48. One Year Later
FORTY-EIGHT
ONE YEAR LATER:
Bailey’s eyes opened as the uncomfortable tightening pulled across her stomach, radiating up toward her collarbone and yanking through her lower back.
“Reeves,” she gasped out. Her voice felt dry and came out raspy, but her husband still swiveled in his office chair, where he’d been editing the footage of his solo trek through a riverbed, where he’d caught a couple of moose among the willows, earlier this week.
She tried to push herself up, but she needed his help to get out of bed these days. So getting up off the couch? Bailey failed, and she fell back to the pillow, where she’d been resting, her mind almost giving in and letting her nap.
“Hey, hey, what’s going on?”
She panted as the sensation in her body reached its peak, then started to ebb away, leaving behind an echoing ache. “I just had a contraction.”
Reeves arrived in front of her, both hands outstretched. “Let’s get you up and see.”
She’d been having random contractions in the past thirty-six hours, and she just wanted this baby to come.
With her first pregnancy, she’d woken up in the middle of the night with intense cramping that wrapped around her back to the front of her belly, and when she’d gotten out of bed, her water had broken.
This felt like being in some sort of low labor torture, with the promise of no relief.
She let Reeves help her stand, and she shivered as the air conditioning touched her clammy skin. Reeves didn’t let go of her for a moment, though he’d walked around with her a few times now. The “contractions” had subsided then, and that was how Bailey had known she hadn’t truly gone into labor.
Tears filled her eyes. “I just want him to come.” She hated how nasally her voice sounded, but Reeves simply edged her toward the wide doorway leading out of his office.
“Let’s go outside,” he said. “It’s been sunny all day today, and we can walk over to the duck pond and back.” He wore such hope on his face, as he just wanted to make her happy.
So Bailey nodded and sniffled, loving the strength and calmness in which Reeves had handled her pregnancy. They’d celebrated their one-year anniversary a week and a half ago by escaping to Wolf Creek Lodge in Jackson Hole, and Bailey had been nesting around the house since.
The nursery sat ready for the baby boy she desperately wanted to bring home.
Her veterinary practice was set to run without her for the next three months, as she’d hired a new vet to join the clinic.
Her mother had been putting up meals for her and Reeves, and their freezer couldn’t fit another casserole dish.
She went down the front steps of the house where she and Reeves had made their home.
They’d talked about selling her farm, but in the end, they’d decided not to.
Reeves paid the mortgage easily with his channel income, and while they didn’t need the house, Bailey had planted a huge garden last year.
She enjoyed walking next door, or loading up all three dogs on an ATV and taking them with her to do the gardening.
She’d brought home three horses in the past year, and they housed them in her stables and let them graze in her pastures.
And of course, Reeves used the property for filming farm clean-up videos, camping, and anything else he wanted.
As for the house, Reeves and Bailey had started working with an organization in Coral Canyon who placed people in delicate situations in temporary housing.
They had the house, after all, and Bailey wanted to provide a safe place for anyone who might need it, be that for a day, a week, a month, or a year.
Reeves had readily agreed, because he claimed he’d often needed someplace safe, warm, and dry to recoup, recover, and figure out his next step.
Right now, her good husband guided her along the sidewalk, and the moment her foot touched the gravel in their driveway, her breath got whisked out of her body as the intense tightening began to wrap itself around her once more.
She immediately came to a stop and tried to fill her lungs as the pain worsened and spread down her legs this time. She hunched forward, not quite sure how to protect herself from the pain.
Bailey moaned, and then the most glorious thing happened—her water broke. Relief flooded her, because they could go to the hospital now, and they wouldn’t be sent home.
“The baby’s coming,” she gasped out, immediately trying to get a proper breath. That had been impossible for the past six weeks, but her body wanted the oxygen anyway. She looked up at Reeves, tears gathering in her eyes and flowing down her face.
“My water just broke.”
The clock had just struck midnight when the doctor said, “He’s here, Bailey,” with the angry, mewling cry of a newborn following her statement.
She fell back against the bed, glad Reeves had removed the pillows when she’d asked him to. She panted and nodded at him. “Go see him.”
He looked like he’d seen a ghost, but he moved away from her side and went with the nurses as they placed the still-wailing baby on a cart. They wheeled him a few feet away to do whatever they needed to do, and Bailey switched her gaze from her son to the doctor.
Dr. Rotimi nodded at her, her expression bright and seemingly not a stitch of exhaustion anywhere, though she’d been here as long as Bailey. “One more push, and you’ll be done.”
Bailey nodded, did what she needed to, and sank back again. She immediately started shaking again, something that hadn’t happened sixteen years ago. Someone noticed, and a nurse brought her a heated, weighted blanket that felt like God’s embrace as she laid it across Bailey’s midsection.
“It’s just the rapid hormonal change,” she said with a kind smile. “Your husband has your little boy.”
Bailey looked past her and found Reeves approaching as if on tiptoe. He gazed down at the baby in his arms with all the love in the world, and when he moved his eyes to hers, Bailey smiled.
“He’s wonderful,” Reeves whispered. The baby grunted and made an animalistic noise, and then Reeves transferred him to Bailey’s arms.
She let her tears fall, just as she had with her previous birth, but they meant something so radically different. “Hello, baby,” she whispered, gently placing a kiss to the boy’s forehead. It seemed to go on forever, as he already had an old man’s receding hairline.
That made her smile, and she tucked him right against the bare skin of her chest, right where her heart beat with love for him.
“I love you, Everett,” she whispered. She’d loved OJ too—in fact, she’d insisted she and Bryce tell the newborn they loved him before she’d let the nurses take him to Otis and Georgia.
That wouldn’t be happening here. Bailey was never giving this baby away, and she’d never give up on him.
“Do you want a picture as a new family?” a nurse asked.
Reeves turned toward her and nodded.
“Maybe come over on this other side, Dad,” she said as Reeves handed her his phone. “And crowd into the bed there with your wife and son.”
He did as instructed, and Bailey used the few seconds while he moved to use the corner of her sheet to wipe her eyes. With Reeves’s arm around her and his hand helping to hold baby Everett, she smiled with everything she had.
The nurse took several pictures, handed the phone back to Reeves, and looked at Bailey. “I’ll dim the lights and let you guys enjoy him. You should sleep if you can.”
“Can I feed him?” Bailey asked.
“Anytime you want.” The nurse smiled and moved to the bank of lights. They went down, and Bailey looked over to her husband.
“We did it,” she whispered. She peered down at her lovely newborn, realizing that he’d just made her and Reeves parents. They were a family, something she’d thought was completely out of reach for her.
Until Reeves.
“You did it,” Reeves said. “I’ll be honest, I hardly did anything here.” He chuckled as he leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple. Then he moved over to the recliner, and Bailey simply existed with her baby, whom she loved so much.
“She did a good job with these pictures,” Reeves said softly. “I’ll just edit one up and send it to your parents.” He looked at her for permission, and Bailey smiled softly over to him.
“Yeah, sure,” she said, an idea forming in her head. “Do you still have that Good News Thread?”
Reeves looked up at her, his eyes wide and searching hers. “From the Youngs?”
“Yes,” she said. “My parents are on that too.” She grinned, though she really should focus on feeding Everett and then sleeping for as long as she could.
He smiled too. “I got this.” He started typing, and because Bailey trusted him explicitly, whatever he did would be fine with her.
She gazed at her son and swept her fingertip along the brim of his little blue hat. It moved, and Bailey softly pushed it off. He had little wisps of hair, but not much more, and Bailey fell even further in love with him.
“Everett Summit,” she said, then looked over to Reeves. “Do we want Summit or Silas for his middle name?”
Reeves looked up from his phone, his expression a bit glazed. It cleared quickly, and he glanced down at his son. “Can I?”
Bailey passed him the baby, and Reeves smiled with his whole body and soul as he settled into the recliner with the boy. “You’re perfect, aren’t you?” He practically cooed at his son, and Bailey had never seen Reeves like this. She liked it.
“Let me see your phone,” she said.
Reeves passed it to her without looking away from Everett. Bailey knew his passcode, and she quickly tapped to his texts. He’d started two of them—one to her family, and one to the Youngs at-large.
They both started the same way, and Bailey’s breath caught in her throat at the picture of her, Reeves, and Everett. She and Reeves exuded joy, and Everett was the cutest baby in the whole world, what with his scrunched-closed eyes and his little blue hat.
Reeves had captioned the picture: Everett Summit Durham was born at 12:06 AM, literally thirty minutes ago. He’s the cutest thing ever, and Bailey and I love him endlessly. That’s our good news for today. Who else has some?
Bailey couldn’t stop staring at the picture, though a couple of responses had come in, despite the late hour.
“I think Summit,” Reeves whispered.
“Yeah, because that’s what you put out to the whole town of Coral Canyon.” Bailey finally looked over to him, and she reached for her boys as she and Reeves smiled at one another.
“You boys come lay with me,” she whispered. Reeves obliged, and he cradled her in his arms while she did the same to Everett.
To be where she was felt like she’d climbed up to a high summit, and Bailey leaned back against Reeves’s chest. “I love you, baby.”
He laid his head against hers. “Love you too, wildflower.”
Oh, my goodness. I love Bailey, and I love how hard she’s worked to come home, be home, and FEEL like she belongs in Coral Canyon.