The Mountains Trilogy (Boxed Set)

by Phoebe Alexander

  "Oh, go ahead and take the manly job," she teased him. She pulled out her phone and sent texts to Rachel and Owen, who was staying at Rachel's; her mother; Abby; Adam; James's parents; and Dr. Asaki. Then she watched her husband roll up the sleeves of his flannel shirt and begin to stack logs in the basin of the fireplace. She loved the way the tendons flexed in his muscular forearms as he worked. She loved the way his perfectly square hairline looked from the back, so precise and military-like. She loved how broad his shoulders were and how firm and squeezable his ass looked in jeans, which he rarely wore. It was his appearance that initially attracted her to him long ago the night she spoke at the Don't Ask Don't Tell panel to which he'd brought his ROTC cadets. He was only getting more sexy and distinguished as he aged.

  She wondered about the baby she carried inside her. Will he or she have my brown eyes or his blue? My dark hair or his sandy brown? His height? My pale skin? It was amazing to have this unwrapped gift growing inside her, the mystery compounding as her due date neared. And even then, it would be years before she'd know if their baby had his smirk or her intuition.

  She'd spent a lot of time early on imagining what their life as a couple might be like, but she had never been able to fully wrap her head around the idea of them having a child together. But here they were: perched on the eve of parenthood, and a whole new adventure together. But, she thought with surprise, I feel less trepidation going into this than I did that night I drove to this cabin or that day I said "I do."

  She watched the flames of the fire James built twist as they grew toward the chimney, amber and blue dancing a slow, passionate tango. He turned to her and asked, "What do you think of that?"

  "Looks incredibly cozy," she answered with a smile.

  He smelled of wood and fire as he pulled her close to his body. She buried her face in his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. She missed being able to press her pelvis into his and feel his desire for

  her. But that will be back soon enough, she consoled herself.

  They had resumed lovemaking after he'd come back from Ohio. Once she was given a reprieve from bedrest, he'd made love to her so gently and so

  tenderly, she was swallowed up with love and passion for him. And she was certain she had many repeat performances to look forward to during their retreat at the cabin.

  As if he had read her mind, he scooped her up off the floor just like he had done on the front porch and carried her off to the bedroom. He laid her gently on the bed and began to slip off her stretchy maternity pants, then pulled the stretchy maternity shirt over her head. "Do you think the baby will mind if I take you just now?"

  "I don't think the baby has much of a choice," Sarah slyly observed.

  He laid on the bed next to his wife and she turned toward him. "Thank you for loving me even when I'm being a selfish asshole," he said, his eyes filled with gratitude. "Thank you for giving me another chance."

  "I hope you would do the same if I ever fuck up," Sarah responded. "I just want us to put each other first."

  "We will," he assured her, stroking his finger down her cheek. She watched his pupils expand and contract as he blinked. "I can't wait to meet our baby."

  "I know, and I thought of the perfect name on our drive here," Sarah revealed.

  "Oh?" He smiled. "Do tell!"

  "Make love to me first...then I'll tell you..."

  "If I must," he grinned, unbuckling his belt. When he was fully undressed, he laid down on the bed and pulled Sarah on top of him. He looked up at her doe-brown eyes, half-closed with desire as she adjusted to the feel of his cock inside her. He loved the way her full breasts looked resting on top of her swollen stomach as she swayed her hips, moving up and down on his shaft.

  After she came, she watched her husband cycle through his trademark expressions and vocalizations leading up to orgasm. It was her favorite part of making love, seeing him be brought to climax under her direction. She ran her fingers over his firm chest muscles as his head arched back into the pillow. He was getting close.

  Watching his hips begin to thrust up into her and his muscles and jaw clenched, she realized what an extraordinary thing they had found together. But it wasn’t just that they had found each other; the discovery was only a small part of the journey. They had to work. They had to climb. They had to summit some very steep peaks to conquer the mountains that separated them. And now, looking out from the very tip-top of the world, she didn't see the past or any of the many struggles they had overcome. All she saw was the vast universe of love that stretched between them.

  ***

  Epilogue

  The faintest glimmer of the sunrise had just begun to flirt with the window panes, starting out in a fading heather, with a gradual crescendo toward the flaming arms of the life-giving sun. Sarah reclined in the rubber tub, the water dark, echoing the black walls. Her face was expressionless, eyes closed, head laid back on the edge, arms cradling her swollen stomach. She hummed under her breath in the shortening valley that preceded the next oncoming contraction.

  "One at a time," Rachel reminded her as she returned to the room with hot tea and lemon. She was the one who had kept vigil during the night. James had fallen asleep on the sofa only a few feet away. Abby and Owen had retreated to their bedrooms, and her mother had returned to her own home in the wee hours of the morning, confident it would be several hours before the baby arrived. The midwife was in the laundry room, preparing some towels and sheets for their impending need.

  Sarah gratefully accepted the mug of tea from her friend and placed it against her lips, which were numb from all of the humming. She flashed back to a photo she remembered seeing of James holding his newborn niece several years before. She knew what a baby looked like in her husband's arms. But not our baby, Sarah considered. Not our perfect combination of 46 chromosomes.

  She felt her belly begin to tighten. The muscles gripped her womb like fists clenched in fury. She felt the unbelievable pain start to spike as it originated in her lower back and spread slowly, but so very surely to the front and then back again, wrapping around her like thick, relentless rubber bands. Her humming became louder and louder as Rachel snatched the mug of hot tea out of her hands just in time before it was dropped to the wood-planked floor.

  Descend, darling baby, Sarah silently urged her unborn child. Descend, make your way. The world is ready for you, little one. She tried to compose a love letter to the baby to distract her from the pain, but what really did the trick was the sleepy stumbling of the baby’s father from the sofa toward the deep pool where Sarah labored.

  "How's it going?" he asked, yawning. "Are you okay?"

  "As okay as a woman in labor can be," Sarah said, a smile daring to transform her face in the lull between contractions.

  "I'm sorry I dozed off."

  "Well, you are human. I guess I can forgive you." She winked at him. He leaned down over the tub and put his hands on her shoulders where he began to knead the tight knots that had formed in her muscles.

  "I think if you just do that for the next three hours, I'll be fine," she sighed.

  Owen and Abby arrived on the scene only a few minutes later. "Why are you guys up already?" James asked. "I think we still have a couple more hours, right?"

  Sarah nodded and exhaled. Then the smile vanished from her face and a look of concentration took its place. Very slowly her lips turned into a grimace, her teeth clenching. She moved her hands under the water so they rested on the sides of her enormous belly.

  "Another contraction?" Owen asked.

  "I'm going to go make coffee," Abby announced.

  The midwife, Andrea, returned from the laundry room with a stack of fresh, white towels. She saw Sarah hunched over the water. "How long have you been in there?" she asked.

  Rachel answered, "Only about twenty minutes. She was walking around before that. They're starting to pick up speed."

  "Are you feeling any pressure yet?" Andrea asked.

  Sarah waited until the
last tortuous seconds of the contraction dissipated then gasped, "Yes, some."

  "Maybe I should check your cervix. I only did when I first got here last night, when you were at 4."

  "I can't believe her water hasn't broken!" Rachel exclaimed.

  "Let's go check on that coffee, Owen," James said, trying to usher the teenage boy out of the room.

  "I don't drink coffee!" Owen protested.

  James shot him a look and pushed him toward the kitchen. Andrea moved in position so she could check Sarah's dilation. "Wow, you're at eight," she said. "You still seem pretty calm. Did you want to call your mother back over?"

  At that exact moment, Kathy breezed in from the back door. "I'm not too late, am I?"

  "Probably just in time," Andrea smiled and Sarah began to contract again.

  "Did her water ever break?" Kathy asked. Andrea shook her head. "You know it's good luck to be born in the caul, right?"

  "What's that mean?" James asked, sliding back into the room with his hands gripping a huge mug of steaming coffee.

  "If a baby is born still in the amniotic sac, it's called 'in the caul,' and legend has it that the baby will always have good luck in life and even magical powers!"

  "That's awesome!" Owen shouted, his foray to the kitchen interrupted when he noticed his grandmother had arrived.

  "In the past, women would even save the caul so it could be used as a good luck charm or talisman," Kathy continued. "They'd even sell it -- especially to sailors who wanted good luck on the seas!"

  "EWWW!" Owen's nose wrinkled with disgust.

  Abby walked in with her mug of coffee matching James's. "I suspect I just missed something," she said glancing around the room from face to face.

  Sarah erupted with a loud, deep groan that emanated from the core of her body. They witnessed it welling inside her, traveling up her diaphragm, past her vocal chords and out her mouth. Suddenly all the talk about amniotic sacs and magical powers was suspended as Sarah's loved ones' attention was drawn to her in the black vinyl tub in the center of the living room floor. She'd tied her dark hair up in a knot and

  was softly panting as one contraction subsided and another began right on top of it. Her eyes were closed and she had been transported to an entirely different realm, one of pain and promise mixed together equally.

  When Rachel began to speak, Andrea shot her a look and put her finger up to her mouth to indicate silence was needed. Sarah moaned again, long and low as another tidal wave of pressure and agony consumed her. As soon as it broke, another rose up in its place. This went on for fifteen or twenty minutes, her vocalizations growing louder and more intense with each contraction.

  Finally, she pulled her legs apart, her arms

  gripping the sides of the tub until her knuckles turned white. The crowd was completely silent as she bore down, her chin pressed to her chest, her face turning so red it was nearly purple.

  The midwife knelt by the edge of the tub and issued a long string of soft, low exhortations to the laboring mother. It sounded like a chant in a foreign language, melodic and soothing. James bent down behind Sarah and placed his hands on her shoulders once again. Abby could see empathy-induced pain gripping his face each time Sarah's contractions peaked.

  Between Sarah's moans and Andrea's chant, a wild and primal duet filled the room with earthy vibrations. Suddenly, Andrea's once-calm face grew animated as she shouted, "That's it, that's it! The baby is crowning! You're almost there!"

  Abby, Kathy, Owen and Rachel each stepped closer, peering into the tub as a white mass began to appear in the dark water. In seconds, Andrea

  was hoisting the sac-covered baby up onto Sarah's chest, which was heaving with emotion to match the tears streaming down her face. "Oh my god," Kathy whispered, "that baby is in the caul. What do you

  know?!"

  "I'll need to take her and get it cut off her. I've actually never seen this in twenty years of midwifery!" Andrea exclaimed.

  "Her?!" James asked.

  "You have a baby girl!" Andrea announced as she turned the baby over and wrapped her in a towel. With a small pair of scissors she snipped a hole in the amniotic sac so the baby could breathe. As soon as she did, the tiny bundle's wails pierced the air. Andrea clamped the umbilical cord and made another cut to free the baby and then swooped her away to a warming table she had set up across the room.

  Sarah watched Andrea begin to carefully trim the amniotic sac away from her daughter while also vigorously rubbing her newly exposed skin. She was beginning to pinken up as she howled her extreme

  displeasure at the sudden intrusion of light, sound, and movement.

  "Nice healthy set of lungs!" Rachel laughed. Kathy's hand was clasped over her mouth, tears freely flowing down her cheeks. Owen traipsed over to the warming table to watch Andrea work on his baby sister. Abby followed.

  James looked frozen for a moment, as if all the emotions he was supposed to experience as a new father were stuck in his throat. Kathy slapped him on the back, "Congratulations, Dad!" she exclaimed and it

  seemed to snap him out of his trance. He wrapped his arms around Sarah's neck and tilted her face so that he could kiss her.

  "I'm so proud of you, baby," he whispered in her ear.

  ***

  Later that afternoon, Sarah sat on the sofa, the baby tightly swaddled and propped up on a nursing pillow. "Hmm, I think she fell asleep," she said, glancing down at her smooth, round cheeks. "Do you want to hold her?"

  James sat next to Sarah, his eyes affixed on the tiny pink bundle sleeping at his wife's breast. He had never seen anything more miraculous than what had transpired in that room just hours before. "Yes," he answered.

  He paused for a moment, then said, "But first I want to tell you that you are absolutely amazing, Sarah. Thank you for doing this for me, and for everything you've done for me, for us. For your unconditional love and forgiveness, for taking me back when I didn't deserve it. I am going to do everything in my power to be a good husband to you and a good father to our daughter." With that, he carefully lifted the swaddled bundle out of his wife's arms and into his own.

  Kathy emerged from the kitchen carrying a plate of food. "For the new mother! Gotta fuel up, my dear!" she smiled, placing it on the end table next to the sofa.

  "Thanks, Mom," Sarah said.

  "You did a remarkable job," Kathy told her. "And she is absolutely gorgeous! She's going to have your dark hair, I think."

  Sarah looked down at her daughter's head resting against the thick, muscular forearm of her husband. It was covered in fine, velvety dark brown hair, was perfectly shaped, and looked so sweet in the crook of James's arm. "I can't believe she's finally here."

  Rachel and Abby entered from the kitchen, having just finished lunch. "When do I get to hold her?" Rachel asked.

  "Let's let Dad have a chance first!" Kathy smiled.

  "So how come nobody has asked her name yet?" Abby wondered aloud. "You guys were being so secretive about it. Come on, did you decide? Spill

  it!"

  James looked at Sarah and then down to the sleeping infant. "Her name is Lynnea Sky," he carefully pronounced.

  "Oh! That's beautiful!" Kathy gasped.

  "How did you choose it?" Rachel asked.

  "'Linnea' is a flower that grows in the mountains. Each stem has two delicate pink bell-shaped blooms so it's sometimes called a twinflower. We chose it because we've seen them in the mountains, which as you know, we love; and because of the twins we lost. It's also close to Lynde, which is why we're spelling it with a 'y' instead of an "i.' And Sky? Well, we just like it, that's all. I think they sound nice together," Sarah answered, a soft smile illuminating her face.

  "Lynnea Sky McAllister," Rachel repeated. "That's beautiful. Unique. I love it!"

  "It's perfect," Abby agreed.

  James bent down and placed a kiss on his daughter’s velvety newborn head. "Thank you all for being here today and helping us through this journey," he said. "It means so much
to me, and I know to Sarah, that we have such a strong support system. My parents are going to be arriving soon and things might get a little crazy around here, so in case I forget to tell you later, I just want you all to know that I love you."

  "Awwww," Rachel said. "We love you too!"

  Abby leaned over the back of the sofa and gave James a hug around the neck. "We all love you."

  "And especially me," Sarah said. "I would have never imagined a few years ago when I met you that we would get married and have a family together. I thought for the longest time that you were out of my

  reach. I even thought I'd lost you for good a few months ago.

  “But one thing I've learned throughout all this is that love always prevails. Just like these flowers – like the 'linnea' that grow out of a rocky mountainside – where it doesn't look like they can possibly get enough soil or sun, love can grow where you least expect it. And once it's deeply rooted, it's pretty damn hard to destroy. Well, our roots run deep, James, and this baby is proof. If we have survived everything we have up to this point, there is nothing that can tear us apart now."

  James handed the slumbering bundle off to Rachel, who was chomping at the bit to get her hands on the baby. He took his wife into his arms and held her tightly to his chest. "Nothing, absolutely nothing, will

  ever come between us again. I promise."

  THE END

  A Note from the Author

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