Short Rides (Rough Riders 14.5)
“Three, I think.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m gonna miss you, GQ. Hurry back.”
“I will. But you could give me something to remember you by tonight.”
She lifted her head. “When did you start taking testosterone? Because you are as horny as a teenage boy lately.”
Jack kissed her, sweet and slow and deep. “What can I say? My wife is smoking hot.” He kissed her again. “Guys complain about their wives losing interest in sex after having a baby. But what do any of them do to fix it? If it’s important it’ll be a priority. It’ll always be a priority for me. For us.”
“I love that about you.”
Another forty minutes passed and Keely was ready to climb the walls, even when Piper was content to sit on Daddy’s lap and coo and babble at him.
Finally Doc Monroe swept in. “Sorry. Jack, why don’t you get little miss stripped to her diaper so I can check her out.” Then she looked at Keely and smirked. “Good news? Negative for flu. The other good news? You’re pregnant.” She set a big bottle of prenatal vitamins on the counter. “Congratulations.”
“What?” Keely and Jack said simultaneously. “But how can that be?”
“What birth control measures were you using?”
“Well, none, but—”
Doc Monroe lifted her hand. “Please do not tell me you listened to that old wives tale about not being able to get pregnant while you’re nursing.”
Keely blushed. Then she whapped Jack on the arm. “I cannot believe you knocked me up again, Jack Donohue.”
“Look at it this way. It’s another first in the McKay family with your Irish twins.” At Jack and Keely’s blank looks, she clarified, “Two babies born within a calendar year.”
Jack grinned and Keely whapped his arm again.
All Knocked Up: Chapter Four
Seven and a half months later...
“Come on, Keely, breathe.”
“I am breathing, you bastard. Ow. Fuck. Goddamn that hurts.”
Jack opened his mouth to remind her about language but Keely’s death stare kept him quiet.
Swearing rules didn’t apply during labor.
After the contraction ended, she reached for the towel only to have Jack already there, gently mopping her face. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure.” He kissed her temple. “This one seems to be going faster than the last one.”
“Not fast enough for me,” she grumbled.
“Hold on. Here comes another. Breathe with me.”
When it ended, she panted, “Jack. They’re getting worse.”
“Want me to get the nurse?”
“Not yet.”
As Keely waited for his cue for the next one, she had that same surreal sensation she had last year—the urge to flee. She needed to focus on something else. Her darling daughter.
Hard to believe Piper would be a year old in three weeks. Being two weeks early should’ve been an indication she’d do everything early. She’d walked at nine months and started talking at ten months. Of course her first word was Daddy.
“I know you’re thinking about Piper. I texted your mom,” Jack said. “She’s fine. She’s following Avery everywhere.”
Since Cord and AJ’s little girl Avery and Piper were nine months apart—same age difference as Keely and AJ—Cord and Jack already were already strategizing how to keep the girls from running wild.
Yeah, good luck with that, Keely’s dad had told them.
“Keely, get ready.”
The contractions came hard and fast. Time was divided in two: during a contraction and the break between contractions. She’d blocked much of her labor out last year. The pain had been unimaginable; she hadn’t known how she’d survive it. And then soon as the baby popped out, pain gone. Completely.
But until that point? Hell. Which she was in right now.
The nurse came in and checked her. “Wow, lady, you’re at nine.”
“How can that be?” Jack asked. “Two hours ago she was at five.”
“Second babies are quicker. Her body knows what to do. I’ll get the doc. Get your scrubs on.”
The next ten minutes were an exercise in control as Keely breathed through the need to push.
After Doctor Monroe arrived, and she could finally give in to that urge, it only took two tries and the baby was out.
Breathing hard, dizzy, hot, and sore, Keely still managed to sit up and look at the baby in Doc’s hands. “Well?”
“It’s a girl.”
Jack laughed. “Next time I’m getting you pregnant in the summer so you don’t freeze the stem off another one.”
“Jack!”
“You know I’m kidding, cowgirl.”
Then the blonde baby girl was placed on her stomach. Blonde? Where the hell had that hair color come from?
“Look at her.” Jack murmured, “Hey, precious. Welcome to the family.”
She screwed up her face and let out a loud cry.
“Healthy set of lungs on her.” Doc Monroe cut the cord and the nurses whisked the baby away.
No, bring her back! I hardly got to see her.
“You were fierce in labor this time, beautiful wife of mine. I’m proud of you.” He kissed her temple. “Thank you for adding another perfect girl to my life.”
“I’m so happy that Piper has a sister.” She sniffled. “I love my brothers, but after seeing how close my mom and my aunt are, I always wanted a sister.”
“Maybe we’ll provide them with a brother next time.” He chuckled at her look of shock. “What? Carolyn kept birthing babies until she had a girl, so in some ways, it is a family tradition.”
“You are reaching, buddy.”
Doc Monroe walked over with the baby bundle. “She weighed in at seven pounds, fourteen ounces and she’s twenty-three inches long.” She handed Jack the baby. “What’s her name?”
Jack looked at Keely. “Katie McKay Donohue.”
The medical personnel picked up their stuff and they were gone.
“Let me hold her,” Keely demanded.
“In a second.”
“Are you gonna hog this baby too?”
“Probably.”
Two months later…
Jack came up behind Keely and wrapped his arms around her, placing a kiss on the side of her neck. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself, handsome. What’s up?” She rubbed her ass into his groin. “Besides your cock?”