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Indeed, I follow his gaze and gasp and laugh in between crippling contractions as I see the whole of Blackthorn Riders MC gathered just outside the emergency room’s main entrance. Dad, too. He’s wide-eyed and nervously smiling. Paddy shaved his scruffy beard and looks like a boiled potato, but I love him, nonetheless. I just hope he grows it back.
“No, I mean the babies!” I manage, panting and practically boiling on the inside. “They’re late! Two days late!”
“You’re going to be okay, Nadia,” my doctor says, laughing lightly. “Your latest blood tests and ultrasound gave the three of you a clean bill of health.”
“Oh, God, the pain …” I moan, feeling another wave coming. “I can’t do this.”
Orion manages to plant a kiss on my forehead as I’m wheeled into the birthing suite. “Baby, we’ve got you,” he says.
“We’re here,” Drake adds.
“I’m scared shitless!” I say, shuddering as the next contraction hits me hard.
The doctor looks under my skirt. “Oh, she’s already crowning. Let’s move people.”
I thought it would last longer, but once the epidural kicked in, it was game over. I’m constantly amazed by how much a woman’s body can handle solely for the purpose of bringing a new soul into the world. Granted, I was generous. I brought two new souls into the world, and God, let them grow strong and resilient enough to handle whatever life throws at them.
“I can’t protect you from everything, but I promise I’ll teach you both how to rise above,” I whisper to my babies in a moment of peace and quiet.
My body feels soft and pudgy. I’m exhausted and drowsy. I can’t move much, but I am able to hold my boys—two perfect angels swaddled in ivory-colored cotton, two red-faced raisins to whom I am forever and irreversibly bound.
“You were incredible,” Orion says, sitting beside my bed.
I’m not sure how long it’s been since I gave birth, but the room feels brighter and bigger than before. This is probably because I am so happy, so relieved, and so thankful to be alive in this moment, to be able to witness this miracle, to be a part of it.
“I love you so much,” Drake adds, gently kissing my cheek.
“You’re the real soldier out of the four of us,” Kai sighs deeply, unable to take his eyes off our boys.
They’re our boys. No paternity test needed unless it’s for medical reasons. It’s what we agreed upon. They’re going to be raised in our strange and beautiful family. They’ll have three dads, and so many cool uncles, and my heart leaps with joy just thinking about what a marvelous childhood awaits my sweet babies.
“I wasn’t sure I’d make it,” I tell my men.
“Oh, but you did,” Orion says. “We couldn’t have done this without you, Nadia. We’re nothing without you.”
“I’m everything with you,” I reply, then glance down at my boys again. “They’re handsome little tykes, aren’t they?”
The door opens. Dad comes in, along with Paddy, both of them carrying huge bouquets of roses and lilies for me. Tears burst from my eyes as soon as I see them. Silent tears of gratitude and affection, of love and relief.
“Good Lord, they’re perfect,” Dad says, his voice trembling with emotion. “Perfect.”
“The size of torpedoes, but yeah, perfect,” Paddy replies.
I laugh wholeheartedly, glad to see my boys sleeping through the whole thing. I’ll be joining them soon enough, as slumber is already testing my eyelids.
“Which one of you is the culprit? Can you tell?” Dad asks, looking at Orion, Kai, and Drake.
“I think we’ll be able to tell soon enough,” I reply, smiling. “But they’re ours. It doesn’t really matter to me.”
“Nadia, I’m proud of you, honey,” Dad says.
Paddy rolls his eyes at my father trembling on the edge of tears as they both approach my bed with slow and careful steps. “Cut the crap, old man, you’re going to make me cry, too,” Paddy says, then looks at me. “Have you settled on the names yet?”
“We did, yes,” I proudly declare. “We actually put it to a vote. Patrick, Michael … I’d like you to meet Patrick and Michael.”
Dad and Paddy freeze, eyebrows shooting upward. Those tears that they’d both been fighting back finally fall freely as they stare at me and the boys. Orion, Drake, and Kai stifle bouts of laughter, and I watch and welcome their wholehearted emotions.
“You crazy girl, you named your boys after us?” Dad mutters. “Us? Two old idiots?”
