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.