."

"Firelight is very forgiving." Jacob paused. "We may not have much of a wedding night, Cady. I'm a little drunk."

"And I'm still queasy. Fortunately we get a do-over tomorrow."

The next evening the Cheyenne ceremony was held on the rez. Cady had memorized her responses but couldn't always understand the spoken language. Jacob translated in whispers so she could follow. They had decided to skip taking a wedding trip and would wait to go away on their first anniversary instead.

After official consummation of their marriages they talked before falling asleep. Cady wondered what makes people want to be together.

"Why did we make a connection? I mean, we've both connected before. Me five times and you sixteen or seventeen …"

Jacob exhaled loudly.

"… but those didn't lead to commitment. How did we get lucky enough to have this happen?"

"A combination of neuroscience, biochemistry and psychology."

"The release of dopamine increases testosterone for men and for women it increases a couple of hormones I can't pronounce. But it still seems random. It scares me to think we might have missed this."

"Or that we each might have settled for less with someone else and never known what we were missing."

"What if that happened, Jacob? Maybe we settled for each other."

"That's probably part of the psychology. When everything else lines up, something in your brain says you're unlikely to do better than this person. So you're not settling; you're making a choice. You decide this is the one."

"I did that," Cady said. "I remember thinking that you were who I wanted even though there were reasons it might not work."

"Same for me. Obstacles didn't mean much compared to the reality of you."

After that the priority was getting ready for the babies. Everything had to be doubled including thinking of names. They decided that having twins was enough of a surprise; they wanted to know which sexes to plan for. Doctor Paula told them they would be having one of each.

One evening a few weeks after their weddings Walt asked Cady and Jacob to stop by the cabin.

"You want to take Candy with you, Punk? Appaloosa was always your favorite horse."

Cady smiled and linked her arm with Jacob's. "Not anymore."

"I meant for riding."

Cady and Jacob looked at each other but remained silent.

Vic wasn't so shy. "Not anymore," she said suggestively.

Walt closed his eyes and sighed.

Vic laughed. "He won't be able to say the words 'riding' and 'night' and 'horse' in the same sentence again."

Jacob came to Walt's rescue by changing the subject. "Did you name her, Cady? Candy Appaloosa sounds like your idea."

Cady nodded. "I think it's cute."

"You didn't consider Pine or Crab? Maybe Cinnamon?"

"Those are adorable, Jacob. Let's get Appaloosas for the twins when they're old enough. And yes, Dad, I'd love to have Candy."