52 - Haley
52
Haley
Lucas was the most sober one of us, so we all piled into his car and rushed straight to the hospital. The place was a maze, but Jordan led us through the twisting hallways with confidence.
“It’s my hospital,” Jordan said over his shoulder. “I know this place better than I know my apartment.”
“You live in a tiny studio,” I told him.
“Exactly! That tells you how well I know this place. This way.”
Eventually, we passed through some doors and emerged into a waiting room with chairs and stacks of magazines. Harper and Bran were there—my son immediately came running up to hug me.
“Aunt Sara is having her babies!” he said. “I’m going to have little cousins!”
“Thank you for waiting with him,” I told Harper. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine. He’s been great,” Harper said. “They took her back a minute ago.”
Jordan immediately walked up to the nurse sitting behind the check-in desk and began speaking quietly. “Send her to one of the doubles,” I heard Jordan insist. “We have the room. I looked at the patient list on my way in.”
“Dad’s here!” Bran suddenly exclaimed.
“Sure am, little man,” Lucas replied. “This is a big moment.”
“Do you want nieces or nephews?” Bran asked. “That means they’re a girl, or a boy. I think I want one of each. One boy cousin, and one girl cousin.”
“I’ll be happy as long as they’re healthy,” he replied.
“Oh. Yeah,” Bran agreed. He blinked up at Shay. “You’re the man from the Academy!”
“My name is Shay.” He bent down to fist-bump Bran. “Good to see you again. I’m going to sit in the corner and play with that puzzle, if you want to help me. It looks hard.”
“He’s really nice,” Bran told Lucas when Shay walked away.
“I know. He’s one of my best friends.”
“Really? Neat!” Then Bran went running over to join Shay. “Here. Let me help. I’m really good at puzzles.”
I smiled as the two of them played with the puzzle. Lucas put a hand on my lower back and said, “I hope he’s not confused, suddenly having so many male authority figures in his life.”
“From famine to feast,” I said with a chuckle.
Jordan returned to us, shaking his head. “They were going to make her share a room! Don’t worry, I got her upgraded. We can go back and see her, if you want.”
I took one look at Bran, but there was never any doubt in my mind. He was in good hands with these men.
Jordan led me through one of those security doors that required a keycard, then through another maze of hallways until we reached Sara’s room. She was being helped out of a wheelchair and up onto a hospital bed.
“I’ll leave you guys alone,” Jordan said.
I gave him a quick hug and kiss, and then turned all of my attention to my sister. “Of course you went into labor while I was gone! You couldn’t hold it until I got back tonight?”
Sara stuck out her tongue at me, but then hugged me tightly.
“She tried convincing me she was fine,” Harper said.
I gave my sister an angry stare.
“I’m sorry! I thought it was false labor!”
“Your water broke in the living room,” Harper replied, deadpan.
“YEAH, WELL, I WAS SCARED!” Sara shouted.
I put a hand on Harper’s arm. “I’m here to tell you to ignore anything she says in this room while in immense pain.”
“She hasn’t said anything bad yet,” Harper replied.
“I don’t like it when you fuckheads talk about me like I’m not sitting here!” Sara hissed like a gremlin. “Don’t be so cunty, Harper!”
He glanced at me and slowly nodded in understanding.
Over the next two hours, the room was a flurry of activity from nurses. Harper and I did our best to distract Sara until she was fully dilated, and then suddenly it was time for the babies to come. We each held one of her hands while she pushed, and shouted, and cursed, and screamed until her throat was raw.
But in the end, we had two healthy babies resting against Sara’s chest—a boy and a girl.
“I don’t know which I like more,” I said in a quiet voice. “They’re both so perfect .”
“It just sank in,” Harper told me while leaning on the bed, inches away from one of the babies. “I’m a father. Oh fuck .”
“Yep,” I said, rubbing his back.
“I’m sorry for anything I may have said during labor,” Sara told her husband. Her eyes were heavy, and she was more peaceful than I had ever seen her. “I’m so glad I have you to help me raise them, Harper. I can’t imagine doing this alone.” Her eyes swung up to me.
“I wasn’t alone,” I replied. “I had you two.”
Sara started crying, which made me cry. But she didn’t have much energy, and soon was closing her eyes.
When I returned to the waiting room, I was greeted with a sight that stopped me in my tracks. All three men were sitting in chairs, in various states of slumber. Jordan was in the middle, with Shay resting his head on one shoulder, while Lucas leaned against him on the other side.
And Bran was resting his head on Lucas’s thigh, mouth hanging open while he snored softly.
In a flash of insight, I realized that I was excited for the future. With these three men in my life, I had a lot to look forward to. Bran and I both did.
I couldn’t believe how lucky I was.
Pulling out my phone to take a photo, I realized that I had several missed calls. I hadn’t bothered to look at them while we rushed to the hospital—I had two from Sara, one from Harper, and another from an unknown number. That last one had left a voicemail, so I sat down in the waiting room and hit play.
“Hi, Ms. Mercer? This is Juliana Vortsch, over at the Worthington Academy. Hopefully I’m not calling too late, but I didn’t want to wait before giving you the good news. The Worthington Academy would be delighted to accept Brandon as a student beginning in the fall. We will be extending a formal invitation, of course, along with the opportunity to apply to a variety of scholarships to financially assist in covering the tuition. We value having a variety of students from various backgrounds, and would love the opportunity to showcase…”
The voicemail went on for another minute, but I stopped listening. I was grinning too hard.
Shay had opened his eyes and was staring at me. He pointed at my phone, then cocked his head questioningly.
“Worthington,” I mouthed back at him, then flashed a thumbs-up.
Shay silently pumped a fist, but that was enough of a motion to disturb Jordan, who popped up out of his chair like his pants were on fire.
“What? I’m awake. Is it time for rounds?” He looked around the room, then relaxed when he saw me. “Sorry. I had a horrible dream that I was caught sleeping on the job. How’s Sara?”
Lucas sat upright, and gently shook Bran awake. My son rubbed an eye, then focused on me.
“We have two healthy children,” I announced. “A boy, and a girl.”
Bran gasped. “That’s exactly what I wanted!”
I took turns hugging all of my boys, starting with Bran and ending with Shay. I had a lot of attention to go around, now.
“Also, Bran got into the Worthington Academy,” I added, almost as an afterthought.
“Really?” Lucas asked.
“Let’s go!” Jordan shouted, picking up Bran and twirling him around in the air. “They have a great baseball team. One of the best in the state. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be playing on their varsity team as an eighth grader.”
“Getting your son into a prestigious private school,” Shay said casually. “That’s a big deal. Probably good enough to bump someone up in hypothetical boyfriend rankings.”
“You’re probably right,” I agreed.
Jordan put Bran down and gave me a very serious look. “Don’t you dare joke about demoting me in the rankings. Not after I got Sara upgraded to a private room.”
“Private school beats private room,” Lucas said. “If anyone wants my opinion.”
We all laughed while Jordan sputtered and argued.