Tainted Gold (Providence Gold 3)

“Oh, yes. A full, thick, head of hair. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it in all my years getting these little fellas out of their mama’s bellies.”

Throughout the exchange, I didn’t say one word because my eyes were too busy looking at the machine reading Lily’s heart rate and whatever else it was doing. I didn’t understand what any of it meant, but at this moment, so long as none of them said zero, I was happy.

A tugging on my beard got my attention. “Go see it’s hair. I want to know what color it is,” she whispered to me, nodding her head toward the business end of the situation.

When I frantically shook my head back at her, she glared at me and did it again.

To be honest, I was scared they were going to kick me out and make Lily go through all of this without me. I didn’t know if it was like in a library or something, but I didn’t want to risk it.

“Go,” she hissed.

Seeing how much she wanted the answer to the question, I grew a set of balls and stood up. With my height, I could see over the curtain without moving around the barrier - something which I knew that I shouldn’t have done.* * *“There we go, Mr. Townsend. That’s the last one in now,” a familiar voice told me.

Opening my eyes, I almost screamed at the strength of the light someone was shining on me. If that was one of my brothers I was going to kill them.

“Switch it off, asshole,” I growled, reaching out and trying to grab it out of their hands.

“Stay still, Tate,” the same voice said. “We’re just finishing up, and then you can go and see Lily and your beautiful baby.”

They could finish whatever they were doing without me, I was going to see Lily and my son. Getting up, I almost hit my head on the bright light still being shone at me, and ended up with something being stuck on my beard.

“What the hell?” I growled, wincing when the nurse pulled it back off again, taking some of my beard with it.

“We’re just covering the stitches, and then you can go. It’s two seconds, Tate,” she said as she unwrapped something, and then put a new dressing over my eyebrow.

Normally, we were the most respectful family. It might not seem it, especially right now, but we were. That said, I was getting anxious to get to her, and me and anxiety didn’t mesh well together – and that was an understatement. We were like oil and water.

“You’re done, I’m done, we’re done. Now let me up!”

“Tate,” Levi’s voice snapped, and I turned to see him glaring at me. “Be nice.”

“You be nice. I’m getting shit stuck on me and lights shone in my face, and somewhere in this hospital are Lily and my baby. Guess who’s not with them? Yeah, fucking me.”

It was the nurse who stopped the argument from exploding, a bit like my head was doing at that moment. “He’s right, Mr. Townsend. Ok, Tate, let’s go and meet your baby.”

It’s amazing the difference those words made on my emotions. One second I was ready to rip my brother’s head off, the next I was grinning like I’d just been handed the world, which I kind of had.

Getting to my feet and wincing as my head protested the use of the brain that was rattling around inside it (who would have thought basic cognitive functions would have been so taxing?), I followed behind her, leaning on Levi when he appeared beside me again. That was our way – you fought, you made up, you fought again, you gave an atomic wedgie, you put laxatives in their dinner, you made up, it always ended up with us supporting each other like Levi was doing now.

“Have you seen him?” I asked him as we got back into the elevator that I‘d taken before with Lily. Jesus, he’d still been in her stomach then, and now he was outside of it. That was such a surreal thought.

What did he look like? Was his head a normal size? Did they cut the right thing and not his dick?

“Nope,” he said excitedly. “But I’ve heard all about him.”

I didn’t miss the look between him and the nurse, but I didn’t pay it much attention as I watched the numbers light up inside the elevator for the second time that night. When it made the noise as it reached the right floor, I moved forward so that my chest was against the doors, enabling me to squeeze between them as they opened.

“It’s down the hall,” the nurse chuckled, walking past me and pointing. “This way.”

“How long is this frickin’ thing?”

“We get a lot of patients so we have a lot of rooms,” she shrugged, still walking down the never ending hallway.