Floored

by Karla Sorensen

  I flew out of bed, stark-bollock naked, and grabbed her hospital bag from where it sat just next to the door. "What clothes do you need?"

  Lia scooted to the edge of the bed, a small smile on her face. "That blue shirt on the dresser is fine. And the soft black shorts in my top drawer, please."

  I tossed them at her and barely glanced at what I pulled over my own body.

  Lia paused once, a strange expression on her face. "Oh, hey there."

  I froze as I was shoving a phone charger into the side of her bag. "What?"

  She grimaced. "Contraction. Weird."

  It was that grimace that kicked my heart into a gear I hadn't previously known existed.

  Through any doctor’s appointment I'd attended with her, the birthing class—which was terrifying—and all the books she read from, I'd never fully realized how bloody terrible it would be not to bear a single bit of this pain for her.

  And with the realization came sheer terror at the reality of this new life we were bringing into the world.

  Lia cupped the side of my face and smiled. "It'll be fine."

  I clutched her in my embrace, pressing a fervent kiss to her lips. "I love you."

  "I love you too." Her face straightened. "But I need you not to be a sissy right now, okay? It will be fine, and if you get that Lost Boy look on your face, I'm going to worry about you, and if you're going to do that man thing where you pass out at the sight of the epidural needle or my placenta or something."

  "I'm not going to be a sissy," I said in a completely affronted voice. "Also, I don't plan on looking at your placenta."

  "Great." She clapped her hands. "Now, let's go."

  The drive to the hospital was a blur, and occasionally, she'd let out a slow, even breath when another contraction tightened her belly. With each one, though they were still fairly spread apart, my hands involuntarily tightened on the steering wheel.

  Lia sent a text to her family and made a phone call to Claire, who was planning on being in the delivery room with us.

  Quite soon, we'd be overrun with Wards, and in the approach to the hospital, I found that I was okay with it.

  It was a surprise that this massive, chaotic group allowed me to slip seamlessly into their impressive ranks.

  "Claire is on her way," Lia said, sliding her hand over my thigh. "She should be here in about an hour."

  I smiled over at her. "Good."

  "Are you ready?" she asked me quietly.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I pulled Lia's hand up to my mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. "As ready as one can be, I imagine."

  And by that, I felt completely unprepared. I felt inadequate. Humbled. Excited.

  "I'm scared shitless," she admitted.

  Laughing, I kissed her hand again. "Feel free to yell at me if it helps distract you from it. Call me names. Break my hand with your grip. Whatever you need."

  As directed, I pulled the car up to the Emergency Room entrance, and she sighed. "I love you, Jude. I'm not going to call you names."

  Lia

  Five hours later

  "Oh, you selfish piece of shit," I groaned. "If you eat one more piece of food in front of me—" My voice broke off when another contraction knocked the breath from my lungs.

  Claire laid a washcloth over my forehead, speaking to Jude in a soothing, quiet voice. "Maybe you should set the apple down, Jude. Or eat it out in the hallway."

  "Or choke on it," I said through gritted teeth.

  Jude tossed the apple into the trash and approached the other side of the bed. He kissed the crown of my head. "Apple's gone, and I know you don't want me to choke, love."

  The tension eased from my body, the monitor next to my bed showing the contraction as it eased. "I know. I really don't."

  Taking his seat on the stool, he smiled, but I saw the tense lines around his eyes and mouth. "In all fairness, I never should have asked that question, so I can't blame you for feeling ..." He paused, searching for the right word.

  "Murderous?" I supplied helpfully.

  Claire rolled her lips in to smother her smile.

  Jude—who I loved to a scary level, who I trusted with my heart, who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with—about got himself castrated when he asked the pregnant girlfriend on the bed, as she was writing in immense pain, what a contraction felt like.

  Folks, he almost didn't survive it.

  Another contraction rolled over me, and I felt my legs draw up helplessly.

  It was impossible at that point to talk through them, so I didn't even try. Jude moved the washcloth and spoke something soft and sweet into the damp hairline of my forehead.

  Eventually, it ebbed, and I could suck in another deep breath.

  Claire held my hand tightly on one side, Jude on the other, and the doctor entered the room with a smile. "How are we doing?"

  "If they don't get that giant ass needle up here and in my back, I'm going to go find them myself," I hissed.

  Jude grinned. "Bloody hell, you're marvelous."

  As the doctor laughed, I pulled Jude down for a soft kiss.

  "I don't feel marvelous," I admitted. "But thank you."

  "You've got quite the group out in the waiting room," the doctor said as he pulled his little stool up right between my spread legs.

  When people said you lost your modesty in labor, they were not fucking around, because I would've flashed the entire hospital if it would've helped get my child out of my body sooner.

  "Are they being obnoxious?" I asked, wincing when he measured me.

  Claire sighed. "The last time I went out there, Paige was on her I cannot be called Grandma thing again. She's real worked up about it."

  I laughed.

  Jude's brow furrowed. "I thought they decided on Gigi and Papa."

  Claire and I shared a look.

  "What?" he asked.

  Claire stood to refresh the washcloth. "This is what she does. When Paige is nervous or excited, she gets a little ... twitchy. She hates feeling helpless when one of us is hurting, so she fixates on something she can control."

  Jude gave me a soft smile, his thumb tracing over my knuckles. "Now that I can understand."

  My heart, already totally gushy from the general emotions of the day, swelled just a bit bigger. "Kiss, please."

  He accommodated me happily and spoke against my lips after he pulled away. "I like it better when you're not threatening my death."

  "Me too," I whispered.

  The click of a photo being snapped had me blinking. Claire smiled at us, her phone aimed in our direction. "Sorry, guys. Couldn't resist."

  "I hate to interrupt," the doctor said. "But unfortunately, we're too far for an epidural."

  I blinked.

  Jude leaned toward him. "What?"

  The doctor threw away his gloves. "You've dilated very quickly since our last check. You're already at an eight, Lia."

  Claire snapped her mouth shut and gave me a tremulous smile. "I'm sure it'll be fine. It'll go really fast, Lee."

  I burst into tears just as the next contraction hit me.

  Jude

  Two hours later

  If I could've given every penny I'd ever earned, traded every accolade, every award, every trophy in the entire world to trade places with Lia, I would've done it in a heartbeat.

  My hands were all but crushed in her bruising grip as my other hand held the back of her thigh.

  And my heart, it was a mangled, horrible useless heap behind my ribs from what I'd watched her go through the last handful of hours. How any woman ever did this more than once proved why they were the superior sex in every definable category.

  Don't be a sissy, she'd made me promise. And so far, I hadn't broken that promise.

  "Come on, Lia," the doctor said, face set in concentration. "Give me another push."

  "I can't," she sobbed. Her hair was soaked, her face exhausted.

  Claire made small soothing noises, moving another washcloth over her siste
r's sweaty forehead.

  "Come on, love," I told her. "You're so close."

  "I've heard that for the past two hours," she groaned.

  "Here we go," the doctor said. The two nurses busied themselves with ... something, but as I'd promised not to look at anything that would make me faint, I couldn't tell what it was.

  Lia gritted her teeth and emitted another soul-shriveling sound of pain and agony and exhaustion, and I shit you not, I could feel the bones in my hand as they were crushed into dust.

  "One more, Lia, you're doing amazing," one of the nurses said, positioning herself just next to the doctor. "I can see a head of dark hair."

  Lia sobbed. "He has hair?"

  I pressed my forehead to hers. "One more, my love. One more."

  And with an effort that had me holding my breath, and Claire emitting an audible gasp when she looked down, Lia gave one more glorious push, and the room filled with the most incredible sound I'd ever heard in my life.

  A baby crying.

  "You did it," I told her, eyes and heart and soul overflowing. Lia sobbed openly, and I kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her mouth.

  "It's a boy," the nurse said with a wide grin. "Congratulations, Mom and Dad."

  In the next moment, we were all crying because they laid him on Lia's chest as she wept.

  With shaking hands, the nurse told me how to cut the umbilical cord.

  Everything around me felt like it was moving slower somehow, like my heart now existed in these three separate segments. One behind my ribs, one in Lia, and one in this marvelous, wriggling, wailing thing that was lying in Lia's embrace with a shock of dark hair and button nose.

  Claire took pictures as I curled my arm around Lia and kissed the top of his head.

  "He's perfect," she said, tears coursing down her face.

  "He is." I kissed her cheek. "And you were so bloody incredible, Lia."

  The nurse smiled at us. "If you want to help me clean him up and weigh him, Dad, they'll handle Momma."

  Lia looked up at me, her chin wobbling. "Take care of him, okay?"

  Her thumb was on my face then, wiping away another tear.

  "Always," I promised.

  Lia

  Twenty minutes later

  "This is so weird," I whispered. My finger followed the line of his nose and the perfect bow of his lips.

  "Right?" Paige asked. "Like they're all slimy and covered in this crazy shit from inside you, and boom, just like that, you'd just die for them."

  I met her knowing eyes and grinned. "Basically."

  Jude smiled at me from where he stood next to my brother.

  "Ready to hold him, Logan?" Paige asked, rocking the baby gently. The little man was sound asleep because hey, it was quite the exhausting event to be born.

  My brother nodded. "As long as Momma doesn't need him back."

  I laid my head back on the pillow and smiled at him. "Go ahead."

  My sisters all crowded in the room, snapping pictures over Paige's shoulder.

  Isabel quietly wiped at a tear she didn't think we saw. Molly winked, then pointed at herself, “Favorite,” she mouthed.

  But we all watched raptly as Logan first kissed Paige on the top of the head, then clenched his jaw as his wife stood and carefully transferred the baby into my brother's huge arms.

  Basically, I was just going to cry my way through the entire day. No way around it. I sniffed loudly before I realized that every single other person in the room, save for Jude, was doing the same thing.

  Logan stared down at my son and let out a shaky breath. When he looked up at me, his eyes were bright with unshed tears. "You did real good, kid."

  Jude set a hand on Logan's shoulder before he approached the bed.

  "You did," he said quietly, wiping my face carefully. "A bloody warrior."

  I smiled up at him. "Should we tell them the name?"

  Jude kissed me softly. "Go ahead."

  My family looked at me expectantly, except Logan, who was staring at the baby again. I smiled. "We'd like you guys to meet Logan Gabriel Ward McAllister."

  Paige covered her mouth, sniffing noisily. "Welp, here I go again."

  Logan's eyes flew to mine. "What?" he whispered gruffly. "You named him after me?"

  I nodded. "We'll call him Gabriel." I slid my hand into Jude's and smiled up at him.

  Logan's jaw clenched, and he feathered a hand over Gabriel's fluffy black hair. "Thank you. Both of you."

  Isabel rested her head on Logan's shoulder, Molly held Isabel's hand, the diamond of her newly acquired engagement ring winking on her finger, and Claire was next to Molly, an arm around our eldest sister's waist.

  Logan cleared his throat. "All right, I need someone to take him before I start ugly crying."

  "My turn," the sisters said in perfect unison.

  I laughed as they argued over who got him next.

  With Jude at my side, his hand curled around mine, I felt almost impossibly happy and impossibly overwhelmed.

  It was amazing, I thought, where you could end up when life gave you something you didn't choose for yourself.

  Maybe that was how it was supposed to work. We could make all the plans we wanted, but ultimately, the exact right path for us was the one we'd end up on.

  And this was mine.

  Epilogue

  Lia

  8 weeks later

  “Hush little baby, don’t say a word,” I sang, rocking Gabriel in his nursery, “Momma’s gonna go have private time with Daddy, and I’ll buy you a freaking pony if you stay asleep for the next hour.”

  The words didn’t fit with the melody, but I was so deprived of sexy times with Jude and sleep, in general, I could not have cared less what came out of my mouth as long as it got Gabriel to go down for his nap.

  My darling little angel stared up at me, but his blinks got slower and heavier, and when he finally, finally conked out, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

  Honestly, I loved him so much it was terrifying, but he was the worst sleeper in the entire world. As I laid him down in his crib, I smiled. His hair, still as dark as when he was born, stuck straight out from his head like he’d stuck one of his fingers into a light socket.

  Just like when Emmett was born, my son was continually fought over by every single member of my family, and the horrible side effect was a child who only got to sleep when someone was rocking him. I blamed Paige because she’d been known to knock people over in order to reach Gabriel first.

  I turned on the white noise maker on the dresser in the nursery, and tiptoed out of the room with my newly acquired ninja sneaking skills, something I was told you inherited upon birthing a light sleeper.

  Jude had the day off, and since it had been hard to find time for a little “Mom and Dad alone” time once I cleared the six-week mark, we’d blocked out an hour on our calendars so no one could schedule any meetings and no one could infringe on something we both craved.

  With the nursery door closed, I exhaled loudly. “Hallelujah.”

  I whipped off my top and grimaced at the sight of my super sexy nursing bra. Then I shrugged because I knew one person who wouldn’t care in the slightest, and that was Jude. He loved the curves I still hadn’t quite lost since Gabriel had been born, something he reminded me of every time he slid his hands around my hips or ducked his head to kiss the tops of my gloriously huge boobs.

  The door to our bedroom was cracked open, and soft music played from inside. It had taken me a bit longer to get Gabriel asleep than I planned, but I told Jude to keep the bed warmed up and ready for me.

  Slowly pushing the door open with one hand, I peeked in and grinned.

  Sprawled in the middle of bed with no shirt on and one hand on his beautiful, beautiful chest was Jude. And he was fast asleep. I wasn’t even too surprised. He’d been working himself hard since he started with Seattle. In the team, he’d found a supportive group of guys. Some, like him, used to play in England. Some were young Americans, and some fr
om other parts of the world who just wanted to play, and were fine with a little less pay and not quite as many people in the stands.

  Even though the stakes might not have been as high, Jude found a team that he was starting to love, even if it wasn’t Shepperton, a place that was home for so long. It probably always would be, given he decided to keep his house so we always had a place to stay when we visited.

  Ninja-skills activated, I tiptoed into our bedroom and crawled onto the bed. He made a low sound, but his eyelids never opened. Even as I tucked myself up against his half-naked body, he didn’t stir. Lifting my head before I laid it down on his chest, I glanced at the clock on the wall of our bedroom. Our hour-long block was almost half gone, and I had plans that night to go wedding dress shopping with Molly, Isabel, Claire, and Paige. Big sister was finally getting hitched, and I couldn’t exactly bail on those plans because I wanted to bang my hot British baby daddy.

  I sighed, laying my head against his shoulder and my arm over his waist. Even though my movements were gentle, it was enough to … rouse him, as it were.

  “Oh, bollocks,” he murmured, turning to me, his muscular arms wrapping around me tightly. “I’m sorry I fell asleep.”

  “It’s okay.” I lifted my mouth to his for a soft kiss. He went back in for one more, longer and a little deeper, humming when I pulled away. “You’ve been working yourself pretty hard.”

  “I’m still not used to having a giant, crazy family and their giant, crazy plans keeping me busy outside of work.”

  With a laugh, I slid my hands up his chest. “Oh, come on, building that treehouse for Emmett wasn’t your idea of fun?”

  He gave me a look. “I’m quite sure whoever puts together those assembly instructions is sent straight from hell, and Bauer agrees with me. He almost lit the thing on fire when we realized we’d done the first half wrong.”