Page 40 of Hampton Holiday Collective
Oh. Oops.
From the corner of my eye, I catch Cory fighting back a grin and wrapping his arm around Jake in reassurance.
“Just add it to my tab,” I joke. I know better than to let Jake and Maddie get into it right now, even if their bickering is all in good fun. We don’t have time to exchange jabs; we have to go. I have no problem buying a new chair if we ruined this one with amniotic fluid.
“Do you want us to go to the hospital with you?” Tori asks, looking from Maddie to me.
I hold my breath as the question lingers between us. We have a solid plan in place for this moment—a plan that doesn’t factor in Tori and Rhett being in town. They’re rarely in Ohio these days: just around the holidays and for special occasions, so they were never part of our birth plan. But if Maddie wants them there…
Thinking about all the fears and worries we shared this afternoon, I curse silently as a new one washes over me.
I’m scared my brother won’t be at the hospital with me like we planned. Like I need him to be.
But I won’t deny my wife the opportunity to have her family by her side if that’s what she wants right now.
“No, I really don’t,” she insists, looking at her brother apologetically before turning back to me with an intense focus. “We have a plan.” She squeezes my hand. “And I want to stick to it. But we should get going.”
Relief washes over me as I grab our coats, then offer her my hand.
“Wait, what about me?” Jake asks, neck craned so he can not-so-discreetly check out the state of the chair as Maddie rises to stand. “I’m excellent in labor and delivery, Fourth Wheel. They probably still have my picture hanging on the wall and everything.”
Rhett scoffs and chucks a crumpled napkin at his best friend’s head. “They probably do. Hanging next to a notice that forbids you from entering the labor and delivery floor ever again. You got into a fight with a nurse when Matty was born, bro.”
“That he did,” Cory confirms, grinning from ear to ear.
Jake grumbles something unintelligible before Tori piles on.
“Jake—they literally made you leave the room,” she reminds him, her eyes alight with mischief. “I wouldn’t classify that as being ‘excellent at labor and delivery.’”
The table erupts in laughter at his expense.
“We gotta go,” I remind them as I send off the official text to my brother before stashing my phone in my pocket.
Tori stands up and hugs us goodbye, and all the guys follow her lead. I guide Maddie out of the crowded bar, grateful that I snagged a decent parking spot on the street.
We’re quiet but thrumming with nervous energy when I help her into the car. This is it. It’s really happening.
She buckles her seatbelt, and I can’t help but bend down and capture her lips in a kiss. “I’m really fucking scared,” I confess. “But really fucking excited, too.”
“I know. I am, too,” she admits with a smile, her eyes locked on mine and brimming with tears.
“We’ve got this, baby girl. We might be scared, but we’re doing this together.”
I close the car door and hurry around to the driver’s side as the bells of the clock tower ring out through downtown Hampton.
Chapter 31
Dempsey
“Howcommittedareyouto their names?” my brother asks, shifting his nephew higher on his chest and glancing over at me.
I feel ridiculous sitting in a vinyl hospital rocking chair next to my twin, shirtless, each of us holding a nearly naked baby against our bare chests. But he insists this is great for bonding, especially for preemies who may struggle with maintaining their body temperature.
We’re in the NICU, which is on a different floor from the maternity wing. It’s only been two days, but it’s like an entire lifetime has passed over the span of forty-eight hours.
When we arrived at the hospital, they admitted Maddie for observation. The babies both looked great, so they didn’t rush her back into surgery like I expected. Instead, they gave her steroids and antibiotics and scheduled a c-section for the next day.
Technically, she had an “emergency” c-section, but more emergent pregnant women kept showing up and bumping us back on the schedule. The twins weren’t born until late last night: one at 11:53 p.m., and the other at 12:02 a.m.