30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Hugo
S carlett Rose and Matthew Hugo were born within mere minutes of each other with little fanfare. They were quickly held for Renee and me to see and then whisked away. Neither cried lustily, and their APGAR scores were lower than we would’ve liked. But they were alive, tiny, and with functioning lungs.
The neonatal specialist had warned Renee of all these things. But as I held her hand while they stitched her up, tears ran down her face.
“I should’ve tried harder.”
I pressed a kiss to her temple. “Renee, you did everything you could. Your water breaking was not your fault. But those beautiful babies have a fighting chance because you stayed in bed and took care of yourself.”
“But the ice cream—”
“Did not increase your blood pressure or induce premature labor.” My heart ached. “And you’re going to be in Cope’s arms in a short time, and he’s going to tell you this wasn’t your fault.”
“They’re so tiny—”
“They’re almost three pounds.” I knew the survival statistics, but wasn’t going to quote them. Nothing was one hundred percent, and each pound less than normal birth weight decreased the odds. Still, three pounds was respectable. She’d done a hell of a job. The rest was up to the universe.
I wasn’t a praying man, but I’d sure uttered more than a few over the last two hours and would continue to do so.
“Your hair’s dry.”
I didn’t want to talk about wet hair, but she was the new, panicked mom. If she wanted to go there, why the hell not?
This means nothing .
Inwardly, I winced. Outwardly, I smiled. “Yes, I got lucky. Yes, we were done when you called. Yes, we enjoyed ourselves.”
Axel hadn’t said as much—but I hadn’t given him time. I’d bet simultaneous climaxes generally meant enjoyment, though.
“Who?” Her brow furrowed. “Did you undelete the dating app?”
“I don’t think you can undelete an app.” Of course, not being tech savvy, I didn’t actually know.
“You can re-enable your account.” And Renee, being perfectly tech savvy, would know this.
“I’m pretty sure I deleted the account entirely. Remember Wally?”
She winced. “He had such a cute name.”
“And a small dick. Which was, honestly, the least of his problems. I mean, I’m not a size queen by any extent of the imagination—”
“Gavin.”
“True.”
My ex had a small dick as well.
“But Wally…”
“Yeah, okay. But there are thousands of single gay guys in Vancouver. You must be able…” Her eyes widened. “You had sex with Axel Townsend?”
The doctor appeared. A dark-skinned woman with a beautiful smile. “You did great. The NICU reports the twins are doing well. You’re all stitched up and ready to go to recovery where you can see your husband.”
The woman was aware I was the birth coach…Cope’s blood phobia and all…
With a smile she left, Renee snagged my neck, grabbing my hair.
Hard.
“Hey.”
“I want fucking details, Hugo. Because you said—”
“I know what I said.” I sighed. “There’s been a lot of back and forth and—”
The curtain between Renee’s head and belly came down.
A nurse with a nice smile and kind eyes approached. “Let’s get you moved and settled.”
Renee cast another glance at me. “This isn’t over. But I want a gown and some feeling back in my lower half.”
“There’ll be pain.” I didn’t want to issue the warning, but she deserved the reminder. Right now, she was clearly flying high on happy drugs.
And, true to my word, a couple of hours later, she was miserable. “Fucking hell.”
“Major surgery.” I reiterated this as she sat in her hospital bed, clutching her still distended belly. “There aren’t babies in here anymore. So, like why—”
“Renee.” Cope clutched her hand. “I don’t care what you look like. You’re so beautiful.” He brushed a stray lock of hair off her face.
I’d run a cold cloth across her face once she’d settled a bit. After all these years, knowing what soothed her helped in situations like this. One I doubted we’d repeat. Twins? Not likely at her age. Although, with Renee and Copeland, I’d learned to never say never.
A nice, young woman in a bright pink shirt and blue jeans arrived with a massive arrangement of flowers and two teddy bears. One blue and one pink. Which made me wince a little because Renee didn’t tend to like the gender shit as she put it. Still, Cope’s effort was appreciated.
“Thank you.” Renee beamed as the woman put the arrangement on the window sill. “They’re lovely.”
The woman grinned. “Congratulations.”
Renee’s smile faltered. “They’re preemies—”
“But going to be fine.” I snagged the hand that Cope wasn’t holding. “They’re going to be okay.” I gave the young woman a smile. “She’s going to see them shortly.”
“That’s great.” Her smile didn’t falter. “Best of luck.” She gave an odd wave and headed out.
Renee managed a watery smile at me. “Thank you for the flowers.”
“I didn’t.”
We both turned to Cope.
“Uh, shit. When I tell you it wasn’t me, I’m going to look bad, aren’t I?”
“We haven’t told anyone.” Renee frowned. “We agreed we were going to wait until we’ve seen the babies.”
“Well, I saw them as they were taken away—”
“But you didn’t call anyone.” She glared. “Did you?”
“Oh, hell no. We agree to do it together—”
“Because if you did…” Her glare didn’t lessen.
“Why don’t I check the card?” Gently I released Renee’s hand. I laid it on her belly and made my way over to the stunning—and clearly very expensive—bouquet.
Congratulations to the new parents and best of luck. AT.
“Son of a bitch.”
“Hugo.” Renee’s warning tone had me walking the card over to her.
She read it and cocked her head.
“AT. Axel Townsend. I mean unless you know another—”
“Holy shit.” Cope’s eyes went wide. “The lead singer of Grindstone sent us flowers and teddy bears?”
“How did he know one girl and one boy?” Renee eyed me. “ I didn’t know until they came out.”
Cope laughed. “And I found out even after that. It’s only been a couple of hours and, as you can tell from our heated discussion—”
“Argument.”
“Discussion.” Cope eyed Renee at the interruption. “Anyway, we didn’t tell anyone.”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Maybe he just figured two of the same kind would be confusing. I’m kind of surprised he chose pink.”
“That might’ve been the only color choices.” Renee frowned. “I’m a little tired of the binary.”
“And yet after healthy, the next thing you wanted to know was gender.” I winked.
She mock-glared.
I always knew the difference between the pretend and the real thing.
A hunky nurse appeared at the doorway with a wheelchair. “Do you think—”
Renee was already trying to scoot off the bed.
I grinned at the gorgeous guy. “Yeah, she thinks.”
Twenty minutes later, Cope was sending me photos of Renee holding each little tiny bundle.
I asked if I could forward it to Axel.
Cope said yes.
I forwarded the photos to Axel.
Renee would hate me for it. Her hair was a mess, and she looked pale and pinched. And also tremendously relieved.
Axel shot back teddy bears and eggplant emojis.
I smiled tiredly.
Yeah, today was one to remember.