Chapter Three #2
“In the Salt Lake City show. Some have left the church, and others follow the faith on their own terms,” Kelsey said. “My favorite franchise is Atlanta, of course, since that’s my hometown.”
Aggie walked into the room, wearing a sour expression on her face. She checked the readout on the baby monitor before addressing Kelsey. “Still no contractions, huh?” Aggie’s voice was much kinder than it had been in the hallway.
“Nope. She’s going to be a stubborn one,” Kelsey said.
Aggie nodded sympathetically before she turned and addressed the room. “I think it would be best if we cleared the room and let Kelsey get some rest while she still can.”
“I have to go too?” Andrew asked.
“Yes, everyone,” Aggie replied.
“But he’s my husband,” Kelsey said.
“And we’re the baby’s fathers,” Sawyer protested.
Aggie smiled at this. “I’m not throwing you out of the hospital. I’m just asking you to congregate somewhere else.”
“If you’ll show us to our suite, Andrew can come hang out with us,” Royce said.
“Where you’ll eat snacks and party without me,” Kelsey said with a cute pout.
“We’re not going to have a rager, love,” Andrew said. “We’ll probably just watch ESPN.”
“Fine. But I need you to set up story time first.”
Andrew pulled a device from their bag and set it on a table.
He pressed a button, and Royce’s voice came through the speaker as he read The Rainbow Fish.
He and Sawyer had recorded themselves reading a selection of books, some they’d even narrated together, so Kelsey could play them for Darla.
They’d wanted her to get familiar with their voices while she was still in the womb.
Kelsey pushed a button on her bed to lower the head a little. She closed her eyes and sighed. “I might continue to play this every night at bedtime.”
“Knocks us right out,” Andrew told them. “If police work gets old, I think you guys have options.”
“Ms. Rachel, we are not,” Sawyer told him.
“You don’t have to be,” Kelsey said. “Maybe other kids with two dads or two moms would like to see themselves represented in a kids’ show.” She made a shooing motion at them. “You heard Aggie. I need my rest.”
Andrew kissed his wife, lingering to whisper in her ear. They locked eyes when they pulled back, engaging in a silent conversation that put a smile on both their faces. Andrew winked at her and said, “Let’s go, fellas.”
“Can you imagine us creating a YouTube channel?” Royce said as they followed Aggie out of the room. “Then again, your carpet-cleaning buddy has probably made a mint.”
“Is it James?” Aggie asked as she led them to the other side of the labor and delivery ward.
Royce groaned. “Not you too, Aggie.”
She stopped outside a room and nodded at him. “Puts me right to sleep after a long twelve-hour shift.”
“I knew you had good taste,” Sawyer said.
Her countenance softened even more, but she held a finger to her lips. “Young families are sleeping, so please keep the noise to a minimum. I’ll ask the same consideration of others when you two are adjusting to life with a newborn.”
“We’ll behave,” Royce promised.
Aggie assessed him through narrowed eyes as if she’d correctly pegged him as the troublemaker.
Sawyer draped an arm around Royce’s shoulders. “I’ll make sure of it.”
With that assurance, Aggie nodded once and left them to their own devices.
Andrew dropped into the recliner and immediately reached for the remote, earning a “this guy” look from Sawyer.
Royce went straight for the snacks to settle his nerves.
They’d brought an assortment of nutritious whole-grain foods and outright junk.
It was only a matter of time before the jingling nerves from earlier settled in his stomach, so Royce reached for a granola bar with a sugar-free strawberry center instead of the chocolate chip cookies.
The family suite was nice, but it wasn’t spacious, so Royce put the room’s other inhabitants’ needs before his own by not getting an upset stomach.
Andrew didn’t suffer from the same compunction and reached for the bag of chocolate sandwich cookies.
“You can eat our food and hog our remote, but you’re not stinking up our bathroom,” Royce said.
Andrew shrugged. “Fair enough. Look, they’re re-airing The Ocho,” he said excitedly.
“What’s that?” Sawyer asked.
“An event on ESPN8 where they feature the oddest competitions,” Andrew replied. “We’re talking dodgeball, extreme archery, and pillow fighting.”
“They once had a mullet competition,” Royce added.
“No way,” Sawyer and Andrew said.
Royce chuckled as he sat at the foot of one hospital bed. “Yes, way. And outhouse racing too.”
Sawyer sat beside him instead of taking the second bed. “I’m up for this.”
“Me too,” Andrew said as he popped out the footrest and reclined.
The three of them armchair quarterbacked one weird contest after another for the next hour until their phones chimed simultaneously with a group text notification.
Royce bolted upright from the bed with his heart in his throat. “Is it time?” he asked without checking the message.
Sawyer loosely wrapped a hand around Royce’s wrist to keep him in place. “Relax. Kelsey isn’t in labor.”
“She’s wide-awake and lonely,” Andrew said, shutting the footrest and standing up. “I can’t have that.”
“Neither can we,” Royce said. “She’s putting herself through this for our benefit.”
Sawyer stood up and laced his fingers through Royce’s. “What’s the plan for dodging Aggie on our way back to the delivery side of the ward?”
“We could just tell her that Kelsey doesn’t want to be alone,” Royce suggested.
“Kels tried that,” Andrew said, reminding Royce that he still hadn’t read the message. “Aggie told her she wasn’t trying hard enough.”
Royce released Sawyer’s hand, retrieved his phone from the bed, and tapped the notification to read Kelsey’s text.
Kelsey: Can’t sleep. Lonely. Told Aggie I wanted my people back. She said I wasn’t trying hard enough. I can sleep after Darla arrives. I need my people now.
Royce tucked his phone into his pocket. “One of us needs to create a diversion so the other two can sneak into her room. The diversionist can circle back and join us.”
“Diversionist?” Andrew asked. “Is that a real word?”
“Yes,” Sawyer replied. “And Royce is usually the man for the job, but he’s in no shape to pull it off.”
“Hey,” Royce protested, even though he knew it was true.
Puffing out his chest, Andrew said, “I’ll do it.” He turned off the television and strode to the door, pausing at the threshold. “Tell my wife I love her if I don’t make it back.” Then Andrew disappeared from sight.
Royce and Sawyer stifled their laughter and followed, closing the door behind them.
They trailed behind Andrew, who walked like a hero going into battle.
When he made the last turn toward the delivery suites, Royce and Sawyer hung back at the corner.
Sure enough, they heard Aggie’s voice as she stopped Andrew before he reached Kelsey’s room.
“So glad I ran into you,” Andrew told her before launching into full diversion mode, asking her for directions and repeating them so badly that she had no choice but to show him the way.
They waited until Aggie’s squeaking footsteps faded before they eased around the corner to find Trinity standing in the hallway with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Hiya,” she said. “Whatcha doing?”
“Busted,” Royce whispered.
Sawyer showed Trinity the text they’d received from Kelsey.
“Aww, bless her heart,” the nurse said.
“Andrew acted as the diversion so we could sneak into Kelsey’s room,” Royce confessed.
Trinity snorted. “I knew something had to be up. No one is that bad with directions.” She waved for them to follow her.
“Kelsey’s needs come first, and right now, that’s her people.
” She moved with a general’s confidence as she led them down the corridor.
She knocked lightly on Kelsey’s door and poked her head inside.
“There are a few handsome fellas just dying to see you.”
“Yes!” Kelsey hissed. “Send them in.”
Trinity stepped aside so they could enter the room. “I’ll go rescue your husband from Aggie.”
“Did she put him in lockup?” Kelsey asked once Trinity left.
“She’s just very protective of everyone’s sleep and their need for quiet,” Royce said. “The way she enforces her consideration could use some work.”
Sawyer took the empty chair on the far side of the bed, and Royce wheeled a stool to the closest side. Andrew walked in a moment later, and the trio raised their hands and showered him with a whispered chorus of “Yay!”
Andrew pressed his hands to his face and struck a demure pose. “Who, me?”
“My hero,” Kelsey said, clasping her hands to her heart.
Royce rolled the stool out of the way so Andrew could approach the bed.
Brushing the curls away from her face, Andrew searched her eyes. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I am now that my people are here.” She puckered her lips, and Andrew kissed her softly. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
“Let’s turn these lights up a little and play cards,” Kelsey said.
Andrew removed a deck from her bag, but the only remaining chair was a recliner in the corner. They couldn’t easily pull that up to her hospital bed, so they were figuring out logistics when Trinity returned with a rolling desk chair.
“You won’t have to worry about Aggie bothering you unless you get too rowdy in here,” the nurse said.
“We won’t be a problem,” Kelsey assured her. She turned on the television and set the volume low for background noise. “Rummy? Poker?”
“Go Fish is more my speed,” Andrew said. “It’s less cutthroat if everyone is honest.”
“Rummy is cutthroat?” Sawyer asked.
Kelsey giggled. “It is in my family.”
Andrew shuddered. “I still have the scars to prove it.”
They played a few rounds of Go Fish before Kelsey suggested they switch to Uno. Andrew moaned softly but retrieved the deck from the bag.
“I can’t wait to teach Ella the finer points of playing card games,” Kelsey said.