Page 86 of The Impact (Parachutes #3)
“No,” she sniveled, pretending to give a fuck. Pregnant women didn’t give a fuck. They were deservingly selfish and mildly deranged. Last week Vin had come home to the bedroom completely rearranged. Mattress overturned, and all. He knew it was nesting season.
“I said I’ll go, Tahli, damn. Go back to bed. Aye. You check in on her and get her anything she needs,” he pointed at Munch. “And listen out for the door. Vanessa’s dropping the kids off.”
“Aight,” Munch smirked, unspoken words in his expression.
“Fuck you, nigga.”
“Pussy-whipped mothafucka,” Munch grumbled on his back.
Vin had the game going on his phone. Even when he stepped inside of Sapore, the old Italian men were watching it on a tiny television.
With twenty, or so, minutes left in his journey home, he had Tahli’s hot sandwich made just right, and The Jets were running it down the field with his phone on the car dash.
“Ohhhhh, shit!” Vin almost blew a red light but managed to brake in time. Soon as the next play started, the game cut off for an incoming call.
“Fucking what, Munch-?!”
“Tahli’s in labor!”
“What?” His heart plunged into his heated car seat. A hasty horn blared, and Vin saw the light was now green.
“Labor, mothafucka!”
“Fuck! I’m on way.”
“Nah. We already in the car. She just let Niagara Falls go all in the whip. My backseats fucking flooded. Meet us at the hospital.” Munch was calmer than expected about Tahli’s water breaking in his new Porsche. But Vin knew him. He was his best version when it mattered.
“Tahli called her Pops and he’s bringing the kids there. You hear me, nigga?”
“Yeah.” Tahli was having contractions over an hour ago. He was still 45 minutes out from Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. If he missed the birth of his last baby, he’d be sick.
When he was 17, him and Munch would steal cars just to bring them to Avenue P and Foundry in Newark for racing. Vin almost flew off the Pulaski Skyway in a spin out. That’s how fast they’d be ripping. Now, he was channeling the memory, zooming to the hospital.
He pulled up 14 minutes earlier than he should’ve, jumped the curb, and pushed past a man cradling his casted arm.
“Tahli Hayes!”
“Are you Dad?” A nurse met him at the front desk, almost as panicked as he was.
“Yeah...Yes,” Vin caught his breath.
“Go! Go! That way!”
Straight ahead, another nurse held the elevator door open as Vin raced to it. She pushed the fifth-floor button when they were inside.
“Everyone’s waiting for you,” she smiled. “You ready?”
Panting, Vin took the seconds of the elevator climbing to push his head against the wall, shut his eyes.
“Yeah.”
“Time to run again,” she joked. The elevator chimed.
“This is Dad!” She shouted to the waiting staff and Vin took off.
“This way! This way!” They cheered like he was in a fucking relay. One held a door opened and Vin caught Munch, Robert, and his children in a blur.
“Vanessa’s in there!” He heard behind him. “Daddy!” He couldn’t even detour to Dali’s calling.
“Dad is here!” Another nurse announced out as Vin skidded into the room. Tahli was in the bed, legs bent, Vanessa holding her hand.
“Great! Now maybe you can push for real, Tahli!” Her doctor urged.
“I... I am!” She squealed, face glistening with sweat, anguish in her expression.
“You in here being stubborn?” Vin took her hand, and she squeezed it back.
“Where the fuck were…aaaaaoooooowwww!” She hollered. “Get out! Get out, Vin! Aooowwwwwwwwww!”
“It’s okay. Push now, baby love. Let’s meet our girl.”
“No! Get out! I had to get an epidural without you. Leave! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Her roar shook the room as her back curled, then her body flopped in tire.
“Oh, good job, Tahli!” Some nurse continued cheerleading.
“That’s so good, Tahli!” The same doctor who’d delivered Dali and Milo goaded along with Vanessa. A second later, cracking cries broke through the loud voices. Through deep, weighty breaths, Tahli brought wild eyes to him.
“You...you made it. I was scared. That’s why I was so mean. But… You’re here.”
“I’m always here, baby love.”
Those quiet hours following the visits and mania were Vin’s favorite. Him and Tahli alone, able to love on their new collaboration selfishly.
Yawning, Vin flipped the channels while Tahli slumbered in the hospital bed beside his cot.
“Hi,” her soft voice broke his channel surfing.
“Hi, baby love,” he returned the tenderness in her tone, even if it was just them in the room.
“Where’s the baby?” She questioned.
“They took her for a bath.”
Tahli sat up a little, wincing, and Vin was there to assist.
“I’m sorry I was so mean,” she apologized again. “I’m sorry I told you to leave.”
“Tahli, you were pushing out a whole human being out of a very tight spot. Trust me, baby love, I know.”
“You’re so nasty,” she swatted at him. Then she snatched his hand just as swiftly.
“Promise you’ll never listen. Even if I’m awful.
Even if we go through the worst things anybody can ever go through and I tell you to get the fuck out again,” Tahli rambled, still visibly high on whatever they’d pumped into her.
“Promise me you won’t listen to me. You know me best, Vin.
Promise me you’ll never give up even when I do.
Promise you’ll never stop fighting. When I’m stubborn or if I run.
If ever pull a Cree Autumn. Come and find me and remind me that we can get through anything.
That you believe me when I say right now, there is nothing that will ever make me want to live without you. ”
“Tah, baby. Come on,” Vin chuckled nervously. “You talking crazy.”
“I know. But promise me anyway.”
“I promise.”
“On the kids. On Doll. On Lo. On Terran. On the fucking dog.”
“There is no dog.”
“When we get a dog. Promise on his ass.”
“I promise.”
“A parachute promise?” She bullied, almost frantically. Like she could sense some impending doom, and didn’t trust herself enough to handle it.
“Because that’s what parachutes is about, Vin. Not just about saving us from the fall but saving us from the impact. When we’re crashing to the ground too fast to stop it, the parachute is there to do it. So we never die. Our love can’t die, Dalvin.”
He grasped her hand, kissing it tenderly.
“It won’t die. That’s a fucking parachute promise.”