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“I’m glad you’re not hurting anymore, angel,” Chad said, stroking her hair as he gazed lovingly into her eyes. “I feel better about wanting to make another one of these with you.”
Her jaw dropped. “Another baby?” Jeez, she hadn’t even gotten this one out yet, and he was talking about more.
“Not any time soon, but hopefully someday.”
She smiled. That actually sounded nice now that she didn’t feel compelled to rip the lips off every man on the planet for not having to experience the miracle of childbirth. “Someday.”
Someone near the door softly cleared her throat. “I hope I’m not interrupting something important,” Joan said.
“Just the planning of your future grandchildren,” Chad said.
“Well, let’s see how cute this one is first.” Joan winked at Lindsey. “I’ve got my money on absolutely adorable, and I’ll want dozens more.”
Dozens? Lindsey choked on her own saliva.
“Can I come in?” Joan asked.
“Of course,” Lindsey said, wincing as she tried to reposition herself without disturbing the epidural too much.
“You look beautiful,” Joan said when she reached the bed. She had tears in her eyes.
“I’ve never felt less beautiful,” Lindsey assured her.
“I don’t want you to be mad at me,” Joan said.
“For what?”
“Just promise you won’t be mad.”
Lindsey shook her head in confusion. “How can I promise if I don’t know what I’m promising?”
“Lindsey?” A familiar voice croaked out her name near the door.
Lindsey sucked in a breath and blinked back a flood of tears that blurred the woman’s face.
“Mom?”
Chapter Eighteen
Chad stepped away from the bed as Lindsey’s mom flew to her side. As the two women reunited tearfully, he pressed his lips together and shook his head, pointing at his meddling mother.
“What?” Mom said, plastering an innocent look on her face. “Sometimes all that’s needed is the tiniest push in the right direction.” She pinched her forefinger and thumb together and peered through the tiny gap between them.
When Lindsey’s mom finally stopped hugging her, Lindsey extended a hand toward Chad, which he gratefully took. He hadn’t been expecting to meet her mother today and wasn’t sure he could handle the additional anxiety on top of his already jumbled nerves.
“Mom, this is Chad. My . . . boyfriend.”
“The father?” her mom asked, eyes raking up and down his body. He knew the exact instant she processed that he was missing a leg, because she tensed.
“That’s the plan, Mrs. Parker,” Chad said. He extended his free hand to give the woman’s fingers a firm squeeze.
“So not the real father,” Mrs. Parker said.
“The father I would have picked if I’d planned this,” Lindsey said.
All the tension that had been building inside Chad released in an instant. He didn’t need Mrs. Parker’s acceptance—he had Lindsey’s—and he’d be a great father to Daisy no matter what curveballs life threw their way.
“So you still don’t know who the baby’s father is?”
“I know,” Lindsey said. “It just doesn’t matter. Daisy is Chad’s daughter.”
“You’re naming her after me?” Mrs. Parker wailed, which led to more tearful hugs.
Chad stepped aside to give them room and leaned in to whisper to his mom, “So, how did you manage this?”
“Facebook,” she said. “Did you know they thought Lindsey was missing? No one knew where she was or how to contact her.”
“Maybe she wanted to keep it that way,” Chad said. The love of his life was looking more than a bit overwhelmed as she met his gaze over her mother’s shoulder.
“Her dad refused to come to the baby shower and is still being a total asshole,” Mom said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Chad nudged her shoulder with his. “Don’t forget you promised to pay double into the swear jar.”
“Not when I’m stating facts.” She lowered her voice to a whisper and talked out of the corner of her mouth. “Your future father-in-law is an asshole.”
Chad didn’t argue. He hadn’t met the guy yet but trusted his mother’s judgment, and the asshole would be his father-in-law. Chad refused to think otherwise.
While Lindsey and her mother caught up on gossip about people Chad had never heard of, he did his best to make Lindsey comfortable. She didn’t seem to rely on him nearly as much now that the epidural was keeping the pain in check, and he was starting to wonder if she needed him there at all. He’d heard that a woman giving birth typically wanted her mother close by more than anyone else, and Chad wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen the evidence with his own eyes. Maybe it was because they hadn’t seen each other in several months, but the two of them were twittering like a pair of overstimulated songbirds.
Chad wanted to confront the woman about letting Lindsey get into the desperate situation she’d found herself in, and maybe he would someday, but now was not the time.
A few contractions later—which Chad now had to time by the monitors since Lindsey barely made a peep when even the strongest of them gripped her—Owen came back from finding his cup of coffee. Only he didn’t return with java.
“Look who I found skulking around outside,” Owen said. “It’s Bio-Dad.” Owen announced Adam Taylor’s presence like he was some sort of superhero instead of the huge coward Chad thought he was.
Adam’s dark brown eyes shifted from one person to the next. He nodded at each of them in turn before settling his attention on Lindsey.
“I wasn’t sure if I should come,” he said. “If you want me to go—”
Lindsey stretched a hand out in his direction, and Chad almost blurted that he wanted him to go, forget what Lindsey wanted.
“You can stay,” she said quietly.
“I thought this might be something I’d regret missing,” Adam said. “God knows I have more than one regret already.” And according to the name of his currently defunct band, he was only allowed a sole regret.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Lindsey said.
That made one of them, Chad thought darkly.
“Adam, this is my mother, Daisy Parker. You already know everyone else.”
Adam nodded at Mrs. Parker, and Chad noted that she’d gone pale. Her hand toyed nervously with the necklace pendant between her collarbones as she stared at Adam with wide eyes.
“This is the biological father?” she hissed at her daughter.
“I guess so,” Adam said.
Lindsey smiled at Adam, and he smiled back—his face and hardened gaze softening. Chad rammed both fists into the front pockets of his cargo shorts. He hadn’t expected to be jealous of Adam, but there the feeling was, mocking him. Adam and Lindsey would always have a child together, and there wasn’t anything Chad could do about that fact.
“So, how much longer?” Owen asked.
Mom patted his arm. “These things take time.”
A strange look settled over Lindsey’s face. “I need to push,” she said.
“What?” Chad muttered, his attention turning to the monitor and then back to Lindsey’s face.
“I said I need to push. Now!”
“Call the doctor,” Chad said, pushing his way to her bedside and gripping both of her hands in his. The trust in her eyes stole his breath, and he knew he didn’t have a reason to be jealous of her mother or of Adam. Lindsey loved him out of choice, not circumstance.
Daisy’s birth progressed quickly from there. Everyone in the room other than Chad was focused on what was going on between Lindsey’s legs. He focused his attention on her face, her eyes, making sure she wasn’t alone as she pushed their child into the world—and there was no way he could think of Daisy as anything less than his own. Not even with Adam standing next to Lindsey’s left ankle and looking more panicked and less cool than he’d ever
seen the leather-clad rock star.
“I see the top of her head!” Owen shouted. He was filming the entire thing on his cellphone. “She has a lot of black hair.”
Like her real father. Chad smiled at golden-haired Lindsey, who was gripping his hands a little less tightly with each push. She was tiring. “Almost there, angel.”
