Page 4 of Bound To Be Mine

Me? I would keep doing what I always did. I would work.

After another half hour of waiting, a nurse arrived and shared the good news that the baby had been born, and mother and child were healthy and ready for visitors. My mother made us all stand around waiting for another three minutes while she went to the bathroom to, as she so delicately put it, “nervous pee.”

Bernadette took that opportunity to instruct us boys on new-baby etiquette. We had to wash our hands immediately upon entering the room, and again prior to holding the baby. We had to congratulate our brother on sight and give Elizabeth praise and love and kindness after the battle she’d gone through. We all nodded along until our mother returned.

Then we went to meet the newest Blackwell. A boy. Naturally.

Elizabeth sat propped up in her hospital bed, her skin aglow with sweat and joy. She wore a robe and had a blanket draped over her crossed legs, within which her and Adrian’s son lay curled up, sound asleep. He had been swaddled in blue and had a knit beanie on his head. His features were puffy and swollen, his skin tinted purple and blue. My mother and Bernadette thought he was cute enough to cry over. I wouldn’t have gone that far, but he looked so fragile and delicate that all I wanted to do was keep the little dude safe forever.

My nephew. My blood.

I remembered Bernadette’s instructions, so before I said a word about the child, I pulled Adrian in for a hug and clapped him firmly on the back. “Congratulations, old man. The kid looks just like you.”

Adrian had dark circles under his eyes and his usually rigid posture was slouched from exhaustion. But he perked up. “You think?”

“For sure,” I said. In reality? The kid looked kind of lumpy, like he’d just gone twelve rounds in a prize fight. But that didn’t need to be said out loud. I had seen pictures of myself as a newborn, and I had looked like a worm with hair. So I would be the last person to criticize.

I congratulated Elizabeth and told her she was already the most bad-ass mom I knew. That earned a glare from my own mother, which I would atone for later, but it made Elizabeth shine like she was lit from the inside. And that felt good.

We all stayed close to the bed while Elizabeth unwrapped the gift from our mother. She cried, as did all the women, including a nurse who popped in to check on Elizabeth, and then the rustling of paper as we cleaned up made the baby wake up.

Adrian gathered the little bundle in his arms and held him proudly for us all to get a good look at him. His eyes were glassy as he looked around at all of us. “We’d like to introduce you to our son, Buck.”

Mom gasped. Sebastian, who had been wiggling the pickle in the baby’s direction, froze. Dash stiffened. Our father’s name hung in the air as a monitor down the hall continued beeping.

“I know,” Adrian said, locking eyes with our mother. “It just felt right.”

In the bed, Elizabeth sniffled. “Mimi, would you like to be the first one to hold him?”

Our mother sniffled as she accepted her tiny grandson into her arms. With shaking fingers, she nudged the blue swaddle aside so she could get a good look at him. “He’s perfect,” she whispered.

Adrian wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Our little Bucky.”

The family circled in around Bucky, and Adrian stepped back. Then he turned to me and nodded toward the door. We stepped out into the hallway.

“I need a favor,” Adrian said quietly.

“What’s up?”

“Tomorrow. The cousins.”

I nodded. “Right.”

“I’m not leaving Elizabeth’s side. Not until we’re home and settled. Cleo and Callum are flying in tomorrow and I was supposed to meet with them. They’ve got the papers ready and it’s all good to go. I know you weren’t part of the negotiations, but I need you to go in and close it. I thought we had another week, but Bucky decided today was a good day to be born.”

He was pretending to be irritated but we both knew he was flying high.

“I’ve already read the documents,” I said. “I know the broad strokes. A lifestyle brand, wedding-focused, leveraging the cousins’ design work alongside our infrastructure and reach. Smart deal. Good margins if executed properly.”

He nodded, his eyes going back into the room where Buck was letting his annoying uncles know he had lungs and he wasn’t afraid to use them. “It’s going to be a significant revenue stream. We’ve been trying to crack the wedding market for years. Cleo and Callum have the right aesthetic, and they’ve brought in a partner who’s apparently excellent. Just get the paperwork done and we’ll talk details when I’m back.”

It was straightforward. In and out.

“I’ve got it handled,” I said. “Be with your son. Take care of your wife.”

He clapped me on the shoulder gratefully. We moved to the doorway and looked in at the sight of our mother gently handing Bucky over to Sebastian. Bernadette hung over his shoulder, grinning down at my nephew with rosy cheeks and eyes full of hope. She turned her gaze up to Sebastian, and they stared at each other like they could read the other’s mind. Everyone here knew what they were thinking.

Soon, it would be their turn to become parents.