by Anthology
Bart stepped into the house and stacked the presents next to the coat rack. "It’s not lookin’ pretty out there, son. We might need to make up a couple of beds." Bart gave him a bear hug and then clipped him on the shoulder before he engulfed me in a hug within his cold woolen jacket.
"We have plenty of room. I’m so happy you’re all here," I told him. I smiled over at Aidan, whose cheeks were split into a wide smile.
Grandma Maggie came over and stole me from Bart. "We couldn’t sit at home knowing you guys were here. It’s Christmas, honey. Have you started on my apple pie yet?"
"Grandma Maggie, I was just getting to it," Aidan remarked.
She let me go, her wide brown eyes settling on him.
"You’re making it?"
He gasped as if he were offended. Too bad the grin on his face told a different story. "I’ve got this, Grandma. Trust me."
Her frail hand landed on my arm and her gaze met mine. "Oh sweetie, we need to get him out of the kitchen." She flashed me a wink and I giggled.
"He’s been a big help today." I glanced down at my stomach and then back up to her with a twisted expression. "Needless to say, I’ve been a little slow."
She pulled off her light pink cap and handed Aidan her snow covered coat before leaning in toward me. "Soon," she whispered, her lips pulling upward. "I feel it. It’s going to be very soon, my dear."
"Oh boy. Let’s hope not too soon." Rubbing the sides of my belly, I followed Grandma Maggie into the family room where everyone was already gathered. As each swollen foot stepped in front of the other, I said a silent prayer that she wasn’t right. I had so much to do still before the baby arrived. The band around my heart was back, not from excitement this time, but from nerves.
Stay in there a little longer, sweet pea. Please.
Chapter Three
Everything was just how it should have been, turning this day into one I’d never forget. The family had made it, cheerful Christmas music played around us, the smell of turkey and pumpkin pie filled the house, presents had been opened, and Jase was enjoying his family time while the women helped finish preparations for the big dinner. Everything was great, but the sharp pains shooting across my stomach hadn’t stopped. I had stressed myself out by worrying about the family getting here and making sure dinner was perfect, but in the back of my mind the uncomfortable pains were more than just nothing. Which was why I shoved them to the back of my mind in the first place.
I pulled in a deep breath as I eyed the dirty mixing bowls and pans by the sink. Maggie was standing at the island whipping up fresh whipped cream for the pumpkin pie she decided to make on top of the apple pie Aidan insisted on finishing. Glancing to the left, I noticed the empty veggie tray Trish had just set down. "Everyone must have been hungry," I mentioned. I hated that I was more tired than hungry.
Trish placed a gentle hand in the middle of my back. "You okay, sweetie?"
I turned my neck and eyed her with a questioning glance. "Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?"
"You keep touching your stomach and rubbing it, and you’re breathing is labored. Are you doing all right?"
I sighed, the pressure against my ribs becoming heavy. "Yeah," I told her. I curled my fingers around the edge of the counter. "It’s really nothing." I dragged my teeth across my bottom lip as a pain tightened my stomach more than I was prepared for.
Trish’s eyebrows lifted and she gave me that motherly look I’d grown to love. She knew it wasn’t nothing. Before she could say anything further, the timer to the oven grabbed both our attentions. Aidan strolled into the kitchen with a proud smile across his face. "Turkey’s done."
"Check the pop up timer on the bird before you pull it out, Aidan," I reminded him.
He smirked. "Have some faith, Sweet Tea. It’s gonna be perfect." He playfully brushed off his shoulder. "I’ve got this." Flashing us an adorable wink, he grabbed two navy blue oven mitts and pulled open the oven door. As he carefully pulled the oversized pan from the oven to showcase a golden brown turkey, a whoosh of liquid dripped down my legs; my face pulled tight.
"See, Sweet Tea." He grinned. "Timer is up and everything."
My lungs pumped hard as I forced a weak smile and lowered my chin to eye the flood at my feet. I knew exactly what this was, and I shook my head. There was no possible way this was happening today. "Oh God," I muttered to myself.
Or at least I thought it was to myself. Trish gasped next to me and steadied a hand on my back.
My poor husband didn’t have a clue, and proudly paraded the turkey toward the counter. There wasn’t enough time to warn him as he stepped closer to the fluid that had seeped across the tile. "Aidan! No!" I shouted. I tried to reach for him, but I was too late.
"Oh shit!" Aidan screamed as he slipped, trying like hell to shove the turkey pan onto the counter. I bit down on my lip and shuddered as it teetered on the edge of the granite counter and barely made it safely. Aidan landed with a thud on the hard tile.
The room was silent. Grandma Maggie stood stunned, and Bart came rushing in with Jase in his arms. My knees grew weak as I waddled closer, and then with Trish's help crouched next to Aidan. His eyes were pinched shut. "Aidan! Are you okay?" I palmed his pale cheek, "Aidan, honey." Panic consumed my every breath.
"I’m o-okay." His lips barely moved as he tried to open his eyes.
I twisted and met Trish’s gaze. "This is bad." My shoulders began to droop as I returned my attention to my husband, who was clearly in pain.
"Aidan, honey, look at me." I said his name softly, and leaned as closely as my stomach would allow.
He brought his hand to his head and groaned.
Trish stood and headed immediately to the freezer. "He’ll be all right. Let me get an ice pack."
Aidan’s nostrils flared as he blew out a breath. "The turkey?" I rubbed the side of his head.
"You saved it." I shook my head, upset that he even worried about it, but thanking God it didn't spill all over him. We didn't need to deal with third degree burns today, too.
"At least I saved it. I don't understand how I slipped." He glanced to the side of him as if angry at whatever it was that caused his fall. My chest constricted as he palmed the watery substance, investigating it with narrowed eyes. "What is this?" He lifted his hand and I cringed. I wanted to hide in the corner; I was completely mortified.
Trish came up from behind me and handed Aidan an ice pack. He placed it behind his head and blinked, his breaths slowly returning to normal. Trish gave me a wide-eyed stare and I knew I had to tell him. We couldn’t wait any longer. His fall was about to turn into an avalanche.
"Aidan?"
He peered up at me, his face contorted in pain as he stretched out. "What is it?"
"Uh," I paused to search for the right words, but there weren’t any. "My . . . water . . . broke."
Aidan’s eyes enlarged as he glanced down at my belly and then up to meet my gaze. "This?" he questioned with a pop of his brows.
I nodded. "It’s my water. And not the kind from the faucet."
Any color that had just returned to his face drained. "This is real? This is it?"
I nodded once more.
"Your water broke?" His voice trailed off, as if trying to absorb what was going on.
He grabbed at his throat. "Shit." He blinked a few times and then started to sit. "We have to get you to the hospital right now!" A loud groan escaped him as he tried lifting himself up.
"Easy, Aidan. I'm okay right now." Trish and I reached out at the same time, each of us grabbing an arm to get him to take his time.
"She’s right, sweetie. You took quite a spill. You need to be careful." Trish looked him over, and I had never been more grateful that his mother was a nurse than I was today. My nerves would’ve been through the roof had I been alone.
"Mom, my wife is about to have a baby. We have to get going."
As much as I wanted Aidan to rest, he was right. We really did need to leave. I glanced over my should
er. "Trish, can you grab my overnight bag from the nursery closet, please?" She nodded and stood. I turned my attention back to Aidan. "On a scale of one to ten, how much pain are you in?"
A small, weak smile curved his lips. "Sweet Tea, I'm fine." He searched my body, his steady hand on my stomach. "How much pain are you in?"
"I’m okay right now." But I knew what was coming. A flood of hot blood rushed to my face. I wasn’t prepared for this today.
"We don’t have much time. We have to get going. We need to get Jase’s stuff, too." Bart helped Aidan up and then reached out for me, getting me to my feet. Jase stayed close to my side, cautiously eyeing his daddy.
"He’s okay, honey." Jase held my leg tighter and I pushed his hair back, trying to calm him.
"Jase can stay here with us. I'll finish dinner. You guys go." Trish came up behind me, my overnight bag in her hand.
"Trish, you're not coming?"
"Sweetie, no. You'll be grateful that I'm watching Jase so you don’t have to worry about him." She dropped her gaze to a frightened Jase who hadn’t stopped looking at his dad. Aidan smiled at Jase and motioned him closer. Jase stepped slowly toward him. Bart made sure he didn’t step close to the mess on the floor. "Daddy otay?"
"Daddy’s Batman watch saved him."
Jase’s eyes sprang wide. "It did?"
"Sure did, buddy."
Jase smiled and I released a sigh of relief. "I have to clean up the kitchen, Trish. I can’t leave it this way."
Trish wrapped her arm around me for a moment. "You guys go. We’ll take care of Jase, and everything here. I promise, he’ll be fine."
I nodded, grateful for her help but missing her already. She was my mother-in-law, but she was also the mother I never had. I was still not on speaking terms with my parents.
"Oh no!" I slowly spun around. "Aidan, the blizzard. Will we make it?"
"We’ll make it." He nodded with assurance. And I’d have believed him if it weren’t for him eyeing his dad as if they were having a silent conversation.
"Oh God! What if I have our baby on the side of the road?" I pinched my eyes shut and shook my head. I just had to go into labor today, of all days. The day we hosted our first family holiday, the day we got several feet of snow. Ugh.
A familiar hand swept across my cheek before the pad of his thumb caressed my skin. "Open your eyes, baby." His warm breath fanned my face and I peeled open my lids. Aidan’s smile grew wide. "Do you trust me?"
I nodded, yet nerves bubbled inside me like carbonated soda. Sure, I trusted my husband, but that didn’t mean I trusted the icy roads. My gaze lowered from his and down to the buttons on his dress shirt. "Why today?" I sniffled, and a few errant tears spilled down my cheeks.
Before I knew it, Aidan pulled me to his chest, his loving arms locking around my nervous body. "Shhh. I’ve got you, Sweet Tea. I won’t ever let anything happen to you. I need you to trust me."
He released me and I immediately wrapped my arms around my stomach and drew in a five second breath, releasing it slowly.
It took the guys fifteen minutes to get the driveway shoveled as best as they could. A solid contraction tightened my stomach and caused me to hold on to Trish as if she could somehow take the pain away. One yelp, and the guys stopped shoveling. We loaded into Aidan’s truck, the new car seat and my overnight bag in tow.
As we pulled out of the driveway, our family waved for what seemed only seconds before the snow was too thick to see them as we headed down the street. Anxiety knotted inside of me as we crept down the street at a slow five miles per hour. My breaths deepened, my lungs working overtime, my heart rate uncontrollable. The wipers were going as fast as possible, but it was no match for the rate at which the snow fell.
"Sweet Tea?"
"Y-yeah," I answered, to meet his concerned gaze. I couldn't stop staring straight ahead, hoping, wishing that we'd get to spot where the blizzard would be gone.
"We’ll get there. I promise."
I twisted my neck and watched him warily as he kept his eyes on the road. "Give me your hand, baby." He reached between us, palm up, waiting for me to interlock my fingers with his. He lifted my hand to his warm lips and kissed my knuckles. "I've got you."
"I trust you," I murmured. Before I could take a breath of assurance from my husband’s words, a pain radiated from my back and encircled my stomach. I clutched Aidan's hand, squeezing it as I yelped.
"Breathe, Sweet Tea. You gotta breathe through it." His thumb pad caressed my knuckles. The pain, the snow, the uncertainty of it all had me ready to crawl out of my skin and run away. "I-I can't, Aidan."
"Did I ever tell you the story of the first time I saw you?"
It was a bad day the first time we met. He was the only ray of sun on that day.
I shook my head, my long hair swishing over my coat.
"Let me tell you, then. Close your eyes, baby." His soft voice soothed away a portion of my anxiety; I did as he said.
His hand still locked with mine, he cleared his throat and hesitated for a second. "I remember feeling nothing inside that day. I was broken. But then my life, my world changed forever." His grip on my hand tightened immensely. "I saw your blonde hair first. It hung long down your spine and covered the back of your black dress. I was lost just seconds before I saw you, heard your scared voice. And in that instant, something pulled me to you in a way I still can't understand.
The moment I put my arms around you and whispered in your ear I knew the world had just pulled me back from floating away. Then you turned and looked at me. Our eyes locked, and my heart that had just been dead, beat for the first time. You may not have known it that day, or even that second, but I did. I knew my life would never be the same. I found the person whose heartbeat matched mine."
Salty tears slipped into my mouth as I opened my eyes, and my heart rate accelerated with each of his words.
"Some would say it was too soon to feel anything, something, for someone you’d never met. But I disagree. Because I know that couldn't have been the first time we met. You and me, we'll always find a way to be together. You're my soul mate, Sweet Tea."
I twisted to my left and smiled as I gazed at my husband. "XO."
He lifted his lips to the side. "XO."
"I love you so much. As much as I was nervous for that story, you were the ray of sunshine for me. And now I know that you felt something for me then, too. We were meant to be from the start."
"You're mine, Sweet Tea; I've got you forever. I promised I would get you to the hospital, and guess what?" My eyes widened and his smile grew. "We're here."
He had stopped the truck under the emergency sign that was barely visible through the blinding snow. "Mom already called them. They know we're on our way. Let's go have a baby."
"It's really happening."
He leaned over the console and pressed a kiss to my lips, warming them instantly. "It's really happening," he whispered back.
The nerves from the ride here had vanished, but a new wave settled inside mixed with excitement. I couldn't wait to meet our baby, and find out if we were having a boy or a girl.
Chapter Four
Aidan's shaky fingers gripped tightly around the stainless steel tool as he cut his first umbilical cord. "Congrats, dad!" The female nurse’s voice rang around us and my heart filled with a love I wasn't even aware existed until now.
Aidan wiped a few tears away with the back of his hand. Before I could reach for him, the nurse gently laid our less than two minute old baby on my chest, skin to skin, mother to child, and draped a light pink blanket around us.
Our baby girl’s back disappeared underneath Aidan's large hand as he kissed the side of my head. "She's beautiful. God, she's absolutely beautiful." His voice was a mere whisper, as if he was the only voice in the room, sharing this special moment even though doctors and nurses surrounded us.
"Do you have a name picked out for your little princess?" The female nurse asked.
I could practically h
ear Aidan's smile growing. Peering up at him, I blinked back the tears, but they spilled anyway. He patted away the happiness from my cheeks, his loving eyes locked on mine. There was no other name more perfect than the one I knew we were both thinking.
"Our Maggie girl," he murmured.
The impact of the moment cascaded down my cheeks, tears slipping into my parted smile as I held Maggie tighter.
The nurse admired us from the side, a sweet smile spreading across her face. "What a lovely name for such a pretty little princess."
A little later, after the nurses cleaned Maggie and swaddled her into a new pink blanket, Aidan got to hold her. She was so tiny in his arms as he cradled her like a tightly wrapped football. He stood close, swaying our daughter in his arms. My heart spilled with love, the rest of my body exhausted beyond belief. They say your second child comes out much quicker than your first. I'd have to say they were right.
Aidan stepped toward my bed and placed his lips softly onto Maggie's pink hat. "To think just this morning I was basting a turkey and tonight I'm holding our daughter."
"Grandma Maggie was right," I mumbled, thinking back to her word this morning. Soon.
He began to rock her back and forth again; the sight made me swoon more than a woman who just pushed out a baby probably should.
"My Maggie girl," he whispered to her. "Just remember, Batman is always in your corner. I'm not ever going anywhere. And your little brother Robin isn't either. And let's not forget your Mommy. I'm pretty sure she's Wonder Woman, she just hasn't told me yet. There's a cape on her somewhere. You've got a super hero family that will stop at nothing to protect you." He kissed her forehead. "That said, you're not dating or getting married until you’re seventy. Tell all the boys that your dad is Batman and they're not allowed to talk to you."
He was a great father to Jase and there was no doubt in my mind of the love he would have for our daughter. Aidan's glassy eyes met mine and my mouth bowed. "It's a Christmas to remember."