“I will.” I waited for him to say something, but was met with silence again. “Coop? You good? You know what you gotta do?”
“Yeah, thanks, man. See you soon.” He hung up.
I walked back to Freddie’s room, reaching it as the nurse opened the door.
“Is it safe to go in now?”
She rolled her eyes with a chuckle. “Yes, it’s safe.”
“Where did you go?” snarled Freddie as I walked back in, “you said you’d be outside but the nurse said you weren’t there. You can’t fucking leave me! You promised!”
I walked over to her, brushing her hair away from her face.
“I went to call Coop. He’s on his way.”
She burst into tears. “Really?”
I stroked her head and sat down in the chair next to her. My leg was starting to ache and I’d left my crutch at the house when we’d rushed out. “Really. He’s heading to the plane, but he said he’d call you before he got on and that he loves you. I keep my promises. I’m not going to let my godchild be born before its dad gets here, am I?”
“Thank you,” she sobbed. “Have you heard from anyone else?”
I shook my head. “No, no one’s answering but they’ll be here, don’t worry, I’ve left messages for everyone. We got through to Coop, which is the main thing. Let’s just concentrate on staying calm. You wanna watch a movie? What was the one you had on at home? We could finish that.”
“Love Actually,” she sniffed.
Yeah, I could watch a chick flick right now. I found the remote and searched through the movies on demand until it came up, then settled back in the chair, resting my feet on the coffee table. Freddie kept hold of my hand, squeezing it so hard every five minutes I thought she might actually break it.
I freed her grasp when I heard my fingers crack.
“Fred, I’m going to go and try your mom again. I won’t be long. You okay for a few minutes?”
She nodded.
I started up my call roster as soon as I got back into the hallway. I was trying Murray for the hundredth time when I saw Molly walk through the entrance of the labor and deliveryfloor. Her hair was mostly tied up on her head, but as always, there were a few errant curls which had come loose, framing her face, bouncing along as she moved. She didn’t often wear her hair up and so I’d never properly appreciated the slender curve of her neck, the delicacy of the column that I had a sudden and desperate urge to kiss along. My necklace sat at the base, and every few seconds the diamonds would catch and sparkle in the lights above.
I watched her stride purposefully over to the nurses’ desk, smiling broadly at the one sitting behind the counter as they chatted.
That smile had the power to light up the Eastern Seaboard.
She was so fucking beautiful, and I still wasn’t sure how I’d become the lucky bastard she’d fallen for, but there was no fucking way I was letting go. She was mine now.
“Mol…”
Her head turned, her eyes widening in surprise, her smile growing. “Oh, hey, what are you doing here? I got paged, so I can’t really stop.”
I walked over to her. “I know, I paged you. I’ve been trying to get hold of you.”
She frowned, pulling me away from the desk. “Did you, why? Are you okay? I thought we weren’t meeting until seven. I can’t leave early, Lex, I have surgeries all afternoon. You can’t just expect me to drop everything and come running.”
Er, what? Where the fuck did that all come from? Why were all the women in my life so fucking moody today? Okay, I knew why Freddie was, but not why this one was, standing in front of me with fury written all over her face.
I wrapped my arms aroundher waist, trying to get her to smile. I also tried not to find it amusing, because the way her nose was crinkling up was actually pretty cute.
“Okay, first off, I don’t know where this attitude has just come from so do you think you could dial it down a notch? And second, how did I never realize you’re cute when you’re pissed?” She stiffened and I smirked, knowing I’d just annoyed her more, because that was our thing. “Anyway, I had you paged because I brought Freddie in. She’s gone into labor and I was freaking out.”
Her mouth dropped open while she stared at me.
“WHAT?! The baby’s coming?” She smacked my chest and started jumping up and down, her mood vanishing instantly. “OhmyGod. Where is she?”
