by Sam Mariano
“Stop being logical,” she tells me. “You’re having a baby.”
“Laurel and Sin are having my baby,” I say wryly.
“They’re not going to shut you out,” she states, a little too knowingly. “You know that. You’ll be as involved as you want to be. If you’re a dick, Laurel is just going to think you don’t want to be involved and that’s not going to be her fault. You’re allowed to be excited or nervous or whatever you’re feeling. You don’t have to be in control right now. A new human you helped create is about to emerge in the world. That’s a big deal.”
I do my best to ignore her as we approach her car. Shaking my head, I tell her, “We’ll take mine.”
“What’s wrong with my car?” she inquires.
“It’s small. Long legs.”
Virginia rolls her eyes. “Okay, Shaq.”
2
Rafe
As we walk through the sterile halls of the hospital toward Laurel’s room, I have to physically force my feet to keep moving. It’s like I’m trekking through mud. Meanwhile Virginia can’t walk fast enough. She’s practically bouncing with excitement. It’s kind of cute, but I want to know why she’s so damned excited—just because she likes babies, or because this one’s mine?
That’s another thing that’s not normal if she likes me the way Laurel thinks she does. Why would a normal woman be excited that I knocked up someone else? If Virginia harbors fantasies about being with me someday, wouldn’t she want that for herself? Now that Laurel’s having a boy, I never have to have kids for any reason. My heir is born today.
That’s pretty fucking crazy. Never even thought I’d have an heir. Definitely never thought Sin would be raising my heir. I’m sure he’ll do a better job than I would have, but still, damned weird.
“That’s her room,” Virginia says, indicating the next door on the right.
I slow to a stop and stare. “I should have brought a present.”
Virginia halts beside me, nodding her head. “Yes. It’s too late now. You can pick one up tomorrow.”
Still, my feet don’t move. If I remain on this side of the wall, it doesn’t have to be real. Laurel can still be pregnant, absently rubbing her tummy and glowing with maternal happiness. God only knows what awaits me inside that room. Not a glowing, happy Laurel, that’s for sure. She just went through labor and I didn’t even offer to come. She’s probably going to want to cut my dick off and feed it to me. She’s a ruthless little shit.
Then there’s the baby. It’s just a mostly unobtrusive basketball tucked beneath Laurel’s clothes until I walk in this room. Then it’s a living, breathing, crying thing.
Will he like me? Not just right now, but ever? Will he think I’m an asshole for letting Sin play daddy, knowing I’m the one who knocked up his mom?
I didn’t sign up for any of this.
Glancing over at Virginia, I suggest, “How ‘bout we cut out of here? I’ll visit tomorrow.”
“Nope,” Virginia says adamantly, taking my arm and dragging me toward the room. “We’re going to meet your son.”
Son. Christ, she’s not helping.
As soon as we step inside the room, I see the blonde messy bun of Laurel’s sister, Carly Morelli. She turns to see who walked in, and her eyes narrow when she sees it’s me. Then her sharp gaze drifts to Virginia, her gaze moving over her briefly before she shakes her head in disbelief.
“Seriously? You brought a date to meet your son for the first time? That’s low. You really are Satan.”
“Me?” Virginia asks, as if surprised. “No, I’m not his date. I’m his waitress.”
Carly blinks. “His waitress.”
Virginia nods. “We met once before. I wouldn’t expect you to remember me, but you and Vince came out with Laurel and Rafe. I was your waitress. Anyway, I’m Laurel’s friend.”
Laurel’s voice rings out from the hospital bed behind Carly. “Rafe.”
I glance up, and I’m relieved to see a huge grin on her face at the sight of me. Her long dark hair hangs in a loose pony tail covering one breast, and in the crook of her arm on the other side is a bundle of striped blankets. My heartbeat accelerates and I can’t help peering at the bundle as I walk closer.
“Come on,” Laurel urges, carefully folding the fabric away from his face.
Shit, I am not ready for this.
I look at Sin, sitting in a chair right next to her bed on the other side. I’m not sure why I’m reluctant to approach Laurel and the baby with him over there. Since I finally gave Laurel up all those months ago and Sin helped me fix business shit—again—things have calmed down between us. We’re friends again, but his woman did just deliver my baby. I would not be okay with this. I don’t see how he is.
Laurel follows my gaze to Sin and her voice softens. “Honey, would you mind running out and getting me some of those ice chips and a bottle of water? I’m really thirsty.”
Sin’s gaze flickers away from me to her and he stands, nodding his head wordlessly before leaving the room.
Now Laurel’s attention turns to Carly. “And maybe you could call Vince and check on Skylar?”
Carly wrinkles her nose up at being kicked out, but she takes her phone out and leaves the room anyway.
Virginia senses the trend and says, “Oh, crap, you know what? I forgot the onesie in the car. I’ll go grab it and be right back.”
Seconds later, the room is cleared. It’s just me, Laurel, and the baby she gave birth to. My baby.
“Better?” she asks lightly.
Smiling faintly, I nod and take a seat on the edge of her bed. I don’t look at him yet. I keep my gaze trained on her face. “How are you feeling, kitten?”
“Hungry, tired, hungry, madly in love… did I mention hungry?”
“Once or twice.”
Laurel nods. “They wouldn’t let me eat before I gave birth, so I might literally kill for a taco right now.”
“I don’t have any tacos, but there’s leftover steak in the car,” I tell her. “It’s mine, but I did put a baby in you, so you probably wouldn’t die of cooties from eating my leftover meat.”
Her cheeks flush, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement. “Eating your meat is how I got in this bed to begin with, Morelli.”
I smile faintly. “Damn right. Want the steak?”
“I’ll take it,” she tells me, clearly on the brink of starvation.
I pull out my phone, quickly texting Virginia to bring the steak while she’s out there.
“So,” Laurel drawls. “Are you ready to meet him?”
“Hm?”
“You’re stalling,” she tells me.
“Nah, I’m just ensuring you’re well-fed.”
Laurel cocks a skeptical eyebrow. “You haven’t even looked at him yet.” As if to force my attention, she lifts her arm up to tilt him up, bringing him closer to me.
His head turns and the movement catches my eye anyway. A pair of sleepy blue eyes peer back at me out of a tiny, flushed face. His cheeks are full, his nose is so tiny, and his lips—God, everything about him is so small.
“Is he normal sized?”
Laurel laughs, surprised. “What? Yes, of course. He’s 7lbs even.” Adjusting the blanket again, she says, “Look at this face. Is this not the most perfect face any human has ever had? He’s the cutest baby in the whole world. I know I’m biased, but I’m pretty confident in this assertion.”
His little head turns toward her at the sound of her voice. She leans down and kisses his forehead three times before pulling back and sighing.
“I try to control myself, but I can’t. He’s just too kissable. Look at these perfect little lips,” she gushes, snuggling him close.
I can’t help smiling at how happy she is. She’s already a great mom, and she’s only had the job for maybe an hour. Well, I guess she had some practice with Skylar, but still a quick study.
The baby makes a noise and a tiny hand pops out from his blanket prison. “Uh uh, he’s breaking out of
there.”
Laurel laughs, petting his tiny hand. “His little fingers—I just can’t handle it.”
“He’s overwhelmingly small,” I agree.
He makes a disgruntled noise, as if to ask in baby, “Who you calling small, asshole?”
“He’s overwhelmingly perfect,” Laurel states, lifting his hand to wave at me. “Nicholas, can you say hi?”
“He is pretty cool,” I agree with a faint nod, reaching my much larger hand out to take his now that it’s free. His fingers wiggle under mine. I take his tiny hand and rest it in my palm, looking at the enormous difference in size. “I can’t believe I made this.”
“You did,” Laurel says warmly. “Great job. This is a five star baby, for sure. You don’t even have to get me anything else for Christmas.”
“I mean, it wasn’t all me. You did help a little,” I joke.
She holds her thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. “Maybe just a tiny bit.”
“I have to say, based on fictional depictions of women in labor on TV, I expected you to be much less pro-Rafe right now.”
“Oh, I was. When the contractions were trying to kill me, I cursed your name to the gods. Wished many violent fates upon you. But then I got an epidural, which is magic injected into your spine, and now I have a perfect, adorable baby, so I like you again.”
That makes much more sense. “That’s probably why Sin was mean-mugging me.”
“Probably. There may have also been some ‘I’m never having sex again’ proclamations bandied about. I’m over all that now, but contractions are pretty terrible.”
“I’ll buy him a bottle of Scotch to make up for it,” I offer.
Laurel presses another kiss against the baby’s cheek, gazing at him with all the love in the world. “Do you want to hold him?”
“You want to come see me?” I ask him. He stares at me soundlessly, no expression on his tiny face. He already takes after Sin, the little shit. I reach over and take him anyway, surprised again by how light he is. I settle him in the crook of my left arm and look down at him. “Hey there, little guy.”
Laurel scoots closer, leaning over my shoulder so she can gaze at him. “Nicholas, say hi,” she says, her voice sweet and soft. His little eyes dart right over to her and his little hand shoots out, like he’s trying to reach her.
“He likes you better,” I offer dryly.
“I have the boobs that contain his food,” she explains.
“Ah, yes. Well, I can’t blame him there. I am also pretty fond of boobs, and they don’t even nourish me.”
Laurel smacks me lightly on the arm, then leans her head on my shoulder and sighs, staring at him. “I’m so crazy in love with him. I just want to stare at him forever.”
“What’d you end up naming him?”
“Nicholas Sinclair Morelli,” she answers.
I nod approvingly. “A good, strong name.”
“I thought so.”
Before long, Nicholas starts to fuss, and I don’t know what to do about that. I jostle him and Laurel tries to coo at him and settle him, but he keeps at it, so I hand him back over.
Laurel takes him, kissing him and rubbing his back as she snuggles him against her chest. “What’s wrong, baby boy? Are you hungry again?”
Laurel is wearing nothing more than a thin hospital gown to begin with, but without even a hint of shyness, she pulls at the shoulder snaps and frees her breast. My eyebrows rise with surprise as she positions the baby, her brow furrowing in frustration.
“I haven’t quite mastered breastfeeding yet. I don’t have the perfect hold down. This isn’t terribly comfortable.” Pointing across from her bed, she says, “Can you grab me that C-shaped pillow over there?”
As I stand and head over to grab the pillow, I glance back at the door to make sure Sin hasn’t come back in. Not sure how he’s going to feel about Laurel’s breasts being out when I’m right here. “Do you need anything else? Is there a cover, or…?”
Laurel smirks as I bring the pillow over to her. “A cover? You’ve seen me naked. Remember when you wanted me to undress in front of you and Sin for my doctor’s appointment? Now you’re shy?”
“Yeah, but… now a baby’s going to suck on them. It’s going to be weird.”
“You think that’s weird, try manipulating your own nipple to give him something to latch onto.”
“See, now that I could help with. I’m very good at making nipples hard.”
“No.”
I glance back at the firm nope and see Sin walking in, his dark eyes unamused as he strides over to Laurel with her cup of ice and bottle of water.
“I wasn’t offering,” I tell him. “We were just discussing my talents.”
“Good. Keep your hands off my wife’s nipples. You’ve done enough.”
“Mm, wife.” Laurel smiles up at Sin, puckering her lips until he leans in and gives her a kiss.
I almost remind him they’re not married yet, but there’s little point poking the bear. The man just sat through watching his woman giving birth to another man’s child—again—so he’s probably low on patience for my bullshit tonight.
“Want me to grab the cover?” Sin asks her.
She shakes her head, looking down at the baby as she tries to get him situated. “He doesn’t like it. I wouldn’t like it either. Who wants to hide under a blanket and eat in the dark?”
“I can throw the cover over Rafe instead,” Sin offers.
Laurel grins. “If he’s offended by my breastfeeding, I support that action.”
I assume they’re joking until Sin starts walking in my direction, then I cock an eyebrow at him. “I have never been offended by the sight of breasts in my life.”
Sin rolls his eyes, grabbing a folder tucked under his arm and flipping it open. “Not that. You got a pen? You need to sign the birth certificate while you’re here.”
Oh, that. I already filled out my first check to Laurel for child support, but I didn’t plan on coming here tonight, so I didn’t bring it with me. I’m not sure I’ll give it to Sin, anyway, since it might annoy him more than anything to be given money for raising my child. Laurel won’t be a pain in the ass about it, so I’ll give it to her once she’s feeling up to an outing. I pay for most things in cash, but I’d like to get that on record. In the limited ways I do respect the law, I want a paper trail to prove it.
I grab a pen out of my breast pocket and uncap it, looking down at the paper as Sin puts it on a hard surface for me. “Too bad there’s no addendum, huh?” I murmur. “Maybe we should tell them this is a group effort and we need another page.”
Sin shakes his head at me. “I don’t need paperwork to tell me I’m a parent.”
3
Virginia
When I come back with the onesie and Rafe’s leftover steak, he’s standing over by Sin, and Laurel’s sister is perched on the edge of her bed, doting on baby Nicholas.
I stopped a nurse for some plasticware and an apple juice—probably an odd pairing with steak, but hell, I work with what I’m given—which I bring over to her now, smiling tentatively.
“Sorry, don’t want to interrupt, just want to feed the mommy.”
“Carly, I love you, but move,” Laurel says immediately.
Carly stands and holds out her hands for the baby. “Want me to hold him so you can eat?”
I glance across Laurel’s bed at Rafe. I had hoped I’d get to see him with the baby, but of course we all want to hog the newborn. Now that Carly is out of the way, I drag the little rolling table over to Laurel’s bedside, pop open the takeout container, open the silverware, and on instinct, I also open the juice before I realize Laurel probably could have done that herself.
“Sorry, I know you’re not an invalid, just force of habit,” I tell her.
Laurel smiles. “Thank you, Virginia. Would you like to hold Nicholas?”
“Oh, yes. I sure would.”
I got shooed out of the room so fast upon entering, I didn’t even
get a chance to look at him, but now I shave off a little piece of my heart to give him, because holy hell, what a sweet little angel.
“He just ate, so he should be happier to see you than he was me,” Rafe remarks, smiling faintly.
I settle Nicky against my chest, looking at his little face for a moment, then I glance up at Rafe. “Well, get over here, then.”
Hands shoved into his pockets, Rafe moves around Sin and makes his way over to this side of the bed. Carly eyeballs him, but he pays her no mind as he comes over to stand beside me. “He’s pretty cute, isn’t he?”
I nod my head. “He most certainly is. Cutest baby award goes to baby Nicholas.”
“He had pretty good genes to work with,” Rafe states.
“True. I’ll be interested in seeing the result once he starts talking.”
“If his first words to you are ‘bring me a bottle, chop chop’ then we know he’s really mine,” Rafe tells me.
I grin, carefully touching his soft baby hair. “Even a toddler will probably have better manners than you. I bet he’ll at least say please and thank you.”
“I thank you with cash,” Rafe replies.
“I’m going to add this moment to a file I keep in my head labeled ‘times Rafe has made me sound like a hooker.’ The file is getting thick.”
“That’s okay, we like hookers in this family, don’t we, Carly?” Rafe asks, glancing back at Laurel’s sister with a wink.
Her blue eyes narrow at him with dislike. “I told you, Rafe, you’re not a hooker because you don’t get paid. You’re just a whore.”
This is not the first time he has made a remark like that to her. I wonder if he’s implying she’s a golddigger because she married his cousin days after he inherited millions of dollars from Ben, or there’s some shadier reason. Probably because she married Vince. She’s certainly pretty enough to be a call girl, though. I’ve seen far less attractive ones than her. I’m sure I’ll find out the reason eventually, if she’s going to be coming around more now.
I do know Laurel told Carly to call Vince to check on Skylar though, and I also know Vince is not supposed to come to town without Rafe’s permission. Maybe he made an exception for Nicky’s birth and the Christmas holiday.