Runaway Love

by Amber Nation

  “Huh? What?” I said, as I sat up to look at them. Toby and Tessa each had ahold of a sleeve from Emmalynne’s gorgeous organza wedding dress. It had capped sleeves and an intricately beaded bodice. It was extremely elegant and looked amazing on her.

  “Someone just knocked on the door, could you get it?” Tessa said, while starting to lace up the back of Em’s dress.

  I looked down at the couch as if it was going to magically help me up. This was the part I hated the most. A knock sounded again, “Just a minute,” I yelled, plus some other expletives under my breath. I didn’t know why someone had to lock the blasted door.

  I scooted my butt as far to the edge as I could get, without falling on the floor, and I gave myself the old heave ho and tried to push myself up with my arms. It didn’t work, and I just fell back into the couch. I’m sure I looked like a damn cow trying to get itself up off of the ground.

  “Little help here,” I snapped. I was ornery and I didn’t like asking for help, so it came out not as nice as I would normally be.

  Toby took a look at me, rolled his eyes, and laughed as he came over to give me a pull.

  “Gee whiz doll, what have you been eating?”

  I glared at him, biting my tongue, because if I didn’t, I’d be putting that boy in his place.

  I really didn’t think I had gained all that much weight, it just looked like I had swallowed a beach ball. A massive, overinflated beach ball.

  Now that I was up at last, I waddled towards the door.

  Opening it up, I saw that it was Tucker, and at that same exact moment another contraction hit, this one worse than all the others. I gripped the edge of the door, trying to help ride out the pain.

  My face was scrunched up and contorted as Tucker looked to me with wide eyes, as if I were going to hulk out at any moment.

  “Mom!” He peered past me and yelled, “Maggie’s face looks like yours whenever you step on a Lego, but ten times worse!”

  The contraction was finally starting to subside, the pain becoming a little more bearable. Tucker looked down to the floor at my feet, back up to me, then back to the floor again with his mouth agape.

  I couldn’t look at my feet, no matter how hard I tried, hadn’t been able to for at least a month or two now.

  “Uh, mom!” he yelled again.

  “What is it Tuck,” Toby said, coming up towards my side but stopping dead in his tracks. “Whoa Maggie…doll, did you have a little accident?”

  Tucker cupped his hand to the side of his face, and whispered to Toby, loud enough for me to hear, “I think she peed her pants.”

  “Oh my God,” I yelled. “I think my water broke!”

  Cradling my hands on my stomach, I began to freak out. The baby was early, why was the baby early?

  I faintly heard Toby say to Tucker, for him to run and get Charlie.

  My breathing was coming in quick pants, I was on the verge of hyperventilating. It wasn’t normal for first time mothers to be this early. It wasn’t as if I were wishing the baby to come this early, Charlie and I hadn’t even been having an abundance of sex.

  Emmalynne appeared in my line of vision, as she placed her hands on my shoulders and calmly said, “Maggie, you need to calm down. Control your breathing, slow deep breath in…now out.”

  Repeating those two simple steps a few times, I was able to calm down a bit, to where I was just at a mild freak out.

  I mean but seriously, how crazy is that? I was going to have a baby!

  (Charlie)

  Getting ready for Grady and Emmalynne’s big day made me even more excited for mine. I couldn’t wait for Maggie to become Mrs. Hennings. I knew she would be happy just to be able to get her engagement ring on her finger. She was able to wear it for about a week, before her hands got too swollen. So, now, she wore it on a chain around her neck.

  Grady was a bundle of nerves, not being about to stand still in any one particular place for long. It was certainly entertaining to watch. One minute he would be cool, calm, and collected, and the next he’d be jumping on the balls of his feet, wringing out his arms.

  Tucker and I would sneak glances at each other out of the corner of our eyes, and then instantly crack up. He was such a great kid. Just witnessing the interaction between Tucker and Grady was amazing. I couldn’t wait until that was me and my child joking back and forth with each other.

  I was so very thankful that things turned out the way that they had. Maggie and I could not be better, and we were welcoming the arrival of our first child in just a matter of weeks. Grady’s advice sure helped out quite a bit along the way.

  Pick your battles.

  I often had to just hold back on things that I really wanted to say, but would only result in an argument and me sleeping on the couch again. Those few weeks after we got back together that Maggie made me sleep on the couch, were pure agony. I didn’t want to revisit my not so peaceful slumber on that couch anytime soon.

  So, when she expressed her feelings on not wanting to know the sex of the baby, I just simply smiled and nodded in agreement. When in fact, I was dying to know what we were having.

  It was typical fashion for men to want a boy, and if that was what we were blessed with, I would be thrilled, but deep down I wanted a little girl. To see my little princess grow up, hopefully taking after her mother in the looks department, I didn’t want anything more. I could see me, waking up on a Saturday morning, to that beautiful drool-filled smile and spending the day away playing dolls, or being in attendance of a royal tea party.

  “Dad, I’m going to go visit mom and see how they are doing,” Tucker said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Ok Tuck,” Grady said, as he went over to his son, placing his hands on the lapels of Tucker’s tux.

  “You clean up pretty nice, dad”

  “You clean up pretty nice yourself, Tucker.” Grady went to reach over and ruffle Tucker’s hair, but Tucker caught him before a finger touched a strand of hair.

  “Dad, it took me twenty minutes to get my hair to look like this, so don’t mess with the ‘do!”

  Grady looked to me, and we simultaneously rolled our eyes.

  “Whatever, kid. Go check on the women, and report back to us with how beautiful they look.” I said, with my mouth quirked up in a half grin.

  Walking away, I saw Tucker shake his head and mutter, “They are old, I won’t think they are beautiful.”

  Tucker was quickly advancing on his teenage years, and I couldn’t wait to see the stress he put Grady through.

  Moments later, Tucker came running back into the room, a shell shocked look on his face.

  “What’s wrong Tucker?” Grady asked, coming over to his side.

  “I went to the room and once Maggie answered, her face looked about ready to explode. Then she said that her water broke on the floor, but she wasn’t holding a glass.”

  Once it dawned on me what Tucker was trying to say, I whipped my head up to look at Grady who plastered on a sly grin and said, “Showtime.”

  I ran down the hall, having to dodge people who were on their way to be seated for the ceremony.

  Arriving at the room, where the ladies and Toby were getting ready, I quickly scanned the room to see everyone crowded around Maggie, who was seated in a chair.

  I heard lots of “Breathe” and “Think happy thoughts,” which came from Toby.

  I squeezed my way in to where I was able to squat down in front of her. I looked at Toby, “Go get my car and bring it around.” Then I looked at Maggie in which I could tell she was in a considerable amount of pain. “Have you had any contractions, sweetheart?”

  Her eyes went wide, as if she had been a kid caught sneaking in the cookie jar, and she bit her lip before she shook her head up and down.

  “How long have the contractions been going on?”

  Again, I got the same expression from Maggie.

  “Maggie…” I creased my brows.

  “Ok, I’ve been having contractions all day, but he
re the past hour or so, they’ve been getting worse. It’s Emmalynne’s big day, and I didn’t want to ruin it by me going in labor.” She expelled, all in one breath.

  “So what, you thought you could just will the baby to stay in until the ceremony was over?” Tessa quipped, putting her hand on her hip, “I thought you were some kind of super labor & delivery nurse? Have your pregnancy hormones made you lose brain cells?”

  “I don’t know!” Maggie screamed, “I didn’t want to be a burden!” Then she burst out crying.

  We arrived at the hospital, and Maggie was whisked away to get settled in a birthing suite. Everything had happened so fast, that I really hadn’t had a chance to process what was going on. I didn’t have the option to freak out, because Maggie was doing enough of that for the both of us.

  I did, however, continuously pray that the baby would be alright, being that Maggie wasn’t due for another three and a half weeks, I didn’t know if there would be any risks or complications.

  Three and a half hours later, the OB announced that we had a girl, and my eyes immediately flooded with tears. I was tightly gripping Maggie’s hand, as they whisked our precious baby to the other side of the room to be looked at by a NICU Doctor.

  I watched as sorrow and grief filled Maggie’s eyes, as our baby girl hadn’t yet let out a cry. That was one of the first things you looked forward to, your baby getting air in those little lungs, and wailing to let us know of their arrival.

  Several long moments later, we were finally graced with the one sound every parent wanted to hear, the loud piercing cry of our baby girl.

  I couldn’t wait another second to see her beautiful face, so I slowly walked over to the incubator in which she was placed.

  She had a head full of coal black hair, just like her daddy, but was paler in complexion, like her momma, and she hadn’t once stop wailing since she made that first initial cry.

  Sally, Maggie’s boss, was personally cleaning her up, placing a cap upon her head and swaddling her in a pink receiving blanket.

  Her.

  Our daughter.

  Sally brought her to me, in which I had to be sure that I was cradling her head right, I had practiced a bit with Lottie, but there was nothing more rewarding and satisfying than holding your baby for the first time.

  “Congratulations, daddy,” Sally said, as she made her way over to Maggie.

  I took the time to run my fingers lightly over her cheeks, her little nose, and over her delicate lips which were in fact shaped just like her mothers. I even went as far as to make sure she had ten little fingers and ten tiny toes.

  I was openly sobbing by this point and I didn’t care, this was such a magical experience, and I would thank Maggie every single day for not running away from love and giving us another chance. Without her, I would’ve never had this much happiness in my life.

  I walked over to Maggie, while looking at my daughter. We had discussed names, but had decided that if she were a girl, I could name her and if she happened to be a boy, that Maggie would pick the name. So, I was so very elated to be able to introduce our daughter.

  Taking a hold of those tiny little fingers, that were attached to the equally as tiny hand, she gripped my finger and opened her eyes for the first time looking directly into mine. My life was complete in this moment. The grip she had around my finger, was the same grip she had around my heart. I had everything I had ever wished for in this very room, my cup truly had runneth over.

  I looked up to Maggie, who was awaiting us with open arms and the biggest smile, while streams of tears slid down her face. “I love you,” I mouthed to her.

  Looking back down towards the little miracle that we both created, I cooed and in a soft voice said, “Bailee Rae, would you like to meet your mom?”

  I placed her in her mother’s waiting arms, as the sobs racked Maggie’s entire body. “Hi sweet Bailee, I’m your mommy and I love you so very much.” She felt it too, every single emotion that I was feeling was felt equally by her.

  She glanced back up to me, “And I love you, Charlie. Thank you for giving me enough love and happiness for a lifetime. And we will remind her each and every day just how much she is loved, so she will know to embrace it, and never run away from it.”

  Song Playlist

  Chapter 1: Bon Jovi – “Livin’ On A Prayer”

  Chapter 5: Soul Asylum – “Runaway Train”

  Young MC – “Bust A Move”

  Chapter 10: Katy Perry – “ROAR”

  Chapter 11: Queen – “Under Pressure”

  Maroon 5 – “Love Somebody”

  Chapter 12: Madonna – “Like A Prayer”

  Whitney Houston – “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”

  Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar”

  Chapter 13: Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Simple Man”

  Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar”

  Zendaya – “Replay”

  Chapter 15: Bruno Mars – “Gorilla: (Shower Scene)

  Chapter 22: Filter – “Happy Together”

  Chapter 23: Neon Trees – “Farther Down” (Charlie reflecting on guilt)

  Epilogue: Martina McBride – “In My Daughter’s Eyes” (Introduction)

  I currently reside in Southern Indiana with my husband and two daughters. I spent most of my life trying to get out of Indiana, then spent four years trying to get back in, once my husband enlisted in the US Army and we were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.

  I am a stay at home mom and wouldn’t have it any other way. Even though most of my time is spent transporting my girls to their various sports activities or running them back and forth to school, it is a blessing just to be with them each and every day.

  I am a concert and road trip junkie! I love the thrill of seeing my favorite bands live, and just having fun on the open road.

  My kindle has become like an extra appendage, as it is never far from my side. I became obsessed with books a little more than a year and a half ago and wished I had gotten into them much sooner!! My love of reading is what sparked my passion for writing, and now it’s one of my favorite things that I do for myself.

  Contact Me

  Ambernationauthor.com

  @nation_amber

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  ambernationauthor@gmail.com