Seven
Ward
Seeing Yvette with Laney again, that tickle in my stomach immediately returns. I could almost steal Laney, she looks so content in Yvette’s motherly embrace. Sure, she’s a fireball, but cute as a kitten.
No. You’re not getting married. You’re not having babies. You settled this fact a long, long time ago.
“Hold her a second?” Yvette hands her over. The fucking timing. Good God. I hold Laney a little tighter than I probably should. I force out a slow exhale, loosening my hold. You can’t have this. We agreed.
But I am in love. I can have that. I never made any personal covenants about merely falling in love .
The words burst from me the second Yvette returns. “I love you.”
“I know.” She smiles sweetly, and lifts up on tiptoe to kiss my cheek. “I love you, too. Lieutenant Fireman Man.”
The moment dissolves fast as the grandmas come rushing into the room. “It’s time!” Penn’s mom announces.
“You’re back!” Yvette says, and rushes up to hug her before Penn’s mom whisks Laney out of my arms.
“I got on standby the second I could. I’m so thankful I arrived.”
“Yes! And you’re back, too!” Yvette says to Hearth’s mom, hugging her next.
“And just in time,” another head pokes into the room. “I’m Abra, the midwife. Mama did great.” Abra flashes a smile at Penn’s mom. “Dad did too. Who’s ready to meet baby Austin?”
Hearth’s mom looks around at our little group, then says to the midwife, “We all are, if that’s okay with Hearth.”
“She’s so happy you’re all here and can’t wait for you to meet him.”
There are giddy smiles all around as we make our way down the hallway of the birthing center home toward Hearth’s room. Penn’s mom quietly pipes up, “Abra, Austin is a bit early…”
“Yes, by almost two weeks.” Abra glances over her shoulder at Penn’s mom, giving a reassuring smile. “He’s doing just fine. Perfectly healthy baby boy.”
I steal a sidelong look at Yvette. She said this was going to happen. I still don’t understand how she knew, or if she really knew. Is she a little…clairvoyant? I don’t think she can actually read my mind or predict the future—she’d be a lottery winner or something, surely, right?
“Shh,” she shushes me, catching my sidelong stare. “You’re being loud.”
“I didn’t say anything, babe.”
“Oh, are you sure?”
I pull a face. “Spark,” I whisper, taking her hand and walking her backward away from the group a couple of steps. “You knew…” I shake my head. “You knew he’d be here early.”
“Did I though?” She half shrugs. “I just…I had a feeling.”
A feeling. She is so connected to her feelings, so attuned to what’s inside her…it’s like there’s another part of her that’s alive, that’s lit up, that we don’t all have. That we don’t all have access to.
She amazes me to no end. And not saying she has to, but I have a feeling she’s going to keep amazing me every single day.
For the rest of our lives?
Well. We’ll see about that.
One day at a time.
Penn’s mom transfers Laney over to Hearth’s mom, and Laney wraps her teensy body around her maternal grandma like a koala. “Ready to meet your baby brother, miss Laney?”
Laney pulls her head back and looks at Grandma, confused. I know that look. Laney needs a nap here pretty soon. Next thing you know, she whips the hat Hearth’s mom is wearing and chonks it onto the floor.
“ Uh oh .”
Yeah… I chuckle to myself. One thing at a time.