Page 21 of Embrace Me

And then she ended the call abruptly, her eyes cutting straight to Damien’s. “Damien,” she said, her voice laced with excitement. “It’s time.”

For a moment he just sat there, not sure what she meant. Then it hit him, and he felt that mixture of terror and excitement. That same mashup of raw emotions he hadn’t felt since Anne was born.

“Right,” he said, and despite having gone to the mat on more billion-dollar deals than he could recall off hand, in that moment he forgot everything on the checklist they’d had ready for months.

He drew a breath, dredged up the memory of what he was supposed to do, and met his wife’s amused eyes.

In a few minutes—when the next contraction hit—he knew that expression wouldn’t be so warm.

He lifted his wrist, looking at his watch face. “Okay, okay we need to time the contractions and get you to the hospital.”

“No.”

He looked up, frowning at her. “What? Am I forgetting something? I’ll call Gregory for the girls, Edward for the car. Your bag’s by the door.”

“No,” she said, breathing hard and bending over in pain as she clutched the table.

He felt panic rise. She shouldn’t be having another contraction so soon.

“They’re coming too fast,” she said when it subsided, confirming his fear. “Way faster than Anne. Call Dr. Albright. Damien, call him now.”

After that, everything was a blur. The doctor agreed that she didn’t have time to get to the hospital. For that matter she didn’t really have time to get upstairs to the bed.

Instead Damien had Gregory get the girls out of the room as Damien converted the playroom’s sleeper sofa into a bed. The contractions were coming about two minutes apart, and Damien was a wreck as he managed to get Nikki onto the bed and settled.

He held her hand through the contractions as she crushed his fingers and cried out that they were coming too fast, that this wasn’t right, that something had to be wrong.

He soothed and consoled, but he had the same fear. She’d been in labor all night with Anne. This wasn’t going how he had imagined, and he was terrified that his son was in distress and the damn paramedics hadn’t arrived yet. Damien had done a lot of things in his life, but delivering a child was not among them.

Time seemed to crawl, but it was really only minutes before the EMTs arrived, escorted in by Gregory, who hurried back out again quickly. Damien barely noticed. All he could focus on was Nikki, helping her through the pain, and praying that their son was fine despite things moving so damn fast, his poor wife drenched in sweat and crying in pain.

Finally, the female paramedic, Jenny, told him to hold one of Nikki’s legs as she held the other to help Nikki bear down, and then—oh God, how had that happened? How had he actually been a participant in that happening?—he saw the top of his son’s little head.

And then the boy was there in the world. And before Damien could even catch his breath, the paramedic was putting the baby on Nikki, and Damien was cutting the cord with a shaking hand, as Jenny smiled and congratulated him.

He had a son. He had a wife, two beautiful daughters, and a son who kept his own timetable and had one hell of a set of lungs. Dear God, how did he deserve this?

Nikki smiled, her eyes drooping. “He’s perfect,” she whispered, her voice going straight to his soul.

“Yes,” Damien said, holding her hand. “You both are.”

Epilogue

The morning sun streams through the window as I sit propped up in bed with my son sleeping in my arms. He’s just been fed, and although I’d hoped he’d stay awake for his Grandpa and “Evie,” as Evelyn wants to be called, he’s completely conked out.

They’ve left now to take the girls down to the beach, and it’s just me and Damien and our son in my arms.

Damien sits beside me. “He came early, the rascal.”

“Like his daddy, he has a mind of his own.”

“I hope so,” Damien says, and so do I.

“Do you want to hold him?”

“He’s falling asleep. I don’t want to disturb him.”

“You won’t,” I assure him, shifting my arms so that I can pass our precious bundle to his daddy.