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“Dana you made it,” Katie gasps, a brilliant smile plastered across her face.
I go to her, leaning down to give her a hug. “How are you doing?”
“Better now the doctor has given me an epidural. I have to say before that it hurt like hell. The midwife said everything is progressing well though a bit quicker than I thought, so I’m just taking a break before the real fun begins. Can you believe it, soon we’re going to meet our baby girl.” She looks back to Drew and the smile he returns broadcasts loud and clear the love and pride he feels for her.
I swallow down the lump forming in my throat; I’m not going to be much of a support crew if I’m a blubbering mess.
“You seem to be doing much better than your brothers,” I joke, extracting a giggle from Katie that soon turns into a grimace as a contraction hits. It begins. Drew on one side, calm and solid. Allie and I on the other, a lot more emotional.
***
Jason
Dana walks through the door of the waiting room, her watery blue gaze instantly searching and finding mine. I hold open my arms and she melts into them, feeling like home.
“That was the most amazing, beautiful moment, I’ve ever experienced.” Several tears leak through her lashes and I brush them gently away. “I want that for us one day,” she whispers so only I can hear.
The idea of being a father hasn’t been something I’ve ever really thought about. But I like the idea of us being parents. “I want that too, sweetheart.”
Allie’s voice interrupts us. “Who wants to meet their niece?” I look over Dana’s head to where Allie is tucked tightly under Logan’s arm.
“Do we have a name yet, Allie?” Hunter asks.
She looks around the group smiling. “I’ll leave that news for the new parents to share.”
Everyone follows Allie to the room a little way along the pristine white corridor. Inside the private room, it feels more like a hotel suite than a hospital ward and even though we’re a group of eight, there is plenty of room for us to gather around the raised bed in the center.
Katie is glowing, a grin stretches her cheeks wide, and Drew beams with pride as he looks down at the tightly wrapped bundle in his arms. A tiny dark-haired head is all that is visible resting in the crook of his arm.
Drew’s voice catches when he introduces us for the first time to his little daughter, Anna. The big tough man overwhelmed and it’s hard not to feel the same. The girls crowd around the baby and the guys gravitate to Katie, congratulating her with a hug.
I don’t know about the others but to me, the miniature human in Drew’s arms looks terrifyingly fragile. A lump lodges in my throat at the thought that one day this could be Dana and I welcoming our baby into the world.
These last couple of years, the entire dynamic of the family has changed. Responsibility has moved from our parents’ generation to ours. Carlson Publishing has grown globally. And now we are even looking to the future generation with Anna.
I wrap my arm around Dana’s shoulders, hugging her close. “Maybe it’s time we went home. We could make a start on our own addition to the Carlson Dynasty.” Our gazes lock and a flurry of unspoken words pass between us.
Dana knows that she’s my love, my future, and my home.
Epilogue Two
Dana
Five Years Later
The squeals of children playing drift across to me on the gentle salty breeze. Intermingled with the high-pitched sounds are the deep baritones of their father’s laughter. It fills my heart with a comforting familiar happiness that I couldn’t have dreamed possible just over five years ago.
Stretched out on a beach towel with the heat of the soft white sand underneath permeating my body, my fingers buried in the fine grains, and my eyes closed, I’m hovering in that dreamlike state halfway between sleep and awake. The warm afternoon sun on this perfect summer’s day has seeped into my bones, sapping my body of every last ounce of energy.
Ava, my six-month-old baby, has started teething, which means she hasn’t slept well the last few nights. Jase and I are exhausted, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Our home is filled with chaos and joy in equal measure as the parents to our four-year-old son, Benjamin Jack Carlson and baby Ava.
Gurgles and faint sucking sounds come from the nearby pram under the shade of a rainbow-colored beach umbrella. It sounds like my daughter is waking up, meaning she’ll want to be fed. I’ve probably only got a few more minutes before I have to move, and I plan to enjoy them, listening to the happy sounds around me.
Allie, as if reading my mind, murmurs, “I love days like this.” She’s lying prone on her towel beside me.
I mumble my agreement.
“If only I didn’t feel like a stranded whale.” Trudy responds. “I hope someone packed a hoist because that’s what it’s going to take to get me out of this low deck chair.” Poor Trudy, she’s eight months pregnant with hers and Hunter’s first child, and her doctor has prescribed complete bed rest until the baby’s arrival. She’s struggling to comply and only managed to convince Hunter to come this weekend with the promise that she’d not do anything more strenuous than walk from one chair to the next.
