Lila had to laugh as she took Margo’s hand. “They’re coming. I’m sure they had to pull over and do deep breathing exercises to get up the nerve to walk in here.”
“But it’s getting bad out. The rain’s starting now.” Margo closed her eyes. “Simon is a jackass. We should’ve stayed home.”
“While I can’t argue with either of those assessments, you were right about the rest too.” Lila squeezed Margo’s fingers. “You’re a warrior and you so can do this.”
“Thank you for being here with me. I know it’s kind of icky. No one really wants to see their bestie’s lady bits.”
“All our lady bits look the same pretty much. I’ll probably live. Did you know my mother helped two babies come into this world?”
“Really?” Margo opened her eyes and focused intently on Lila’s face, proof that her best friend was in pain. “Who?”
“The first was a woman whose car broke down outside Happy Acres. Snowstorm of course. Because what else?”
“Oh, God, she had the baby in a car on the side of the road? That’s far worse than here.”
Lila smiled. “Undoubtedly, since this really isn’t bad at all.”
Christmas music was playing softly and the small tree in the corner of the bedroom offered a twinkling glow. And if she cocked her head just so, she could see the “penis” palm tree outside, bending in the gusts from the storm and still shimmering with lights all the while. The howling wind and the stampeding rain in the background weren’t as nice, but she had to believe the weathermen who’d said the storm was shifting away from here.
They’d all had enough to deal with in the past year. It was time for them to get their happy endings.
She shifted back toward Margo. Especially her best friend and Simon and baby Raine.
“She’s going to be here soon,” she murmured softly, smiling as Margo swallowed a sob. “It’s going to happen so much faster than you think.”
“Yes, it is, because I think my water just broke.” Margo blew out a breath. “So much for Braxton-Hicks.”
Lila and Nora exchanged glances. Yes, not so much.
After they changed the sheets—much to Margo’s consternation and embarrassment, no matter how much they told her not to worry—and put down lots of towels, Margo got back in bed. Almost immediately, she had another longer, harder contraction.
Lila looked at her watch and knew Nora was doing the same. They were coming faster now. It definitely wouldn’t be all that long.
“You didn’t tell me about the other baby your mom delivered.” Margo brushed a hand over her already sweaty hair. “C’mon, keep talking to me. Keep my mind occupied.”
“The other baby my mom delivered was my cousin Beck.”
As if she’d been summoned, Zoe stepped into the room, bearing a cup of ice. “I thought you might want this.”
Margo made grabby hands. “Bless you. I’m dying of thirst.”
Zoe hurried over to hand the cup carefully to Margo. “You’re so brave. When it’s my turn, I’m going to take every drug they offer me.”
“Brave or stupid.” Margo sucked on a piece of ice. “God, so good.”
“No, I think it’s brave. I considered natural childbirth for like five seconds.” Zoe shivered. “I know my limitations.”
“Try being on months and months of bed rest with twins and then we’ll talk.” Lila glanced at Zoe. “Not twins?”
Zoe’s eyes widened. “No. Definitely not. Just one.”
“Are you sure? It’s early yet.”
Zoe grabbed her nonexistent belly and eased into the empty chair beside Nora’s that Lila had not yet been able to relax enough to sit in. “Tell the story about my brother’s birth again and stop with this horror story.”
Everyone laughed, even Margo.
Lila recounted the story of how her aunt Sarah had wanted to do natural childbirth at home and through a series of misadventures, Lila’s mother, Laverne, had helped her nephew to be born. Which kept Margo laughing until the next contraction left her breathless and teary.
“Why isn’t Simon here? And oh God, she’s coming so early. I keep trying to tell myself she’s in the okay range, but the doctor felt everything looked good for full term or we wouldn’t have come.”
“You’re perfectly fine range-wise,” Nora said gently. “Raine’s on the early side, but she’s just in a hurry to get things started, that’s all. Everything is going just as it should.”
“You know her father. Can’t stay still for a second. Of course, she’s going to be the same way.” Lila nodded to Zoe as well. “Take notes. Bet you’ll have an early Kagan too.”
Zoe pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I’m going to bask in being able to sit like a pretzel right now, thanks.”
“Enjoy it while it lasts.”
“I will.” Zoe pressed her cheek to her knee. “You really didn’t want any children?” Then she winced. “Oh, man, let me blame hormones for my rudeness. I’m sorry.”
Margo waved it away. “Not rude at all. It wasn’t that we didn’t want one so much as we never considered it. We loved our life as it was. Children change everything. I guess I used to think about the negatives, not the positives.” She patted her belly. “I can’t wait to meet her. To hold her and sing lullabies and put her into cute little bath towel footie-pajama thingies. But we’re still just having the one.” She smiled. “One is everything.”
“You’re right.” Lila smiled. She would forever be so grateful for her daughters.
“Just don’t visit that town near Happy Acres. The one with all the single dads and the babies popping out all over.”
Lila frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Crescent Cove.” Zoe snapped her fingers. “That’s the name. There was a human interest story on the news about how all these women are flocking there to get knocked up or to land a DILF. Dad I’d like to…fornicate with,” she added for Nora’s sake.
“Seriously?” Margo gasped. “Here we go again.”
Lila gripped Margo’s hand through the next contraction. Crescent Cove, huh? Had to be just some sensationalized news story. Probably. But she’d look into it, just in case.
A commotion sounded downstairs. All four women glanced toward the doorway at the thundering footsteps on the stairs. “Margo,” Simon bellowed. “Where are you? I’m sorry it took forever to get back here, but we were at the jewelry store and British forgot to grab his—”
Zoe sat up straighter. “Why were you at the jewelry store?”
Margo did too, then grimaced and gripped her lower back. “Push present?”
Nicholas laughed. “Oh, boy, you forgot the push present? Damn, son, you better hope she stays in that bed for a week.”
Lila moved to the doorway and blocked it bodily. “Slow your roll there, Kagan, and both of you as well. This is a quiet room. Everyone needs to be calm and relaxed as we usher this baby into the world.”
Simon’s eyes grew huge. “Quiet—as we—into the world?”
Behind him, Nick and Ian exchanged glances. And barely moved fast enough when Simon pinwheeled backward.
Lila cupped both hands over her mouth as she stared down at Simon lying on the floor, half braced in his brother’s lap. Ian looked as if he didn’t know if he should laugh or cry—or possibly do both at the same time.
“Simon,” Margo called, already half out of bed. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you what’s going on.” Nick shook his head and stepped over Simon as if he was dead. “Your husband fucking fainted.”
Ian
I left my brother in the capable hands of Nick—and Nick’s snark—and grabbed Zoe’s hand to lead her downstairs.
“Where are we going? Margo’s going to have the baby. We can’t leave.”
It boggled my brain how some seemed to think childbirth was a spectator sport, but perhaps it was an American thing. I still had a lot of British sensibilities, though I was learning.
/> Some things I never wanted to grasp.
“We aren’t leaving, just escaping for a moment.” At the bottom of the stairs, I turned toward her and cupped her cheeks. “When it’s our turn, we aren’t going to have an audience.”
“Um, yes, we will. I will be having this baby in a hospital. If you think I’m doing it at home with classical music playing and that whole ‘quiet room’ business, you’re crazy. There will be drugs and as many doctors as it takes to get the kid out of me as painlessly as possible.”
I blinked. “You’ve done a lot of thinking about this.”
“Someone has to. We just raced into this whole thing. Actually, we’ve been at top speed since we met.” She sidestepped me and paced away then came right back. “Your brother is right. We’ve only known each other a little over half a year. Yet I’m knocked up and—”
“We’re in love and I desperately want to spend the rest of my life with you.” I stopped her mid-stride and took her hand, brushing a kiss over her knuckles. “Not because I can’t live without you. Not because I don’t have my own life. But everything is better with you. You make my world so much richer. And now, there’s this little one.” I cupped her belly with my other hand and watched her caramel eyes melt for me, even as her face remained so stern. “You and our child are my miracles. I will always treasure you both.”
“And they wonder how I got pregnant,” she muttered. “I try to be reasonable and I just can’t. It’s like we’re this whirlwind and every part of us is crazy and chaotic and beautiful.”
“We could slow things down. Pretend we don’t already know what we want. But what sense would that make? I already know you’re my forever.” I took a deep breath, staring down at her pale hand locked in mine. Imagining my ring on her finger and the promises we would make. “I’m not yet the man you deserve. I know that. But I will be. I’m getting there.”
“The man you are is the man I love.” She reached up to touch my jaw. “I don’t want perfection. I want you.”
“Good thing, because you have me, Magic. For as long as you’ll keep me.” Gently, I took her mouth with mine, extending the kiss until she let out a little soft sigh. “I won’t forget the push present either.”
In truth, I’d just learned about push presents from Nick. I would make sure not to skip that vital step.
She laughed. “I don’t expect a push present. That should be the baby, right?”
This was why I loved this woman to distraction. “Yes, but you’ll get one just the same.” I lowered my head to hers for another kiss.
“Will I get an engagement ring too?”
My heart stuttered to a stop. Damn my brother and his big mouth. If not for the fact his wife was about to give birth, I might’ve been annoyed at him. As it was, I was amazed he wasn’t annoyed at me for walking out of the jewelry shop without the ring I’d just purchased. They’d gone in back to box it up and I’d signed the charge slip and just walked out of the shop.
Good Lord. And I thought I was ready for fatherhood? I’d probably forget the baby upon leaving the hospital.
I started to speak, and Zoe reached up and closed my lips for me. “That expression says it all. So, I won’t ruin the surprise. I’ll let you do it in your way, in your own time.”
I couldn’t respond. I’d just fallen in love with her all over again.
“Just remember, you’re not just marrying me, you’re marrying into the Manning family. And my brothers expect a fairytale for their baby sister, especially after everything we’ve been through this past year to get here.” She shrugged. “But no pressure.”
She stepped around me to go back up the stairs. I didn’t move.
I wasn’t sure I retained enough strength.
Zoe’s three older brothers were large and formidable. Never mind her parents, who weren’t as big but just as mighty. Love had a way of making a family strong.
I wanted to be a part of them just as much as I wanted my Zoe.
“Coming?”
I rubbed the heel of my hand over my heart to get it going again. Then I followed her up the stairs and gave her perfect heart-shaped ass a pat. “One fairytale, at your service.”
She grinned at me over her shoulder. “You’re off to a good start, Kagan.”
Simon
“I’m here.” He woke as Nick hoisted him into a chair. “Wait—what?”
Nick rolled his eyes. “You fainted, jackass.”
“I did not.”
“Okay, you didn’t.” He dropped Simon and stepped back.
Woozy, Simon grabbed for the back of the chair before springing up and going to the bed. “Jesus fuck.”
“Simon! That will not be the first words our daughter hears!”
“Right.” He rounded the bed and tried not to faint again at the towels and sheets and—God, was that blood? Was everything okay?
He quickened his step to the head of the bed and sat beside her. “Hi. I’m sorry I’m late. I’ll never leave you again, I swear.”
“You’re damn right you won’t.” Margo grabbed his hand and those freakishly strong fingers nearly cracked his own. “Holy shit!”
Okay, so she got to swear? “Where do you want me?” He looked at Nora helplessly.
“Well, we’re nearing the time to push.”
“Already?” Shock and brain-numbing fear threatened to override his already circuits.
“Already?” Margo shrieked. “If you’d been here, you would know what an asinine thing that was to say.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He kissed her sweaty brow and she pulled away from him.
“I thought I was going to have to do this alone.”
“Never.” He crowded in on the bed with her.
He couldn’t get close enough.
“Simon, how about you get behind her and hold her between your legs. So she’s got something to push back against while we get this show on the road, huh?”
Didn’t this sort of thing take hours? Not that he wanted his wife to be in labor for hours, but it all seemed to be moving awfully fucking fast. “Everything is cool, right, Nora?”
“She’s doing everything correctly. The baby just decided she was really impatient.”
“And yet her daddy is late to everything.”
“Not the important stuff.” He tucked his hands under Margo’s bent legs as she stiffened and moved into position as directed. “Okay, I’m here. I’m ready.”
“You’re ready?” Margo gripped his hand and screamed.
Lila came around the other side of the bed and grabbed onto her other flailing hand. “We’re here. We’re all going to do this together.”
Nick inched his way to the door. “I should leave you guys to this.”
“Coward,” Simon called after him as he zipped out of the room and into the hall.
“I’ll just go get some hot water or something,” Nick called.
“More like a damn beer,” Simon muttered.
Margo arched up and cracked his chin with the back of her head.
“Here we go. I think we’re ready to push.”
“Push?” he asked.
“Yes, push. Get this thing out of me.”
Simon’s eyebrows shot up. Thing? Their daughter wasn’t a thing. For once, he kept his damn mouth shut. He wasn’t birthing a baby. He was exhausted already and hadn’t even done anything. So, yeah, shutting up was definitely the better part of valor today.
The brief silence allowed them to clearly hear how the storm was raging outside. Out the window, the rain seemed to be falling sideways. God, that wasn’t good.
Nothing he could do about it now.
Time slowed to a crawl. He wiped Margo’s sweat away between contractions and told h how amazing she was about a thousand times. Anything to help, when he felt so goddamn helpless.
As quickly as she seemed to have gone into active labor, she stalled out in the middle. She was sagging against him weakly and he didn’t know what the hell to do. He looked at Lil
a and found an equally tired pair of blue eyes staring back at him.
“I can’t do this,” Margo said weakly.
“Of course, you can.” Lila patted her hand. “You’re a fucking warrior, remember?”
“I can be a warrior tomorrow.”
“No, you’ll be one now.” Lila glanced at Nora. “How’s it going?”
“She and the baby are fine.” Nora peeked under the towel. “Margo?”
Margo’s hand slid out of his limply. “Nope. No Margo here. She’s home, in a birthing center with lots of drugs. This is just one of my crazy dreams.”
Simon pressed his lips to her sweaty temple. “My wife is the strongest person on this entire fucking planet. And you’re going to push…” He could feel her tensing in his arms. He shot a look at Nora who nodded. “And you’re going to push right now. Right fucking now, Margo.”
He straightened her up in his arms with the help of Lila just as the contraction washed over her. “Push, dammit.” No time to be nice right now. She could kick his ass later.
“You’re right there, Margo. One more good push.”
She bore down on him. Bones crunched together in his hand, and Lila winced in reaction as well, but goddammit, she was a damn warrior.
Nora’s face went from expectant to joyous. “There we go.”
Margo sagged back against him. “She’s not crying. Why isn’t she crying?” She sat up and winced. But then came the most beautiful song in the whole world.
Raine’s disgusted yowl broke through the tension in the room.
Lila laughed and sagged against the headboard. She pressed her forehead to Margo’s arm. “Oh, thank God.”
Margo burst into tears and Simon wasn’t entirely sure he wouldn’t be right behind her.
“Lila, can you grab me some towels? I put a few on the warming rack near the shower. Can you grab those too?” Nora spoke to Lila but didn’t look away from the baby as she cleaned her up and did some other things Simon didn’t want to think about.
Lila darted into the bathroom and came back. She faltered a little, but seemed to steady herself and moved forward with an armful of towels.
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