Wild Heart (Viper's Heart Duet Book 2)

by Beth Ehemann

“I don’t know what to say about it.” I started to panic. Matthew had never called Viper his dad before. I knew now that he was going to school he was going to start questioning it and maybe ask me about it one day, but I didn’t picture it like that.

  “You say nothing,” Kacie answered. “Viper is his dad.”

  I turned back to her. “But not his real—”

  Kacie closed her eyes and shook her head quickly, interrupting me. “It doesn’t matter. That’s all he’s really ever known, so just let it happen. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love Mike or that you can’t tell him stories about him as he grows up. It just means he’s a little boy who is very lucky to have two great daddies. One in Heaven, and one down here with him.” Kacie squeezed my hand and I took a shaky breath.

  She was right. Matthew was lucky. So was Maura. So was the baby kicking up a storm in my belly.

  So was I.

  One Month Later . . .

  I’d been back on the ice full time for a month. Michelle and I were totally back to normal. We’d just finished decorating the baby’s room—with a hockey theme, of course—and life was about as perfect as it could get.

  I should have known . . .

  I was just pulling into the parking lot for practice when my cell phone rang. It was Michelle.

  “Hello?” I said as I pulled into a parking spot.

  “Hey,” she said with a heavy sigh.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, really . . . I guess . . . I don’t know. I was at my doctor appointment and everything was fine and we were chatting and I told her that I felt like I was peeing my pants more than usual yesterday and she did this weird napkin test to make sure I wasn’t leaking amniotic fluid and it turned blue.”

  My heart started racing around in circles inside my chest. “What does that mean?”

  “It means it was amniotic fluid.”

  “Okay. Shit. So what now?”

  “I don’t really know. She’s sending me over to the hospital for more tests and so they can monitor the baby. I might have to stay overnight.”

  I put my car in reverse and backed out of the parking space. “I’m on my way.”

  “Viper! No!” she argued. “I didn’t tell you all this so you’d come home. Probably nothing is going to happen anyway, so there’s no point.”

  “I don’t care. I’m on my way. I should be there within an hour. I’ll text you when I get close.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, sounding guilty.

  “Positive. I love you. Talk to you soon.” My hands gripped the wheel tightly as I made my way to the hospital. Every muscle in my body, especially my shoulders and neck, felt tight.

  I hit a button on my phone and called Coach Collins’s office. After a handful of rings, his voicemail picked up. Without leaving a message, I hung up and called Brody instead.

  “Hello?” he asked, his voice raised in surprise. I heard lots of voices behind him and figured he was already in the locker room.

  “Hey, it’s me. Do me a favor, please. Tell Collins I’m not gonna make practice. Michelle is leaking fluid or something and I’m on the way to the hospital to meet her.”

  “Holy shit. Okay. Keep me posted, please.”

  “I will. Thanks.” I turned the phone off and tossed it on the passenger seat without waiting for his response.

  I pulled into the hospital parking lot, found a spot, and grabbed my phone, dialing Michelle’s number as I rushed across the pavement.

  It rang and rang. No answer.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

  She always answered her phone.

  Following the signs in the hospital through the hallways to the Labor and Delivery Unit, I prayed that that’s where they had sent her. It was a total guess between that and the ER, but with her not answering, I did the best I could.

  I tried the door to get in but it was locked. There was a small intercom off to the side of the door, so I pushed the silver button.

  “How can I help you?” a woman’s voice asked.

  “Uh . . . hi. My girlfriend was at the doctor this morning and they said that she was leaking something and so she came to the hospital. I called her, but she didn’t answer, so I’m just trying to find out if she’s here.”

  “What is your name, Sir?”

  “My name is Vi—Lawrence Finkle.”

  “Okay, Mr. Finkle. What is her name?”

  “Michelle Asher.”

  It was quiet for a minute, then the door made a clicking sound. “Come in, Mr. Finkle. Please stop at the nurse’s station inside.”

  I pulled the door open and hurried over to the desk. “Hi. I was just at the door.”

  A woman looked over at me and gave me a small smile. “I know. I was the one talking to you. Do you have an ID on you, Mr. Finkle?”

  “Yeah.” I reached into my pocket and took out my wallet. “Here.”

  She looked down at it, back up at me, and then scanned it into the computer. A little machine next to me printed out a sticker with my information. “Put this on your shirt and this band goes on your wrist.” She snapped a plastic band around my wrist and typed a few more things into the computer. “Okay, I’ll take you to her.”

  “Did they decide to admit her?” I asked nervously.

  She looked at me with wide eyes as she walked around from behind the desk. “Admit her? Oh, absolutely. She’s in active labor.”

  “What?” I exclaimed loudly as panic shot through me. “What the hell is active labor? Our hospital visit isn’t until next week.”

  “Next week?” She gave me a sympathetic look. “Mr. Finkle, I have a feeling you’ll be holding this baby before the end of the day.”

  “Wait. Seriously?”

  She nodded. “Ready to go in?”

  I took a deep breath and listened to my body. It wasn’t screaming and shaking and freaking out like I’d expected it to be. I was nervous, but more than anything, I was ready.

  “Yep. Let’s do it.”

  She pushed the door open and immediately, a loud, slow beeping filled the room. I moved to my left and peeked around her to Michelle who was lying in the hospital bed asleep. Other than the IV in her hand and the blood pressure cuff around her arm, she looked totally peaceful.

  “Is she in pain?” I asked the nurse quietly.

  She shook her head. “So far, so good. We gave her a little something to help with the pain and it made her sleepy. She came over because the doctor sent her, but by time we got her in here, she’d already started dilating and was past the point of no return.”

  “Isn’t she too early?” I asked anxiously.

  Looking back at Michelle, she nodded. “She’s thirty-five weeks, so she is early, but the baby’s survival rate is very high at this point. Sometimes they don’t even need time in the NICU.”

  “NICU? Holy shit.” I ran my hand through my hair and sat in a daze on the chair next to Michelle’s bed. The word NICU was so intimidating . . . and terrifying.

  The nurse lifted up a strip of paper and read a graph on it. I opened my mouth to ask her what she was doing, but before I could speak, Michelle rolled over and groggily opened her eyes. As soon as she focused on me, a lazy smile crossed her lips.

  “Hey,” I said as I crept over and kissed her forehead. “Looks like we’re gonna have our boy today, huh?”

  She blinked for a long time and nodded.

  “Are you in any pain?” I rubbed her cheek with the backs of my fingers. She looked so beautiful and so happy and I couldn’t believe she was about to have my baby. My son.

  “Nope. I feel good.” She rolled her head toward the nurse. “Am I even having contractions?”

  “You are. Pretty strong ones, actually.” She crinkled her brow and looked down at Michelle. “The contractions aren’t too bad?”

  Michelle shook her head. “I definitely feel them, but they’re nothing I can’t handle right now.”

  “Okay. Dr. Avery is going to be over soon and she wants to
check on you, so just sit tight for a little bit.”

  “Mmhmm,” Michelle answered, and the nurse left the room. She turned back toward me. “Come here. Come sit by me.”

  “I am sitting by you.” I scooted my chair closer to her.

  “No . . . like on my bed with me.”

  “What?” I asked incredulously. “No way. I don’t want to hurt you, or unhook anything—”

  “Stop it, you big bonehead. Get up here.” She moved all the way over against the far rail and I undid the one closest to me, lowering it quietly.

  I lifted one leg onto the bed and sat down as gently as I possibly could, careful not to bump her. “Does this hurt?”

  “No. Stop treating me like glass and get over here.” She wrapped her hands around my bicep and pulled me tight against her. We both got comfortable and she rested her head on my shoulder. “Are you ready for this?”

  “I am,” I answered without hesitation. “I really am. I’m excited. As long as he’s okay, and you’re okay, I don’t care about anything else.”

  I felt her smile against my arm. “I can’t believe he’s coming today. And what a weird morning. I went to the doctor, but now I’m in labor—even though I don’t feel like I’m in labor. So strange.”

  “I hope I do okay.”

  She lifted her head and stared at me. “What do you mean?”

  I shrugged. “For both of you. I hope I do everything I’m supposed to today and don’t screw up. And then when he gets here . . . I just want him to be proud of me. I was never proud of my dad—not one single time in my life—and I don’t want that with my son. I want him to be proud of me.”

  “He will be. That’s the great thing about babies. All you have to do is love them and they love you right back. You got this, Finkle.” She raised her fist and I bumped it, then rested my hand on her stomach.

  We sat there in silence and stared at her stomach move and roll. It was hard to believe that in just a short while, that little bump would be on the outside of her, moving and breathing and crying. After several minutes, Michelle let out a soft groan and I jumped off the bed. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No.” She grimaced as she tried to sit up. I held my hand out for her to pull herself against. “My back feels like it’s on fire.”

  “Uh . . .” I moved left then right then left again. “I’ll get someone.” I rushed out to the nurse’s station and let them know she was in pain.

  The nurse followed me back to the room and took a pair of gloves out of the box on the wall. “Dr. Avery should be here soon, but I’m gonna check you real quick, okay?”

  “Okay,” Michelle said as she lay down on her back.

  The nurse moved to the end of the bed and pulled the blanket up, placing it on Michelle’s stomach, where she rested her left hand while dipping her right hand under the blanket.

  Michelle let out a soft moan and cringed as the nurse looked up at the ceiling and felt around. She pulled the glove back and there was blood all over the end of it. I felt woozy and had to sit.

  “Okay, well . . . I’m gonna go page Dr. Avery and tell her to move a little bit faster. You’re already at nine centimeters, which is why it’s starting to hurt and you’re pretty uncomfortable.”

  “Will I be at ten soon?” She grimaced.

  The nurse raised her eyebrows. “Probably by the time Dr. Avery gets my text. I’m going to go send it now, then I’m gonna come back and start prepping the room. Get ready, guys. We’re gonna have a baby soon!” She gave Michelle a big, tight smile and hurried from the room.

  Michelle groaned again.

  “Is it your back still?” I stood and walked up to the bed.

  She nodded.

  “Want me to rub it? Roll over.”

  She immediately rolled a way from me and I started massaging large circles into her lower back, right above her two cute dimples. “Does that feel okay? Is it helping at all?”

  “Mmhmm,” she answered. “It’s starting to hurt though. Not my back, but my contractions. I think it’s getting close.”

  With that the door swung open and in walked Dr. Avery.

  “Whoa. You got here fast,” I said.

  “I was already in the elevator on the way up when I got Cathy’s page.” She walked over and pulled gloves from the box, too. “Guess this anxious little boy just didn’t want to wait any longer, huh? Can you roll on your back for me, Michelle? I need to check you also.”

  Michelle pinched her eyes shut tight and bit her bottom lip as she rolled over.

  Dr. Avery stared at the ground as she reached under the blanket and felt around. “Wow.” She shook her head slowly. “You’re just about there. I’m gonna come back and break your water fully, then we’ll probably start pushing, okay?”

  As Michelle nodded, the nurse came back into the room, flipped the light on above a crib-type thing in the corner, started taking blankets and sheets out of a cabinet, and put more gloves on. Then she helped put Michelle’s feet in stirrups and held a heavy paper gown out for the doctor to put on, arms first.

  Everything was moving at warp speed and I was starting to feel overwhelmed. My heart rate sped up and I wiped some sweat off my forehead as my legs shook. I glanced behind me and was just about to sit in the chair as Michelle reached out for me and grabbed my hand.

  I looked down at her. Her face had flushed and she had sweat on her head, too, but she was smiling . . . at me. She was about to push our son into this world, but instead of crying or yelling or swearing or hitting me, she was smiling at me. I had never been more in love with her in my whole life than I was at that moment. Her smile made all of my worry disappear, and in its place was excitement. I couldn’t wait to hold my son.

  After a few more minutes of chaos, Dr. Avery took her seat at the end of the bed and instructed Michelle to push when she felt the next contraction. I stood up near Michelle’s head, holding her hand tightly in mine. About a minute later, Michelle’s head lifted off the bed and her hand squeezed mine harder than I ever knew it could. Her chin dug into her chest and she groaned hard as her face turned beet red.

  “Look at all that dark hair,” Dr. Avery called out as she looked down at Michelle. “Dad, you wanna come down here and see this?”

  Holy shit. Do I?

  Without letting go of Michelle, I took a big step to my left and peeked over her knee. “Oh my God!” I called out involuntarily. You really could see a small tuft of dark hair just inside of Michelle. It was the most amazing fucking thing I’d ever seen.

  Michelle’s head fell back against the bed and she gasped for air.

  “Michelle, as soon as you can, I want you to come back with one more big push, okay? He’s right here. He’s ready to be born. Come on, you got this! Give me one big one!”

  Michelle let go of my hand and wrapped hers around her thighs, pulling hard against them as she pushed with everything she had.

  Holding my breath, I watched in utter amazement as my son’s head emerged from Michelle’s body. With the next push came his shoulders and then the rest of him. He was tiny, but he was loud. The nurse sucked some junk out of his throat and my pissed-off little man let the whole hospital, maybe even the world, know that he was here. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I looked from him to Michelle, who was crying just as hard as I was.

  I stepped back next to her and put my forehead against the side of her head and wept like I’d never wept before in my whole life.

  The nurse laid him on Michelle’s chest so that they were skin-to-skin and then put a blanket over him. The minute he felt his mom, he stopped crying and looked around. “I can’t believe how wide awake he is,” I said in awe.

  “It’s a weird newborn phenomenon,” Dr. Avery said as she tended to Michelle at the end of the bed. “No one really knows why newborns are so awake after delivery, but it usually only lasts a little while, so soak it up while you can.”

  He wasn’t really focusing on anything in particular, but his eyes darted all around and his tongue kept
poking out of his mouth. “He’s the cutest baby in the whole world, you know that?” I said to Michelle.

  She laughed and nodded. “I think so, too.”

  I put my arm over her and gently pulled her toward me so I could kiss the side of her head.

  “Does this cutest little boy ever have a name yet?” Nurse Cathy asked.

  Michelle looked up at me and gave me a small nod. We’d talked about it many, many times and always came back to the same name.

  “He does,” I answered proudly. “Our son’s name is Michael Lawrence Finkle.”

  Several hours later, we were finally settled in our room and everything had quieted down. It was pretty late, so Taylor wouldn’t be bringing Matthew and Maura up until the next day, and I was also going to go get Gam and bring her over, but we did have a couple of visitors that snuck up to see us.

  “Knock, knock,” Kacie said as she pushed the hospital door open and walked in with a big smile.

  “Hey.” Michelle smiled at her.

  Kacie bent down and kissed Michelle’s cheek. “You look amazing for just having a baby a few hours ago, you big brat.”

  Brody kissed the top of Michelle’s head. “Congrats, momma.” He walked over and held a hand out to me. “And you. Congratulations to you, too, pops.”

  My cheeks hurt from smiling so much over the last few hours, but I didn’t care. I shook his hand excitedly and pulled him in for a bear hug. “Thank you, brother.”

  Kacie washed her hands quickly and squealed as she took Michael from Michelle’s arms and sat in the chair next to the bed. “Did you guys decide on a name?” she asked.

  “We did,” I answered. “Michael Lawrence Finkle.”

  Brody’s eyes flashed to mine. “Michael? Wow. That’s . . .” His voice trailed off and he swallowed hard.

  “Oh my God. You guys . . .” Kacie said softly as her voice cracked.

  The four of us stood there with tears in our eyes, thinking about the exact same thing.

  “Hey,” I said with a nervous laugh. “Don’t get any tears on my kid.”

  Kacie sniffed and chuckled as she bent down, nuzzling Michael’s nose with her own. “By the way, how much did he weigh?”