Page 166 of Smoke and Glitter

He ends the argument by bending down, kissing the top of my head and telling everyone to text him if anything happens.

He comes back with enough takeout to feed twice the number of people actually waiting. The bags barely hit the table before Sam starts opening containers and passing them around. He hands one to me with a fork tucked beneath the lid.

I look down at it. "Was there a vote I missed?"

"You haven't eaten since we got here."

"That wasn't my question."

Sam drops back into the chair beside me and stretches one arm along the back of mine. "Eat."

"That sounded less like a request."

"It wasn't one."

I give him a look, but I eat anyway.

After that, the hours blur. People talk, sleep, wake up and check their phones. Sam's hand spends most of the time somewhere on me, against my knee, tangled with mine between our chairs or resting warm against my thigh.

Every time my phone lights up, we both look.

When Colt's name finally appears, I nearly drop it.

She's here. They're both good.

I stare at the words until the entire waiting room erupts around me. Jake grabs me, Lucia starts crying and Marisol immediately joins her.

Sam's hand closes around mine.

I turn toward him.

His smile is tired and enormous. "Go see her."

I tug on his hand. "You're coming."

He glances toward the hallway. "Not yet. Summer might want a minute before all of us pile into her room."

Jake catches my other hand and starts pulling me toward the hall, ending the argument for Sam. I look back once.

Sam is still beside the chairs, smiling at me. He lifts his chin toward the hallway.

Summer looks wrecked when I walk into the room.

She also looks happier than I have ever seen her.

Wren is tucked against her chest, impossibly tiny beneath the blanket, with one fist pressed beside her cheek and a deep crease between her eyebrows like she arrived already disappointed in the accommodations.

I stop beside the bed. "She's judging all of us."

Summer looks down at her daughter. "She gets that from me."

Colt sits beside the bed with one hand resting on Summer's leg. His eyes are red enough that pretending he hasn't cried would be insulting to everybody involved.

Summer catches me staring at Wren. "Do you want to hold her?"

I don't even pretend to think about it. "Give me the baby."

She laughs and passes Wren into my arms.