Worth the Wait(63)

Brett’s chest was puffed out, his smile so wide I was scared it might crack his face. It was obvious that hearing my son refer to him that way had just made Brett’s entire year.

“Love y’all, too, rugrats.”

Kathy shot me a knowing grin as Brett placed a kiss on her head, as well. Then we were out the door.



“I’M NEVER HAVING SEX AGAIN!” Emmy wailed from her seat in the wheelchair.

Brett and I rann into the hospital just in time to see the nurse begin to wheel Emmy to the back.

“It’ll be all right, baby girl,” Luke cooed, running a hand over her hair lovingly.

She used both of her hands to slap at him. “Don’t touch me! Don’t you touch me! This is all your fault, you asshole. I’m gonna kill you.”

That, of course, was followed by a long groan as she hunched over in pain as another contraction took over. Yeah, I so didn’t miss those.

“Can someone please get her the fuckin’ drugs?” Luke shouted, his eyes dancing from nurse to nurse frantically.

“Sir, we need to get her in a room and see how far along she is first.”

“I’M FAR ENOUGH! Gimme the drugs or I’ll murder everyone!”

Another long groan.

“Is this normal?” Brett leaned in to whisper to me as Emmy and Luke disappeared around the corner.

“Yep,” I answered as we made our way into the waiting room. Our friends were already in there waiting, along with Luke’s mother.

Savannah sat, wringing her hands in front of her as Jeremy tried to calm his clearly worried wife.

“Hey, it’s going to be just fine,” I told her, taking a seat in the empty chair to her left and wrapping her in a tight hug. “Everything is okay. She’s exactly where she needs to be.”

As I looked around the room, I saw the same sullen expressions on everyone’s faces. They were all concerned about Emmy. After what had happened the last time, our little group was waiting with baited breath, praying this delivery would have a different outcome.

I did what I could to try and keep the spirits up. I made coffee runs, offered to go grab dinner for everyone, anything I could to try and keep their minds off the negative. But the mood in the waiting room remained grim until Luke finally walked back in three hours after they’d taken Emmy back.

Savannah immediately jumped from her chair and scurried over to him. “Is she okay? Is he here? How’d it go?”

“Slow your roll, killer,” Luke chuckled. She wasn’t as far along as we’d hoped when they took her back. She’s only just now getting close, but I wanted to update y’all. The doctor’s seen our girl and it’s all systems go.”

I could practically feel the tension in the room melt away.

“So she’s doing okay?” Savannah asked, still concerned for her best friend.

“Well, she hated my ass up until they gave her that epidural thingy, but now it’s all good. I’ll come back as soon as the little guy’s here.” Luke leaned over and planted a kiss on Savannah’s head before taking off back in the direction he’d come from.

With that little reassurance, everyone was finally able to feel the excitement that the day warranted.



“Jesus,” Brett grumbled two hours later. “Does it always take this long?” he asked me. “I mean, this can’t be normal. This isn’t normal, right? Shouldn’t we have heard something by now?”

I continued to flip through the year-old magazine I’d found in the waiting room, having already answered that particular question three times. “Yes, honey,” I replied, not once taking my eyes off the magazine. “It’s totally normal.”

He opened his mouth to argue just as Luke came flying into the waiting room.

“I’M A DADDY!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, fists held high in the air. Everybody jumped up to take their turn giving hugs, but it wasn’t until Luke’s mother stepped up to him, eyes bright with tears as the smile wobbled on her lips, and whispered, “So proud of you, baby. I love you so much,” that he finally broke down. Wrapping his tiny mother in a tight embrace, he cried against her shoulder, so overwhelmed by his love for his new son. It was one of the most moving things I’d ever seen in my life. It was exactly how a man should react to welcoming his baby into the world.

“Can we see her? Can we see her?” Savannah jumped up and down as soon as Luke pulled himself together, anxious to get to her bestie.

“Yeah. We want everyone to come on back and meet our little guy.”

Walking into the hospital room, hand in hand with Brett, I tried my best to stay back, giving everyone else a chance to ooh and aww over Emmy and the new baby. I desperately wanted to hold the little guy, but I knew everyone else was more important. I was new to the group; they all needed their turns first.