Carly gripped Bryson’s arm and gave him a big smile, a total one-eighty of her earlier bossy, pissed-off self. “If you feel the need to discuss this further with these gentlemen, honey, you do it another time. Now it’s time for what we’ve been waiting for. Both of you stay here and I’ll see if she wants either of you in there with her. I’ll be leaving it up to her, since she probably heard you fighting like damn children.”
“It’s not my kid,” Sig muttered. He jerked a thumb toward the pig standing next to him. “It’s his. If he agrees to forget everything he heard about what happened on that mountain.”
Carly’s gaze slid to her husband.
Bryson muttered, “Fuck,” scraped a hand through his dark hair and nodded. “My memory sucks.”
With a nod and an excited smile, Carly rushed down the hallway and into the room.
Stella followed her and waited in the doorway. A few seconds later she turned and called out, “She wants both of you. Hurry up.”
“You fuckin’ go. Like I said, ain’t my kid.”
Bryson’s jaw shifted. “She wants you in there. Or are you going to let her down again?”
Damn, that was just a dick thing to say. But then, pigs were nothing but tiny dicks with big badges.
Even so, the fucker was right. He didn’t want to disappoint Red. If she wanted him with her, he was going to be with her.
What Red wanted, Red got.
He was such a motherfucking sucker.
Chapter Twenty-One
Autumn swallowed hard as she stared up at Sig’s concerned eyes staring back at her.
She hadn’t watched when Matt Bryson, with that last hard push, caught his son and then cut the cord. She hadn’t looked when she heard their son’s first soft cry.
But it made her breasts ache.
And her heart ache more.
Sig hadn’t let go of her hand the whole time she’d been in the last stages of labor. From the second he and Matt had walked in the room together, he’d grabbed it and stood by her head, talking to her, encouraging her. While Matt had moved to the end of the bed where Carly was. His face didn’t show excitement but more of a bit of panic at first, which he quickly hid.
Autumn wondered what that was about, but then, the thought of having a new baby had to be nerve-wracking. Especially since this one would be their first.
But no matter how hard she squeezed Sig’s hand, he never let go. Not once. And he didn’t complain about his crushed fingers, either.
He’d wiped her brow like Carly suggested. Again, without a complaint. He talked to her low and quietly, telling her this day would be the first day of her new beginning. She no longer had to think about what happened in the past and all she had to do was think about her future.
If only it was that easy.
And she had no idea where she’d go from here. None.
A sob caught her attention and she twisted her head to see Carly holding her new son and crying.
Autumn pressed her lips together and felt the burn in her own eyes.
She wasn’t sad. She was happy.
She was happy that with all that had happened to her, out of all the ugliness came something so beautiful.
Not only a healthy baby boy, but a loving family for him.
“He’s normal, right?” she whispered to Sig. “All his fingers and toes?”
“Think so. Neither of them has made a shocked face or ran screamin’.”
Autumn’s lips twitched. “Well, that’s promising.”
“Yeah, baby, he’s good. Looks like they love ‘im already.”
She nodded and blinked a few times, trying not to cry.
“You sad?”
“Tired.”
“No shit. I’m tired for you.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead, then pressed a light one to her lips. “That was some crazy fuckin’ shit. ‘Specially when that other thing came out. Thought you were havin’ twins no one knew about.”
“The afterbirth?”
He grimaced. “Yeah, whatever.”
Carly stepped closer to the bed, the now swaddled baby in her arms and a little light blue beanie on his tiny head. “Do you want to nurse him? At least for the first time? It would probably be best for him with how he was malnourished during most of the pregnancy and also with him being two weeks early.”
She squeezed Sig’s hand, but not as tightly as during the contractions. “I don’t know if... I can.”
“Nursing will not only be good for him, but good for you, too.”
She could barely make out the baby’s face, but she could hear his soft sounds. Matt moved up behind his wife and put a hand on her shoulder in what looked like a silent message.
Maybe he was worried Autumn would change her mind if she nursed the baby. She still had time to decide to keep him. But not once during the pregnancy or even during the birth had she thought she should.