Three
ADAM
“You are not getting in that room unless Adam or Naomi invite you,” Cormac barked.
Naomi and I exchanged looks, her a startled frown. “What…”
“Don’t worry about that,” Serenity said. “Let’s focus on this special moment between you and your child.”
“C-sections are not a routine procedure,” Keelie said indignantly.
“What the hell kind of dumb comment is that?” Millie muttered.
“Let’s see how you feel about getting all your abdominal muscles carved through—” Keelie said, her voice gaining volume.
Naomi must be so proud. She’d taken Keelie under her wing during the last season, and the younger woman was more outspoken in her beliefs now than she’d been when she started dating Cormac.
Naomi had told me she’d helped Keelie find her inner goddess.
I wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly, but I liked that the women in our group spoke their minds.
“Should we break that up…” Naomi bit her lip when Ida Jane piped in.
“Oh, no, sir! Put that down. There is no reason to call security. The only one making threats here is you,
“I will tell the board of directors that when I meet with them next week,” Millie added.
That’s right; she was working to spend her mother’s money on various charities and worthy causes throughout the city. Memorial had asked Millie for this meeting—they wanted a fat donation.
I smiled as I realized this doctor-douche didn’t recognize who he’d tangled with. But he would. The CATS were even fiercer than our D-Men on the ice.
“Adam, I think you better calm the CATS down,” Naomi said, using the abbreviation the team had come up with for our version of the wives and girlfriends.
It stood for comrades, allies, teammates, and spouses.
I liked how inclusive that was; it was one reason I’d been excited to finish my career for the expansion team.
That, and Gunnar Evaldson, the team’s owner, had made great coaching and strength of character the cornerstone of his organization.
He’d said he could get someone to teach a better shooting technique, but he couldn’t force chemistry.
His beliefs had paid off, and the Wildcatters had already won the Stanley Cup once. The team I helped coach was headed for another winning season.
“I will,” I said. Only after the CATS finished speaking. I didn’t need anyone dropping gloves on the doctor douche, but his ego needed to be brought back to reasonable levels.
Naomi glanced over at Serenity. “While he shows off the baby, could you help me rinse off and get a towel or robe?”
Scuffling sounds came from behind the door. “I’ll just clock him once. He’ll crumple easily,” Maxim growled.
“You’re not hitting him,” Cruz said, his voice low and dangerous. “But if he says something else derogatory to my teammates or their wives, I may borrow that scalpel and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.”
Serenity chuckled at Cruz’s threat, and I smirked back. Clearly, this doctor-douche had made an impression on Serenity, Cruz, and the rest of my teammates. Whatever happened now, I owed Serenity so much for keeping that MD away from Naomi and Felix.
“Stop it,” Millie snapped. “All of you. Will you listen?”
“To what?” her husband, Luka Stol, said.
I took Felix into my arms with as much care as I would a ticking bomb.
“You’re doing great,” Serenity said, beaming. “Give his neck a little more support—there.” She smiled. “Tub or shower, Naomi?”
“That’s just it—Naomi quit screaming,” Millie said.
“Girl has some lungs on her,” Ida Jane said.
“I don’t hear the baby—” Cormac fretted.
“I don’t think my legs will hold me,” Naomi said.
“Perfectly natural,” Serenity said. “Let’s get you rinsed off.”
“I need to get in that room!” That had to be the pompous doctor. He really sounded like a windbag. “The midwife shouldn’t be alone with them. If something happens to the infant.”
“You okay with me opening the door?” I asked.
“Um…”
Naomi uttered it twice in one day. Hmmm. I didn’t like Naomi so unsure.
“I’ll hold up a towel,” Serenity offered.
“Thanks.” Naomi heaved a relieved sigh.
“Here goes,” I said, once Naomi was behind the towel-screen.
I opened the door…and stared at the backs of my teammates. Five of them were there, still dressed in their costumes, arms crossed, no doubt scowling at the much smaller, balding man in glasses who glared at them until he saw me.
“Move, you brutes! There’s the baby—”
“Which you don’t get to touch,” I said. “I need the neonatal team, not an obstetrician.”
I glanced back at Serenity, who nodded approvingly. She glanced around her makeshift shield. “Are you doing okay, Naomi?”
“Yeah…I can see my feet,” she said in wonder. “They’re so puffy,” she gasped. “Have they been like this for long? Oh, my go—will they ever go back to looking like normal feet?”
“In good time,” Serenity assured.
“I want to see the baby,” Ida Jane said, trying to peer under Maxim’s elbow. She had her hands clasped under her chin. She looked like angelic, but I’d heard her giving the doctor a piece of her mind moments ago.
“You hear that, doc? You’re not needed,” Cormac said.
“I have half a mind to cancel my donation to the hospital,” Stol said.
“Good plan,” Maxim said. “I don’t want this asshat near my woman when she gives birth.”
“You have to knock her up first,” Cruz said.
“In good time, grasshopper,” Maxim replied with a broad, satisfied grin.
“Maxim made a joke,” Keelie said, beaming.
“He’s hilarious,” Ida Jane said, staring up at Maxim adoringly.
“Neonatal team,” I said, breaking up the love fest. Cruz nodded and left the room to inform the nursing staff. “Also, what are you all doing here?”
“Well, you didn’t expect us to wait at the house, did you?” Keelie asked with a frown. “Birthing babies is momentous! This is more entertaining than watching Cormac and Stol argue about pumpkin carving.”
“We’re here for you,” Millie added. She patted Stolly’s arm consolingly. “Your pumpkin looked great, hon.”
“Because we love you both so much,” Ida Jane said.
“Thanks.” I choked up a little.
Stol clapped my shoulder. “You know it, brother. Now, let me see your kid.”
He’d turned into such a softie since the birth of his daughter. I rather liked this side of my teammate.
I lowered Felix so that my teammates and their wives could see Felix’s bright eyes and tiny, cherubic face.
“Those cheeks,” Millie gasped. “They’re so chubby!”
“And on such a tiny body,” Keelie said. She glanced over at Cormac. “He looks kind of like Brooks.”
“Only in that he’s a boy,” Stol said. “Hey! Don’t punch me.” He scowled at Maxim. “I’m just saying that Adam’s kid is smaller and has way more hair—ouch! Stop hitting me!” He glared at Cormac.
“My kid’s adorable,” Cormac growled.
“I told you that earlier today when I saw his costume,” Stol snapped back.
“The neonatal unit is incoming,” Cruz said, peering over everyone’s head. He smiled faintly and gave me a nod. “I’ll get these guys out to the waiting room. Give you a moment.”
“Thanks, man.”
A dam of noise and motion seemed to burst once the neonatal team descended—pushing out doctor-douche.
“We’ll take care of him,” Millie said, pushing her glasses up her nose and sending one last scowl the doctor’s way. He finally realized he wasn’t welcome and stormed out.
“Good riddance,” Ida Jane muttered.
Those few precious seconds of quiet joy with baby Felix seemed a million years ago now. It was sometime late into the afternoon of that next day, October twenty-eighth, when I finally held my son again.
Felix was healthy enough to leave the NICU—his lungs were in good shape, which had been the neonatal team’s biggest concern. He was also barely three pounds and fit in my palm. Singular.
Such a little dude but already a scrapper.
The nurse who’d brought him to us a few minutes ago said they planned to let us go home tomorrow. The weight of the responsibility hit me, hard.
I was a father. I swallowed back my fears, the darkness of my childhood, and stared down into the tiny face of my son. Felix.
Like me, my son had a birthday very close to another holiday—his was near Halloween and mine was two days after Christmas.
“You’ll never have to wonder about how much I love you—how much your mommy loves you.
We won’t forget your birthday, ever, or pretend that we just wanted to get you a bigger gift at Christmas. ”
Naomi turned her head from the pillow where she’d been napping moments before. “You are so hawt holding that kid of ours, Adam.”
I gave her that tiny smile she loved and watched her pupils dilate. Yeah, with Naomi, the heat that burned between us was intense. While now may not be the appropriate time to delve into that aspect of our relationship, I was grateful to rediscover its presence.
So much had changed during her pregnancy. I hadn’t admitted to myself how worried I’d been about having a kid.
Much as I loved Naomi, trusted her, and planned my life around her, there were some secrets I hadn’t shared…like how my parents’ disinterest in me, their fifth kid, made me turn outward for affection during my youth hockey days.
Because we rarely discussed my sexual history, the anxiety it caused her made it not worth it…
so I told myself it wasn’t worth bringing up other details about my youth.
But, really, I was trying to protect her image of me.
I preferred to be seen as an over-sexed hockey star rather than an unwanted child brought into a family with limited resources and many problems.
“Want to hold him?” I asked.
She nodded eagerly, a soft smile blooming across her face. I hadn’t seen that expression before because it was solely for our son. That made my chest tight and warm. Her love for both of us, and her willingness to show it, amazed me.
My mother hadn’t cared about me, and she made sure I knew that.
So Naomi’s open affection did something to me; something good. Healing.
Once I placed him in her arms, she cuddled the infant close. “I love you, baby Felix Xander. Daddy loves you, too, and we’re going to be…not perfect, but so good to each other.”