“Christo…” I murmur, even softer.
“Skull? Aren’t you happy? I thought you said you wanted another child,” Beth asks worriedly.
My hand trembles as I move it slowly to her stomach and hold it where, even now, my child is growing inside.
“I’m happy, mi cielo. I’m ecstatic. We’re going to have a baby.”
She nods her head yes, smiling and crying at the same time.
“We’re going to have a baby,” I whisper again.
“We are,” she confirms.
“I’m going to be a daddy again.”
“You are.”
As everything settles into me, I close my eyes. When I open them back up, I know she can see exactly how I feel because Beth has always been inside of me—a part of me.
“I’ll be there this time, mi cielo. I’ll be with you every step of the way.” I wrap her hand around mine and kiss her fingers. “Te prometo,” I say as I kiss her forehead. I promise you.
“We’ll be there together,” Beth says, bringing her lips to mine. I deepen the kiss, sliding into her mouth with a groan. My hand goes to her neck, fingers rubbing against the pulse.
“Okay, I’ve waited long enough,” Katie exclaims, barging through the door. “What’s going on?”
I pull back just a space from Beth’s lips.
“My sister has very bad timing,” she whispers, her dark gray eyes close to mine.
“Muy mal,” I agree, staring back into her eyes. I remember the vow I made as a child. Everything I ever wanted, here in my arms.
Por siempre…
I’ll bust my ass to keep it forever.
KATIE & TORCH
“Breathe, Katydid. We’re almost home free.”
Breathe, he says, like that’s so easy. Let him try squeezing an eight-pound baby through his pee-hole and then talk to me. I close my eyes tightly. Beth made this shit look so easy with Gabby.
“Bite me,” I growl, wincing as the contraction starts again.
“I will later, sweetness,” Torch promises, and if he didn’t look so adorable with his hair all mussed up and wearing his “Proud Dad” t-shirt, I’d probably punch him in the junk. Instead, I stick my tongue out at him.
“You doing okay, Katie?” Bethie asks.
I look over at the next bed. Beth is there with Skull feeding her ice chips. She’s a month early, and I’m a month late, but these kids are bound and determined to come out together. I don’t know who Skull and Torch paid off or threatened—I’m not even going to ask. But, somehow, they broke every rule and put us together in the same birthing room.
Peanut, which is what Torch has taken to calling our child, is bound and determined to come out first. I’m in so much pain, but I’m okay with it—totally good, if he would just fucking hurry.
“You didn’t tell me this hurt so fucking bad.”
“Some things you shouldn’t know until you have to.” Then Bethie gasps, and I can tell she’s just started a contraction.
“You remember that time you made me stick a lighter to that turtle’s ass to see if it would make it shoot out of his shell like in the cartoons?”
“Christo!” Skull mutters.
“Made you? That was all on you! I told you, turtles don’t do that in real life,” Bethie huffs.
“What was it you got the big idea for, then?” I ask her, knowing what she’ll answer, but we both need a distraction from the pain.
“I made you snails, remember?”
“Fuck me sideways,” Torch mutters. I attempt to give him a grin, though that takes a little more effort than I have left in me, I’m sure.
“She roasted them with a lighter. Just saying, Hunter, I’m never going to France and ordering snails.”
“I’ll make note.”
“Fuck!” I growl as a contraction hits harder than it ever has.
“You’re crowning, Katie,” the doctor informs me. “I just need you to really push when this next contraction starts, and we’ll have this baby out of here in no time.”
“You loved those snails. You ate every single one of them!” Bethie cries.
“There was only… Ahhhh!” I break off to yell. “Two!” I finish while the doctor and Torch are screaming for me to push. “And I only ate them… Motherfucker!” I scream again. “Because you dared me!”
“I know. I could literally dare you to do anything and you would. That’s how you got your first kiss from Johnny Paul. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“Johnny Paul?” Skull asks, and I’m trying to focus, but God, this having-a-baby thing is not the cakewalk I thought it would be.