Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Hunter
Twenty-nine weeks pregnant
T he investors are talking with Duncan at the end of the impromptu meeting. I think it went well. All I’ve been focused on the past few weeks is making this business as successful as I can to support Michelle and our baby. I’ve taken to picking up kitchen shifts during the day and working through the night. If I can’t offer them anything else, at least I can try to provide financial security. But even with that goal at the forefront, I couldn’t tell you what anyone said in this meeting, myself included. My mind’s been focused on picturing Michelle’s face fall when she got the text canceling our plans to work on the nursery today.
“Shit,” Hayden mutters. “I have seven missed calls from Charlotte. And one text saying, ‘I’m okay, but I better find you dead or dismembered.’”
“What?” I pull out my phone. Only two calls, but both from Michelle, along with a text that says, “Call me. ”
Duncan’s assistant knocks on the door. “Mr. Brandt?” Three heads swivel in her direction. “There’s a Charlotte Reid here to see you?”
“Shit,” Hayden mutters, before waving at the room and walking out. Right as the door shuts, I hear Charlotte say. “Go get Hunter.”
I’m in the lobby with them before Hayden can open the door again. “What’s wrong? It’s Michelle. She called, but my phone was on silent.”
All the fight drains out of Charlotte, and she leans on Hayden. “Michelle’s at the emergency room. GW Hospital. She had some pain and some spotting. They took her back from the waiting room a few minutes ago.”
“Fuck.” I’m running for the elevator and hear Charlotte and Hayden behind me. “Is she alone?”
Smashing the button over and over isn’t making the elevator come any faster. Why the fuck not?
“Jax is with her,” Charlotte says as the elevator dings.
“Well thank fuck for that,” I mutter, getting in.
“Do you want us to come?” Hayden asks, his eyes full of fear. Gives me a fraction of an idea of what I must look like.
I shake my head. “Later. Go smooth over our exit with the investors, catch Duncan up. Then ...” The elevator door closes and cuts me off. Hopefully, he caught the gist.
I tumble out onto the street and spot a man getting into a taxi. I rush over. “Sir, can I please have this cab?” He blinks at me blankly. “My girl . . . the love of my life, hospital and our baby. She, she doesn’t know I love her.” I have no time for cohesive sentences.
He scoffs at me. “This isn’t some rom-com. Fuck off.” He ducks to get in the cab when a hand reaches for his collar and pulls him out.
“It’s not, but it’s about to become a John Wick movie if you don’t give us the fucking cab.” Duncan releases the man, who gapes at him like a fish. “That’s what I thought.” Hayden and Charlotte come up behind him. “Hunter. Get in the fucking cab. And scoot over.”
I do as he says. Charlotte and Hayden climb in after me and Duncan climbs in the front seat.
“Five hundred if you can get us to George Washington Hospital in twenty minutes.” A horn honks as the driver swerves into traffic, cutting off a city bus. “Alive,” Duncan adds icily, but not clinging to the oh-shit handle like the rest of us.
I try calling Michelle, but it goes straight to voicemail. “Can you get ahold of Jax?” I half yell, not sure who I’m asking.
“I’ll keep trying her, but I’m getting voicemail too. Maybe they made them turn their phones off.” Charlotte reaches across Hayden to squeeze my hand. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Are you sure?” I’m okay if she lies to me at this moment.
“I wish I was. But we’re here with you, whatever’s next.”
Hayden puts his hand on top of both of ours. I flashback to when he would crawl into my bed in the weeks after Mom died and cry. I’d hold his hand until he fell asleep, and that’s when I would cry. I wonder if he ever knew? We probably haven’t had a reason to hold hands since. I meet his eyes, and this time his are dry, while mine aren’t. “I don’t know what happened on that cruise ship, but you’re going to fix it. Today.”
He doesn’t wait for me to respond, but turns to face the windshield. He’s right. I’ve learned to not trust my gut over the years but decide to throw out the old playbook. I’m going to get the chance to make it right. I know it.
W e bust into the emergency department nineteen minutes after leaving Duncan’s office building.
I approach the desk, waiting my turn. My weight shifts from foot to foot, trying to breathe deep and remind myself my crisis does not mean any more than the people’s in front of me .
“How can I help you?” A dark-skinned woman named Brenda blinks up at me.
“Uh, hi. My name is Hunter Brandt. My . . . my ...” I stumble over my words as Brenda continues to look less and less impressed with me. “I’m looking for Michelle Lewis. She arrived about an hour ago, with cramping and spotting. Do you know where she is? Can I see her?”
The clack of the keys on Brenda’s keyboard is her only response to my question.
“Hmm,” she says, and my heart falls into my stomach. Did Michelle tell them to not let me back? I can’t believe how royally I fucked this up.
“I see Ms. Lewis put you on the approved persons list. Take this”—she hands me a visitor’s badge I hadn’t noticed her printing out—“and go through those double doors. She’s in bay thirteen.”
“Thank you,” I say, my heart back firmly in my chest, beating at a rate that seems to indicate I may need a bed myself before this ordeal is over.
She looks down her nose at me from two feet below my eye level. “Get moving, young man.”
I spring into action, waving over my shoulder at Hayden, Duncan, and Charlotte. The double doors open slowly. Losing my patience, I squeeze myself through the crack once it’s large enough for a human and scan the walls for some sort of way finding.
“Can I help you?” A male nurse in navy scrubs stops next to me.
“Hunter! Down here.” I turn to the sound of my name and see Jax waving at me from down the hallway.
“I’m good now, thanks.” I turn away from the nurse and make my way to where Jax stands outside what looks like a large, windowed wall, curtains drawn inside the room created by the dividers, so I can’t see inside .
“How is she? She’s in there? Do they know if she’s okay? How’s Cumulus?” My words come out in a rush.
“Breathe, Hunt.” I take a deep inhale, aware we both hear how shaky it sounded going into my lungs.
“They’re examining her now. They had me step outside for the internal exam and ultrasound. I’m really glad you made it.”
“Me too. Fuck, we were supposed to work on the nursery today. I should have been here from the beginning.”
“Why weren’t you? What’s going on with you two? Michelle wouldn’t give me anything, and I didn’t want to press her given”—she waves her hands at our surroundings—“everything. You all have been cryptic ever since the cruise.”
It comes pouring out of me. “I fucked everything up. We got kicked off the ship because Michelle was too pregnant to be on a cruise, and I signed the waivers for us without reading them. She got really seasick and dehydrated. She could have died, Jax, and I would have no one to blame but myself because I wanted to be the Prince Charming type and whisk her away on this big adventure. I’m not Prince Charming. I’m the toad, warts and all. I can’t take care of a grown woman. What business do I have being a father? So, I’ve thrown myself into the app and my business. I want to have a chance of giving them something they need. A secure financial future.”
Jax crosses her arms and sizes me up. “You know, we don’t know each other very well, Hunter, but I’m going to be frank with you. What you just said sounds like some scared chickenshit. Yes, things could have gone medically sideways, but it didn’t. Michelle doesn’t want your money, she wants you. She needs someone she can count on, to stick with her. So, if you can’t do that, if you’re going to phone it in with your bank account and nothing else, then you need to turn around and walk yourself out of here.” Her eyebrow raises in a move clearly meant to say “your move.”
“What if I’m not good enough for her?” I whisper, my deepest fear tumbling out to my brother’s partner, surrounded by the beeps and whirs of hospital equipment.
“Does she make you want to be better?”
I nod. “Every fucking day.”
“Then go in there. And be better. One thing I’ve learned about life is most people have no idea what they’re doing. But as long they’re not doing it alone, they can make it through.”
I pull Jax into a bone-crushing hug, hearing her “oof” seconds before she wraps her arms around me to squeeze me back, patting me between the shoulder blades a few times before breaking my hold.
“Thanks, Jax.”
“Don’t mention it. I owed Michelle breakdown support. You guys are a package deal now.”
Part of the wall next to us opens, revealing a door into the exam room. A young doctor with tan skin, teal scrubs, and his hair covered in a tie-dye cap walks out and stops short when he sees us.
“Oh, hi. Dad?” His eyes meet mine. I nod. “I’m Dr. Munoz. I’m waiting for a second opinion on the sonogram, but I’ll be right back to talk to you both momentarily. You can head on in.”
I look at Jax, unsure if she wants to go in first. “Go,” she shoos me, turning to walk out toward the waiting room.
One more deep inhale and I knock on the door, pushing it open slowly.
“I’m not really sure why he made you leave. You could have stayed up by my head ...” Michelle’s voice trails off as her head turns and spots me in the doorway instead of Jax. “Oh, hi.” Her uncertainty is written all over her face.
I take in the scene in front of me. The charts and numbers flashing on the screen from the monitors hooked up to Michelle. The way the blanket covers her now popped baby bump, the contrast against the bright white sheets of her red hair. Her skin is paler than usual, but her blue eyes are clear.
“Baby,” I say, crossing the room in an instant, grabbing the hand without an IV in it. I place a kiss on the back of it before gripping our clasped hands to my chest. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Her eyes fill, a few tears spilling over. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she whispers.
My body bends forward over the railing of the bed so my forehead meets hers. “I shouldn’t have been anywhere else. You and Cumulus . . . you’re the most important things in the world to me. I know I’ve been shit at showing it lately, but no more.”
“You’ve been so distant. I thought I did something wrong, or you didn’t want me, want us, anymore.” The pain in her voice threatens to break me in two.
I draw away enough to be sure she can see my eyes, read my sincerity in them. “You didn’t do anything wrong. That was about me. After the cruise, when I put you in danger . . . it shook me. What if I couldn’t hack it? What if you and Cumulus were better off with me? So, I threw myself into the business. If you can’t count on me to do the right thing, I could at least provide you with security.” A line of moisture trails down my cheek. She reaches up to wipe it away, her hand lingering on my face.
“Hunt, my job is literally trying to use science to predict the future. If I needed certainty in my life, I would have been an accountant.”
A laugh bursts from me, surprising both of us. I spent the last thirty minutes in hell unsure if I would ever laugh again. “I will spend every day for the rest of my life making sure you know I’m here for you, I’m in this.” She inhales sharply, surprise on her face at my declaration. I decide to go for broke. “Michelle, I?—”
“Knock, knock,”
Dr. Munoz enters the room, breaking the moment. We both turn to look his way.
“Sorry for the wait, folks. Like I said after the sonogram, her heart rate is strong, and she’s doing okay. I wanted to speak to one of my colleagues about recommendations for next steps.”
“She?” I ask, plopping into the chair conveniently placed behind me. Probably for moments like this one .
Anxiety crosses Michelle’s face. “Sorry, I know we were waiting to find out, but when everything was happening, and I wasn’t sure what was next, I wanted to know more about Cumulus, about her. So, I asked.”
“That’s amazing. It’s a girl. I’m so fucked,” I say, a laugh-sob breaking free from my chest as tears flow freely now. Michelle squeezes my hand.
Dr. Munoz laughs softly. “I’m a girl dad too. But my wife and my husband get to be the fun ones, while I have to lay down the law or else they’d never eat anything green, and we’d need a bigger house.”
We both laugh along with him.
“What happens next?” Michelle asks.
“We recommend you get in touch with your OB and set up weekly visits from now until you deliver. Take it easy for a few days. We can write you a note for work if you need it. And”—his eyes dart between us—“I would recommend pelvic rest until you’re back with your doctor and able to get their final recommendation.”
Michelle and Dr. Munoz talk about getting the information to her doctor while I pull out my phone and run a quick search. Pelvic rest means what I thought it did—no penetrative sex. Michelle’s and Cumulus’s health is way more important than getting my dick wet. I’ll swear off orgasms for the rest of the year. Hell longer, if it means baby girl comes without any further complications. But I’ve only had one chance to worship her body since our first night together. If she lets me touch her again, I want to be sure we’re being safe.
“We’re going to get the discharge paperwork finished up, and you’ll be on your way shortly. Let me know if you have any questions before you go.”
We both nod and thank him for his time. Then, it’s the two of us again.
“A girl,” I whisper, and Michelle nods, a huge smile taking over her face. “We better get down to work narrowing those names. And should we return the paint? Change the nursery theme?”
“No,” she shakes her head. “I think we should stick with our theme. I’m absolutely going to buy cute headbands for her to wear but also don’t want to put too many gender norms on her from birth. She can be who she’ll be.”
I nod, wondering once again why someone as fan-fucking-tastic as this woman lets me be a part of this.
“Do you mind going to get me a glass of water? They were running liquid through here”—she holds up her hand with an IV in it—“but my throat is so dry. I’d love something to drink.”
“Of course.” I jump up, before bending down to brush a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
Out in the hall, I ask a passing nurse where I can find a glass of water. She tells me she’ll be back with a cup of ice and a cup of water. While I’m waiting, Dr. Munoz comes around the corner.
“Hey, uh, Doc?” I say, flagging him down. “Quick question. About the pelvic rest—if she needs for the rest of the pregnancy, does that mean no ...” I clear my throat and look around. “Sexual stimulation at all for the rest of pregnancy?”
The doctor shows off his bright white teeth with a broad smile. “Hold off on anything until you get to her OB, but it’s likely a restriction on penetration only. Other types of stimulation, and orgasms, should be just fine. Encouraged even.” The doctor winks at me, and I catch the purple, blue, and pink lanyard peeking out of his pocket.
“Right on,” I say, and the doctor claps me on the shoulder before walking away as the nurse returns with our water.
I return to the room where Michelle gladly takes a sip of water before starting to chew on some ice chips. My phone vibrates for the umpteenth time since I’ve been back here, and I pull it out.
“Are you okay if I update everyone to let them know they can go home and we’ll talk to them tomorrow? ”
“Everyone?” she asks, looking up from her cup of ice.
“Yeah, Duncan and Hayden were with me when Charlotte found us. I’m guessing Jax is still with them too.”
“They all came?” Her eyes are open with wonder.
“I’m not sure I wouldn’t have vibrated apart without Hayden holding my hand on the way over here,” I say, unashamed to admit the depth of my fear. “But they were so worried too. Of course they’re here.”
“Oh,” Michelle says. “Maybe they can come over for brunch on Sunday?”
I smile and start a new group chat, combining all four of my brothers, plus Charlotte, Jax, and Michelle. Her phone buzzes in her lap, laughing as she unlocks it, and it continues to vibrate with messages coming in fast and furious.
“Welcome to the Brandt brothers group chat, Michelle. It’s possible you’re going to want to mute the thread, but they say brunch on Sunday sounds great, as long as you’re feeling okay.”
Michelle laughs again as she reads all the messages, presumably of everyone sharing their relief at the good news and catching Spencer up on what he’s missed over the past few hours.
A nurse comes through the door and hands me a packet of papers. She moves to remove the IV and tapes gauze over the back of Michelle’s hand. “You’re all set to get dressed and head out whenever you’re ready. Good luck!”
She leaves again, no doubt to tend to someone who needs her attention more than we do. I know I have work to do to win back Michelle’s trust, but for the first time in weeks, I have hope.
Michelle pulls her leggings on and picks up her bag. I walk over and grab the tote from her, swinging it over my shoulder and pulling her into my side. She sighs, a weary sound, and leans into me.
“Hunter? ”
“Yeah?” I say, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, because I can.
“Let’s go home.”
We walk out, side by side, and I’m positive every patient we pass knows we got good news from the size of the smile on my face. Yeah, I think we might be all right.