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ough none of them had any idea why he should be upset.
“I was with Peta every minute of those twelve hours,” he thundered. “And let me tell you none of it was easy.”
“It’s over, Matt,” Peta said gently.
“I was only comparing it to the twenty hours I went through,” Megan explained reasonably. “And having to cope with six stitches where I tore.”
“Tore...” Matt gulped the word and closed his eyes, struggling to come to terms with a blasé description of torture. “How...” He scooped in a deep breath and glared at all of them in disbelief. “...How can you dismiss it as though it were nothing? It was absolute hell watching Peta in agony.”
His mother sighed. “Just like his father.” She gave Peta a wise look. “My husband used to faint at the sight of blood. You’ll have to watch that with Matt if you’re going to have four children, dear.”
“We are not going to have four!” Matt shouted. “If you think I will let Peta go through that another three times...”
“Matt, the first is always the hardest,” Peta said indulgently. “It usually gets easier with each one.”
“Yes. My fourth came so fast we barely made it to the hospital,” her mother chimed in, then looked wisely at her daughter. “Men never cope with pain as well as women do.”
“You’re right, Mum,” Megan said, frowning thoughtfully. “I’d forgotten about Rob being all shaken up at Patrick’s birth. Maybe they shouldn’t let fathers in, though I must say it was good having Rob’s hand to hang on to.”
“And sharing in it,” Peta said, giving Matt an appealing smile. “It did help, having you with me all the way.”
Confusion set in. Total confusion. “You mean... you actually want to do this again?” he challenged her, reaching for some grain of sense.
She smiled down at their baby son. “To have another three like him, I’d do anything.”
Love...
It was written on the soft curve of her lips, the glow on her cheeks, the luminous wonder in her eyes.
Matt melted.
Who was he to deprive three unborn children of a love like that?
Especially his children.
“Well, if you say it’s all right, Peta, I guess it’s all right,” he said gruffly.
Though he made a mental note to take proper pain management lessons and learn what relief could be given that was absolutely safe. There had to be more than rhythmic breathing.
Peta grinned at him. “There’s no point in having our lovely big home if we don’t fill it with family.”
She was using logic on him now.
Matt knew when he was beaten.
Four, he thought.
God help him!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
TWO years on...
The medical orderly loaded Peta into a wheelchair in between labour pains. They were only three minutes apart. Matt restrained himself from giving the guy a hurry up. Peta had told him he must behave this time and let the hospital staff do their job.
“Darling, you don’t have to come with me,” Peta rushed out between deep breaths. “You got me here safely. I’ll be fine now.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Matt said grimly as they set off for the labour ward.
