She was silent for a few moments before she started giggling. “I’m sorry.”
I ground my teeth. “You should be. It crawled out of the smoker.”
She hissed, and my stomach clenched with the sound.
“At least,” she breathed out roughly. “It didn’t come out when you were carrying it to the car. Or if you’d have left it, and I moved it. Things could be worse.”
“Get dad to take you to the hospital. Mom’ll have to watch the kids until dad can get home to get my truck. I’ll catch a ride with Max,” I told her.
She sniffled, and my heart broke to know she was in pain.
“It’ll be okay, baby.”
The men around me shuffled their feet, none of them liking the fact that a woman was in pain any more than I did.
“I know, Benny Boo Boo,” she sniffled. “I fucking love you.”
I winced at the use of the nickname she’d given me.
She’d watched How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, and had ‘fallen in love’ (her words not mine) and had used the nickname in private ever since.
Now, though, I figured my free pass was gone.
“I’ll meet you there, baby. Love you too.”
Lennox hung up, and I backed away from the Tahoe warily, fishing my keys out of my pocket and handing them to Max.
“Thanks man,” I muttered, tossing him my key.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “What makes you think I want to deal with that?”
“Because your niece or nephew is on his or her way, and I’m not there yet?” I asked with a raised voice.
He waved me off. “Get out of here.”
Thirty minutes later, with five men in tow, I burst through the maternity wing doors and headed straight to the room I’d been told via Downy’s phone.
I got there in time to see them wheeling her down the hospital hall and straight into surgery.
“Over here!” Payton called, waving me over.
I ran to her and started stepping into the clothes she offered me.
I ripped the booties with the size of my feet, but Payton waved me onward. “It’s fine, just get them on as far as you can and let’s go.”
I left my sister with a kiss at the door of the operating room, and hurried through the glass doors.
“Mr. Alvarez, I assume,” a nurse fully garbed in her surgical gear asked lightly.
I nodded my head, looking over the nurse’s shoulder. “Yeah. That’s me. Is she okay?”
The nurse nodded, her eyes shining with humor. “She’s fine. They’re just getting to the good part.”
She led the way further into the room, and I nearly dropped to my knees at the sight of my wife’s belly gaping open with a diagonal line gaping open.
I swallowed thickly, forcing myself to move, one foot in front of the other, until I came to Lennox’s side.
“I knew you’d make it,” she whispered, not bothering to open her eyes. “The snake didn’t bite your wiener, did it? I’m quite fond of that.”
I blinked in surprise. “No, my wiener is all good.”
The anesthesiologist snorted in amusement.
“She could feel a little more than what we were comfortable with, so I shot her up with a nice cocktail about a minute before you walked into the room,” he informed me.
“Ahhh,” I said, understanding now why she was speaking the way she was.
“A little pressure!” A man’s voice called from the opposite side of the curtain.
Then, I kid you fucking not, I saw the man hop up over the curtain, and then saw my wife’s body forcefully rock as he came down on her belly.
“Head’s out!” A woman called in excitement.
Nausea boiled in my belly, and I looked down at my wife to see her smiling, and her eyes dilated until I could barely make out any color at all.
“You have a boy!” A woman crowed, and I came to my feet in an instant.
“A boy?” I asked excitedly.
The doctor held the blood covered baby up for me to see, and sure enough, he was a boy!
A very pissed off at the world, boy!
I dropped down into my seat once again, and looked down at my wife, who was smiling from ear to ear.
“Did you hear that, baby?” I asked in happiness.
She smiled from ear to ear, the black bar across her forehead that was measuring her temperature crinkled with her skin as she did.
“You’re welcome,” she said smugly.
I leaned down and placed my lips upon hers.
“I love you, baby. You’ve given me so many gifts that I don’t think I can ever repay you.” I told her softly.
She pressed her lips against mine.
“I love you too, Bennett. And you’ve done the same, if not more, for me. I think we’re even,” she whispered.
I looked down into her eyes as I listened to the wails of my crying son.
“No baby. But I’ll spend my life trying to make it so.”
And I would.
Forever.
Sneak Peak
Here is the sneak peak of Michael’s book, Coup De Grace. Michael’s book comes out on November 4th, 2015. Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1
I licked it. So it’s mine.
-Fact of life
Michael
“You’ll need to make sure you get to the house by six if you want to make it on time for dinner,” my father said tiredly. “You know how your mother gets when you don’t show up on time.”
I winced.
I did know how my mother got.
Irrational is what she got.
It’s as if she hadn’t been married to a doctor for the last thirty years.
I can’t name one single time that my father got to any event on time, whether it be a birthday, vacation, sporting event, graduation, or hell, even a fucking birth.
Not one time had I seen her lose it over my father being late, but her baby boy was late and suddenly the whole world stopped.
“I’ll try to be on time,” I told him. “But I’m not promising anything. I have to work until five thirty; it takes nearly thirty minutes to get to your house from the station. And that’s if I leave on time. I told her to make sure she held the party later, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Joslin wanted six,” my father told me hesitantly, opening the door to his office. “And that’s when Dean could be there.”
I squeezed my hands tightly into fists, trying my hardest to not punch a hole in the wall with my fist.
I had no earthly idea why my mother continued to invite my ex-wife.
Dean was at least my fuckin’ brother, and I could understand why he’d have to be there.
It was as if my mom didn’t care that Joslin was no longer married to me. Usually the family chooses the child over the child’s ex.
We were together for a little over a year and a half when I found out she’d cheated.
Granted, the reason she’d cheated had been my fault, or so she’d said, but that still didn’t give her the right to do that to me.
We’d taken vows. And I’d at least meant them.
Refraining from saying, ‘Fuck Joslin,’ I walked to the side doors of the hospital and to the ambulance bay with my father.
“I see,” I settled on.
My father’s face looked pensive, as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to say it.
“Michael, I need to tell you something…” my father started.
I would’ve stayed to listen, but the mic at my shoulder started squawking.
“The nearest unit is needed at 5543 Pleasant Circle. Possible double homicide,” the dispatcher ordered.
Sighing, I turned and offered my hand to my pop.
“Gotta go, dad. I’ll try my hardest to get there on time, but I’m not promising anything,” I told him.
He nodded, looking for the world like he was upset that he hadn’t said what he had to say, and shook my hand before saying, “Be safe.”
My father, like my mother, hadn’t liked that I’d chosen to go into law enforcement.