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Vaughn

Page 54

by Taylor Rylan

“I’m not, and I’m not scheduled to be sent out,” I told him as I left the nursery to go grab my phone. It was on the nightstand charging, and by the time I got to it, the phone had stopped ringing. I picked it up and saw a missed call from Evan. I was going to call him back, but he tried again almost immediately. “Evan? Is everything all right?” I said as I answered the phone.

“Yeah, it is. Is Lewis there? Can you put the phone on speaker?”

I felt Lewis behind me and turned. He was standing at the end of the bed, looking worried. I put the phone on speaker and held it out. “It’s on speaker, Evan, and Lewis is right here.”

“Good. Everything’s fine, so don’t be worried, but Beau gave birth about thirty minutes ago. I just got the announcement, and I’m going to go pick up Cooper.”

Lewis gasped. “How did I miss it?” He started toward his side of the bed but stopped. “Wait, he’s not due yet.” Lewis came back to me and sat down.

“He’s only about a week early. The baby’s name is Dean, and he was eight pounds and six ounces. He’s also really long and is just shy of twenty-four inches. Little Dean is an alpha, just as most of us already guessed.”

I smiled down at Lewis, who was grinning up at me. “That’s wonderful news. I need to message him and send congratulations. But you’ll be there. Can you give them all a hug for me? I’m still going to message though.”

“I will. I just wanted to let you know since I hadn’t seen you reply in the group chat that Roman sent out to us.”

Lewis groaned. “Yeah, my phone was in the bedroom. We’re in the nursery putting the final things together for the baby.”

“Understandable. You’re going to be next,” Evan said. I felt Lewis’s nerves spike a bit, but when I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him close, he relaxed.

“We won’t keep you, Evan. Please tell Beau and Roman congratulations from me.”

“I will. I just wanted to make sure Lewis saw the message.”

“Thanks, Ev. I’ll message Beau now.”

Lewis stood and went to the other side of the bed to get his phone while I disconnected the call and placed mine back on the nightstand. My mate tapped his screen and then smiled. “The baby looks just like Roman. Cooper has Beau’s dark hair, but little Dean has what looks like blond hair.” Lewis brought his phone around and sat back down beside me. When he showed me the image, I smiled with my mate. There was Roman sitting beside Beau, who was holding a baby wrapped in a blue blanket. And the baby most definitely had what appeared to be Roman’s hair.

“Now they will have a mini of each, maybe.”

“Maybe,” Lewis said as he looked up at me. “I don’t care who our daughter looks like. She’s probably going to have my nose and ears, though, because I’ve never seen a fae that didn’t have the pointier ears or the button nose.”

I leaned down and kissed the top of Lewis’s head. “Same. It matters not to me if she’s your carbon copy or if she is a mix of the two of us. I’m excited for her to arrive soon though.” I held Lewis while he stared at the phone. “When you took Beau to the doctor last month, didn’t Dr. King mention that babies usually turn around a month before they’re due?”

“Yeah, why? Evan said he was only about a week early. Our daughter was already head down then, and I still had six weeks to go at that point. I haven’t felt her turn to face upward, so I think she’s still down. If she’s not, it’s her feet that are constantly pushing on my bladder and her head on my ribs.”

I felt bad for my mate. His bump wasn’t nearly as large as Beau’s had been, but he was to the point of being uncomfortable most of the time. “Are you wanting to go back to finishing the nursery? Do you want to maybe rest on the couch? We could watch a baking show? Or play some video games? I could read to you? We could just cuddle and watch the snow fall?” I would do absolutely whatever it was that he wanted.

“I’m suddenly in the mood to cuddle. Not that I’m not ever in the mood to cuddle with you. But lying on the couch with you holding me sounds like a really great way to spend the next hour or two. I know you won’t stay if I fall asleep, and we both know I’m going to fall asleep since I’m due in three weeks, and the energy gets zapped just from walking from here to the kitchen.”

I kissed Lewis’s hair again. “True. I have a solution to that issue though.” I stood and picked my mate up. He sighed as I pulled him close to my chest. He’d long since stopped protesting when I carried him from place to place. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said his energy was gone just from walking from here to the kitchen. There were sixteen stairs, and although it wasn’t a lot for me, Lewis’s legs were not only shorter, but he had long ago lost the ability to see beyond his pregnant stomach.

“Do you think I’ll have the baby in the afternoon too? I don’t want to ruin Dr. King’s day by having her in the middle of the night.”

I smiled. “I don’t think he cares one way or another. Our daughter will come when she’s ready, and if that happens to be in the middle of the night, then that’s when she’ll be born.”

Lewis sighed again. “I know. But that just seems so…rude.”

I laughed at that. Babies didn’t know the meaning of the word, and I was certain ours wouldn’t be the first. “You are adorably cute, little mate.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Just before I reached the top of the stairs, Lewis spoke up again. “Should we cuddle in bed instead? It will be more comfortable for you, won’t it?”

“But then we can’t watch the snow falling,” I told him. “I’m going to hold you until you fall asleep, and then I’ll finish up some other things around the house. When you’re up for it and they’re ready for visitors, I’ll have Evan come and take us down to see Beau and the new baby.”

Lewis grinned. “I’d like that a lot. I know he’s going to need at least a few days but probably a couple of weeks to just be the three or four of them, depending on how long Evan keeps Cooper.”

We reached the back room, and I gently lowered Lewis to the couch. After I covered him with his favorite fuzzy blanket, I sat beside him, and he moved to where he was laying his head in my lap. I didn’t understand how it was the most comfortable position for him, but he said he loved it and always asked for me to cuddle him this way.

“We should get a larger sofa. Or one of those convertible ones so we can actually cuddle down here.”