“Don’t worry,” said the nurse holding the smelling-salts capsule under his nose. “You wouldn’t be the first one to pass out in the delivery room.”
I’m not going to fucking pass out.
Doc Palmer pointed to the cord again. “Cut right here, Adam.”
He stood once more and closed the scissors around the inch-thick cord. Surprisingly, it felt like cutting through thick nylon rope. After three attempts he made it completely through, separating their baby—their son—from Karla’s body.
I’m his daddy.
Mine.
Okay, he’d gladly share him with Karla.
Another nurse whisked the crying boy away to a table several feet away, and Adam zoned out for a moment watching the activity going on with his three babies until Karla asked, “Is he okay? Did you see him?”
Fuck, he’d been so focused on the cord he hadn’t really looked at the baby. He glanced over at the boy but could barely see his tiny feet now. He started to speak, but couldn’t get the words out. He cleared his throat as he met her gaze. Adam had no clue what a perfect newborn baby looked like, but said, “He’s perfect, Kitten.”
One of the babies let out an indignant wail that curled his toes. Soon another chimed in, and his attention turned once more to the babies. The nurses and pediatricians evaluated the three—weighing, measuring, and checking whatever else they did. The middle baby continued to sleep through all the excitement, but did complain a second or two when her foot was stuck with a needle for one of their tests. Good. Nothing ranked higher than the sound of a newborn baby’s cry.
New life.
The other two hadn’t let up much. Eyes open, they didn’t seem to miss a thing.
All three babies had Karla’s black hair—and lots of it. He didn’t have to see them cleaned up to know his girls would be as beautiful as their mother, his son handsome and strong.
Holy fuck.
How could he and Karla handle three babies? They were outnumbered. All his tactical plans just flew out the window. Hell, everything he’d learned from the baby books had barely prepared him for two. Now there were three of them.
Adam shook off this feeling of pure terror—and it could be described as nothing else. Somehow, they would manage this, too. Together they could do anything they set their minds, hearts, and bodies to do.
He returned to Karla and leaned over, kissing her cheek through his mask, not wanting any germs to touch his babies. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I know that’s a fucking lame thing to say at a time like this, but I don’t have the words…”
He stroked her face, and they huddled together in the afterglow.
“Here’s your firstborn. Have a quick peek before we head to the NICU.”
Adam moved to let the nurse place the baby, wearing a yellow knit hat and wrapped tightly in a blanket, near Karla’s face. A fresh stream of tears blurred his vision. He blinked, not wanting to miss a thing. The baby opened her gray-blue eyes and stared at Karla as if communicating on some level he couldn’t be a part of. Even though the baby books said a newborn’s eyesight was limited to blurry shapes and shadows, his daughter seemed so aware of everything. Pride swelled his chest. No big surprise their baby would be above average in her early skill sets. Smart and beautiful, like her mommy.
Mine.
Karla’s hand reached out to stroke the baby’s cheek. “Hi, precious.”
All too quickly, they had to say their temporary goodbyes. Next, their sleeping beauty was brought over only to be whisked away even faster. He hoped her lungs were okay. Lastly, their son paid them a quick visit.
“Aren’t they beautiful, Adam?” Karla asked after their boy had gone to join his sisters.
He still couldn’t believe he had a baby boy and two daughters. He’d once teased Karla that they’d have six babies, and he’d love and care for any baby Karla delivered, even if there were a dozen. But right now, three was the perfect number.
A new spate of tears streamed down her cheeks. “Oh, Adam, I feel like a piece of us is missing.”
He cleared his throat. “I know, hon. Me, too.”
Doc Palmer finished stitching up the incision and turned to them. “You’ll be able to see them again anytime, Adam. And, Karla, I just want you to lie flat for a while. The nurse will be checking frequently for the next couple of hours to make sure everything is okay. We’ll move you to your room soon. With the weight of the first and third babies, I anticipate they will join you there by this evening.”
A nurse handed the doctor a slip of paper. She smiled. “For triplets, you have amazingly big babies, Karla. The first girl was five pounds even, the next four-ten, and the boy is five-two.” She rattled off the lengths. Each was nineteen inches, give or take.
Three healthy, perfect babies as far as he was concerned.
Thank you, God.
Chapter Eight
Adam let Karla doze while being transferred to their new room and just followed along. They had asked for a family room so the babies could be with them. When they entered their home away from home, he was surprised to find a full-sized bed dominating the room.
“Here we are!” The nurse helped Karla from the smaller bed into the large one.
Fuck. Was he going to be able to stay awake if he joined her in there? What if he couldn’t and hurt Karla while she slept? The night terror he’d suffered not a month ago—probably triggered by something during the interrogation scene from hell with Marc—had left him worried about whether he could keep the past at bay when he let his guard down.
Karla slept off the anesthesia the rest of the night, interrupted almost every hour by someone needing to check on something or press on her belly some. Man, that had to hurt. Not wanting to disturb her much-needed sleep, he used the time to catch up on texts. Jenny and Carl were in flight and should be here in a few hours. He answered Megan’s text from last night and let her know the news. Since their mom knew, he might as well let her in on it, but those were the only four who had been informed about multiples of any number. Maybe he was crazy to keep it quiet, but if, God forbid, the unthinkable happened and he lost another baby, it might be easier if he didn’t have everyone around him blaming him for the loss of another. Not that he had done anything remotely close to causing any of these babies any distress.
Anyway, sounded like Wilson had things under control with Megan.
One less person to worry about today.
When he received a text that several members of his chosen family were assembled in the waiting room at about zero-eight-thirty, he went out to let everyone know about the C-section and that she was sleeping. Without spoiling the news Karla wanted to share about the triplets, he accepted their back slaps and hugs before asking them to come back later to visit.
Marc and Angelina looked dead on their feet anyway, but at least they were holding hands and smiling at each other again.
Cassie steered clear of him, as usual, but asked him to give Karla a hug for her. He walked over to her anyway and reached into his pocket to retrieve his keys. Taking one off the ring, he handed it to her. “This is the key to our new house. I don’t want you running back and forth if you don’t have to. Anytime you need to, just bunk down there. We have lots of room, although the guest rooms aren’t completely set up yet. But I’ll be sleeping here with Karla for a few days, so feel free to take the master bedroom.”
Her hand shook when she reached out to take the key. What the fuck did she expect him to do to her?
“Thank you.” She put the key into her purse. “I don’t mind going back and forth now. I have to take care of my alpacas. But I’ll make arrangements for someone to help there when Kitty comes home.”
“Damián can give you the address to the house so you can GPS it.”
“No need. I remember how to get there from your wedding.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” He was surprised he’d even thought about how far she’d come to be here today.
Adam said his goodbyes to the
m. Before returning to Karla’s room, he checked on the babies in the NICU. Sleeping, all three of them. He was told two of them would be taken to the room in a couple of hours unless any complications arose. The other baby had no serious health problems, just needed to be on oxygen and watched more closely to be sure she could regulate her body temperature and a few other things they were measuring.
When he reentered their room, Karla opened her eyes and smiled groggily. They must have really doped her up on some powerful drugs. Good thing because he didn’t want her feeling any pain. He wondered how long it would take her incision to heal. He didn’t want to think how big it was if they could pull three good-sized babies from her.
She patted the mattress of the bed.
“You sure? I don’t want to hurt you jostling around on the mattress.”
“Just what kind of jostling do you have in mind, Sir?”
“Don’t get any ideas. If I join you, I’m going to be afraid to touch you because of that C-section incision.”
Karla sighed. “I’m getting used to that.”
He felt like a heel now, but had only put them on a sexual hiatus to protect her and the babies. Maybe it hadn’t been necessary in retrospect—but having these three babies arrive in good health was the prime objective for both of them. Sometimes a man had to make decisions that weren’t popular but were best to achieve the goal.
Adam removed his shoes, crawled onto the bed, and stretched out next to her. He’d been surprised at the accommodations in here, but figured it helped couples reconnect and start to bond with their new babies.
Only they were baby-less at the moment.
“Are you in any pain?”
“The epidural wore off, but I’m okay.”
He reached out to stroke her arm, loving the rise of gooseflesh in the wake of his touch. “I’m so proud of you, Kitten. You took such good care of yourself so our babies could grow as big as possible inside you.”
She giggled, and damned if his dick didn’t respond the way it always did. “I think you had a lot to do with making sure I did everything I was supposed to, including eating right.”
“God, I was so worried. I don’t think I can handle another pregnancy for another decade or so—and by then, I’ll be too old.”
Karla took his chin and raised it until their gazes met. “Adam Montague, if I hear you mention another pregnancy again before these babies are at least out of diapers, I’ll…”
“You’ll what?” He grinned.
“I don’t know what I’ll do, but let’s not talk about any more babies. I think we’re going to have our hands full.”
No fucking way will she be pregnant again anytime soon. He’d triple up on contraceptive measures if he had to. He wanted time to enjoy his bride’s body again, well, when his three kids weren’t making their own demands on her.
“Kitten, I’ll never be happier than I am at this moment. I don’t need any more children. I don’t want to see you go through that again.”
“I hear my hormones are supposed to kick in to where I don’t remember much of the delivery. But as of this moment, I agree. Three’s the perfect number.”
“We’re so blessed. Some couples can never have one, and here we are with three.”
Karla stroked his arm. “I can’t wait to get my hands on them.”
“The nurses in the NICU said we’d have the two bigger ones soon. Rest while you can. Oh, and your mom and dad are in flight. Could be here in an hour or so.”
She nodded, but remained silent, and soon, he heard her shallow, steady breathing. He decided to take advantage of a little shuteye himself but pulled away to the other side of the mattress. He didn’t want to accidentally strike her while sleeping. One of his Marines told him he’d broken his wife’s nose twice before he gave up on sleeping with her. Adam couldn’t imagine the remorse of putting a loved one through such pain when there was something he could do to avoid the problem.
A soft knock on the door woke him, and he sprang up to place himself between Karla and whoever opened the door. He soon realized it was the nurse and she rolled in one of the bassinets.
“Adam! They’re here!” Karla was awake in an instant, trying to sit up.
“You just stay put.” He left her in the bed and wondered if only one of the babies would be able to stay with them. Then the door opened again and a second bassinet was wheeled in. That meant two of them were healthy enough to leave the NICU. One to go.
The nurse scanned her wristband and the baby’s. “Now, Mrs. Montague, your OB indicated you wanted to have skin-to-skin contact with your babies as early as possible. If you’ll loosen the top of your gown, we can get started.” He helped Karla with the gown while the nurse unwrapped the baby in the blue cap—their son, he supposed. They’d better stick to color coding their clothing until they could tell them apart. At least none were identical twins. But all their faces looked alike to him right now.
Hell, they hadn’t discussed names yet. Adam hadn’t wanted to jinx anything, so they’d kept talk of baby names to themselves. They’d better come up with something more than son and daughters soon, though. They hadn’t even told most of their friends and family about the presence of twins for the same reasons, although that had been hard to hide more recently.
Yeah, as if he hadn’t bonded with these babies the moment he saw two of them on the ultrasound monitor. He’d only been playing mind games with himself to pretend otherwise.
Moments later, Adam watched as Karla cupped the heads of their son and older daughter skin to skin except for their tiny diapers. Karla had never looked more beautiful than now, holding two of their babies.
He lifted the blanket to cover their bare backs. When their son began to squirm on Karla’s chest, rooting for food probably, Adam blinked away tears and bent over to kiss the baby’s cheek. Softest skin he’d ever felt.
His son promptly let out a scream followed by a steady bawling. Adam jerked away. “What did I do? Did I hurt him?”
Karla laughed. “Don’t be silly. Mom says babies are tougher than you think. He could be crying for any number of reasons, but maybe your whiskers surprised him.”
Damn. He’d better shave before he kissed the babies in the future.
“Don’t you dare stop touching and kissing them, though. They need to be close to their daddy, too. Join us in bed.”
She’d barely picked up any of the books he’d encouraged her to study in preparation for this moment, and yet, despite all the reading he’d done, Adam seemed to be the clueless one. Maternal instinct must be pretty damned powerful. Why didn’t dads have something similar built in? He was screwed unless he kept reading—or listening to Karla for pointers. Being a dad to a grown man like Damián was a whole lot easier than taking on that role with someone who’d only been around a few hours.
Adam went around to his side of the bed and scooted closer to where Karla and the babies were. The nurses left after reminding them of the call button if they needed anything. Alone, he rolled onto his side, cupped his head in his palm, and just stared down at Karla and the babies.
Hoping to soothe the boy’s distress, he reached out to rub slow circles on his back hoping to sooth him. “Hey, Ian, Daddy’s here.”
A sniffle from Karla distracted him, and Adam glanced over at her. Tears brimmed in her eyes. “How’d you know I wanted to name him that?”
He hadn’t really thought about any other possibility for a boy. But to her, he said, “After seeing his eyes and that same black hair as yours and Ian’s, what else could we name him? Glad you’re okay with it.”
She nodded, and two tears trailed down her cheeks. “How about his middle name?”
“What do you think about Paxton?” Her maiden name could be carried on through their son, in a way, since her brother’s death would keep him from doing so.
“Ian Paxton Montague.” She smiled through her tears. “Perfect. But let’s call him Pax or Paxton to differentiate him and…” She didn’t have to fini
sh. He leaned closer and kissed her.
After clearing her throat, she smiled and asked, “What about the girls’ names? I only had one girl and one boy name picked out. I was so sure there would only be one of each.”
“Your turn to name this one.” He’d more or less named their son without consulting Karla, so he ought to let her decide on the first girl’s name at least. “What name did you come up with?”
“Kate.”
Adam swallowed past a lump in his throat. Adam had hoped to name one Kathleen, after his great-great-grandmother Montague. Kate. Without saying a word, they were on the same wavelength naming two of their children.
“I’ve felt a kinship with your ancestor ever since our honeymoon at her and Johnny’s cabin. Staring down from her portrait over the mantle, I felt she was letting me know everything was going to be okay.”
He’d been drawn to that portrait since he was a kid. His great-great-grandmother had ventured from Ireland to South Dakota once upon a time. “Kate, it is. Well, for a nickname. Her given name will be Kathleen after Kathleen Gannon Montague.”
“A fine Irish name.”
“Well, except that Montague is French.”
“We’re Americans. You have a mix of cultures from Lakota, Irish, and French. I have Irish and quite a bit of German on Mom’s side, too.”
He stared down at Kate, who had been alert and inquisitive since she’d been placed on Karla’s chest. Her hand stuck out from the blanket and rested protectively on her brother’s shoulder. “Kate’s a guardian.”
Karla nodded. “Like you, Sir.”
Lord knew he tried, but with so much happening lately that he couldn’t predict or control, he wasn’t sure how successful he was anymore. Now, he not only had Karla and his extended family to worry about, but their three babies.
Karla pulled him back to the present. “Why don’t we make Gannon our Kate’s middle name?”
“Fine by me. We’ll be carrying on two more family names now.”
She nodded. “That just leaves our little princess in the NICU.”
* * *
Nobody's Dream (Rescue Me Saga #6) Page 22