Page 77 of Everything After (Everything Trilogy)

LILY

THIRTY-EIGHT WEEKS PREGNANT

Delilah had been regular company at our home for weeks since she’d graduated. I’d found her both inspirational and a great person to collaborate with. During that time, we’d written a few songs together but as we played one for the first time to Alfie and Drew our nerves kicked in.

When the song finished, we both held our breath as we glanced over at Alfie and Drew. From the way Delilah clasped her hands to her chest, I wondered whether she’d set her fingers alight from the passion and pace she’d played at, or she was praying the guys liked the song as much as we did.

“That’s nothing like anything you’ve done before,” Alfie stated, pointing at the piano as if the song was still playing.

I sucked in a breath, held it for a beat, then winced. “You don’t like it?” I glanced from Alfie to Delilah.

Delilah’s face instantly fell, wiping the wide grin she’d been wearing clean off her face. Her eyes widened in disbelief that he may not because even she thought it a masterpiece, because the music she’d just made had sounded remarkable.

Drew blinked slowly then cast a glance from Delilah, to me, and eventually to Alfie.

My husband’s expressionless face contrasted with the serious look in his eyes. “Baby, if you went out on your own with something like that, you’d have a whole new audience.”

“So… no?” I asked, let down by his response, especially since multiple hours of work had been put into the song, and how proud we felt about it.

“No… I mean, hell, yes, it’s…” Alfie huffed, and it was the first time I’d seen him look flustered about giving his opinion on a song. “I think that’s the best song you’ve ever sung, I love the music score, the arrangement, the melody, the lyrics, it’s fucking genius. What did you think Drew?”

“Speechless.”

“Is that it?” Alfie muttered, pushing for more.

“I don’t even know what I heard there but like Alfie said… genius. The vibe between you two is insane.”

Delilah’s excited, twinkling eyes met mine and she offered me her fist to bump. “Yes,” Delilah and I said together.

“I was sitting here thinking that song is so far removed from the Lily Parnell in XrAid, but Jesus, ladies, it’s a phenomenal number. Y’all had me mesmerized. If you debuted that song as a break out release solo from your band, your transition will be seamless,” Drew added.

A guilty pang struck a chord in my chest at the mention of XrAid.

It had been months since I’d spoken to Lennie or Cody, and I missed them.

In the beginning, Alfie had fielded their calls, before I’d sent them both an email to say that I understood they should do what’s best for the band, and to not count on me to be involved.

I received an email correspondence back from Lennie informing me that the band had decided to cut their new album without me, using a backing singer to sing instead of me.

Although it had been my decision to step back, I had still expected to feel a sense of betrayal if they went ahead without me. However, where my pride and ego should have been hurt by their actions, the only feelings I had were those of relief.

“Are you ready for fame, Delilah?” Alfie said, smiling at his prodigy.

“I was born ready,” she replied, glancing from him to me. She hunched her shoulders like a small, excited child.

“How is this going to work?” Drew queried with narrowed eyes.

I shrugged. “We’ve already decided we’re not going to be a duet. This is a collaboration, introducing Delilah,” I explained.

“I think that’s wise because you’re both different kinds of artists, although I must say, that song is incredible. You’ll have a number one in the charts for your debut single, Delilah… and for you as a solo artist, Lily,” he predicted.

“I’m not thinking about that right now. Let’s get this little one safely here and then see what the state of play is. I can imagine we’ll be disorganized for a while… not to mention me getting disentangled from XrAid if I choose to do that,” I suggested.

A mixture of anticipation and excitement at meeting our baby flowed through me until a wave of apprehension about our ability as parents and juggling that with a solo career came to mind.

“Lily, your mom is coming. How many women have a consultant pediatrician on hand to make sure you do things correctly?”

“Oh, I hope she doesn’t fuss too much, that’ll undermine my already fragile confidence about doing this,” I admitted.

“I agree, your mom’s a ball-buster, but this will be different for her. Decisions get cloudy when emotions are involved. She’s going to be grandma remember.”

“My dad’s going to melt into a puddle. You saw how he was with every baby of Jack’s that came along.”

Alfie chuckled. “It’s going to be fun watching your parents flustered for a change.”

“Right. Well, talking about kids, I need to get back and give Elle a break for a while. She’s got a nail appointment at 3:30 p.m. I promised to drop her off and pick her up again.”

Drew stood to leave, and I eased off the stool I’d been sitting on. Stepping in, I hugged him, then stepped back. As I did this, I felt a pop and a large gush of water darkened my dark maternity pants.

“Shit,” I muttered, glancing down while the water kept trickling out.

“Oh, God, are you okay? Is that blood?” The alarm in Alfie’s voice set my heart racing. I stared down at my pants and immediately became alarmed. Was it?

I headed to the bathroom down the hall with Alfie hot on my heels. I’d barely made it inside before Alfie began tugging at my pants to pull them down. Fortunately, they were elastic at the waist and glided down without much effort.

A look of relief passed between us when we saw the slightly straw-colored fluid.

“It’s only my water,” I said initially relieved, then both our eyes widened as we stared at each other. “Shit. We need an ambulance,” Alfie muttered.

“No, we don’t,” I said, chuckling. “I’ll grab a shower, and some fresh clothing. Call Oscar and grab my overnight bag for the hospital.”

“Should I call your mom?” Alfie asked, rubbing my back and guiding me by my arm like I was an elderly relative.

“No!” I shrieked. “Not until we’ve gone to the hospital, and I find out what’s going on.

” A streak of panic tore through me that the reality of this little person I’d kept safe in my belly was going to be part of our world.

I swallowed roughly at that thought. What if I fail as a mum once our baby is on the outside?

“What’s going on is my son is coming to meet us,” Alfie said, sounding excited.

“Or daughter,” I argued, pushing back my negative thoughts to concentrate on Alfie’s excitement. “Now, I’m wishing I’d agreed to know what sex it is. Our daughter is going to have a complex about you wanting a boy.”

“It’s not what I want. I’ll love this baby no matter what. I just know in here it’s a boy,” he said, tapping his chest with his free hand.

“Okay, well… we’ll find out soon enough if your heart is playing tricks on you,” I suggested.

“My heart never plays tricks. It brought me to you… to us. It knows what it wants and how it feels about what I need in my life,” Alfie muttered, making my heart melt.

“Alright, shut up, hippie. Let’s concentrate on cleaning me up and getting me to the hospital.”

“Can you get Jack on the phone?” I asked as we stepped off the boat in Miami. We climbed into our maintenance guy, Keith’s waiting car to take us to the hospital.

Alfie didn’t reply until I was safely seated, and he’d sat and buckled himself in, and Oscar closed the car door. “With pleasure,” Alfie said as I watched Oscar jog past the car hood and settle in the passenger seat beside Keith.

I frowned at Alfie’s uncharacteristic response. I thought it was so unlike him, to be so enthusiastic where Jack was concerned, until it dawned on me that my friend was still an ocean away.

“Hey, Jack,” Alfie crooned in an exaggeratedly friendly tone. “You know how you wanted to be in the labor room with Lily? I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible now,” he boasted. Of course we’d never agreed to that in the first place, but it hadn’t stopped Alfie from making his point.

“Speaker phone, please,” I said, and Alfie obliged.

“Lily?” he said. The tone of that one word carried a mixture of alarm, regret and excitement within it.

“Hi, Jack, we’re on our way to the hospital.”

“You’re contracting?” he asked, sounding alarmed.

“No… but my water broke. Scared the life out of us at the time because I was wearing wine-colored pants.”

“Red or white?” he asked.

“If they’d been white, they wouldn’t have scared us, dummy,” I teased, referencing it had been the dark red that had made the discovery ambiguous in the first place.

“Oh, God. That was a crass question, huh?” he remarked, sounding flummoxed. “Right, so no contractions?”

“No, but we need to go to the hospital because they should monitor the baby to make sure everything’s where it should be.”

“Right. But don’t they give you some time to start contracting naturally before they induce the labor? They did that with our third baby, here in the UK.”

“I’m not sure. What’s with all the questions?” I asked.

“I’m looking at flights on an app. There’s one leaving at 5:00 p.m. for New York. If I can get on that, I could be there late evening, your time.”

“No, Jack,” Alfie snapped. A growl tore from his throat. “Dude, I got this. You can fly over tomorrow. You’re not going to be here for the birth.”

“Like I said, I may make that flight,” Jack said again, ignoring Alfie.

“Jack, you should listen to Alfie,” I finally said.

“Then why did you call me, if you don’t want me to come?”

“We’ve shared so much in our lives this far. I mean you called me each time Mya went into labor, right? I just wanted to share in this moment with you,” I surmised.

“I see,” he remarked, sounding disappointed.

“Of course, I’d be delighted to see you, but Alfie’s right, this is our time. I’m not telling my mum either.”

“Jesus, could you imagine your mum with the hospital staff? They’d be scared shitless with her bossy nature,” Jack agreed with a smile in his voice for the first time since I’d said, ‘don’t come’.

“I’ll give you a call from the hospital once I know what’s happening.”

“I’ll be waiting… oh, and Lily?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re going to be one hot mamma,” he said in a dramatic tone.

“She is,” Alfie agreed, and slid his hand in mine. “Now, get the fuck off my cell phone so as I can pay attention to my wife.”

Jack chuckled. “Is that your dad tone?”

“No, that’s just me… you never want to hear my dad tone, buddy,” Alfie warned, adding a threatening tone to his voice.

“Oh, that’s getting better. Keep practicing,” Jack said, laughing.

Alfie cut the call and slid his cell phone in the pocket of his bomber jacket. “Right, now that I know he’s safely on the other side of the pond, let’s get down to it, Mrs. Black. I guess it’s time for us to meet our son.”