Damon
“You’re insane!” Bryce screamed, walking away but then turning back around and charging up to me again. “I’m going, and I’m not coming back this time!”
‘K, bye.
I slid the notch of the hammer onto the nail head, pulling out the nail and removing his full morning of fuck-ups. The muscles in my arms were charged and hot, and if he didn’t fucking leave, I’d remove him myself.
“I mean it, Damon!” he barked again, calling my bluff.
I shot him a middle finger, not looking at him.
I heard cans crash to the floor and guessed he’d probably kicked something as he stormed to the door.
“Hey, what the hell?” I heard Kai burst in, the two-way door flapping as he charged in from the front office and into the warehouse where we were working. “What’s going on?”
“He’s crazy,” Bryce said. “He can’t work with people!”
I laughed under my breath.
I heard Kai sigh, because he was as much at his wits’ end as I was.
Like, seriously. No one here could think for themselves.
You had to tell them every little goddamn thing, and God help you if you had to give them more than one instruction at a time, because their brains would fucking short out because they couldn’t remember all that AND remember to breathe at the same time.
I finished removing the last two nails and pulled the two by four off and tossed it to the side, getting rid of any evidence he did any work here today.
“He’s temperamental, but he’ll compromise,” Kai explained to Bryce. “We’ve been through this before.”
“Compromise?” Bryce whined. “He threw an ax at my head!”
“If I’d thrown it at your head, I would’ve hit your head,” I growled low.
There was silence, and then I heard Bryce’s voice. “I’m outta here, man.”
I knelt down, pulling up the nails on the next board he’d fucked up.
“Bryce, come on.”
“Let him go,” I told Kai.
The door swung open again, hitting the wall, and the rest of the crew around me cleared their throats, getting back to work as Kai loomed. Why was he even fucking here? If I couldn’t have Will handling shit out there, then I wanted one of the girls. Michael and Kai stressed me out more.
“How are you going to get anything done?” Kai demanded, and I noticed a stack of papers crunched in his fist.
“A lot better without that idiot around.”
“Damon…”
But I shook my head. Just fucking stop. I needed to get the framing done on three more treehouses before the baby came in like nine days, not to mention finalize the design on the fountain in front of Meridian City’s new library and figure out what the fuck a she-shed was,
because Catherine O’Reilly just loved her son’s new treehouse and thought I could build her something of her own.
She was paying double to rush it before the snow started in a few months, so I couldn’t say no.
Photographers were coming by all week to get shots of “work-in-progress” for the new website that Alex was handling, and thankfully doing everything to get us set up online. I just wanted people to leave me alone in the warehouse. I moved faster without help here.
But part me knew I was part of my own problem, too. The Langston kid wanted a treehouse, but once I found out he was obsessed with pirates I chucked everything that was already done and started a design for a tallship instead. What the fuck was I thinking?
I looked over at the bow and masts already constructed, feeling a smile tug at my lips. It was going to look fucking fantastic when it was done, though. It was worth it if he loved it.
“You are running on fumes,” Kai told me. “You just got back from Washington, and then California before that, you have a baby on the way, projects are piling up…” He trailed off, and I felt him inch closer. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think you should start smoking again.”
I arched an eyebrow. I hadn’t entirely quit, actually. I probably never would.
Lifting up the first frame, I leaned it against the wall and then moved to the next one.
“You don’t need employees, you need a team,” Kai said, following me. “I’m not taking any more orders until we get this place in shape. With a regular staff. I’ve already put word out at the university that you’re recruiting.”
I shot him a scowl. He wasn’t wrong. I just didn’t have time to deal with it.
But Kai went on, “You need an office manager, you need a design team, and you need a receptionist, and that’s not me. I have enough on my plate.” He rubbed his neck. “Everyone is scrambling to keep you covered, but you’ll be a lot less stressed if your home base is running smoothly.”
“Fine, whatever,” I snapped. “Just take care of it. I need to stay ahead of schedule.”
Just do what you want, and don’t bug me with it.
I knew they were all doing me a shitload of favors, and I was grateful they were here, because I wasn’t cut out for a lot of this.
I just wanted someone else to be the face of the business and for me to stay in the background, designing and building and being left alone.
If Will was here, he could do it. He’d be happy to do it.
But he wasn’t here a lot lately. He’d come home for a couple months and then fly off again, itching for space he never seemed to need before. He, Alex, and a few others were backpacking around Scandinavia over the summer, but when they came home, he stayed there, and I hadn’t seen him in weeks.
Although, he checked in regularly.
I think he was feeling left out. He saw Michael with Rika, Kai with Banks, and me with Winter, and struggled to feel like he belonged. He had Alex, but she wasn’t what he needed, and he just kept running away again and again, so he wouldn’t think or…feel. Or deal.
Kai turned and headed back for the lobby, but then stopped, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
“Ah, shit,” he said. “Where’s your phone?”
“Why?” I grumbled.
“Because it’s time.”
“Time for what?”
He stared at his phone, smiling to himself. “I guess your girlfriend likes to stay ahead of schedule, too.” And he looked up at me. “She went into labor two hours ago. Where’s your fucking phone?”
My heart leapt into my throat. What?! I patted my jeans, looking around me.
Shit!
I spotted it laying on a pile of boards and darted over, swiping it up. Pressing the power button, it didn’t light up.
“Fuck, it’s dead. Where is she?” I barked.
Two hours. She’d been in labor for two hours?!
But he just laughed. “At the hospital. Let’s go.”
Why was he laughing? Maybe he forgot how frantic he was when his kid came a few months ago.
I charged out of the room, hearing Kai tell the guys to lock the place up at five, and we hurried out of the building and into my car.
? ? ?
We rushed into the hospital, knowing Labor and Delivery was on the third floor from when Banks had her kid in May.
I didn’t even know Winter was in the city today.
What the hell’s the matter with me? She probably texted, but I’d forgotten to charge my phone last night, and I didn’t know how long it had been dead.
We went up the elevator and bolted out as soon as the doors opened, heading for the nurses’ station, but I immediately spotted Banks sitting on some chairs, holding her and Kai’s son.
Madden.
Mads, for short. Mads Mori. Poor kid sounded like an assassin.
I brushed her face as I walked by, and she smiled big, excited for me. Mads gnawed with his toothless mouth on her jaw, making cute sounds and shit.
But then a scream pierced the air and a gasp, and I heard a man’s voice and Alex’s coaching. “I’ve got you!”
Without waiting, I burst into the room, my heart jumping into my throat. I’d never heard Winter sound like that before. Jesus. Was it supposed to sound like that?
She laid on the bed, and I rushed up to her, helping Alex hold her up as she pushed for the doctor.
“Six, seven, eight…” the nurse continued counting.
“Baby,” I breathed out, kissing her.
“Damon,” she gasped, realizing I was here.
“Nine, ten,” they finished.
And Winter let out a breath, sucking in air.
“I was so scared you weren’t going to be here,” she said. “My water broke while we were shopping, and he’s coming so fast.”
“I was with her,” Alex told me.
I steeled my arms around Winter and kissed her forehead, cheeks, and lips, making sure she felt me close.
“Thanks,” I told Alex.
Winter shook, and I studied her face, seeing her biting her bottom lip and tears hanging at the corner of her eyes.
And just like that, she was eight again, our fingers hanging on by a thread in the treehouse, and I couldn’t stop what was happening to her.
“Why is she crying?” I barked at the doctor.
“Because it fucking hurts!” she yelped, answering for him.
“Well, give her something!”
“It’s too late for that now,” he mumbled through his mask and then peered over Winter’s legs. “Plus, you wanted natural childbirth, right?”
“What the fuck for?” I burst out, looking down at her like she had three heads. “We didn’t talk about that.”
She growled and pushed back up on her elbows.
“All right, deep breath and push!” the doctor said. “One, two, three, four…”
“Ahhh!” she gritted through her teeth, her whole fucking body tense and rigid, and I wanted to look, but I didn’t want to leave her.
“Five, six, seven…” they called.
Winter looked flushed and sweat beaded her brow.
“Eight, nine…”
Her face twisted up, and she let out a small scream, and a tear fell, and I tightened my fists, unable to take my eyes off her. Jesus, fuck. Why the hell would she turn down perfectly legal drugs?
“Ok, the head is out!” the doctor told us.
My lungs emptied, and my stomach somersaulted. I moved to look, but she pulled me back. “Don’t leave me.”
I leaned back down and kissed her, but I started to laugh, and I couldn’t help it.
I didn’t know why I was feeling what I was feeling, but it was incredible. Whatever it was.
“I’ll bet it’s a boy,” she said, sucking in deep breaths.
“If you’re wrong, you have to do that bathtub thing for me,” I remind her of our bet.
We hadn’t found out the sex of the kid, wanting to be surprised.
But she just laughed despite herself. “I do it for you anyway. You know that?” she shot back.