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“Christmas Eve,” Emmy muttered. “That’ll be your niece’s birthday.”
His niece. That was something he’d thought he would never hear since Calen had believed he was an only child. But it felt right. Well, right-ish anyway, and he was going to think of his sister and her baby as sort of aChristmas gift.
His phone dinged with another text, and Calen ignored it as he had the dozens of other texts he’d gotten in the past six hours. Calen figured most were just nosy people wanting to know what was going on, but they would hear soon enough. By morning, the news would be out, and there’d be plenty of tasty topics, including Emmy’s and his party kiss, their run-in with Owen, their hasty departure to the hospital, the mail, and Nessa.
Calen practically snapped to attention when he saw Dr. Abernathy making his way toward them. Since he was the only OB in Christmas Creek, Calen figured he had to be the one who’d been called in for the delivery.
“A healthy baby girl,” Dr. Abernathy announced, motioning for them to follow him. “Nessa’s doing great too, and she wants to see both of you. Don’t stay too long, though, only a couple of minutes, because we need to run a few routine tests on the baby, and the new mother needs some rest. Six hours is a fairly short labor, but it’s still exhausting.”
Added to that, it was nearly two in the morning, so even without the labor, Nessa had to beready to crash.
By the time the doctor finished filling them in, they’d reached the door of the delivery room, and when Dr. Abernathy opened it, Calen spotted Nessa on the bed. She had the baby cradled in her arms.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Nessa asked. Man, she was beaming. The woman always seemed to have a smile on her face, but this went beyond a smile. “Six pounds, twelve ounces. Twenty inches long.”
Emmy and Calen went closer and peered into the blanket. The baby looked pissed off, like a riled hobbit, but, yeah, Calen felt that tug, too. Heck, maybe it was a DNA thing that made him already feel protective of the kid.
“She’s precious,” Emmy said, leaning in to gently touch the baby’s hair. “She looks likeCalen and you.”
“I thought so too,” Nessa agreed, and there were tears in her eyes. “She has David’s coloring, though.” Her voice cracked a little.
Calen felt a punch of grief for a man he’d never known. A man who would never see his child. And that was no doubt the reason for some of those tears Nessa was fighting. She won the fight, maybe because despite her loss, Nessa knew she still had so much, and thatso muchwas nestled in her arms.
“Now, I just have to come up with a name,” Nessa added. “Something Christmassy. Holly, maybe. Or Noel.”
“Or Eve for Christmas Eve,” Emmy supplied, causing Nessa to both smile and tear up again. “Do you need us to call anyone or get anything for you?”
“I’ll make some calls in the morning, but I might need someone to go to my house and get my suitcase. No hurry on that, though, since we won’t be going home from the hospital for three days. I can get my boss or one of my friends to bring it.”
Now, this was something Calen could do to help. “I’ve got a four-wheel drive, so I can get your keys from you in the morning and drive out then. It’s still snowing, but it’s supposed to stop in a couple of hours.”
Christmas Creek only had one snowplow, which was more than most small central Texas towns had, and the snowplow operator, Elbert Sherman, would be out and about at sunrise. Still, the roads probably wouldn’t be that bad since they were only expecting two inches.
At the mention of the weather, Nessa perked right up again. “Oh, I don’t want to miss seeing the snow. Maybe when they’re done with the tests and such, I’ll be moved to a regular roomwith a window.”
Calen didn’t mention that it probably hadn’t been a wise thing for her to come to Christmas Creek to see that snow, not when she’d been so close to delivering. But all had worked out, and while this hadn’t been Nessa’s original plan, he was glad to have a chance to spend a little time with the baby and her.
When Nessa yawned, it was their signal to leave so she could get some rest. “Whatever you decide to name her, she’s beautiful,” he murmured to Nessa and brushed a kiss on her forehead.
Emmy did the same to both Nessa and the baby, and they started out, just as a nurse came in. No doubt to do those tests the doctor had mentioned. Calen gave his sister one last glance before Emmy and he left.
“Uncle Calen,” Emmy remarked as they made their way down the hall. “Wow, a lot of changes in the past forty-eight hours.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. When those changes had started, Calen had thought they would bring only gloom and doom, but things had shifted.
“We blew right past the one-year anniversary of the cheaters,” Emmy went on, and they stopped at the ER doors to put on their coats. “I’d steeled myselffor a bad one.”
So had he, but despite their earlier run-in with Owen, the cheaters were no longer on his radar. He probably wouldn’t extend an olive branch to Sasha and Owen, but in a weird kind of way, they’d done him a favor. If the engagements and weddings had gone on, he wouldn’t be having this momentnow with Emmy.
And it was indeed a moment.
With Emmy warm, smiling, and snuggled against him, they stepped out into the soft snow and the quiet. Everything, including his truck, was white and sparkling, thanks to the streetlights and those lights coiled around the lampposts. Not ordinary lights because this was Christmas Creek, but twinkling holiday ones.
He had to admit it looked magical, and Calen totally got why Nessa hadn’t wanted to miss this.
“Wow,” Emmy murmured. She stopped outside his truck, looked up, and let the snowflakes driftonto her face.
Another moment.
