“What?” He’d confused Sam now.
Grinning from ear to ear, completely free for the first time in memory, Michael said, “I’ve got a son and a daughter due to be born in less than a month.”
“Susan’s pregnant?” Sam yelled so loudly Michael had to take the phone away from his ear. “With twins?”
“Yep,” he said.
Nothing in his life had ever made Michael feel quite so good.
THE PHONE RANG some time after Michael had fallen asleep that night. Rolling over drowsily, he made up his mind to tell his family that further discussions would have to wait until tomorrow—or at least until he got some sleep. He’d heard from all of them, his mother and sisters, at least half a dozen times that evening, as they made plans for their new babies.
“Michael? It’s Seth.”
Instantly wide awake, Michael sat up. “What’s wrong?” The other man sounded panicked.
“Susan’s in labor. The pains are really far apart, but the doctor says this is it.” Seth spoke so fast, he was out of breath when he’d finished.
“I’m on my way—”
“Thank God. I can’t do this one for you.”
SHE WAS ALREADY in her birthing room by the time Michael made it to the hospital. Seth met him at the hospital door and hurried him up to the maternity floor, where a nurse was standing by with sterilized paper clothes for him to pull on over his jeans and sweatshirt.
“How is she?”
“Still has a little way to go,” Seth said. “The doctor was just with her, but she’s in there alone right now.” And Seth obviously didn’t like that fact one bit.
“Does she know I’m coming?” he asked Laura over a frenzied Seth’s head.
Laura shook her head. “He didn’t want her fretting in case your plane was delayed or the babies came early.” Or she didn’t want me here, Michael finished.
He wasn’t going to worry about that. He’d win her over. Even if the package wasn’t gift-wrapped yet.
He’d been so frantic to get there, but when the moment came to enter Susan’s room, he hung back.
“Where are your kids?” he asked Laura.
“At Seth’s house. His dad, Sean and Stephen are with them.”
And Spencer and Scott—the only two with kids, and hence, not as mobile—were at their own homes pacing, he was sure.
“Get in there, man.” Seth said between gritted teeth, pushing Michael through the door.
Prepared for the worst, preparing himself to see Susan gripped with searing pain, he went in.
She turned when the door opened, still laughing at something she’d been watching on television, and Michael just shook his head. She even underestimated the trauma of giving birth.
THE LAUGHTER DIED on Susan’s lips when she saw who’d come in the door.
“Thank God,” she whispered and then, to her horror, burst into tears.
“Susan?” Panic lining his face, Michael was beside her in an instant. “What can I do, love? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Michael,” she sobbed, grabbing at him desperately, pulling him down until he was half lying on top of her.
“You don’t sound fine—”
“Just hold me, Michael,” she said, still crying. “I thought I could do this without you, but when it came right down to it I was so scared and I didn’t know what to do and there was no way to stop it from happening, but I just couldn’t do it....” The words tumbled over themselves, but Michael caught every blessed one of them. “Ohhh...” she cried out as a contraction began.