Jacob's Joy: Men of Crooked Bend Book 9

by Taylor Rylan

  “I’m going to run upstairs and get my phone. Why don’t you call your mom and let her know that we might need her to keep Mack a little longer than tonight?” Isaac seemed worried and I did my best to reassure him. “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. Kristy will keep us updated, but if she’s let us know she’s having contractions, she’s probably going to be going to the hospital in the next twenty-four hours,” I told him before I directed him to sit on the couch. He nodded before he started tapping on the screen of his phone to call his mom. I turned and quickly went back to our bedroom to get mine. It was in my uniform trousers, which were on the floor last I remembered.

  I found my phone on my dresser, my uniform already in the dry-cleaning hamper thanks to Isaac, and I fired off a text to Heath and Marie, letting them know what was going on. I called Momma on the way back down the stairs.

  “You’re calling in the middle of the afternoon. Is everything okay?”

  “Hello, Momma. Yes, all’s well here. I took a half day today to be with Isaac. We needed some time together since I’ve been so busy at work,” I said as I walked down the stairs. I headed back to the living room and found Isaac exactly where I’d left him.

  “You’ve been an ass. You’re lucky that boy loves you so much,” Momma said, causing me to laugh before I smiled at my husband, who looked at me with a confused look.

  “Trust me, I know I’m lucky. Listen, I wanted to let you know that our surrogate said she was having contractions.”

  I heard Momma tut through the phone before she responded. “Babies can take their sweet time. I wouldn’t be too concerned.”

  “We’re not. I simply wanted to give you a heads-up.” I smiled at Isaac as he shook his head. He loved Momma just as much as I did, but at times…yeah, she could be a bit much.

  “I appreciate it. Now, when you have a new baby, I expect another call and when I’m feeling better, I’ll come and meet him,” Momma said matter-of-factly.

  “We will. Feel better soon, Momma. Talk to you soon,” I told her. She ended the call before I could say more.

  “Mom and Dad said to let them know when the baby arrives and they’ll bring Mack to the hospital to see his baby. Otherwise, he’s happy as a clam over at their place.” Isaac pushed me back onto the couch before he lay down on top of me. I ran my fingers through his hair as I tossed my phone over onto the ottoman.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I just have a feeling that time is going to absolutely drag now that we know she’s in early labor.”

  “Possibly. Is there something you wanted to do in the meantime? I mean, we could go bug Kristy, but I’m not sure Matt wants us hovering around annoying him.”

  Isaac chuckled into my chest, but I knew it was forced. “Hey, it’ll be okay, you know,” I told him, trying my best to reassure him.

  “I know. I just…I’m not sure what to do for the next unknown amount of time.”

  “Well, I should probably call Dalton, but I think I want to wait until she’s in active labor.”

  “Should we have waited until then to let our parents know?” Isaac asked as he stared up at me. I stopped playing with his hair and gave it a gentle tug so he’d look up to me. I tried but failed to reach him to give him a kiss, so I maneuvered his head so he was lying over my heart.

  “No, they should know. Especially your family since they’re watching Mack for us. We could go out for supper,” I suggested.

  “You just ate a sandwich.” Isaac laughed, reaching down to tickle my ribs, causing me to squirm under him.

  “Yeah, but I said supper. That could be three or four hours from now. Our bag is packed, the car seat is in the truck—all we have to do is wait for our little one to decide it’s time.” I went back to playing with Isaac’s hair, something I knew calmed him as much as it soothed me.

  “All right, I agree. Dinner sounds good. But even though I really want something nice, maybe we should stick to someplace that’s quick?” Isaac asked as he sat up. I mourned the loss of his body on top of mine, but maybe we’d be able to get there later. Preferably while naked and in bed.

  “Sounds good. I need to do whatever I can to keep you distracted,” I said as I gave Isaac a heated look. It worked because I quickly found my husband back in my arms. His lips met mine as Isaac’s hair curtained around us.

  “Want you,” Isaac said as he stared down at me. He sat up and straddled my hips, and although it was tempting, I wasn’t about to do this here.

  “Bedroom. Now,” I said as I gave Isaac’s hips a tight squeeze. He climbed off me, and after picking up his phone that had fallen on the floor, he took off for the stairs. I grabbed mine off the ottoman before I chased after my husband. This was certainly a way to distract him. And if we were about to have a baby, I had a feeling it was going to be weeks before we had the time or energy to make love.

  Isaac was pushing off his jeans and underwear as I entered our room. I was behind—something I quickly remedied. I was more than ready to finish what we’d started earlier.

  I tackled Isaac to the bed, both of us laughing, our laughs quickly turning to moans as hands explored, tongues mated, and cocks rutted against each other.

  When Isaac finally entered my body, I gasped at the intensity of it. It had certainly been too long. I vowed to not let it happen again, even with the new baby arriving soon.

  Isaac’s steady thrusts eventually had us both screaming as my cock exploded between our torsos and his pulsed inside me. Once we could feel our legs again, we made our way to the shower and cleaned up before we crawled back into bed to explore each other’s bodies with our mouths and tongues once again.

  “I’ll never get enough of you,” I told Isaac as I licked a path down the bronze skin of his stomach.

  “Mmm, that’s fine. The feeling’s mutual,” he said as he stretched and pushed his stomach toward me slightly.

  We decided to eat at home, so we threw a frozen pizza in the oven, and afterward we cleaned up the kitchen and headed back to our room. After hours of waiting, we both fell into a fitful sleep only to eventually get the call we’d both been waiting for.

  “Kristy? You okay?” I asked after answering the phone.

  “Yes. My contractions were nothing, still over ten minutes apart, but then my water broke and now they’re coming hard and fast. Meet us at the hospital,” Kristy said, and then she was gone. I glanced at the phone and it was still connected, something I would have known no matter what when I heard her scream through the phone as another contraction hit her.

  Isaac scrambled out of bed, and I was right behind him. The phone call was ended as we rushed to get dressed.

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s time to have a baby,” I replied as I pulled on a shirt. I glanced at the clock and saw it was almost two in the morning. “The middle of the night, that’s what time it is. You ready?” I pulled on my boots and stood up. Isaac was already dressed and waiting for me.

  “Yes.”

  “Then let’s go have a baby. I’m anxious to meet our little guy.”

  Isaac —4

  Apparently Jacob wasn’t the only one anxious. We got a call just before we reached Crooked Bend. It was Matt and he’d sent a FaceTime call to my phone. I answered as Jacob continued to drive to the hospital.

  “Matt? Is something wrong?” I asked, holding out the phone. Jacob could glance at it if he wanted.

  “Guys, we’re sorry. Kristy swears her contractions were stuck at twelve minutes.”

  “Okay, what’s wrong, Matt?” Jacob asked as he slowed the truck down. He pulled over to the side of the road and turned on his four-way flashers. It was then that we heard Kristy scream in the background before she started panting.

  “Wait, is she pushing already?” Jacob asked. We watched as Matt turned the phone and there was Kristy.

  “I’m so sorry. I had labors that took forever with my two guys. But he’s coming nowww…owwww!”

  Jacob and I sat there in the truc
k and watched helplessly as Kristy pushed our son out. I unbuckled my seat belt, and after handing Jacob the phone, I crawled over to him and into his lap.

  “That’s our baby.”

  “I know, I’m sorry, Jake. I know how much you wanted to be there,” I whispered in his ear as we heard Kristy scream again and then silence. But then we heard the most beautiful sound. Our little guy started crying. I stared at the phone screen and there he was. Our slimy, wrinkly little guy was there, screaming his head off. I smiled through the tears that were running down my face. When I glanced at Jacob, his cheeks were just as wet as mine.

  Matt took the phone closer to the baby, but then there was a shuffle or something and then we saw the face of someone definitely not Matt.

  “Hi, daddies. I’m Sally, your son’s nurse. While Matt attends to Kristy, I’m going to take you to your little guy, all right?” she said, and then she was gone, but the phone again turned. We watched as she walked over to the other side of the room, and then there he was. He was being washed with a cloth, and he seemed a little more humanlike, rather than the slimy mess he first was.

  “Oh my god. Look at him,” Jacob said before he ran a finger down the screen of the phone.

  “Babe, why don’t you let me drive? I’ll get us to the hospital, okay?” I suggested as I turned away from the screen. I had a feeling that it was probably better if I drove, as Jacob seemed as if he wasn’t quite in the condition to do it himself.

  “Yeah, okay,” he said as he reached over and opened the door. I grabbed the steering wheel and stood up as best as I could to allow him to get out, and when he did, I sat down and pushed the button to move the seat into my position. I wasn’t too much shorter than Jacob, but there was enough of a difference to notice. Once he was in the passenger seat and had his belt buckled, I put the truck in drive and we were off.

  I listened as best as I could to Jacob talking to the nurse, but I was trying to stay focused on the roads. They could be bad during the daylight hours; at night they were downright treacherous. The last thing we needed was to get into an accident on the way to the hospital, so I decided it was best that I tuned out Jacob and the nurse as I focused on the road.

  Jacob ended the call as we entered the outskirts of Sulfur Springs. Fifty minutes after we left Wild Creek, we finally pulled into the parking lot at the hospital and I parked in the labor and delivery lot as we had been instructed. When I glanced at Jacob after turning the truck off, he sat there, staring out the windshield at the building in front of us.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I just…I’m anxious to meet him, but I really wish we’d have been here.” Jacob looked at me, and I could still see tears glistening in his eyes which caused my heart to break for him.

  I reached out and wrapped my hand around his bicep and gave it a good squeeze before I started rubbing up and down his arm. “I know that feeling. I wish I’d been there for Mack’s birth. But at least we get to meet him now, right?”

  Jacob stared at me, and it was as if a lightbulb went off for him. “Shit. I didn’t mean anything, sweetheart. I know it’s not the end of the world that we weren’t here. Maybe that’s just the plan. That we meet both of our children after they were born.”

  “You ready to go meet your little man, Daddy?” I asked, anxious to go inside and meet our new addition, but when Jacob shook his head I got confused.

  “No. I’m Papa. I want it to be the same for both the boys. And he’s our little man. He’s ours. Not mine. We share the boys—completely. Because if you think I’ll play favorites with them, you should know better.” Jacob held out my phone to me, and I hesitantly reached for it. When I took the phone, he grabbed my hand and pulled it to his mouth, placing a kiss on the knuckles.

  “I love you,” I told him. He smiled at me before he pulled me to the middle of the seat.

  “I love you too. Now, let’s go meet our newest son. Shall we, Dada?” Jacob asked before he gave my lips a lingering kiss. I’d never get tired of kissing him, and he was always open with his affection, no matter where we were.

  It took a moment before I could focus, but when I did, I nodded and we both climbed out of the truck. Jacob had enough thought left to open the back and pull out our bag that we’d packed. He slung it over one shoulder and wrapped his arm around my shoulders as we walked toward the entrance.

  “Come on, Dada. I can’t wait to see you holding him.”

  “You know, we really should come up with a name soon. We can’t keep calling the baby him or little guy,” I said as we walked through the automated doors.

  “I thought you already had a name picked out?” Jacob asked as we stopped at the desk inside the entrance. “Hi. We’re Jacob and Isaac McCoy. Our surrogate gave birth about twenty minutes ago.”

  “You must be Kristy’s guys. She’s in the back in recovery, but the baby is in the nursery. You’ll need to be given bracelets, but they have those up in the maternity ward for you. Third floor,” the lady said before going back to typing on her computer screen.

  Jacob and I headed toward the elevators, and once it arrived, we walked through the open doors. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the hospital this quiet before,” I said as Jacob pushed the button for the third floor.

  “I have once or twice. Mostly I’m here when there’s something chaotic going on though.”

  I nodded but couldn’t help but remember the last time I was here with Jacob. He’d been shot by Mrs. Slack. One wouldn’t think getting shot in the arm could be a life-or-death situation, but it could.

  “Hey, I’m okay, you know,” Jacob said as he pulled me into his arms and gave me a hug.

  “I know. I can’t help but remember though,” I told him as the car stopped and the doors opened. Jacob exited the elevator with me just slightly behind him. We walked down the corridor to the maternity ward where we stopped at yet another desk.

  “Hi. We’re the McCoys. Our surrogate delivered a little while ago.”

  “Ahh yes. The dads who we’re expecting. I’ll need some ID and we’ll have to finish the paperwork before we can let you see the baby. This could have been avoided if you’d been here for the birth.”

  I felt Jacob tense beside me, and if he didn’t say something, I was certainly going to. Luckily, we didn’t have to because Sally, who we’d just talked to on the phone a little while ago, came up to the nurses’ station.

  “Donna, don’t be a bitch,” Sally said as she walked up to us. “Hi, Sheriff. And you must be the hubby. It was kinda hard to see you in the video. Aren’t you just adorable in person though?” I actually blushed at her compliment but offered a smile.

  “Thanks. Is everything okay with Kristy?”

  “Oh lord. That woman is a champion. She tried to cross her legs when the doctor told her the baby was crowning. I have all of your paperwork ready. And Kristy is going to be in room 307 if you want to visit her.”

  It was all a little overwhelming, but we followed Sally down the hallway and stopped outside room 304. “This is where you daddies are going to be. Your paperwork and wristbands are in here. Come on in. Once we get everything filled out and you both are tagged, I’ll go get your little guy for you.”

  Once IDs were verified, paperwork was signed, and we were indeed “tagged,” Sally left to turn everything in and get our son from the nursery.

  “So, back to the name comment. Were you serious?” I asked Jacob as we were both nervously sitting on the uncomfortable love seat in the room. I was wringing my hands together, but Jacob seemed much calmer and was simply sitting there with his arm across my shoulders. He offered me a smile that always got one in return.

  “Why wouldn’t I be? I have to agree, it is a pretty badass-sounding name. But do you want to spell it with a C or a K?”

  “Really? You expect me to be able to answer that? You decide.”

  “Okay. Well, I like the idea of C. That way every one of us has a C in our names.”

  I laughed at that and sh
ook my head at my husband. I loved him so much, but at times he could be quite comical. We were interrupted when Sally came in, pushing a clear plastic bassinet.

  “Here he is, daddies. Does this little fella have a name yet? Kristy called him Baby McCoy, so that’s what we have on his card.”

  I glanced at Jacob as we got up from the love seat to meet our son. “Yeah. His name is Colton. Colton James McCoy,” I told her, and Jacob stumbled a little on the way to meet our little guy. I grabbed his arm and wrapped it around my waist until he was steady. He gazed down at me while I smiled back at him.

  “You sure?”

  “Why not? I mean, if you’d prefer to name him James instead, I’m all for it. I’d like to think that your dad is looking down on us and smiling. Either way, it has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

  “I couldn’t love you more, you know that?” Jacob asked before he leaned down those few inches and gave me a quick kiss.

  “Well, that’s good because you’re stuck with me. Now, Papa, you need to meet little Colt.” I glanced up and there was Sally, a huge smile plastered on her face. She sighed before shaking her head.

  “I could have sworn that your cousin and his husband were the cutest ever, but you two are certainly giving them a run for cutest couple award.”

  “You were here when Logan and Rhett had the twins?”

  “Oh yes. I took all the pictures for them. Speaking of pictures, Kristy has some on her phone for the two of you, so be sure to get them from her.”

  “She’s okay?” I asked as Sally gently picked up Colt and placed him in Jacob’s waiting arms. The look on my husband’s face took my breath away. Thankfully I had enough thought to pull out my phone and snap a picture of the proud papa.

  “Kristy is doing fine. She’ll be in her room soon enough, but you’ll have to wait until morning to see her,” Sally told us. We both nodded while we watched our sleeping son. “I’ll be out at the nurses’ station if you need anything. The schedule is on the page for his feedings and diaper changes.”