“Wrong, I could shut your mouth if I really wanted.” Merrick stroked his palm over my belly. “But lucky for you, Audrey wants to hear what you have to say, so I’m not forced to demonstrate exactly how I’d do it.”
Deacon deftly worked his way through traffic, following Merrick’s directions for the quickest route while telling me about how badly one of the other SEAL guys, Huntley, had done when his wife had delivered their first baby. My laughter over hearing how he’d passed out drifted into a groan when the strongest contraction yet hit me.
Merrick glanced at the Patek Philippe watch strapped to his wrist. “They’re coming too close together. Drive faster.”
“Fuck,” Deacon hissed. “LA traffic doesn’t exactly make it easy to pick up speed, Shadow.”
“Figure it out, man. I don’t want my wife giving birth to our first child in this car,” Merrick growled.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “No way in heck am I having Kohen back here when we’re only a couple of miles from the hospital.”
I was starting to doubt if we’d make it as my contractions started to last longer, and I cried out in relief when we finally pulled up in front of the hospital. Merrick jumped out of the car and grabbed a wheelchair before lifting me out. As soon as he shut the door behind us, the tires squealed as Deacon pulled away from the curb. Merrick got me settled and rolled me into the hospital, pausing near the doors to hold my hand when another contraction hit. Then he yelled, “We need help over here,” when we got inside.
A nurse came running over, taking my wrist to check my pulse as she kneeled in front of me and asked for my details. I panted through another contraction while Merrick finished the rundown of how far along I was, the timing of the contractions, and told her about my water breaking and that our doctor was already on the way since he’d called her from the car.
I wasn’t sure how Deacon had managed to park the car so quickly, but I heard him call out to us as the nurse—whose name was Piper, according to her nametag—got to her feet. I recognized the dazed expression on her face. It was the same one I had when I’d first met Merrick. Glancing over my shoulder at Deacon, I saw that his attention was totally focused on her, too. Rubbing my palms together, I murmured, “This is going to be fun.”
My comment drew Piper's attention away from Deacon. Her eyes widened as she echoed, “This is going to be fun? I don’t think I’ve ever had a patient describe giving birth quite like that before. Usually, they’re asking how quickly we can get them an epidural once the contractions are as close together as yours are.”
Merrick rounded the wheelchair and nudged Piper out of the way, worry shining from his dark eyes. “Do you need meds, kitten? Because I’ll make sure they give them to you now if you’re in too much pain.”
I had no doubt that my husband could scare the medical staff into doing whatever he wanted, but I didn’t need the security team to pace the hallway outside my room the entire time we were here because they thought he posed a risk. Patting his hand, I plastered a smile on my face and muttered, “I’m sure I’ll be fine until we get to the birthing suite.”
“Which is where I’ll take you right now.” Piper eyed Deacon up and down before she moved to the back of the wheelchair to push me toward the elevator. Bending toward my ear, she whispered, “Who’s hottie number two?”
I felt her startle behind me when Deacon answered, “A friend of the family.”
“Like I said,” I whispered back, even though I knew both men would be able to hear me. “This is going to be fun.”
Watching Deacon and Piper circle each other helped to pass all of the hours before it was time for me to push. Knowing that one of my husband’s SEAL brothers found their woman as our first son was being born would also make for one heck of a story later on.
Epilogue
Merrick
I set my beer down on the patio table and looked around at my former teammates and their families. We did this a few times a year, all of us congregating at one of our houses for a barbecue or some other cliché family activity.
Considering our backgrounds, I couldn’t help but laugh my ass off when Huntley’s youngest daughter dragged him into a bounce house. Until they caught me with a tiara on my head while I tried to convince my daughter to go on the potty.
It baffled me that this same little girl had just turned sixteen and was upstairs getting ready for prom and her first date.