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“Yes, let’s go.”
I finished buttoning my shirt as we trailed through our new home to the garage. I’d sold our high-rise, four-thousand-square-foot penthouse love nest for the suburban life. Our equally large home in the Crestmore community gave us everything we needed. There were neighbors we knew and help with the baby if we needed it. Aidan and Marcus lived around the corner and were a phone call away. And if we needed a doctor, Simon and Jackson were three streets over. Not to mention Patrick and Cole lived three doors down. It was the perfect place for us to raise our family.
I closed the door behind me and climbed into the new Escalade. Buckling in, I turned to look in the backseat as he started the car. “Do we have everything?”
Car seat, check.
Baby diaper bag, check.
Austin put his hand on my thigh as he waited for the garage door to go up, immediately calming my nerves. “Yes, and if we forgot anything, Patrick has a key. He’ll swing by and pick up whatever we need.”
I nodded and took a calming breath. “You’re right,” I nodded as the reality of what we were about to do set in. When we came home, we’d be a family of three. “Let’s go get our girl.”
“You know everything is going to be fine, right? It’s not going to happen again.”
I put my hand over his. “I know.”
Austin leaned over and kissed me, then pulled out of our garage. When he’d cleared the neighborhood, he drove like a bat out of hell. The usual fifteen-minute drive to the hospital took seven in the middle of the night. “You know you can’t drive like this when we get her in the car, right?”
Austin laughed but didn’t reply. He was humoring me, and I was okay with that.
After parking, we headed inside. The urge to sprint to the room was real, but Austin put his arm over my shoulder. “If you run, you’ll get us arrested by security.”
“Yes, but we’re having a baby. Shouldn’t there be some leeway there?”
Usually, I was the calm one. The one that settled him down. The more mature one of the two of us. But this time, the tables had been turned. He was the calm one under pressure, and I was the nervous one. But I guess those feelings were normal when you had so much on the line.
The elevator ride up to the maternity floor took three days. The wall placard outside the elevator pointed us to the right for the maternity ward. Austin took my hand as we hunted down the room. Thankfully, we didn’t have to search long, because when we got there, the nurses were coming and going.
“You must be the new dads,” one nurse asked.
“How did you know?” I asked.
She chuckled. “You have that look like you’re about to jump out of your skin. And she showed us your pictures when she got here to make sure we could find you.”
Austin laughed and responded to her as I marveled at how calm they were. I’d have to tell Dominick’s father how wonderful his staff was.
“Come this way,” she said, snapping us back to reality.
The blip blipping of the heart monitor greeted us as Bill stood beside Sandra, holding her hand. I glanced at the monitor and took in the consistently sharp jumps on the display.
“How are you feeling?” Austin asked, leaning down.
“Like I’m having a ba—by,” she quipped, then blew out a labored breath.
One of the nurses put her hand on my shoulder. “It won’t be long. Let’s get you cleaned up and in gowns.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Austin replied, heading for the door. He grabbed my hand as we followed her, knowing I probably needed it.
“Is everything going okay?” I asked her as she opened the blue paper gowns for us.
“She’s doing great. The baby’s heart rate is perfect for delivery. You two can stand on the other side and watch from there.”
Nodding, we followed her back in and stood where we were told. Sandra reached for my hand as Bill motioned Austin to his side. He kept his eyes on where he was walking, then took her other hand.
“You two are gonna help me push,” she said before another contraction hit. “Just do what they say, and we’ll get your daughter here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, emotions growing inside me.
