Chapter 33
“Jay.”
“Hmm?”
“Jay.”
He looked up at Blue’s sharp tone. She was sitting on the sofa, her feet in his lap while he read emails on his phone. His girl wore a T-shirt dress that was stretched tight over her large stomach.
“What’s up?”
“I need to walk because my back is sore.”
“Okay.” He lowered his phone and stood. Reaching down, he helped her up.
She’d had a scan early in her pregnancy, but after that, just visits with Dr. Hannah. He’d protested that it was better to go somewhere for scans regularly, but Blue had said she trusted the woman who’d fixed her first broken bone better than strangers, so he’d given in.
Dr. Hannah had told Jay to calm down, and that the signs had been good all along, and Blue and the baby were tracking well. He just needed to support Blue through this.
So he’d tried really hard to do that. The problem was, he couldn’t control what was going on, but he had learned to adjust to that fact daily since Blue had moved back in with him.
“Do you think I need to repack—”
“If you say baby bag, Jay, I won’t be responsible for my actions,” Blue gritted out. “It has everything we need, and it’s not like we live in the wilderness, where it’s snowing and takes a five-day hike to get to the shops.”
He wisely didn’t add anything to that.
“I can walk,” she said, sounding testy.
“So can I and have been since I was about eight months old,” he said, taking her hand, and linking their fingers.
“Trust you to be advanced enough to walk at eight months old,” she muttered, then Blue sighed. “Sorry for being a bitch.”
He kissed her cheek.
They’d shopped for baby stuff, using, at Blue’s insistence, the money that her old employer, Cavanagh Sale, had handed over after Jay had threatened them with legal action.
With the combined forces of JD, Sawyer, and Jay’s contacts, it hadn’t taken them long to give in, as the fallout would have harmed their business.
The rest of the money was now in a college fund for their kid.
The baby’s room had been under debate for days as they’d discussed colors and furniture, but last week it had finally been finished, with everything they wanted, including a big comfy rocking chair.
Jay had put together the baby bassinet that had come with instructions that had been beyond even him. Brody had come to help.
“Want to get some air?” he asked, heading for the door.
“I’ll be glad to see my feet again,” she moaned.
“Me too—then you can put your own shoes on,” Jay teased her.
Love, he thought, had changed everything in his life. Really living with Blue, not just as roommates, was something he knew he’d never tire of.
She said she wasn’t a true McAllister anymore, and that she’d been citified, but he saw her roots in most things she did. Like saving a struggling plant or turning vegetables he’d have thrown out into something amazing to eat.
Blue Jay McAllister had shown Jay what it meant to be part of a unit. To argue, and laugh out loud, and love so fiercely, it terrified him. She was a wonder to Jay daily. This woman had so much passion for things—including him.
His love, his life, Jay thought, looking down at her face. She was tired, and pale, and going by her due date could have this baby any day now. That thought both terrified and excited him.
He opened the door and waved her through into the cool evening air. They paused on the front porch.
Blue inhaled deeply, one hand pressed to the small of her back. “This was a good idea,” she muttered.
Jay stayed close as she took the stairs down.
“You’re hovering.”
“I’m supporting.”
“You’re vibrating.”
He opened his mouth to deny it, but Blue froze beside him. Her fingers squeezed his.
“Blue?”
She blinked once. Twice. “Oh,” she said faintly.
“Oh?” His stomach dropped. “What does ‘oh’ mean?”
She looked down between them. Jay followed her gaze. The dark patch spreading at her feet took a second too long to register.
“Oh,” she whispered.
Her water had broken. For half a second, neither of them moved. Then Blue made a small, shocked gasping sound and said, “Well. That’s inconvenient.”
Jay snapped into motion so fast, he nearly tripped over his own feet.
“Okay. Okay. This is fine. This is happening. Don’t move. Or—move. Do you want to move? Should you move?”
“Jay.”
“I’m getting the bag.”
“Jay.”
He stopped pacing. He looked at her—and there it was. Not panic but pain. Then a sharp contraction stole her breath and bent her slightly forward.
His heart slammed against his ribs as she rode out the wave of pain.
“Blue, what can I do?” Jay sounded agonized to his own ears.
“That one hurt,” she whispered. “And you can’t do anything. This next part is all me. But you can be there to support me, okay.”
“I can do that,” he said, trying to get himself back under control. “You’re okay. You’re okay. I’ve got you.” He slid an arm around her, guiding her carefully toward the garage.
“Lean here,” he said, pointing to the side of the house. “I’ll get the keys.”
Jay ran, grabbed the keys, and headed back out. Pressing the garage door remote, he raised it and then guided her to the car. Another contraction hit before they reached it.
Blue gripped the doorframe and swore in a way that would have impressed Lynx.
Jay had never felt more useless in his life.
“Call Dr. Hannah now and get the bag, Jay,” Blue said when he’d finally settled her in the front seat.
He ran back into the house, then took the stairs up two at a time, all the while fumbling with his phone.
He sprinted back minutes later. “Dr. Hannah is meeting us at the clinic, and I have the bag,” Jay said, hurling it into the backseat.
He drove like a man who was trying not to drive like a maniac, while beside him Blue breathed through another contraction, jaw clenched, knuckles white.
“Talk to me,” he said, voice rough.
“Don’t—” She sucked in air. “Don’t talk.”
“Okay. Not talking. I love you,” he blurted.
She glared at him through pain. “Now?”
“Yes. Now—always.”
“Idiot,” she breathed.
Another contraction stole whatever words she had left.
Jay’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. He would have traded places with her in a heartbeat. Would have taken every ounce of her pain.
Fear coiled low in his gut. Women had babies every second of every day. His and Blue’s would be born healthy, and she would come through this, he reminded himself over and over as he drove.
After reaching the clinic, which only took minutes, and felt like hours, he got Blue out. Everything moved fast after that.
“Well now, Blue, this is exciting,” Sally, one of Dr. Hannah’s nurses said as they walked inside.
Blue didn’t answer, just held Jay’s hand like a lifeline.
They were shown into a room, and he helped her onto the bed. Dr. Hannah arrived, looking happy—what was it with these medical people being happy when he was panicking?
“Right, now this can take a while, as you know, but the end result is worth it,” Dr. Hannah said as she began the examination.
Hours blurred.
Blue gritted her teeth through contractions that stole her breath, and he never left her side. Jay did everything he was asked to do and was fairly sure this was the most harrowing experience of his life, and considering he was doing nothing, that was pretty pathetic.
He managed to text both their families that the labor had started, and he knew they’d be arriving to wait outside until the baby arrived.
Blue told him that this was the only baby they’d ever have, and that he wasn’t touching her again.
Dr. Hannah answered that with a drawled “Right, like I’ve never heard that before.”
Jay took everything Blue threw at him and had never been more in awe of her.
And then she was told to stop pushing, and suddenly he was watching their child arrive, the head first, and then the body.
Jay’s knees nearly gave out.
“That’s your baby,” Dr. Hannah said.
He let out a broken laugh. Blue sagged back, tears slipping from the corners of her eyes as the baby was placed on her chest.
“A girl,” the doctor said.
Jay pressed his lips to Blue’s. “She’s perfect.”
“It can’t be,” Dr. Hannah said suddenly.
“What?” Jay demanded, panic slicing through him again.
“Jay?” Blue whispered.
“Is everything okay, Doc?” he demanded.
The doctor looked up, smiling in stunned disbelief. “There’s another baby.”
He stared at her in shock and then moved to look. Sure enough, another head was crowning.
“How is that possible?” Blue cried which turned into a shriek as she bore down.
“Holy crap,” Jay croaked. He moved to grab Blue’s hand as she gave birth to their second child. Second child!
Minutes later the nurse placed another tiny, squirming bundle beside the first.
“A second baby, this one a boy,” Dr. Hannah said gently. “Congratulations.”
“Two?” Blue whispered, looking at their children.
“How did we not know?” Jay rasped.
“Shadow twins.” Dr. Hannah explained. “It happens sometimes. Hidden behind the first one during scans if they are only done once and early in the pregnancy.”
Jay started laughing. Not sane laughter. The kind that comes from shock and relief. Blue looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
“We have two babies,” he choked out as he leaned down to kiss her damp forehead. “Trust you to be an overachiever.”
They both cried then, tears of happiness and relief. He was sure the shock would come later.
“You did that,” he whispered fiercely. “You’re a bloody warrior.”
She let out a shaky breath. “Guess you’ll need to repack the bag after all.”
He barked out a laugh. “I love you,” he said again.
This time she didn’t call him an idiot.
“I love you too.”
He dragged a chair close and dropped into it. Then with his arm around his girl, they looked at their kids, studying fingers and toes and talking and discarding names. It was a moment that would remain etched in his memory for the rest of Jay’s life.
“You need to go and tell them now, Jay. The family will be waiting for the news,” Blue said.
“And you’re happy with the names we’ve picked, Blue?”
“Yes, they feel right.”
He agreed, and then he walked out to tell their families the news.
Everyone surged to their feet as he approached. Her family were all here, and Robyn, Dan, Brody, and Ryder, with Ally.
“Well?” Finch demanded.
“They’re okay?” Meadow asked looking worried.
He nodded.
“They’re perfect.”
The room exhaled as one.
“Boy or girl?” Lynx demanded.
“They?” Finch asked slowly, the only one to hear what he’d said.
Jay grinned for the first time since Blue went into labor. “Two babies.”
Birdie, Robyn, and Meadow shrieked.
Blue’s father sat down abruptly.
Finch just started laughing right alongside Dan.
“Of course she did,” he muttered. “My sister never does anything by halves.”
“Our son is Troy Daniel Haddon, and our daughter is Chloe Meadow Haddon.”
This announcement produced more tears. Dan grabbed Jay, as did the others. It was a giant hug-fest of laughter and relief.
“You can come in and meet them briefly,” Dr. Hannah said from the doorway of the medical suite.
They did, filing through to kiss a weary Blue and coo over the babies, while Jay called his sister, who he had grown close to since the day he’d met her.
“Hazel, we have twins,” he said when she answered.
They talked briefly, and she promised to visit soon to meet her niece and nephew.
“Bye, sis,” Jay said, then cut the call. He didn’t think he’d ever tire of saying that.
They were still learning about each other. Still learning to be siblings, but they were getting there, and everyone in Lyntacky had embraced Hazel, her husband, and Jay’s nephew, Oliver.
Life since Blue had charged into it had changed completely, and Jay could confidently say he never wanted it to be any other way.
He headed back into the delivery room, smiling.
When everyone had left and it was just the two of them and the twins in their bassinets, he sat in the chair again and took Blue’s hand, cradling it between both of his as he studied this woman who had just given him two children.
Their start hadn’t been easy, but they’d won through and created a life together—a family.
Blue caught him watching her. “You okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah,” he said softly. “I finally am.”