Robin chortled in glee. “Please try to run, please, please!”
Ethan went upstairs to make sure Mya went back to bed, and by the time he came back downstairs, the police had arrived, and Lurlene was being led away. The reporters were waiting outside the gate, and this time she was the one in the spotlight and not looking her best. The worm had turned, and as Mya would say, karma had bitch slapped Lurlene hard. Ethan grinned at the thought and felt vindication for his family after all that she had done. He closed the door on the police and the reporters outside the gate, the end of a very bad chapter. This was the time to focus on his wife and the birth of their baby. This was a new book that had opened a new generation of love and laughter in the Tremaine mansion.
* * * *
Spring 2014
Mya sat in the white rocking chair and looked down at her son nursing at her breast. William R. Tremaine was six weeks old, and his little body was warm against hers. The R was for Robin, of course, even though he’d looked obviously green in the labor and delivery suite. He had stood by like a trooper. When she told him the baby’s name, he bawled like a…well…baby. Since then, he’d been to the mansion every few days to see his namesake. Mya let him be a proud uncle because after standing up to his overly self-righteous parents, he’d been disowned. It didn’t bother him much because he had them as his family now, Mya, Will, and Ethan.
Ethan. She smiled and leaned her head back as she thought about her husband. He’d been her rock over the last few months, especially when her preeclampsia got worse and she had to be admitted to the hospital to be monitored. Mya recalled her fear and the way he became her strength. Each day he’d be at the hospital with her, and if he had to leave, Robin was there to watch over her. The two of them had become really good friends, and she was glad that both were with her in that very scary time.
Ethan was the one who held her hand and coached her when her labor started. He wiped her tears and the sweat from her face, fed her ice chips, and kept her washcloth cool. When the baby had heart decelerations and they decided on an emergency C-section, he refused to leave the room or let go of her hand. The nurses had to get him sterile and dressed like they were, along with everyone else in the operating room. He whispered, “I love you,” over and over again as they worked to bring Will into the world, and his first cries were met by her tears and his overwhelming joy. She had too much to be happy about, and the past was left firmly where it was meant to be, in the past.
The lights in his nursery were dimmed so he could fall asleep after nursing. Then it was time to take care of her man since she had been given the green light to resume normal activities.
“I was coming to check on him,” Ethan said at the door. He was wearing only pajama pants, barefoot, and he looked positively delectable.
“Stop hiding the bottle behind your back,” Mya said in a soft voice. “You were hoping to give him his final feeding for the night.”
“What’s the point of pumping the milk if you’re just never going to let me feed him?” Ethan complained.
Mya grinned. “You feed him at two a.m. and the first thing in the morning before work. Stop hogging the baby. Oh, and office hours aren’t eleven till three. If I was still your assistant, I’d be on your ass.”
“Since I’m the boss, I can make my own hours,” Ethan defended. He came over to where she sat and knelt to kiss the baby’s head. “God, I love how he smells. It’s like an addiction.”
“Thanks for comparing our son to drugs,” Mya teased. “He’s done. He nursed on both sides. If he keeps it up, he’ll be a butterball in no time.”#p#分页标题#e#
“He’ll be our butterball,” Ethan said.
He took the baby and held him over his shoulder, patting his tiny back until a loud burp escaped. As usual, that got a big grin from Ethan, and Mya rolled her eyes as she fixed the buttons on her button-down pajamas. Men. Ethan placed the baby in his crib, and they watched him for a few minutes as he settled into a comfortable sleep. Mya turned on the baby monitor that not only had sound but camera so they could watch and hear him at night.
Ethan held her hand as they walked out of the room and into the master bedroom. While she was pregnant, they had renovated around her, moving her from bedroom to bedroom until she felt like a piece on a chessboard. But it was worth it. The Tremaine mansion had new light as well as life behind its walls. They climbed into bed, and she moved automatically into the crook of Ethan’s arms. He lay facing her, and she ran her hand across his cheek.