Shift Happens (Providence Family Ties 2)

He could call him Princess Sparkle Tits for all I cared, but fortunately, Sam was more rational than I was. “Of course. He hates formalities anyway, so hearing Ryan instead of his last name would be his preference.”

“Excellent. So, Ryan’s blood pressure and heart rate were impacted by the trauma and blood loss, but when he heard your voice, they increased slightly.”

When I looked alarmed and no doubt the guilt that flooded me was apparent on my face, he held his hand up. “No, that’s a good thing. We want it to do that, so it’s not bad at all.”

“So,” I said slowly, feeling totally out of my depth, “we can still stay with him for a bit?”

“Absolutely. Just talk to him and let him know you’re here.”

And that’s what we did.

I went to see him every day while he slept like a lazy ass—something I told him—and recounted my favorite memories.

Then I told him about the plans I was making for us so that we’d have a million more memories.

And, after three days, when they were happy with his stats and satisfied that bringing him out of the medically induced coma wouldn’t damage the repairs they’d made inside his body, they did just that. Slowly reducing the drugs instead of turning them off altogether, in case his body couldn’t handle it.

On the third morning, when I walked in, expecting to see him still asleep, it was to see him with his eyes open, staring at me with Sam beside him.

Sam

“Who’s that?” Ryan asked, and I had to bite my lip as I bent down to tuck him in again.

“That’s our daughter, Sasha, babe.”

He didn’t take a deep breath in or have a dramatic reaction like he would have if he hadn’t been shot in the abdomen. Instead, he put all of it into the tone of his voice, even though he could only talk a hair above a whisper.

“We have a daughter?”

Sasha was watching us both and had frozen mid-step.

“Yeah, she’s about to turn twenty-one, so you’ve got to get out of here to help me keep her in line.”

“Damn,” he sighed sadly. “I really wanted a son.”

Sasha gasped and hissed, “I knew it!”

Slowly rolling his head on the pillow in her direction, I watched his eyes take her in from head to toe.

“I guess we could always cut her hair and buy her stuff from the men’s section. It wouldn’t take a lot. But those brows need to be fixed.”

I don’t know how I managed to keep the bark of laughter inside. Probably because I was so fucking relieved Ryan was awake, but also because we were surrounded by patients who might never get to have this moment with their loved ones, and that knowledge had me all over the place emotionally.

Sasha, however, slapped her hand over her forehead and shot Ryan a glare that’d usually have him apologizing and promising her anything she wanted.

“What happened to her hair?” he whispered.

Dropping the hand still covering her eyebrows, she narrowed her eyes on him and then closed the distance to the other side of her dad’s bed.

Then, leaning over him until her nose was skimming his, she said sweetly, “I need you out of here because I’m pregnant, and all three babies need both of their grandaddies.”

Only days ago, the doctor had told us that an increase in Ryan’s heart rate was a good thing, but seeing how fast it was beeping now, nurses came running over to check on him.

Maybe when they were done they could check on me, too, because I swear it felt like I was having a heart attack.

At least we knew where the ICU department was for when I put that fucking Jackson Townsend-Rossi in here.

“What happened?” a nurse gasped. “Wow, I was never a believer in ill patients responding to the voices of their loved ones, but you’re just getting stronger and stronger each time you hear one of them.”

As she turned to write something down on his chart, though, Sasha leaned in a smiled evilly at us both. “You a-holes thought you were the only one who could play jokes. Game, set, and match, bitches!”

Sasha

For three days, it felt like a part of me was missing.

The only reason I was able to function without crumbling and losing my mind was because of my family and Jackson’s.

Every last one of them played an important part in me going into the battle ahead with a clearer mind and determination. They might have been in my life since I was born, but now they were part of the glue that kept me together and the blood that beat through my veins.

And now I had both of my dads back, even if it was only because they were determined not to see me knocked up with triplets.