“Good call,” Jack assured her.
“Jack.”
He glanced over his shoulder as Coop strode down the corridor, looking more than a little concerned. Jack hurried to meet him, and to his shock, Cooper embraced him, thumping his hand on his back.
“You okay?” Jack’s voice was gruff.
Cooper’s face strained with anxiety, his eyes alarmingly bright.
Fuck.
“They took her away.”
“Away? What the hell for?” Jack could feel their friends surrounding them.
Cooper took a step to the side to address them all. He looked ready to throw up. “Baby went into distress. Something about late decelerations in his heart rate. Late returns to the baseline heart rate after a contraction. Long story short, Baby isn’t getting enough oxygen. They took Jess into surgery.”
“Emergency C-section?” Em stepped forward to grasp Coop’s hand.
He squeezed it tight and nodded.
“She’ll be okay, Jack,” Emery assured him, sounding pretty certain. “It’s the best thing for Jess and your boy.”
Something about her reassurance seemed to break Coop, and he turned away from them, one hand covering his face while his other held on to Em’s.
Emotion choked Jack, seeing his friend so worried and vulnerable. He placed a hand on Coop’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Can I get you anything, bud?”
Coop shook his head. His voice hoarse, he replied, “Just don’t go anywhere.”
Jack’s was equally so. “Never, Coop.”
* * *
“Mr. Lawson.”
Every single one of them jerked around to stare at the doctor smiling at Cooper.
Cooper shot out of the uncomfortable waiting room chair. “Are they okay?”
The doctor grinned. “Both mother and baby are in very good health. Would you like to meet your son?”
Relief and joy flooded Jack as he watched Cooper hang his head with probably the same feelings times five million. A sob burst out of Cat, who’d been sitting next to Coop for the last hour. It seemed to surprise the heck out of Dahlia and Em, but Jack had known Cat her entire life and knew she was a big softie under that cool-as-cucumber facade.
Joey moved from Em (his second-favorite person in the world) to go to his mom.
“I’ll be back,” Coop threw over his shoulder as he followed the doctor.
A hand slipped into Jack’s and he turned to look at Em, who’d moved to the seat beside him. She smiled, her eyes bright with happiness.
And Jack was done.
He was done with all the bullshit games, trying to stealth seduce the woman he loved into agreeing to make what was between them real and permanent. When Emery gave birth to their baby, Jack wanted to kiss her breathless in gratitude for giving him the best gift in the world.
He wanted to do that knowing they were going home together with their child.
Raising their child together in the same house, day in, day out.
Till death do they part.
39
Jack
Light burst into the room, waking Jack at the crack of dawn. He’d forgotten to shut the curtains when he brought Em back to her beach house the night before. To his relief, Em didn’t ask him to leave. She let him take her upstairs, help her undress, and she even let him hold her while she fell asleep, exhausted by the day’s events.
They’d been allowed to go in twos to see Jess and the baby.
Cooper had a son.
It was surreal.
But fucking great seeing how happy it made his friend.
Jess and Cooper had named their boy Tyler Joseph Lawson.
Apparently, the umbilical cord had wrapped around Tyler’s neck, causing oxygen deprivation. When Cooper told them that, Jack had pulled Em so tight into his side, he was probably gripping her too hard. But that shit was terrifying. The thought of it happening to their little one scared the hell out of Jack.
As for Tyler’s size, he was long and big at eight pounds and eight ounces. No wonder Jess had been uncomfortable for most of the pregnancy.
Seeing how tired Jess was, they’d excused themselves and promised they’d be back in the morning to visit since Jess would have to stay until the doc said she was okay to be discharged.
An exhausted Emery hadn’t said much in the truck on the way home, and Jack had known that it wasn’t the right time to bring up the status of their relationship.
Turning his head on the pillow, every part of him ached as he took in the sight of Emery lying beside him. God, he wanted this for the rest of his life. Waking up to her.
The thought of losing it … it was worse than any grief Jack had ever experienced in his life.
Em had kicked the duvet off during the night. She’d been getting especially hot in her sleep lately. That’s why he’d helped her into a cami-and-short set for bed, despite the cool fall temperatures.
The cami had risen up Em’s stomach, revealing the cute little baby bump. Unable to resist, Jack reached out and smoothed his hands over it. Sometimes when he touched the bump, he felt like a kid who’d just been told Santa was real. It was awesome, magical, that there was a baby, a little person, growing inside Emery. A little person made up of him and her.