Chapter 39
Penny
Getting from the rink to the hospital is a blur.
All I really remember is the dizziness that hit after the confrontation with the ShowBiz reporters and Miles holding me in his arms until the ambulance arrived.
“Miles,” I gasp as the paramedics take my vitals, “we didn’t even pack the hospital bag.”
“It’s okay sugar.” He squeezes my hand as best he can from where he’s awkwardly folded himself inside the ambulance beside me. “I’m sure someone from the family will bring whatever we need.”
His palm rests on my leg while the paramedics move around us.
“Just focus on breathing,” he says softly. “We’ll be at the hospital in no time.”
“Miles…” Panic claws up my throat. “Dr. Moran is in Charlotte. She won’t make it in time.”
My heartbeat spikes wildly on the monitor.
“Ma’am, we need you to slow your breathing,” one of the paramedics says as she places an oxygen cannula beneath my nose. “Try to stay calm for the baby.”
I close my eyes tightly and send a silent prayer to heaven.
Please give me strength.
Please let the baby be okay.
“We didn’t choose her name yet,” I whisper brokenly.
Miles grabs my hand with both his.
“I know, sugar,” he says thickly. “We’ll figure it out once she’s in our arms. One thing at a time.”
His eyes shine with emotion.
For one brief second, he looks away.
I catch the tears sliding down his face before he quickly wipes them away and forces himself to breathe.
Then he looks back at me with a crooked smile that completely wrecks me.
He’s trying so hard to stay strong for both of us, but I know this is breaking his heart.
The ambulance jerks to a stop, and everything moves fast after that.
The paramedics wheel me through the emergency entrance while doctors and nurses swarm around the gurney.
Medical terms fly around the room faster than I can process. Questions about contractions. About weeks. About fetal distress.
I barely manage to keep up.
Then suddenly, Miles’s hand slips from mine as they rush me down another hallway.
“Wait,” I gasp, close to full-blown panic. “I need him. He’s my—my partner.”
“He’ll join you as soon as he changes into surgical gear,” someone reassures me while continuing to push the bed forward.
I nod, clinging to those words.
Please hurry, Miles.
As soon as they wheel me into the operating room, the steady beeping of monitors overwhelms me. Too many people move around me at once. Too many voices speak over each other. Too many hands touch me.
Panic claws up my throat so fast I can barely breathe.
“What’s happening? What’s wrong?” I ask, my voice trembling.
“The baby’s heart rate is dropping to dangerous levels,” one of the doctors explains quickly while someone adjusts wires against my chest. “We need to put you under general anesthesia. There’s no time for an epidural. Are you okay with that?”
“Yes,” I choke out as tears spill down my temples. “Whatever it takes to save my baby girl.”
They transfer me to another bed while more doctors crowd around me.
The room keeps moving around me in a blur of blue scrubs and bright lights. Someone places a mask near my face while another person explains something I can’t force myself enough to understand.
“Where’s Miles?” I ask desperately. “I need him.”
“He’s coming shortly,” a nurse says, picking up my hand and rubbing soothing circles across the back of it.
“Okay, Penny.” The same nurse adjusts something beside my head. “I need you to count backward from ten.”
“Ten… nine… eight…”
I send up a silent prayer that even if I don’t make it, our baby girl does.
Everything goes black.
“Hi, baby girl. You’re so beautiful. Just like your mami. Yes you are.”
A pause.
“Come on, Penny. Wake up.”
Miles’s voice cuts through the darkness, and before I even manage to open my eyes, relief crashes through me.
“Miles?” I whisper weakly.
“Boss, fuck,” I hear quick footsteps approaching my bed.
I force my eyes open slowly until his face comes into focus.
His hair is a mess, his eyes red and swollen like he’s been crying for hours, but he still smiles at me like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
“There she is.” His voice cracks. “Hey, boss. You look beautiful.”
I huff out a weak laugh. “Stop lying. I’m sure I look like a hot mess.”
I try to sit up, but my body barely responds. Panic instantly shoots through me.
“Miles…” My voice rises. “I can’t move.”
“Hold on.” He presses the call button. “Nurse!”
A woman appears moments later, cheerful and calm in a way I envy.
“Oh, Mama is awake,” she says brightly as she checks the monitors around me.
“I can’t get up,” I say, my mouth extremely dry.
“It can take a couple hours for the anesthesia to fully wear off,” she explains kindly. “But once you’ve eaten something, I’d like for you to try to move around a little, take a shower, and eventually walk down to the NICU.”
I frown. “NICU?”
“The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit,” she explains gently.
My heart starts racing, and the monitors start to beep.
“Is she okay?” I ask Miles, terrified of the answer.
“She’s fine, sugar,” he says, quickly grabbing my hand. “She was born at thirty-one weeks, so they want to help her lungs mature and get some more weight on her before she comes home.”
“When can I see her?” I ask the nurse, tears already slipping into my hair.
“In a few hours,” the nurse says. “As soon as you can move safely.”
Once she leaves, I turn back to Miles.
“Is she really okay?” I whisper brokenly. “I need to see her.”
“Yes, sugar. She’s a warrior, just like you,” he says, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “I’ve been with her since the moment she was born. I only stepped away for a second to check on you when you woke up.”
I blink slowly, trying to process everything.
“So who were you talking to? I thought you were holding her.”
Miles passes his callused finger over my cheeks to remove the moisture.
“I took pictures of her,” he admits quietly. “So I could still look at her even when I’m not with her.”
His eyes shine with such adoration.
“I love you, Miles. You’re already such a great fucking daddy.”
“I love you too.”
He lingers there for a moment before pulling out his phone. “Ready to meet our incredibly gorgeous and perfect daughter?”
“So ready.”
The second he turns the screen toward me, my entire world stops.
She’s so tiny.
Her eyes are shut tight, the ointment doctors put on newborns making them gleam under the hospital lights.
A handful of dark hair rests on the crown of her head, and she has the cutest cupid’s bow lips I’ve ever seen in my life.
She’s only wearing a diaper inside the incubator.
Tiny tubes rest beneath her nose, and an IV line is taped to her impossibly small arm.
But despite it all, she’s peacefully sleeping.
My heart cracks wide open at the sight of my baby girl fighting from the very first day of her life. She looks so fragile inside that machine, and for one terrifying moment, all I can think about is how unfair this is. To her. To us.
I know things could have been worse. We’re lucky she’s alive.
But I still hate that she has to start life this way.
Anger burns hot in my chest as I think about those Showbiz assholes for barging into a private event and making me so anxious that my body gave out weeks too early.
“Trust me,” Miles says, pulling me out of my thoughts. “The doctors said she’s doing really well for thirty-one weeks. We got here in time, sugar. You both made it.”
He presses a kiss against my temple, and for the first time since my water broke at the rink, I finally allow myself to believe him.
“What happened to everybody?” I ask after several quiet minutes spent staring at the picture of our baby girl.
Miles lets out a low breath. “Well, Merlin feels responsible for those reporters showing up at the rink.” He rubs a hand over his jaw like he still can’t believe what happened.
“Apparently, he’s been dating some high-profile influencer because his PR team thought he needed more attention or something. Whatever that means.”
I snort. “Ah, to be young and wild.”
Miles smirks. “Hey, you can be wild with me, anytime, anywhere.”
“You’re too much, and I love it.”
He winks.
“Ruin and Rain brought you clothes, toiletries, makeup… honestly, probably half the damn store.” He rolls his eyes. “They figured you might appreciate a few essentials until we can get home.”
Warmth spreads through my chest at the thoughtfulness of his sisters. Somewhere along the way, they stopped feeling like Miles’s family and started feeling like mine too.
“And since none of us were prepared for a preemie,” he continues, “they already decided they're going shopping tomorrow. You know how they are.”
I nod, already picturing Rain and Ruin buying every miniature onesie they can find.
“So are we here alone?” I ask after a moment. “What about my parents? Did you call them?”
A nervous wave washes through me.
“Mama went back home to keep an eye on Granny,” Miles explains while absentmindedly tracing circles on my hand. “Gio, Ruin, and the kids went home. Same with Rain and Xander.”
He counts everyone off with his fingers.
“Your parents are on their way. They should be here any minute now.” He pauses. “Merlin drove back to Raleigh after things settled down, and River’s still out in the waiting room pretending he doesn’t care while stressing himself out.”
That makes me smile.
“The overprotective oldest brother,” I murmur, grateful River stayed behind to keep Miles company.
“Yeah,” Miles says with a fond chuckle, “it’s in his nature.”
A soft knock sounds at the door before a woman peeks her head inside.
“Mr. and Mrs. MacAllister?”
I know we aren’t even engaged yet, but I don’t correct her. It has a ring to it.
Once I spot the badge identifying her as a doctor, I offer her a warm smile.
“I’m Dr. Clark, the OB who delivered your baby girl.” She walks farther into the room. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired,” I admit honestly. “I just want to see my daughter.”
The doctor smiles kindly as she sanitizes her hands before checking my vitals. She listens to my heart, checks my blood pressure, then tests the sensation in my legs, where I’m finally starting to feel a faint tingling.
“Good,” she says with an approving nod. “Very good. You should be able to start walking within the hour, which means you’ll get to see her very soon.”
Excitement blooms inside my chest at the thought of finally holding my baby.
“Thank you,” Miles says suddenly, his voice rough. “For saving them both.”
His throat bobs hard afterward, like he’s struggling to keep himself together.
The doctor smiles. “It’s my job.”
Then her expression turns serious.
“I heard you experienced a highly stressful event right before your water broke. Is that correct?”
I give her a small nod, trying not to think about that awful encounter with Showbiz again.
“Although it isn’t extremely common,” the doctor explains carefully, “PPROM—premature rupture of membranes—can sometimes be linked to severe emotional stress. In some cases, prolonged stress can weaken the amniotic membranes and increase the risk of them rupturing early.
“It’s important that you understand this wasn’t your fault,” she adds quickly. “What matters is that you got here quickly, and we were able to assess the situation, and your daughter was delivered safely.”
I exhale a shaky breath.
“She’ll need to remain in the NICU for a few weeks,” she continues. “Right now, she just needs time to grow stronger before she’s ready to come home with you both.”
The word weeks lands like a punch straight to my chest.
There’s no way I’m leaving this hospital without my baby girl.
“I’m going to let you rest,” the doctor says as she sanitizes her hands again, “but I’ll ask the nurses to bring a walker and a wheelchair so you can go see baby MacAllister as soon as you’re steady on your feet.”
After shaking hands with Miles, she quietly leaves the room.
“I can’t wait for you to meet our perfect baby,” Miles says, tears spilling freely down his cheeks now. “She’s a fucking miracle.”
A shaky breath leaves him as he wipes at his face.
“I’m sorry, boss. For a minute there… I thought I was going to lose you both.”
“Like you said,” I whisper as I extend my hand toward him, “she’s a miracle.”
His hand finds mine, warm and steady.
“And I don’t think you realize it yet, but I think you just found the perfect name for our girl.”
His deep blue eyes brighten.
“She’s a miracle.” I smile through tears. “Our Milagro.”
I say the world slowly, hoping he recognizes it from all the Spanish he’s been secretly learning.
“Milagros Marie MacAllister,” he says right away, like the name was always meant to belong to her.
Emotion swells so hard in my chest that my lips start trembling.
“Miles MacAllister,” I murmur. “The man that you are…”
He leans down like he’s going to kiss me, but pauses at the last second.
“Why?” A cocky grin spreads across his face despite the tears still clinging to his lashes. “Because I learned Spanish? Some people might call that trying too hard.”
I laugh softly through my tears.
He shrugs. “I simply call it Miles MacAllister being stupidly in love with Penny Levine… soon-to-be MacAllister.”
His free hand disappears into his pocket before reappearing with a ring so gorgeous my brain completely short-circuits.
“I swear I planned to do this at the rink,’ he says, lowering himself onto one knee beside my hospital bed. “The place where our relationship started. But I guess life had other plans for us.”
A watery laugh escapes me. I press my lips together as another tear slips free, overwhelmed by this man and the life we built out of absolute chaos.
“Penélope Marie Levine,” he says, fighting for composure, “there’s no one else in the world who gets me the way you do. No one else who makes me feel like I can be fully, unapologetically, me.” He looks down at the ring before meeting my gaze again. “Would you do me the honor of marrying me?”
He places the ring against my finger, but doesn’t slide it on just yet.
“Yes,” I cry. “A million times yes!”
I kick my feet excitedly in the air and instantly regret it as the anesthesia continues wearing off.
A soft laugh escapes Miles before he carefully slides the ring into place and cups my face in his big hands.
“Te amo por siempre, sugar.”
His lips crash against mine, a rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins.
I hate cutting the kiss short, but I’m too excited to wait another second.
“Hotstuff, did you see?” I wiggle my feet beneath the blanket before slowly moving my legs.
His face lights up. “Come on, boss,” he says as he carefully helps me out of the bed. “Let’s go meet Millie.”
Millie.
Such a perfect name, for our perfect baby girl.