Sweet Child o' Mine (4 page)

And
he suspected Sean had hauled Grace in here just for kicks. It would serve him
right since he’d screwed Charlie on Sean’s desk at Top a couple of months
before.

The
heart wanted what the heart wanted…and his dick definitely wanted her.

He
was almost to the door when it opened and Charlie stood there, her eyes wide.

“Ian,”
she said in a breathless voice.

His
heart nearly seized. “What?”

“My
water broke.”

How
the hell did water break…shit.

Normal
was over.

“D
o you think they can tell?”
Charlie asked when the doctor left.

“Yes,”
Ian replied. “They can tell you’re pregnant, baby. They are really good doctors
and they know a pregnant lady when they see one.”

She’d
lost her damn mind, but he was going to be supportive.

Her
eyes rolled and she shook her head as she maneuvered her way to sitting on the
hospital bed. “No. I’m talking about sex. Do you think they can tell that we
had sex?”

He
gave her belly a pointed stare. “Yeah.”

She
sighed. “I meant recently, Ian. I meant like two hours ago. That kid was all
down there looking at my lady bits and I was wondering if he could tell you’d
been up in that today.”

“Not
at all.” Probably, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. “All they can see is
the centimeter thing.”

Charlie’s
whole body stiffened and she reached for him. He moved as quickly as he could,
giving her a hand to hold on to as the pain took her. It seemed to last
forever, but he knew it wasn’t more than a few seconds. His wife was in pain
and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Well, he could.

“Take
the epidural.”

“I
will if it gets to be too much,” she agreed. “But right now it would only slow
down the labor.”

He
needed everything to slow down. He needed it to stop. From the moment she’d
told him the babies were coming to now seemed like both forever and the blink
of an eye.

The
door opened and Chelsea strode in. “Hey, sis. Looks like my nieces are eager to
get here.”

Ian
took that as a sign that he could step out for a moment. He kissed his wife and
left her with her sister for the moment. Dr. Bates couldn’t have gotten too
far. He had a few questions he didn’t want to ask around his wife.

He
walked out the door and jogged to catch the OB who was standing at the nurses’
station. Melinda Bates was a lifestyle friendly doctor. There was a small
network of them. Dr. Bates had grown up with a mom and dad who were full-on
24/7, and she understood. It made Ian infinitely more comfortable to have her
watching out for Charlie. She wouldn’t look at them sideways if Charlie forgot
and called out for her Master.

“Doc,”
Ian began.

“Yes,
Mr. Taggart? Is Charlotte all right?” Dr. Bates asked.

“For
now. Shouldn’t we be doing a C-section? And isn’t it early? The babies are
going to be premature. Shouldn’t we have things set up to take care of them?”
They would be small. So fucking small. They would be fragile, and if anything
happened to them it would be Ian’s fault. This was his family. His girls.

“Ian,
it’s going to be fine.” She put a hand on his shoulder, obviously tossing aside
formality. “If she hadn’t gone into labor this week, I likely would have pushed
to induce her soon. The babies are at a good weight, and from what I can tell
they’re already obedient little girls. They’re both in a heads down position
and ready to be born. Charlotte’s placenta isn’t obstructing her cervix. This
is a textbook case for delivering twins vaginally. Everything is going
perfectly.”

“And
if something goes wrong?” He didn’t even want to think about it. He would
almost rather just get it all over with.

“Then
we do an emergency C and she’s still fine. Look, nothing I say is going to make
you feel better. You’re out of control and I can’t give it back to you. This is
woman’s work and it always will be. There isn’t a man in the world who’s
watched his beloved labor to bring their child into the world and not felt
helpless,” Dr. Bates said with a sympathetic smile. “But Charlotte is strong
and your daughters are strong. Let them do their work. For now, all you can do
is let them know much you love them.”

He
nodded, but her words didn’t really help. All he could see was Charlie looking
pale in that hospital gown she’d had to change into.

So
many things could go wrong. He could lose them all.

“Ian?”

He
turned and Sean stood there. He was still in his chef whites, as though he’d
walked out in the middle of prep for tonight’s dinner. Which given the time was
the most likely scenario. “You didn’t have to come up here. It’s probably going
to be hours.”

Sean
simply walked up to him. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. My sous-chef can handle
Top for the night. I’m staying here with you. Grace and Li stayed behind to
close up McKay-Taggart, but they should be here very soon if not already. I
think you’ll find everyone else is here. They’ve kind of taken over the waiting
room. We are going to be hell on the volunteers.”

God,
he hadn’t expected that. “Tell them to go home, Sean. Like I said, it’s going
to be hours.”

Sean
put a hand on his shoulder. “Walk with me. Chelsea’s got Charlotte covered for
the moment. I want to talk to you.”

He
stepped back, wary. “I don’t need touchy-feely shit.”

“Sometimes
I wonder why we put up with you,” Sean said under his breath. “Fine. I’ll go to
plan
B
. Ian, I’ve got lemon cookies Macon made in the
waiting room.”

“Oh,
I will take those.” As long as he wasn’t about to get some lecture about the
step he was about to take. He didn’t want to hear about that. He kind of didn’t
want to think about that. Sometimes it was best to simply let things happen.

He
started to follow Sean down the hall.

“Do
you remember the moment you decided you wanted kids?” Sean asked.

Touchy-feely
territory. Yep. His brother was trying to get him there, but Ian was good at
avoiding the land mines. Usually he would simply walk away, but he wanted those
cookies so a little deflection was necessary. “Nope. I do remember the day
Charlie said she was no longer on birth control and what was I going to do
about it. Here’s a hint. I did not get snipped, which was the only option she
gave me besides rolling the dice.”

“Seriously,
that’s what you’re going to tell those girls?”

He
shook his head. “Nah. Charlie really wanted kids. You’ve seen her with Carys.
Besides, Carys deserves family. After you and Grace made the decision to keep
her a single, it kind of fell to me and Charlie to give her cousins.”

“You
make it sound like we did it to spite you,” Sean groused. “The doctors told
Grace another pregnancy could be very difficult. She wanted to try. I said no.
Carys needs her mother more than she does more siblings.”

This
was the way it was with him and his brother. They worked out their issues
through sarcasm. They didn’t need the therapy crap other people did. “Well, I
think she needs cousins. I will say if I’d known about Case and Theo at the
time, I totally would have shoved this duty off on them.”

“Don’t
even say that,” Case said, walking up to them.

Theo
was at his side with a big grin on his face. “I’m up to the challenge, big
brother. Well, maybe not the actual babymaking challenge, but I’m willing to
practice.”

Case
rolled his familiar blue eyes. “He thinks he’s getting some in Africa. He’s
absolutely certain Erin is going to fall into his bed while they’re fighting
Ebola and stuff.”

Theo
didn’t back down. “I’m optimistic. I’m getting her alone and I’m pleading my
case.”

“Yeah,
she’s going to respond by shoving her foot up your ass, little brother,” Case
explained.

Ian
kind of figured that Erin would try to shove her boot up Theo’s ass, but he
also thought she might not fight him too hard. “Any way I can convince you to
go to Africa and just get the job done?”

He’d
often found that the people around him did exactly the opposite of what he
asked them to, so he employed reverse psychology to get his way. In this case,
it wasn’t exactly his way. It was Theo’s way, but Theo was going to waste a ton
of time if he didn’t go after that girl and take her down. She wouldn’t respond
to roses. She responded to a man strong enough to take her shit and protect her
from whatever the hell she was afraid of.

Theo
frowned. “I’ll try, but I gotta be honest. I’m probably not going to try very
hard. Something about that woman does it for me. I can’t help it.”

Case
groaned. “I swear I’m going to beat him to death if he bursts into song.”

Ian
sympathized. “It’s disgusting, isn’t it? I had to put up with Sean singing
about Grace for weeks.”

“I
did not sing, asshole,” Sean shot back.

They
continued down the hall. “I distinctly remember you singing and weeping and
playing really bad guitar.”

“I
did none of that,” Sean clarified.

“I’m
pretty sure Theo’s been writing poetry.” Case fell in step with Ian.

Theo
shook his head. “Never once in my life have I written poetry.”

Sean
and Theo walked alongside but there was zero way to miss the similarities. Case
and Theo might be twins separated by mere minutes, but they were he and Sean
all over again.

Before
they got to the lobby, Case put out a hand and held Ian back.

Shit.
Was Case about to ask him not to send Theo to Africa? Case could be super
protective of his younger brother. Another thing they had in common.

“What?”

Case
frowned. “I just wanted to say something. I know I was kind of an asshole when
we first met.”

“You
can’t help it. It’s your personality.” He knew what Case was talking about.
Case had always resisted acknowledging their connection as anything past a
coincidental biological link. He was wrong, of course, but Ian didn’t bother to
point it out.

Charlie,
on the other hand, had been pretty specific with his brothers. They were family
and therefore her responsibility, and she didn’t care if Case agreed. A while
back, Case had broken his leg, and without bothering to ask the boy what he
thought, she’d simply moved Case into the spare bedroom and taken care of him
while Theo was off in Dubai.

“Yeah,
well, it’s yours, too,” Case shot back. “Look, this is hard for me. Could you
please shut the fuck up and listen? I’m sorry I was an asshole. I worried you
would come in and Theo would look up to you.”

Ian
felt for the kid. He remembered what it felt like to only have his brother. “I
was never going to take Theo away from you.”

“I
know, but I think you should also know that I wish it had been different.”

Ian
could only imagine. “I’ll get Charlie to back off. It was never my intention to
run roughshod over you, Case. I just wanted to get to know you.”

“That
wasn’t what I meant. I didn’t mean I wish we hadn’t met. I mean I wish you’d
been my big brother, too. All those years…I wish it had been you and Sean and
me and Theo.”

The
Taggart brothers. “You understand I’m going to beat the shit out of you.”

“Jesus,
man. Is that a tear?” Case looked properly horrified.

“It’s
manly hug time.” He caught his brother and gave him a good pounding on his
back. “And now we’re done.”

Case’s
mouth turned up. “Thank god because Theo would have drawn that shit out.”

Sean
popped back out of the waiting room. “What’s going on?”

“Absolutely
nothing,” Ian lied because Sean would drag that shit out, too, and the last
thing he needed was a bunch of crying dudes hanging on him.

“Not
a thing, brother.” Case gave him a nod and joined the rest.

Sean
stared at him suspiciously. “Yeah, I believe that.” He sighed. “You know you’re
going to be good at this, right?”

“I’m
good at everything.” But not this. Maybe he would be awful. He was sarcastic
and didn’t particularly believe in showing his emotions to anyone but Charlie.
He worried that he was going to resent the kids for taking time away from her,
and didn’t that make him a complete asshole?

“Joke
all you like, but in this I’m the leader, brother. I know what this feels like.
I know how awful it feels to watch your wife do something you can’t help her
with. You can’t take this burden from her.”

Ian
shrugged. “Charlie’s tough.”

“And
I also know what it feels like to worry that your whole world is about to
change,” Sean said, ignoring him completely. “And guess what—it is. Nothing
you’ve gone through prepares you. A lot of people will tell you you’ve already
been a parent to me, and in some ways you were. You took care of me. I know
what you sacrificed, but Ian, I wasn’t your kid. You have no idea how you’re
going to feel when they put that first baby girl in your hands, and nothing I
say will prepare you for it. But I am going to say this.”

“Do
you have to? You know I really think those dudes back in the sixties had it
right. We should go and sit in a bar somewhere and a nurse will call us and
tell us the baby’s here.”

Sean
put a hand on his shoulder. “Wasn’t that the life? Sorry. Come in here and
you’re going to figure something out. I know you say you’re not afraid, but I’m
going to do this anyway.”