Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4)

by Jessica Prince

  Nerves coursed through my body as they prepared to wheel me into the room to begin my C-section. I was terrified and excited all at the same time. “Lance, honey, you ready?” I turned my head to look over at where he sat, his laptop perched on his lap as he typed away.

  “I’ve got a lot of work I need to get through,” he answered, only looking up from the screen to address the doctor. “You can come and get me once she gets into recovery. I’m sure everything will be just fine. You don’t need me there.”

  “Lance,” I gasped, tears burning the backs of my eyes before they broke free and slid down my temple onto the bed I was laying on. “We’re about to have our babies. I’m scared. I want you there with me.”

  He let out a frustrated huff and finally deemed me worthy of a look. “Tomorrow’s a big day for me, Mackenzie. I need to get this finished. I’ll see you when you come out of surgery.”

  “Sir,” the doctor cut in, “your wife could really use your support in the operating room—”

  “She’s not my wife,” he answered, his tone full of disinterest. He’d already gone back to his work, effectively cutting off whatever else the doctor was going to say.

  Turning away from him in disgust, I caught the look of pity in my doctor’s eyes before she nodded at the nurse. “We need to get you into surgery now, Ms. Webster.”

  “O-okay,” I tripped over my words and my nerves took over complete control of my body, causing it to shake uncontrollably.

  “It’ll be okay, sweetheart,” the kind nurse leaned in to whisper as they began moving me from the room. “We’ll take good care of you, then you’ll have two precious babies to love when it’s all over.”

  “Thank you.” I tried so hard not to cry. It was supposed to be a happy day, a blessing. I was finally going to meet my babies after so many months of pregnancy. I hated that I was letting Lance take that joy away from me.

  It wasn’t until I heard Cameron’s shrill cry in the delivery room that my tears turned from those of sadness to happiness. From that moment forward, I’d finally have two people in my life to love me as unconditionally as I loved them.

  Four days had passed since the twins were born, and each passing day was another that Lance couldn’t be bothered to come to the hospital to see us. After briefly checking on me in recovery, he’d gone to the nursery to see the babies. He’d stayed for an hour, tops, before leaving to go home and get some sleep.

  Every time I called, he was either too busy or too tired to come up and visit. I was heartbroken. Finally, on the fourth day, the doctor released us to go home. The discharge papers had been completed, the babies’ diaper bags had been stocked, and we were ready to go. All that was left to do was wait for Lance to show up.

  I held the phone to my ear as the call when to voicemail yet again.

  “Hey, it’s me. The doctor released us to go home two hours ago. Could you please come get us? I know you’re busy, but if I have to stay in this hospital any longer, I’m going to lose my mind. Please call me back.”

  It wasn’t like I could have just called a cab to come pick us up. I had two babies and no car seats. Lance was our only way home and he couldn’t even be bothered to answer the phone. It wasn’t until four hours later that he finally graced us with his presence, and by that time, I had already worked myself up so much that I couldn’t contain my anger when he walked through the hospital room door.

  “Where were you?” I demanded as I rocked a fussy Cameron in my arms. Callie slept peacefully in the hospital’s little basinet, but Cameron had proven to be a difficult sleeper. I’d spent the last three nights rocking and singing to him to try and get him to relax, but nothing seemed to work. I was exhausted and angry.

  “I was at work,” he answered coldly, staring me down with his icy blue eyes.

  “I’ve been calling you all fucking day! They released us this morning, Lance. Is it too much to ask for my fiancé, the father of my children, to show the hell up when he’s supposed to? You haven’t even been here!”

  “Well, I’m here now,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “So let’s fucking go. I need to get back to the office after I drop you off.”

  “Are you kidding me?!” I shouted, startling a cry from Cameron. I hadn’t meant to yell like that, but I was just so damn furious. “You’ve been working the entire time we’ve been here! Can’t you take a goddamned day off? I could really use your help!”

  “Let’s. Go.” That was all he had to say.

  A nurse arrived with a wheelchair to help me down to the car. I kept both babies perched in my lap the whole way down since their own father couldn’t be bothered to carry either of them. Once we had them properly buckled up, I slowly climbed into the passenger’s seat, still unable to move comfortably due to the C-section. Lance walked around the front and climbed into the driver side as I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, exhaustion tugging at me incessantly.

  “Mackenzie,” Lance said, drawing my attention to him.

  The vicious slap he landed across my cheek the moment I turned my attention to him startled a pained yelp from me as tears instantly welled up in my eyes. He grabbed hold of my chin and jerked my face back toward his.

  “If you ever talk to me like that again, I’ll make you fucking pay. You understand me?”

  All I could do was nod as my stinging tears broke free, running down my already swelling cheek.

  We drove from the hospital to the house in utter silence. Once there, he helped me get the twins and all their stuff from the car. As I expected, he couldn’t be bothered to make sure we were settled before he was out the door again.

  As I spent the rest of the night trying my best to take care of two children all on my own just days after their birth, I kept asking myself how it was possible that I’d allowed my life to become so horrible.

  Present

  “Beauty,” Brett said in a rush the second I answered the phone.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Just got the call; Emmy’s in labor. I’m on my way to the house to pick you up.”

  I looked from the stove where I had dinner cooking over to where the kids sat, watching Tangled.

  “We can’t take the twins to the hospital, Brett. Odds are it’s going to take a while. They’ll get antsy. Why don’t you just head straight to the hospital and I’ll try and find a sitter. Hopefully, I can meet you there in a few hours.”

  “Already got it covered, baby. Jeremy’s mom is on her way over there now. She offered to watch the twins for us.”

  There was that melty feeling again.

  “Honey, you didn’t have to do that.”

  He chuckled through the phone line. “You’re my family, babe. A man takes care of his family. That’s our job.”

  “Emmy and Luke are your family too, you need to be there for them.”

  “And I will be, just as soon as I get my kids squared away and my woman in my jeep.”

  Every time… every single time the man opened his mouth, he turned me into a puddle of goo. “Good Lord, I love you.”

  “Right back atch’. Now get your sexy ass moving. We got a baby to meet.”

  I was at the stove, trying to finish dinner when the doorbell rang.

  “Hey, there sweetie,” Jeremy’s mother, Kathy, greeted with a beaming smile as soon as I opened the door.

  “Thank you so much for watching the twins. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

  “No problem,” she offered with a wave of her hand as she made her way into the living room where Callie and Cam sat, still transfixed on the TV. “I’ve got a whole mess load of grandbabies. These two will be a cakewalk. Believe me.”

  Just then, Brett came rushing through the door like his ass was on fire. “We ready to roll?”

  “Yep, just a second.” I turned back to Kathy and the kids. “Dinner’s in the oven. It just needs a few more minutes to cook.” Leaning down, I planted a kiss on the twins’ heads. “Be good for Ms. Kathy. We’ll be back soon, o
kay?”

  “Okay,” they answered as Brett stepped up to give them each a kiss as well.

  “Love you, Mommy,” Callie said, followed closely by, “Love you, Daddy,” from Cam.

  Kathy and I both pulled in a gasp as we turned our wide eyes to Brett. My son had just called him Daddy.

  Brett’s chest was puffed out, his smile so wide I was scared it might crack his face. It was obvious that hearing my son refer to him that way had just made Brett’s entire year.

  “Love y’all, too, rugrats.”

  Kathy shot me a knowing grin as Brett placed a kiss on her head, as well. Then we were out the door.

  “I’M NEVER HAVING SEX AGAIN!” Emmy wailed from her seat in the wheelchair.

  Brett and I rann into the hospital just in time to see the nurse begin to wheel Emmy to the back.

  “It’ll be all right, baby girl,” Luke cooed, running a hand over her hair lovingly.

  She used both of her hands to slap at him. “Don’t touch me! Don’t you touch me! This is all your fault, you asshole. I’m gonna kill you.”

  That, of course, was followed by a long groan as she hunched over in pain as another contraction took over. Yeah, I so didn’t miss those.

  “Can someone please get her the fuckin’ drugs?” Luke shouted, his eyes dancing from nurse to nurse frantically.

  “Sir, we need to get her in a room and see how far along she is first.”

  “I’M FAR ENOUGH! Gimme the drugs or I’ll murder everyone!”

  Another long groan.

  “Is this normal?” Brett leaned in to whisper to me as Emmy and Luke disappeared around the corner.

  “Yep,” I answered as we made our way into the waiting room. Our friends were already in there waiting, along with Luke’s mother.

  Savannah sat, wringing her hands in front of her as Jeremy tried to calm his clearly worried wife.

  “Hey, it’s going to be just fine,” I told her, taking a seat in the empty chair to her left and wrapping her in a tight hug. “Everything is okay. She’s exactly where she needs to be.”

  As I looked around the room, I saw the same sullen expressions on everyone’s faces. They were all concerned about Emmy. After what had happened the last time, our little group was waiting with baited breath, praying this delivery would have a different outcome.

  I did what I could to try and keep the spirits up. I made coffee runs, offered to go grab dinner for everyone, anything I could to try and keep their minds off the negative. But the mood in the waiting room remained grim until Luke finally walked back in three hours after they’d taken Emmy back.

  Savannah immediately jumped from her chair and scurried over to him. “Is she okay? Is he here? How’d it go?”

  “Slow your roll, killer,” Luke chuckled. She wasn’t as far along as we’d hoped when they took her back. She’s only just now getting close, but I wanted to update y’all. The doctor’s seen our girl and it’s all systems go.”

  I could practically feel the tension in the room melt away.

  “So she’s doing okay?” Savannah asked, still concerned for her best friend.

  “Well, she hated my ass up until they gave her that epidural thingy, but now it’s all good. I’ll come back as soon as the little guy’s here.” Luke leaned over and planted a kiss on Savannah’s head before taking off back in the direction he’d come from.

  With that little reassurance, everyone was finally able to feel the excitement that the day warranted.

  “Jesus,” Brett grumbled two hours later. “Does it always take this long?” he asked me. “I mean, this can’t be normal. This isn’t normal, right? Shouldn’t we have heard something by now?”

  I continued to flip through the year-old magazine I’d found in the waiting room, having already answered that particular question three times. “Yes, honey,” I replied, not once taking my eyes off the magazine. “It’s totally normal.”

  He opened his mouth to argue just as Luke came flying into the waiting room.

  “I’M A DADDY!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, fists held high in the air. Everybody jumped up to take their turn giving hugs, but it wasn’t until Luke’s mother stepped up to him, eyes bright with tears as the smile wobbled on her lips, and whispered, “So proud of you, baby. I love you so much,” that he finally broke down. Wrapping his tiny mother in a tight embrace, he cried against her shoulder, so overwhelmed by his love for his new son. It was one of the most moving things I’d ever seen in my life. It was exactly how a man should react to welcoming his baby into the world.

  “Can we see her? Can we see her?” Savannah jumped up and down as soon as Luke pulled himself together, anxious to get to her bestie.

  “Yeah. We want everyone to come on back and meet our little guy.”

  Walking into the hospital room, hand in hand with Brett, I tried my best to stay back, giving everyone else a chance to ooh and aww over Emmy and the new baby. I desperately wanted to hold the little guy, but I knew everyone else was more important. I was new to the group; they all needed their turns first.

  “Come on,” Brett tried to coax me into moving closer, but I just released his hand with a smile and waved him on.

  “You go ahead. I’ll see him. I’m just going to wait until y’all are done.”

  “Beauty.” His brow furrowed as he stepped closer to me. “You know you’re a part of this family, right? You’re just as important to us as everyone else is.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came. He truly meant that. These people who had life-long bonds had accepted me as a part of their family without so much as blinking.

  Just as I took a step toward Brett, Emmy called out, “Kenzie! Oh, thank God.”

  I rushed over to the side of the bed and looked down at her anxious face. “What’s the matter, sweetie?”

  “I don’t…” she sniffed. “I don’t know what I’m doing!” Then the waterworks began. “I don’t know the first thing about being a mom. What if I mess up? What if I do something wrong? What if I break him?!”

  I rubbed a hand over her hair. “Aw, honey, it’s all gonna be okay.”

  “I need you. You’re the only one of us who’s done this before.” Her eyes were so full of panic as she looked up at me that I felt a tug at my heart. I understood that panic all too well. I’d felt the exact same thing when the twins were born. Fortunately for Emmy, she had something I never did. She had a solid foundation of people who loved her, Luke, and this new baby. Where I was alone, she had people who would do the best they could, even if they weren’t sure what it was they were supposed to do.

  “I’m here, Em. I’m only ever a phone call away. Don’t ever hesitate to call me if you have any questions. I’ll always be there to help.”

  Her chest rose and fell with a deep breath of relief and I couldn’t put into words how good that made me feel. I had been able to calm her. I was the one to offer her assurance.

  “You want to meet little Matthew?” she asked me, her face splitting into the brightest, most beautiful grin as her gray eyes danced with happiness.

  “I’d love to.” I reached down and took the snuggly little bundle from Emmy’s hands, holding him tightly to my chest as I leaned down to press my lips to his downy head. I wanted this again. I knew I’d been toying with the idea of having more children with Brett, but in that very moment, holding Matthew Allen in my arms, I knew without a doubt I wanted this very thing again. And I wanted it with the man who was staring at me from across the hospital room like I was his whole world.

  “Seriously, woman,” Lizzy declared as I finished up my last appointment of the day. She was still going on about the same thing we’d been discussing all day. “You didn’t see his face. You were too busy sniffing on baby Matthew to notice—”

  “Hey, in my defense,” I interrupted, “babies smell awesome! It’s like a new car smell but a thousand times better. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  “All right, I’ll give you
that. But I’m telling you, the man looked like he wanted to push to you the ground and impregnate you right there in front of everybody.”

  My head fell back in a laugh at her description of how Brett was looking at me in Emmy’s hospital room as I held the baby, gently rocking him to sleep.

  “Oh, he did not!”

  “Yuh huh! Swear to God. Brett’s got some serious plans in that head of his. I could see the wheels turning. He wants to make a billion little Brenzies with you.”

  I looked up from where I was cleaning my station and arched a brow at her. “Brenzies?”

  “Yeah, like Brett plus Mackenzie. It was the best I could come up with. Y’alls names suck combined together.”

  “Whatever,” I giggled. “There will be no Brenzies being made any time soon.”

  Lizzy gave me a knowing grin as she stated, “But you’re not ruling it out.”

  “No,” I admitted. “I’m not ruling it out. We’ve actually talked about it.”

  The squeal she emitted was almost enough to shatter glass. “You’ve talked about makin’ babies?”

  She plopped down in the chair opposite me at my little table and I leaned in to tell her, “Yeah, we’ve talked about all that stuff. Honestly, Liz, I really feel like he’s the one, you know? He’s just so friggin’ wonderful. He loves Cameron and Callie so damn much…”

  “He loves you too, sweetie.”

  “I know,” I replied with a happy sigh. “Did I tell you Cameron called him Daddy the other day? You should have seen his face. He looked like he was about to explode; he was so damn happy.”

  “Aww, that’s so cute!”

  “And he told me he was going to propose one day, and that I was going to say yes. I never saw this coming, Lizzy. I swear, I never thought I’d ever meet a man who loved me the way he does, let alone love my kids so fiercely. He actually told me that, even though they weren’t his by blood, Cameron and Callie were his kids in every way that matters.”

  “Oh, my God,” she breathed, her bright green eyes misting over with tears. She quickly reached across the table and grabbed my hands in hers. “Sweetie, I’m so damn happy for you. You deserve someone who makes you happy like that. You’re such an amazing person. I can’t tell you how excited I am for you and those rugrats.”