A Bravo Christmas Reunion

by Christine Rimmer

  After forever, two guys in jumpsuits with a stretcher and more medical gear appeared. They checked Hayley over and consulted with Brett, who’d reappeared in the bedroom when Marcus wasn’t looking. At last, they helped Hayley to lie on her side on the stretcher, covered her with a blanket and started to carry her out.

  Marcus followed.

  One of the guys in jumpsuits said, “It’ll be crowded in the van.”

  “Too damn bad.” If all he could do was be there, he wasn’t letting anyone keep him from it. “I’m going with her.”

  “Please,” said Hayley. “Let him come….”

  The paramedic stopped arguing and Brett said, “You’ll need her purse—identification, insurance information….”

  “Table. Sitting room,” Hayley panted.

  “We’ll follow you,” Brett promised.

  Marcus grabbed her purse on the way out the door.

  The paramedic had been right. They were packed in that van like sardines in a can. Marcus pressed himself against the back of the driver’s seat, trying his damnedest to stay out of the way during the short, uncomfortable ride.

  At the hospital, the registration process fell to Marcus. They took Hayley off to “prep” her, whatever the hell that meant. He tried to argue that he wasn’t letting her go without him, but she reassured him that it would only be a few minutes and then they’d bring him back to her.

  He filled out all the papers and then he waited. For endless, torturous minutes. The others—Tanner, Brett and Angie—arrived. They sat with him. Or rather, they sat and he paced.

  He thought he’d lived through hell in his life. How wrong he’d been. There was no hell like the hell of waiting to be led to Hayley’s side, praying she was doing all right, sure something terrible would happen while he was out here and she was in there, without him, when she needed him the most….

  At last, they came and got him, gave him a hospital gown and showed him where to wash with antibacterial soap.

  And then, finally, they took him to her. She reached for his hand.

  The rest went by like some kind of dream—or maybe a nightmare.

  Nurses and a doctor went in and out. Hayley suffered. He stayed with her, provided what comfort and encouragement he could.

  Finally, the doctor said she could push.

  Things happened pretty fast after that. Hayley groaned and sweated and, in agonizing increments, the miracle happened.

  The doctor said, “The head has crowned. There we go. Very good. Push. Push.”

  The nurse said, “Here come the shoulders….”

  The rest was so swift. Instantaneous, really.

  He heard a baby’s cry.

  It was 5:17 on Saturday morning the sixteenth of December, and the doctor said, “It’s a girl.”

  Chapter Ten

  T hey named her Jenny, after Marcus’s mother. She had a clump of dark hair on the crown of her head. Hayley said she just knew that her eyes would be green once they changed from newborn blue.

  The nurses offered Marcus a rollaway bed so he could stay in the room with Hayley and the new baby. All day Saturday, they rested. Visitors were limited in order to give the new mother and her baby a chance to rest and recuperate from the birth.

  Saturday afternoon, Kelly and Tanner visited briefly. They brought Marcus and Hayley their things from the suite at Impresario—along with a brand-new car seat and a diaper bag packed with all the essentials.

  “The car seat’s from me, so my niece will be safely buckled up when they let you out of here,” Kelly said. “The diaper bag and everything in it is from Tanner.”

  “Don’t let her kid you,” muttered Tanner. “I paid for that stuff, but Kelly’s the one who went out and got it all.”

  “However you two worked it out,” Hayley said. “Thank you. You did good.”

  Kelly held the baby and Tanner said that everyone at the reunion sent them congratulations—and a whole bunch of baby gifts, which Caitlin was having mailed directly to Hayley’s place in Sacramento.

  “When I get home, I’ll send thank-you notes,” Hayley said. “But for now, will you tell them how much I appreciate their thoughtfulness—how much I appreciate them?”

  “Will do,” Tanner promised.

  “They’re calling this little darling the Reunion Baby,” Kelly said. “There have been lots of new Bravos born in the past few years. It’s appropriate, I think, that there should be a new baby born at the family reunion.”

  After she and Tanner left, Hayley said again how glad she was to have a big family at last. “I always wanted siblings. A lot of family, that was my dream. Now I’ve got a big brother—and half brothers all over the country. And a sister who’s also my best friend…”

  Marcus couldn’t resist ribbing her. “They can be dangerous, those Bravos.”

  “No way.”

  “Oh, yeah. You have to watch them at the poker table. No end to their tricks.”

  Hayley wasn’t buying. “I know you. You held your own just fine in that card game.”

  “Naw. They cleaned me out.”

  In the hospital bassinette beside Hayley’s bed, Jenny started fussing. Hayley picked her up and put her to her breast. Jenny latched right on.

  Marcus watched them, the mother and the child…

  His child.

  He was a father now. It hardly seemed possible.

  And yet, now fatherhood had happened to him, it seemed so right, somehow. As if he’d waited his whole life.

  To know this one special woman.

  To father this beautiful, perfect child.

  When she was through nursing, Hayley passed him the baby. He cradled her with care. She hardly weighed a thing in his arms. “She’s so little….”

  “Not for long. Kelly says they grow up way too fast. We’ll be fighting off the boyfriends before you know it.”

  He glanced up and their gazes met. The smile she gave him made his chest feel tight. He put on a threatening scowl. “Boyfriends? No way. Never. Not my little girl.”

  “I do believe all fathers with daughters say that at one time or another—at least the loving fathers do….” Her eyes held a sudden sadness. She was thinking of the father she’d never known.

  “I’ll be here,” he vowed. “No matter what, Hayley, I’ll be the best father I can be, for her. And when you’re ready, if you say yes, I’ll be a true husband to you….”

  She didn’t say anything, only smiled a glowing, tender smile. It was enough. For now.

  He turned his gaze to the baby again. “Beautiful,” he said. “She is just beautiful….”

  Hayley laughed. “Marcus. She’s a newborn. She looks like Winston Churchill.”

  He spoke to the angel in his arms. “Don’t you listen to her, Jenny Reid. You’re gorgeous. Incredible. Completely amazing.”

  “Incredible and amazing. No argument there,” Hayley said fondly.

  Jenny puckered up her tiny mouth and then yawned. He couldn’t get enough of just holding her, of looking down at her scrunched-up little face. “I wanted brothers and sisters, too,” he said softly. “My mother was pregnant, when she died.”

  “You never told me that.” Hayley’s voice was so gentle. Warm. And accepting.

  He looked up at her again. Her red hair, always silky, vibrant as fire, drooped in limp tendrils on her shoulders. Dark smudges of fatigue stained the skin beneath her eyes.

  And yet, she was so beautiful. As beautiful as Jenny.

  He said, “My father got drunk and pushed her down the stairs. It was a wide, curving staircase. And a long way down. I had snuck out of my room when I heard him yelling at her and I was crouched in the shadows at the opposite end of the landing when it happened. Neither of them knew I was there.

  “My mother was…I don’t know. At least six or seven months pregnant at the time. I remember she would put my hand on her big stomach and tell me how my baby brother or sister was in there.”

  “How unbelievably horrible for you.”
<
br />   “Hey. I lived. Imagine how my mother felt about it. And what about that innocent baby who never had the chance to be born? I remember my father shoving her. And she screamed when she flew backward. She hit the wall of the stairwell, bounced off. She landed on the stairs and went rolling. And rolling. All the way to the bottom where she lay so very still. I was six years old. I put my hand hard against my mouth to keep from screaming. Because I knew, if he knew I’d seen, he’d kill me, too.

  “Later, I told my nanny. She told me that nothing of the kind had happened, that it was only a bad, bad dream I’d had because I missed my mother. I wanted to believe her. So I pretended, at least for a while, that I did believe her. That it was only a nightmare I’d had.” He shut his eyes, muttered a low oath. In his mind’s eye, he could still see his father’s face, puffy from drinking, the whites of his eyes yellowed, traced with broken red veins. “When I got older, ten or so, I confronted him with what he’d done. He beat me. Bad. And then he said I’d better never tell a lie like that again if I wanted to keep on breathing.”

  “Oh, Marcus…I’m so sorry.”

  “My old man was monster.”

  “I do understand. Since mine was, too.”

  “I know,” he said. “And I don’t believe I just told you that.”

  “I’m glad. That you did. That you trust me that much.”

  He sat beside her on the edge of the bed, their daughter in his arms. “I’d do anything for you, Hayley.” He glanced down at the baby. “And for Jenny…”

  “Marcus.” She reached out, laid her hand on the side of his face. “I believe you would.” She spoke so softly, those changeable eyes a light hazel now, brilliant as stars.

  He bent near to her, the baby in his arms stirring and sighing, but not waking. “Anything…”

  Hayley offered her sweet mouth and he took it. So gently. With care. He brushed his lips back and forth across hers. She sighed.

  When he pulled away, she rested against the pillows and closed her eyes. He remained there beside her, holding their child, watching her face as sleep claimed her.

  Guilt crept through him, stealthy. Insistent. He did have her trust now. She believed again. In him. In what they—the two of them and Jenny—could share. She believed in his honesty, that he had kept his word to her to give her only the truth.

  But he hadn’t been honest. Not about everything. Not about Adriana.

  He should tell Hayley that Adriana had contacted him.

  That she’d left the man she’d left him for. That she’d said she wanted to come back to him, that she thought she could reclaim what she’d tossed so carelessly away. That she believed the two of them were bound together. Forever.

  He should explain that what Adriana wanted, what Adriana believed, didn’t matter to him in the least.

  That he was over her and the cruel kind of loving she offered, that there was no room left in his life—or his heart—for the woman who had once been his world.

  He had a new world now. A better world. He wouldn’t trade what he had now, with Hayley and Jenny, for anything….

  Hayley stirred, sighing. And the baby in his arms, as if connected by some invisible link to her mother, stirred, as well. She made a soft, mewling sound, wrinkled up her tiny nose—and then was still, seeming to settle into a deeper sleep than before. Hayley slept on, as well.

  With care, he rose and lowered the baby into her bassinet. Then he slid off his shoes and stretched out on the rollaway, shut his eyes and told his guilt and doubts to go away.

  They didn’t, not really. But he was just beat enough that within moments, he slept, too.

  He woke when Jenny started fussing again. Hayley nursed her, though as Hayley had explained it, the first few days, the mother had no milk. The baby, she said, needed to nurse anyway, and received some special fluid that provided protection from disease and helped clean out the baby’s digestive system and prepare it for real food.

  It all sounded way complicated to Marcus. But if it was good for Jenny, he was all for it.

  A nurse came in to perform routine examinations of Hayley and the baby. Marcus went down to the cafeteria to get some coffee. While he was out of the room, he considered turning on his PDA, seeing if he had any messages that needed dealing with immediately.

  He took the device from his pocket—and then he put it back without powering it up. Today—and tomorrow—were for Hayley and Jenny. Kaffe Central could get along without him till Monday.

  And if Joyce had messages from Adriana to pass on to him, he’d just as soon skip hearing about them, for now, anyway.

  When the kitchen people brought up Hayley’s dinner, they provided a tray for him, as well. After the meal, he and Hayley fell asleep watching TV. A couple hours later, Jenny cried and the feeding and changing process started all over again.

  In the morning after breakfast, they had a visit from the doctor, who examined mother and child and said they were ready to go home that day.

  “Home is Sacramento,” she reminded him. “Is it all right for us to fly?”

  Marcus explained that they would travel in comfort in his company’s jet.

  “Well, then,” said the doctor. “A short flight with minimal stress. That should be perfectly safe.”

  Once he left them, Hayley said she was ready for a shower.

  Marcus rubbed at the stubble on his jaw. “That makes two of us.”

  She ran a hand down her limp hair. “We’re pretty scruffy, that’s for sure.”

  “You want to go first?”

  “Please.”

  She allowed him to carry her overnight bag in for her, but when he came back to help her, she insisted on getting there under her own steam. “Ugh.” She reached the door frame and sagged against it. “I’m a wreck.”

  “Another day or two, you’ll be good as new.”

  “Spoken like a man.”

  “Sure you don’t need some help? I could scrub your back for you.”

  “I’ll manage. Thanks.” She took a step into the green-tiled room—and whipped her head around to catch him eyeing her backside, which was temptingly revealed between the ties of her hospital gown. “Don’t even go there, mister.”

  “Hey. A man can dream.”

  “True. And you’ll need your dreams. Because I’m never having sex again.”

  He laughed.

  And then, slowly and stiffly, she turned around and came back toward him. When she reached him, she put her hands on his chest. “It’s good to hear you laugh like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you’re a happy man.”

  “I am a happy man.” Damned if it wasn’t true.

  “I like you happy.”

  “You make me happy—and you look like you need a kiss.”

  “Hmm. What do you know? I believe that I do.”

  “But wait. I thought you just swore off sex.”

  “I could be convinced to rethink my position. In time…with the right kind of encouragement.”

  He lowered his head enough to brush his lips across hers. “Like this?”

  “Umm. Perfect. More.”

  He wrapped his arms around her—not too tight—just enough that it could be considered an embrace. And then he kissed her again, a kiss that was still chaste, though it lasted a little longer than the one before it.

  When he lifted his head, she said, “Now, see? That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

  “The right kind of encouragement?”

  “That’s it. What I need. Again, please.” She tipped up her mouth, offering it to him.

  He kissed her again. A kiss of promise. Tender. Sweet—and just a little spicy.

  When he lifted his head, she said, “Oh, yeah. Exactly what I’m looking for.”

  “Anything. For you.”

  Her smile grew wistful. “Here we are. With a baby. So much for our two weeks of just you and me…”

  “Can’t have everything. And Jenny’s worth it.”

  “It�
��s only the second day with her. It’s all new and different. And we’re here in our own private little world, just the three of us. With nurses and hospital staff to take care of us. Things will get challenging, believe me. Babies bring stress and change. And sleep deprivation.”

  “I’m willing to help. However I can.”

  “That could be difficult, with you in Seattle and Jenny and me in California….”

  He dared to suggest, “Maybe you’ll try Seattle again. Just to see how it goes.”

  “Maybe I will.”

  He took her by the shoulders. “You’re serious.”

  “I am, yes. But even if I try moving back to Seattle, we both know how you are. You’ll get buried in work the way you always do. In the end, you’ll have no time for changing diapers and rocking the baby at two in the morning.”

  “I’ll make time, just watch me.”

  She looked at him sideways. “I’m not blaming you for working so hard. It’s what you do best, what you love to do.”

  “Yeah, it is. But it’s about damn time I learned how to delegate. My people are up for taking more responsibility. They’ve proved that in the past week.”

  “Marcus. You’re almost convincing me that you actually want to be a hands-on kind of dad.”

  “That’s because I do.”

  “You’re making me think you’ll try to be patient, with Jenny. With me.”

  Because I will.”

  “Then I have a question….”

  “Hit me with it.”

  “Will you marry me?”

  Chapter Eleven

  A t first, he was certain he hadn’t heard her right. He gaped. “Uh. Huh?”

  She shut her eyes and groaned. “Ohmigod. You’ve changed your mind, right? You’ve realized you don’t want to marry me, after all. And you’re going to say no again, just like you did in May….”

  He gazed down at her scrunched-up face. She looked just like their daughter right then. “Hayley.”

  She kept her eyes squeezed shut and hunched up her shoulders. “Oh, God. What?”

  “Look at me.”