Chapter 7 – Drew #2
“Why are we going this way?”
Kate takes another left and hits the gas.
“And that, my dear husband, is why I’m driving.
Vesper’s hospital is the same one I gave birth in.
And as much as I have tried to push my final car journey as a pregnant woman to the back of my mind—squashed into Felicity’s Mini Cooper like a sardine meeting its grizzly end—the fastest route to the hospital is burned into my memory forever.
” Her face softens, a flash of maternal love passing through her bright blue eyes.
“I think the contractions are slowing down,” Vesper remarks, drawing a gulp of oxygen into her lungs.
“Oh, thank Christ.” Jensen closes his eyes, sounding more relieved than she does.
“They generally call this the latent phase in labor,” Kate confirms, pulling into the hospital parking lot. “I went through it with Will and June before all hell broke loose shortly afterward.”
“Excellent.” Sarcasm is laced in Vesper’s voice as I unclip her belt, and Jensen and I help her out of the car.
She holds up a hand when he offers out his arm for her to take.
“Seriously, thank you, but I’m good. If this is the calm before the storm then I need to pull up my big girl pants and push through it.
” She winces at a thought. “Something tells me I’m going to need all the help I can get over the next few hours. ”
Turning on her heel, Vesper begins waddling toward the hospital entrance but doesn’t pause when Will’s red Ferrari roars into the parking space beside Jensen and Kate’s white Maserati.
I can’t say that I blame her, if I were that pregnant, I wouldn’t stop until I found a nice comfy place to lay my ass down.
Pulling off his sunglasses, Will throws his door open, waves at Vesper and his parents, and wraps me in his arms.
“Silas picked up Dad’s message when I was with him in the locker room,” he explains, making my stomach flutter when he runs a palm down the length of my hair.
I think I’m destined to be one of those girls in ’90s chick-flicks, swooning whenever her boyfriend pulls up in his car and claims her in front of everyone. “He was behind me on the freeway but got caught at a stoplight.”
Right on cue, Silas’s black truck screeches to a halt in the drop-off zone.
He swings the driver door open, grabs Vesper’s hospital bag from the back seat, and sprints to the entrance, throwing his arms up in the air when the automatic door doesn’t open quickly enough.
And then he disappears inside, unlikely to reemerge until he’s carrying his newborn to the truck and driving his family home to begin their new lives together.
The sun beats down on the asphalt, and I squint up at Will, his hands dropping to palm my ass.
We don’t say anything for several beats, but words aren’t necessary either. We’re both thinking the same thing, wondering if that will be us at some point.
Soft, pillowy lips brush against mine while the faintest sound of a siren cuts through the humid August air. The world is sure in a hurry today, but inside our self-made bubble, time slowly ticks by.
Will sweeps his tongue along mine, drawing a tiny whimper from my body.
“I realized something today.” He breathes against my mouth, smiling into the kiss as he steals another taste of me.
“Yeah? What’s that?” I reply, picturing a crowd of envious peers watching me make out with the most popular boy in school.
We may have known each other since birth and been family friends for the majority of our lives, but this man, right here, is all mine.
Forever.
Will scoops me into his arms, and I giggle into his white polo shirt, inhaling a freshly showered scent that’s unique to him.
I wrap my legs around his waist, and he captures my mouth once more.
He rests his forehead against mine and gazes down at the golden compass hanging around my neck.
“Whether we’re blessed with multiple children or a life where it’s just the two of us renewing our wedding vows twenty-five years from now with Jon as the only witness”—I snort a laugh, and he kisses my jaw—“and even if we never make it back to this parking lot and I never get to race through that door with your overnight bag.” He swallows thickly, brown eyes shining in the sunlight.
“I’ll know that every minute spent on this earth was the best my life had to offer because it was shared with you, Drew. ”
My fingers toy with the soft hairs at the nape of his neck. “Will, I…” my words disappear as I swallow down the bowling ball rising in my throat.
“I’ve been privileged since the day I was born in that building behind us. I’ve had the best of everything and wanted for nothing,” he continues. “But how many people have the honor of knowing their soulmate since the day they took their first breath to their final moment?”
I press my lips together, my body heating from more than just the sun. “Us. We get that honor.”
He nods once, the first tear hitting the apple of his left cheek. “We do, Drew. It’s a gift that no amount of money can buy. And I’m determined to make every single second count.”
When he releases me, I slide down to my feet, and Will holds out his hand for me to take.
I revel in the way our palms slide together perfectly, almost like our bodies were designed to be one person and not two.
“Come on, Jones.” Will tosses me his trademark wink and runs his thumb across the top of my hand. “Let me show you the hospital where our love story began.”
Thank you for reading!
Next up is Silas and Vesper’s story in Code Violation!