by TM Watkins
The lower of the two floors was given to the families. Sam made sure the hotel knew to keep them on one floor and the band on another level. They might be subdued, they might not be. Sam didn’t want the risk nor a headache associated with the fallout if something happened.
Lilly followed Tom and Angela to their floor, the other families had arrived and were eager to decorate the open space the hotel had set aside for them. This was a Christmas holiday for them, they wanted to make everything special.
Lowering to the lounge, Lilly looked around the space. It wasn’t large, it was never meant to be a lounge area for a lot of people, but it worked. The hotel had provided a tree and a box of trimmings. Lilly smiled as she watched the boxes being opened, it was like Christmas morning for them. There were only adults here, not a child to be seen yet it felt like there would be several of them come Christmas morning.
Eleanor sat down beside her, smiling sweetly.
“How are you feeling today?”
“Great. The baby is kicking up a storm.”
She nodded, a sad smile filled her face.
“He’s leaving us, isn’t he?”
“Oh, I don’t know.”
El clutched her hand, Lilly felt the soft skin warm her own cold hand.
“It’s okay. We want the best for Sam. Perhaps there might be an alternative.”
“Like?”
She shrugged with a vague smile.
“Like an offer of something different. We want him where he belongs, with you and the child but we want him to be a part of our team too. I’m sure that we can find a happy medium. Make him talk to Jerry.”
Lilly nodded.
“I will. Is there a restroom around here?”
“Yes,” El said, helping Lilly out of the lounge. “Just around that corner.”
She waddled to the corner, turning it to see a small corridor that was home to three doors. Male, female and disabled.
“I shouldn’t have sat down,” Lilly muttered, pushing through the door to the disabled bathroom.
It was wider, it was easier and, she was getting desperate.
Gripping the wall, Lilly locked the door, feeling a lot of pain. By the time she’d finished, Lilly knew something was wrong. Leaning on the vanity, she was almost doubled over with pain.
“You’re not allowed to come this early.” She groaned.
Pain ripped through her body, primarily through her back. Lilly gritted her teeth, waiting for the pain to pass. Her hand was shaking as she turned to the door and unlocked it. Evan’s mother Lola was making her way to the bathroom when she looked at Lilly.
“Are you alright Lilly?”
“I think I’m in labor.”
“Oh, that’s,” Lola lifted Lilly off the wall. “Great and not so great. How far are you?”
“Thirty-two.”
Lola helped Lilly out to the central area, catching everyone’s attention.
“Seriously?” Nate asked.
Lilly nodded as she lowered into the seat.
“Right,” Eleanor said. “Nate, call Sam and tell him to get his ass back here pronto. Brad, call your father and warn him Sam might be disappearing soon. Now, we need to get you to the hospital. I’ll go and see front desk and ask them the what’s and the where’s.”
Angela sat beside Lilly, holding her hand while giving her a reassuring smile.
“It’s going to be fine, honey. Sammy will be back in time.”
“I hope so. I’d hate for him to miss out.”
“Did you have anything packed?”
“No, everything is back in London.”
Lilly hadn’t gone crazy with buying things, there wasn’t enough space for it. She hoped Sam would return to London so they could go shopping together. Maybe buy some baby things. Maybe buy a place to put those baby things. Lilly held a lot of hope for the future, but it all came down to what Sam wanted to do with his job.
“What about your things, is there anything that you want?”
Lilly thought about the state of the room when they left earlier. It was clean, but there was a lot of evidence that they’d misbehaved. Then again, the child that was about to be born was enough proof of that.
“I’ll go and pack some things,” Angela said when Lilly nodded.
As Angela took the door key, Lilly’s phone rang.
“Hey, Sammy.”
“I’m coming back right now.”
“I thought you might be.”
“How far apart are the contractions?”
“I think the second one is coming. It’s only been a few minutes.”
Lola grimaced, watching as the pain on Lilly’s face began to show. The contractions were close, and if Sam and the paramedics didn’t hurry up, they’d both miss out on this birth.
“I am five minutes away. Keep your legs together.”
Lilly laughed in spite of the pain. The elevator doors opened, and Eleanor walked out, distressed yet relieved.
“I’m on the move. Hurry up.”
“Will do. Love you, Lil.”
Lilly huffed softly.
“Love you too Sammy.”
Angela appeared with a packed bag, waiting at the elevator for Lilly to waddle closer. Tom was right by her side. She’d slowly walk to the lobby, waiting for the paramedics to arrive. Hopefully, Sam will turn up before they whisk her away. As much as it was nice that Angela and Tom would be with her, she would rather it was Sam.
As the contraction hit hard, Lilly held the phone out to Eleanor.
“My parents.” She groaned.
“Of course.”
Eleanor waited until they were in the lobby before placing the call. As Tom and Angela helped Lilly through the glittering room, they watched as the hotel staff bustled around to try and help them. Out the front, they saw a car slide to a stop, the door open and their son almost fall out because he was rushing. He didn’t wait for the driver to open the door, he was hard pressed to wait for him to stop.
When Sam saw his parents helping Lilly through the lobby, he was grateful that they’d said yes to coming here. Then he thought it was a shame that Lilly’s parents weren’t here.
He rushed over to them, relieving his mother of the burden. She gave him a warm smile as she rubbed his back.
“It’s about ten minutes.”
Sam nodded, helping Lilly to the entrance. Eleanor ended the call and walked over to the group.
“They’re getting in the car now. They’ll be stopping to pick up your sister and will call me when they get here. I’ll pick them up from the train station and bring them to the hospital.”
Lilly nodded, grateful that they were coming and that the paramedics had finally arrived. Her whole body was in pain now. She wanted to curl up in a ball and forget that one stupid condom had caused this mess.
With everyone loaded, the doors were shut, and they were on their way. Sam looked at Lilly and never thought that he’d find himself in such a situation with her. She was the annoyance that kept hounding him over the altered rider, she was the beauty that had bewitched him.
“You know,” Sam whispered cheekily in her ear. “I had a luscious beauty lined up to bring back to you.”
“Bastard.” She groaned softly.
Sam chuckled, leaning in to kiss her. He wasn’t going to tell her that it was, in fact, two pretty women waiting and they were exactly what Lilly wanted. It was best that she didn’t know what she was missing out on.
Five long and arduous hours later, the birth was over, and they were on the ward. Sam held the swaddled child, looking down at his daughter. She was asleep, just like her mother. As for who the father was, it didn’t matter to Sam. He loved Lilly, and now he loved Avery. When Sam looked at her, he didn’t care that Fraser might be the father. He’d always be there for her. As for the test, they’d still do it, Sam knew that Lilly wanted to find out.
His parents were somewhere around the hospital, waiting for the others to arrive. They all wanted to say hello so soon hell would be unleashed upon th
em. Lilly’s family were still on their way, they were in Europe, but the actual location was unknown to Sam.
When Lilly began to stir, Sam put Avery back into the hospital crib and sat on the edge of the bed. Lilly smiled when she opened her eyes, looking at one happy daddy.
“I have been thinking.”
“Is that right?”
Sam nodded eagerly.
“And I’ve also had that conversation with Jerry.”
Lilly shifted, wincing as she pulled herself upright. Sam was on his feet, fluffing pillows and adjusting the top half of the bed to an inclined position.
“You’ve certainly been busy while I’ve been asleep. Alright, let’s hear it.”
“So, Jerry wants to grow the business. He wants to expand internationally, and he wants me to take on the management role for the first of his global domination.”
“In the UK?”
Sam nodded with a broad smile.
“As a bonus, we can start from home and,”
“Wait, we?”
“Well, yeah. I do need the great events coordinator’s help.”
Lilly scoffed her laugh, rolling her eyes.
“Sure, keep going.”
“It means that I can be at home with you and Avery, always around to pester you and drive you crazy.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
Sam nodded.
“What about the rest of the tour and the band?”
“Jerry admitted that he figured I wouldn’t want to be around once he learned about the baby, so they’ve been planning for the future. Not sure how well this one will work out, but it’s not my problem. As for the band,”
Sam shrugged, unsure of his true feelings.
“I’m sure they’ll get over it soon enough.”
“But what about you? I think you’re fooling yourself if you think that you don’t like those boys.”
“It varies on the day and what they’ve done to annoy me.”
Lilly smiled, taking Sam’s hand.
“Will you be happy in this plan for our future?”
Sam nodded.
“Very much so. A new house with many surfaces to christen, a big backyard for our children to run around in.”
“A dog?”
“Sure.”
Lilly smiled, the plan was sounding better by the second.
“The place would probably need to be somewhere between the country and the city. Long term we’d need a proper office.”
“Well, that sucks.”
“I know but that’s life, I’m afraid. So, the house, the dog, the children, the life and work balance. What else is there?”
Lilly shrugged because there wasn’t much else that she’d want.
“What about getting married?”
Her heart dropped as she stared, Sam smiled and pulled a little box out of his pocket.
“This was going to be a Christmas thing but seeing as I got my Christmas present early, I suppose you can have yours early too.”
He opened the box, watching as the tears slid out and slowly trickled down Lilly’s cheeks.
“That is of course if you want to get married. I don’t want to be presumptuous.”
Lilly wiped the tears, trying not to laugh. She pulled him down for a kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“I’d love to marry you, Sammy.”
Epilogue
Jerry watched as the five lumbering brutes walked to the main door of his office. This was day five of being home, and it was heaven and hell, all rolled into one. Grateful to be home but frustrated at the mountain of work to be done.
“Best behavior guys.”
Returning to the contracts, Jerry heard a squeaking noise and made the mistake of looking up. Jaxon’s bare ass was pressed to the glass wall beside the door, his jeans just below the flesh. The wild grin was directed at him.
“Am I being a good boy daddy?”
“No.” Jerry grumped.
He watched as Jaxon hitched up his jeans and sauntered off like he was king of the world.
“I wonder if I can convince Sam to come back.”
Jerry knew that it wasn’t possible. Sam was happy, and he wouldn’t leave that particular bubble of bliss for all the money in the world.
Fraser wandered down the stairs, walked out of the building and saw the other band members walking into the nearby coffee place. He frowned and followed them, wondering what possessed them to go in there. It was lunchtime, getting blitzed right about now was perfect.
“You know, we could hit a club for a lunch special.” He said to Evan.
“Yeah but Aus wants to try to dry Curtis out again. We’re switching to caffeine.”
“It won’t work.” Fraser grumped as he sat down. “It didn’t work the ten times before, and it won’t work the ten times after.”
Evan shrugged, walking to the counter. Fraser felt the burn of someone watching him, he turned to see the bright blue eyes of a young girl. She leaned against the arm of the deep lounge, so deep that only the top of her head was showing.
Fraser looked at the man beside her, he could see a lot of her father. Clearly, the girl was diminutive like her mother, the woman seated opposite them. The auburn hair fell over her face, as she smiled at Fraser, she pulled the hair behind her ear and turned back to her milkshake.
Austin sat down, watching as Curtis lumped himself into his seat. He needed to focus on the positives and ignore those who tried to drag him down. Curtis also needed to stop listening to them. Austin believed that hell would freeze over before that happened.
The waitress delivered their coffees, offering them a great view of everything on offer. Fraser smiled, ready to lure the pretty creature into the bathroom. First, he had to distract the others from trying to tempt her before he could.
Hearing something odd, Fraser lifted his gaze and saw the kid and her parents were outside. The door had clunked shut at the same time, drowning the other sound out. On the floor was a book. He frowned, putting his cup down and stood. Once he picked up the book, Fraser opened the door.
“Hey, did you drop this?”
The girl and her parents turned, the father smiled at Fraser.
“I guess we did. Thank you.”
Fraser nodded, saying nothing as he handed the book over. For a few seconds, Fraser watched as they walked away. For a few seconds, he thought that maybe having a kid wouldn’t be so bad. Behind him, a baby screamed, and the positive thoughts of children were firmly washed away.
“Not in this lifetime.” He muttered.
Turning back into the coffee place, Fraser looked at Curtis who was asleep or passed out. Either way, it wasn’t good. He couldn’t figure it out, but he knew that this place was good for the short term but for the long term, they had to get away, if only for Curtis.
“We need to convince Jerry to hurry up and get the move done. Once his business is out of here, we can all go home. I’m sick of this place. Evan hates being here, and it is just trouble for Curtis.”
Austin nodded, agreeing completely. The sooner Jerry finalized the move, the happier everyone would be. Returning home to Vegas was the best option for all of them. Jerry had moved the business here to build it up, to lure in the clients and for the most part, it had worked. Like all things, there were positives and negatives. Jerry missed being in Vegas, he missed his home and he missed their family and friends. It also didn’t help that he still had to travel back to Vegas regularly because there was one client that would not leave Vegas. Night Fire had started off small but now they were his most profitable client so it was natural for him to go where they wanted. Besides, deep down, he wanted to go home.
When they were done with lunch, Austin woke Curtis and helped him out of the seat. The time for the video catch up with pokey was creeping up on them, and if they weren’t there for it, they’d miss out on learning how many pretty ladies he managed to land during the tour. Sam said that he’d reveal the number of conquests at the video link up and they’d cr
own their winner.
It was killing them not to know so they definitely wanted to be there for it. But it wasn’t just learning the winner, it was the contents of the parcel that had arrived by courier. They were not allowed to open it until today. The package had sat on Jerry’s desk for several days now, driving them crazy. They wanted to know what was in it and Jerry refused to open it.
But they’d peeked, seeing that there was another parcel inside. Jerry caught them red-handed and, in the process, Evan accidentally ripped open the outer envelope. Inside they found a note with the inner envelope. Intrigued, they read the note from Sam.
He requested that they not open the second envelope before they connected to him and that they had another computer ready and waiting.
They’d never admit it, but they missed Sam. He was now living with Lilly, happy and in love. Avery was a few weeks old now, and her crazy parents were getting married in a few months’ time.
They were living in the UK, running the European division of the management business for Jerry. The plans to expand had gone exceptionally well, and Jerry was relieved that the gamble had paid off. It had only been a few weeks, but Sam had already managed to sign three new acts and two more wore in the negotiation stage.
Fraser paced the floor, wondering what was in the packet. He knew that he wasn’t Avery’s father, Sam had done the test and confirmed he was. Still, he worried for the contents.
“Can we just open it?” Jaxon snapped.
“Open what?” Curtis said, looking sleepy.
They all looked at him. Coming off tour was a good thing and a bad thing. He was left to his own devices again, his parents called and told him all the wonderful things that his amazing siblings were doing and how horrible Curtis really was for being a drummer in a band. In doing so, they reignited the issues he had.
“Pokey sent us a parcel.”
“Cool.” Curtis murmured. “Can we open it?”
“Nah man, we have to wait,” Austin said.
Jaxon twitched with derision, glancing at Evan. They’d tried, they always tried. Something would give, one of these days Curtis would wake up and say no more. When he admitted that he had a problem, then he would change.
Jerry walked into the small office, did something with the computer and then sat down.