Page 29 of A New Chapter in Rosewood Beach (Rosewood Beach #7)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Vivian kept her hands clasped tightly in her lap as Terrence drove toward the hospital.
She’d just gotten off the phone with Julia, who assured her that Alexis was doing great, but that she was still in labor.
Grayson was the only one with her besides the doctors, and everyone else was waiting in the waiting room.
She glanced over at Terrence with a smile and noticed that he was driving exactly five miles per hour over the speed limit.
She wondered if he had ever driven that fast before in his life.
“Almost there,” Terrence assured her, even though the GPS in his car was showing the exact time of their ETA. “Just hang tight.”
“I will.” She inhaled, smiling at him. “I’m so jittery, but it’s all good jitters.”
Her mind had been in a whirl ever since their kiss. When she’d been making her way toward the beach earlier that night, she’d wondered if Terrence was going to kiss her on their date, but in the moment it happened it had seemed like the most wonderful surprise.
He smiled back at her, and she thought to himself that he looked handsome despite how bedraggled he was. She noticed a tendril of seaweed behind his ear and began to giggle.
“What is it?” he asked her.
“There’s, um—may I?” She reached over and gingerly pulled the seaweed from behind his ear.
“Oh, look,” he said in a deadpan tone. “An eel.”
She laughed even harder as she rolled down the window and flung the seaweed out onto the highway. “I feel like an eel right now. All slimy and wet and cold.”
“You don’t look like an eel,” he assured her, his eyes twinkling.
“What, not even in this long dress?”
“Not even a little bit.”
A few minutes later, Terrence pulled into the parking lot of the hospital.
Thankfully, there was an open parking spot very close to the front doors of the labor and delivery unit, and Terrence took it.
He and Vivian practically scrambled out of the car and then began to jog across the parking lot toward the entrance.
“It’s a good thing we’ve been getting so much exercise, huh?” Vivian teased, her voice a little breathless as she jogged.
“Indeed,” Terrence panted. “I’m pleased to find that I can jog for longer than I’d expected—although I’m guessing that the adrenaline has something to do with that.”
A few moments later, they spilled inside the hospital. The receptionist sitting behind the front desk blinked at them, clearly surprised by their appearance, but Vivian felt too eager to find her family to be embarrassed by the fact that she looked damp and disheveled.
“Which way to the waiting room?” she asked. “For delivery?”
“Down the hall to your left,” the receptionist said. She looked as though she was about to blurt out, “What happened to you?” but Vivian and Terrence started making a beeline toward the waiting room before she got the chance.
“Thank you!” Vivian called over her shoulder as they hurried away. Beside her, Terrence was panting a little, but he looked nearly as excited as she felt.
Oh, I’m on pins and needles, she thought, feeling a ripple of expectation go through her. I wish I could be in the room with Alexis. I wonder how she’s doing.
Giving birth was no small feat, but she felt sure that her daughter would be able to handle it beautifully. Underneath Alexis’s silly, vivacious spirit and polished appearance, she had grit and courage.
She and Terrence entered the waiting room, where her family members were either sitting in a circle working on various activities or pacing back and forth.
“Mom!” Hazel gasped out in surprise as soon as she saw Vivian and Terrence looking the way they did. “What—what happened?”
Vivian laughed and threw herself into a chair. “The ocean tried to eat us.”
“You fell out of a boat?” Dean said, looking as though he was trying not to laugh.
“We did.” Terrence nodded with a wry smile.
“It was my fault,” Vivian said.
“No, not at all,” Terrence corrected her gently. “I should have warned you that I was planning on standing up like that. Or, I should have made sure that you’d heard me before I actually stood up.”
Everyone laughed, especially Vivian.
“Oh, Terrence, you’re a sweetheart,” she said. “Someday we’ll have to go kayaking again so I can redeem myself.”
“Sounds wonderful.” Terrence’s eyes warmed.
“You went kayaking, huh?” Julia asked with a grin. “That sounds very adventurous.”
“Perhaps a little too much so,” Vivian said, noticing a tendril of seaweed that was clinging to the knee of her dress and flicking it off.
“We were on the kayak when we got Hazel’s call,” Terrence said. “In our hurry to come back, we tipped over the kayak.”
“Oh no.” Hazel held her hand up to her mouth, hiding a laugh.
“How’s she doing? Any updates?” Vivian asked.
“Not really,” Julia said. “She’s still in labor, but last we heard, everything was going well.”
Vivian nodded. A quiet came over their group, as if they felt that they could listen quietly and be able to hear what was going on in Alexis’s delivery room.
They couldn’t, of course—all they could hear were the sounds of the hospital fans whirring and Hazel’s knitting needles clicking.
Vivian glanced at her daughter’s hands and saw that Hazel was knitting a pair of tiny yellow baby socks.
“We should take bets on what gender the baby will be,” Samantha said, looking up from her book.
“Definitely a boy,” Dean said. “I can feel it in my bones.”
“It’s a girl.” Julia shook her head.
“I say girl too,” Samantha said.
“You were saying boy on the car ride here,” Hazel said with a laugh.
Samantha shrugged. “Now I say girl.”
Vivian smiled. She absolutely could not wait to find out whether Alexis and Grayson were having a boy or a girl, but she would be just as excited no matter what the gender was.
She had loved raising a boy and she had loved raising her girls, and she knew that as a grandmother, she would enjoy all the same kinds of activities with her grandchild that she’d loved to do with her kids as a mother.
There was another lull in the conversation.
Julia went back to pacing, and Cooper and Dean tried to focus on a chess game.
Samantha read her book—although her feet were wiggling under her chair as if she wasn’t really focusing on it—and Hazel went back to knitting at a whirlwind speed.
Jacob was on his phone, and Noelle was reading on a Kindle.
“I’m nervous,” Vivian said, turning to Terrence with a smile. “The waiting is always nerve-wracking, even when things are going well.”
“It’ll all be okay,” he assured her warmly, and took her hand in his. He stroked her thumb reassuringly, and she felt so many butterflies in her chest that for a moment all she could think about was the fact that he was holding her hand.
She was just beginning to notice her surroundings again when a nurse wearing pink scrubs appeared in a doorway.
“Owens family? You’ve got a new member.” The nurse grinned, looking delighted by the joy that sprang onto their faces. “Mom is doing great. You’re welcome to come back in pairs to see her and meet the baby.”
“Mom goes first,” Julia said, turning to her mother with a radiant smile.
“And Terrence should go with her,” Dean said.
Everyone else murmured their agreement, and Samantha and Hazel shared a knowing grin.
“Oh, I couldn’t,” Terrence stammered. “I’m not a member of your family or anything like that?—”
“Nonsense.” Dean shook his head. “You’re Mom’s date. You two are still on a date, aren’t you?”
“I bet you didn’t think it would go like this.” Jacob grinned.
“Come on, Terrence,” Vivian said with a smile as she stood up. She took her hand in his and tugged him to his feet. “Come and meet my new grandbaby with me.”
The nurse led them down a clean white hallway. Vivian had noticed that the nurse hadn’t mentioned the gender of the baby, and her excitement grew as they approached Alexis’s room. She couldn’t wait to find out.
“Here are your first guests,” the nurse said in a hushed voice as she opened the door.
Vivian and Terrence stepped inside the room.
Grayson was standing beside the bed, his forehead sweaty and his eyes shining.
He was grinning from ear to ear and he looked like the proudest father in the world.
Alexis was lying back in the bed and resting, looking exhausted but absolutely glowing with happiness.
In her arms was a darling baby, still pink with tightly shut eyes.
“Hi, Mom,” she said softly. “Hi, Terrence. Come and meet our beautiful baby boy.”
Vivian let out a coo as she sat down on the bed next to her daughter. “Hello there, handsome boy,” she whispered, looking down in adoration at her newest grandchild. “You look like you could really use those mommy cuddles you’re getting. It’s such a big world, isn’t it?”
Alexis laughed. “He’ll get used to this whole open-air thing. The doctor said he’s perfectly healthy. I can’t wait to bring him home and have him there with us.”
Vivian reached out and touched her finger to the baby’s miniscule thumb. She remembered giving birth to her own children and the exquisite feeling of happiness and relief that always followed. She felt overcome with excitement about having a new little member of their family.
“I’m so happy for you, darling,” Vivian said, kissing Alexis’s cheek.
“Thanks, Mom.” Alexis beamed at her.
Vivian gazed at her grandchild and Alexis for a few more moments before turning to look at Grayson and Terrence, who were standing side by side. Grayson was still grinning, clearly on cloud nine, and Terrence looked a little misty-eyed.
How on earth did I ever think that there would be no more excitement in my life ? she thought with a chuckle. Here I am wearing a drenched cocktail dress at the birth of my grandchild!
Her heart swelled with happiness. She met eyes with Terrence, and she knew that she couldn’t wait to find out what other unexpected adventures life had in store for her.