Chapter 15
Fifteen
Hannah
I don’t know what I expected when I walked into the waiting room, but it wasn’t our entire family sitting there with their eyes volleying between Sean and my dad.
And it certainly wasn’t Dad, rushing up to Sean and relieving him of some of the takeout bags with a pat on the freaking back.
Dad leans over and kisses me on the cheek, forcing my attention back to him. “Hey, sport.”
“Hi. Daddy. What’s going on? Why is everyone in here?”
“One of the twins went into distress, so the doctor kicked everyone out and took River in for a C-section,” he says as Katherine walks past him and pulls me into a hug.
“Poor girl put up a good fight though,” she adds, releasing me. “Hi, sweetheart.”
“Hi, Kat.”
“Fuck yes!” Aiden interrupts, walking into the room and striding over to us.
He snatches a bag from Sean, reaches into it, and shoves a handful of fries into his mouth. “Damn. I’m starving to death. What took you two so long? You stop off for a quickie or something?”
“Show some respect, man,” Sean growls, grabbing Aiden by the back of the neck and steering him to a chair next to Cammie, with Dad, Katherine, and I following behind him.
Greeting everyone, he sets the rest of the bags down on a coffee table, then turns to Katherine.
“Will the twins be okay?” he asks, worry etched all over his face.
“They will be. This isn’t uncommon,” she tells him, easing his concern as he takes a seat next to Aiden and grabs a deck of cards off the coffee table.
It doesn’t matter what Katherine says; my mind won’t settle down until I know River and the babies are okay.
Distracting me, Sean takes the cards out of the package and begins shuffling them, doing insane card tricks in the process.
Why is that so freaking hot? He fans the deck into a circle, like it’s fucking nothing.
His fingers twist and work around the cards, flipping and spinning them between his thumb and forefinger .
. . then he sends them flying from one hand to the other.
How the hell am I being seduced right now by a deck of cards?
Is he trying to remind me of what those fingers can do?
Good God.
Stop thinking about what his fingers can do, you little strumpet. You had your moment of weakness, and it’s not happening again. Ever!
I wonder again if River is okay. She didn’t want to give birth this way.
Are the babies going to be okay? Will they have to be in the NICU?
I hope not. God. I bet Carter is going out of his mind right now.
I pace back and forth, pinching my bottom lip, worrying myself sick, and wearing out the tiled floor for God knows how long before Sean calls out to me, “Come sit your pretty ass down, and let me teach you how to play Texas Hold’em. ”
Stopping, I turn on my heels and face the group. Aiden’s eyes flick to mine before he forces his attention back to the two cards in his hand and smirks. “Come on, Han-Han. You said yourself that Sean’s a great teacher.”
My jaw drops, and my eyes cut over to my dad.
“I’ve had about enough of your mouth, Brodie,” Dad snaps, cutting him a glare. “Remember who you’re in the presence of before making another smart remark.”
I’m going to kill him.
“Aiden, behave,” Cammie scolds, tapping him on the arm with the back of her hand.
“Awe, Sunshine. I’m just messin’.” He leans over and kisses her.
Wait, what?! My head whips back to them, and I swear to God, I just heard a record scratch. I cast a glance around the waiting room. No one looks shocked in the least bit, not even Dad. A pang radiates throughout my chest.
What they do isn't your business, Hannah.
“One day you’re going to have a daughter, Brodie. Remember this moment when someone is ‘just messin’,” Dad says, drawing my attention from Aiden and Cammie.
“Oh, hell no. I’m not having any kids,” Aiden says as I sit down next to Sean and wait for the next hand so he can deal me in. My eyes flick up to Dad’s, and he tosses me a knowing wink.
After a few hands of listening to Sean, I say, “Let’s make it a little bit more interesting. How about we place some real wagers on this game?”
“Oh, you’re on,” Aiden says at the same time Sean argues, “Rebel, I don’t think that’s a great idea.”
“I’m in,” Dad adds.
I raise one eyebrow at Sean as he looks between Dad and me. “You doubting your mad teaching skills there, Mac?”
“I'm not.”
“Do you think I’m not good enough to play for real money?”
“I don’t think that at all, baby,” Sean says, though I’m not quite sure I believe him.
Dad snorts out a laugh, and my eyes lift to his.
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing. Shuffle up and deal,” Dad says.
Fumbling with the cards, I lay them on the table and swipe them around like an amateur and catch Sean looking at me in mock horror.
“I can’t do all that fancy schmancy stuff that you can.” I laugh and stack the cards, passing them over to him to cut.
We play a couple of hands, and I lose a few hundred, but on the third round, I gain a pocket pair of aces. On the flop, Aspen deals an ace, a ten, and a deuce out on the table. Everyone checks, and I follow with a check. A ten is thrown down on the turn.
Let the betting begin.
I check. Dad bets. Cal folds. Aspen calls. Cammie folds. Aiden calls. Sean raises. I keep my poker face in place and reraise Sean.
His head whips in my direction. “Did you just check raise me?”
“Is that what it’s called?” I feign ignorance.
He’s gotta know I’m hustling the hell out of them by now. Surely. Sean is smart. Really freaking stupid smart. He studies me with analytical eyes, and my brows tug into a frown.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Did I do something wrong?”
Shaking his head, he covers his cards and looks at his hand again.
Everyone folds . . . except for Sean. He calls.
It’s just me and him.
Head-to-head.
Up next will be the river card. See that card is the one to screw you over. You think you have a solid hand, but someone slides into the game with two cards they should’ve folded to begin with. Then they river you out of a winning hand. Not this time.
My guess is that Sean’s sitting there with a ten in his hand.
He probably has a Jack or Queen to go with it.
Aspen deals out the river card, and it’s a Jack.
If I’m right, Sean thinks he’s won with at the very least trip tens, and at best a full house: tens over Jacks, when I’m sitting on a full house: aces over tens.
He checks. I bet. He raises. We stare at each other.
“If I were you, I’d fold.”
“Good thing you’re not me. Raise. What do you call it? All in. Yeah, I’m all in.”
Sean laughs. He freaking laughs. Oh, yeah. He thinks he has this in the bag.
“However much that is . . . I’m gonna call you,” he says.
“Let’s just settle on a thousand.”
“Fine,” he agrees as my dad sits back laughing behind his hand.
I flip my cards. “This is good right?”
He looks at my cards, then at me, the cards on the board, my cards again, then back at me, and shock settles over his face. “You played me. You fucking hustled all of us. Coach?”
Dad laughs and lifts up his hands in mock surrender. “Never underestimate a woman who was homeschooled as a little girl and had nothing better to do on the road than play cards with her old man and his teammates.”
Everyone burst out laughing as Carter barrels through the double doors, looking worn the hell out as if he just gave birth himself. We all stand and wait with bated breath as his face crumples.
“I’m a dad. I . . .” He rubs his chest as if it aches. “We have a boy . . . and a girl. Ash and Ember.”
Cal is the first one to wrap him in a hug, then each of us takes a turn to hug and congratulate him.
“How are the babies?” I ask.
“Ember is in NICU, receiving oxygen and being monitored. She experienced some distress during labor, but she’s doing good.
Ash is doing really well. He has a healthy set of lungs.
Both of them are so fucking perfect,” he cries, and I feel myself tearing up with happy tears along with him.
“River did amazing, she just got out of recovery and is doing skin-to-skin with Ash. Give us a little bit and we’ll come get you. ”
“Carter, you’re both exhausted. I’ll come back tomorrow to visit . . . well, later on today. You know what I mean,” I say, giving him another hug.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m sure. These first few hours are important for you all to bond. I’ll bring you guys lunch . . .” I say, releasing him. “Give the babies and River my love.”
“She’s right. I think we’ll all give you this time together and come back later,” Katherine agrees.
Sean and I say our goodbyes and head out to his truck. After starting the engine, he turns to me. “Are you okay?”
“You want the truth? Because it feels ugly.”
“Always,” he says, grabbing my hand, and giving me his full attention.
“What I said is true; they do need time as a family before we all come in and start holding the babies, but if I’m completely honest, another part of me—a very selfish part—doesn’t know if I can handle holding the twins right now.”
“Feeling that way isn’t ugly. This is a trigger for you; there’s a difference.”
His eyes lock with mine, and it’s not pity I see there; it’s a hint of understanding. How can he possibly understand what I’m going through?
As if reading my thoughts, he says, “I’m not comparing our trauma, but there was a time when I thought I was going to be a father, and that was ripped away from me.
I know what it’s like to watch your family and friends experience the joy of something that’s been stolen from you.
It doesn’t mean you’re any less happy for them; it just hurts.
What you’re feeling doesn’t make you selfish or anything; it makes you human. ”
“The thought of you experiencing this feeling makes me sick,” I tell him.
“I’m right where I’m supposed to be.” His eyes pierce mine, and my heart beats a little faster. “I just want you to know that your feelings are valid, Hannah.”
“Thank you.”