My stomach flipped. It was one thing hearing it from him, but from an outsider who’d witnessed it was quite another, almost cementing it in truth. And I needed it to remind myself I wasn’t imagining it all.
The door burst open and Cooper flew in, his feet barely touching the ground as he reached Freddie’s side, gently cupping her face and kissing her.
“Oh, baby. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I’m late. I’m here now.” His voice broke as he wiped her newly pouring tears. “It’s all okay.”
My brother had always been the surly one of his group of boys, and in all fairness, he still was. But since he’d met Freddie, she’d brought out a side to him that was rarely seen, and he would do anything for her. And not being here while she went into labor would have killed him. I did not envy anyone on that flight back.
Freddie clung onto him, sobbing as he stroked her hair.
“Hey, Francesca, baby, I’m here now. You can do this. We’re going to meet our baby so soon.” He smiled, rubbing his hands over her stomach.
I walked over to Wolf. “Do you think he’s even noticed we’re here?”
She shook her head as we watched him kissing her again, trying to stop Freddie from crying. “I’d say no. Shall we go and find the others?”
“Yeah.”
We closed the door behind us, leaving them to their privacy. To their almost family of three.
Wolfie threw her arm around my shoulders as we walked down the corridor. “We should get our mums to bring back some bottles of champagne. We are about to become aunties after all. And I’ve just pumped.”
“That’s almost the best idea I’ve heard all day.” I looked at the clock on the wall as we walked through reception to the room the boys were in. “And my surgeries were cancelled and I’m not on call, so I’m done.”
She pulled her phone from her pocket and typed out a text. “Done. Might as well enjoy the wait.”
We needn’t have bothered because Murray had already rustled up a case of beers, which the boys had got stuck into along with the dads, who must have flown back with Cooper.They were all sitting around, one of the sports channels playing on the television, mute in the background.
“There’s my girl.” My dad stood up, holding his arms wide open for me and I walked into them for a big hug.
“Hi, Papa.” I lifted up on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “How are you?”
“About to become a Grandpops, aren’t I? So I’m great!”
I laughed. My dad was big and tall, like Cooper, but constantly smiling, completely unlike Cooper. While they still had the same intensity, with my dad it manifested more as excitement, which is where I got it from. The pair of us were the perfect combination of both our parents.
“Yes, you are.”
“How’s Freddie doing?”
I looked over at Jack, Wolfie’s dad, as she was hugging him.
“She’s good.”
Wolfie disentangled herself. “Cooper’s in there now, so we left them to it.”
“How long do you think it’ll be?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know. She’s pretty far along, but it could still be an hour or a couple of hours.”
Murray stretched out in his chair. “What time does the game start?”
“Seven.”
I sat down next to Felix, leaning into his fingers running along the side of my leg. “Least we have something to keep ourselves occupied then. How were the boys looking?”
“They were good. Don’t know who they’ll put in instead of Coop though.”
Felix took a long sip of his beer. “Drew said they’d been practicing with Anders Lundberg.”
