Taking Chances (42 page)

I hugged him
tight and cried on his shoulder.

“Did you uh,
did you hear that?”

“Most of it.”

“Aw hell. I'm
sorry Kid, I didn't mean for you to hear that.”

I wiped my
cheeks and stood up straight, “It's fine. Thanks for talking to him, I really
appreciate it.” I traced some of the scars and his body started shaking when he
looked down at them as well, “I appreciate everything you’ve ever done. And I
love you too Konrad.” I smiled and after another quick hug from him, waited
until he rounded the corner before knocking and walking in.

“Hey
sweetheart.” Brandon's voice was thick with emotion, he could barely tilt his
lips up in a smile.

“You feel
okay?”

He shook his
head slightly, “Not really, no.”

“No?” I asked
alarmed and rushed to his side. “What's wrong?”

“No, no. Nothing
like that, I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you,” he sighed heavily, “again.”

I pulled the
chair back up towards his bed so I could still touch him. “I heard you and
Konrad.”

“You did?”

“Yeah.” I
breathed.

“Harper, I hope
you know how much I love you.”

“I do, trust me
I do.”

“I'm so sorry
for putting you through this tonight. I didn't know how bad it had been. I
didn't know how it all had gone down for everyone that was still awake.”

I smiled and
ran my hand over his buzzed hair, “You scared me. I thought I was going to lose
my best friend and the love of my life.”

“I know Harper,
and I'm so sorry. I can't say that enough, you can't imagine how sorry I am. I
shouldn't have gone tonight, and I won't go anymore. No amount of money is
worth putting you through that.”

“You and I,
we've had too much loss in our lives already. Do you think we could attempt to
not add to that?”

He nodded and
pulled me to him, “I'm not going anywhere. I promised you forever, didn't I?”

“Forever.” I
agreed.

“Come here,” He
scooted to the far right side of the bed and rolled onto his left side, “you're
still on bedrest, and I haven't been taking care of you tonight.”

I lay down on
my back and sighed at having Brandon's warm body pressed against mine and
finally relaxing. Dr. Lowdry may have a point to this whole bedrest thing, my
entire body had been aching to lay down.

Brandon kissed
me softly and placed a hand on my belly. “Are you two doing okay? Physically?”

“Yeah, he went
to sleep right before I came in here the first time.”

“Good, I want
you to sleep too. I'll wake you up when we're going to go home.”

I couldn't even
protest, it had been a long day anyway, and what happened tonight had exhausted
me to the point where I thought I could fall asleep standing. I felt Brandon's
lips on my forehead and heard his whispers of his love for me, but I was out
before I could respond.

“
H
ow are you
feeling sweetheart?” Brandon asked popping his head into the bathroom where I
was finishing my make-up.

“I feel great!
I’m so excited to get out of the house again, you have no idea.” Not that it
had been long since we were out, we were just out Thursday night, the night of
the fight, and it was only Monday. But I’d had so much energy the last two
days, Brandon promised if I took a shower, got ready and was still feeling
fine, he would take me out to dinner, then to see Mom and Dad.

He wrapped his
arms around me and brushed his lips lightly against my neck, I almost groaned
from the heated pleasure that instantly zinged through my body. “You look
incredible.”

“Not so bad
yourself.” I said a little breathless, remembering our first date and he
laughed against my throat.

“Are you about
ready to go? Because if we don’t leave soon, I’m not sure we ever will.” He
pressed his body closer to mine and tightened his arms.

“I kind of hate
Dr. Lowdry right now.”

Brandon laughed
and released me, “We’ve made it this long, we can wait a few more weeks. Go get
changed, I’ll be in the living room.”

I pouted but
left the bathroom and walked to the closet. I chose one of the shirts Bree had
gotten me for my Birthday. Those things had definitely lasted the entire
pregnancy. I plucked the dark blue one and a flowy knee-length white cotton
skirt from their hangers and walked back out of the closet. Hooking my thumbs
into the waist band of my sweats, I started to pull them down when I felt
something pop and my legs instantly got warm and wet.
Oh my God I just peed
myself!
You have got to be kidding me, I’ve made it this far in the pregnancy
without having an accident, and I get all cute for a date and I freaking pee on
myself? I didn’t even have to go. Frustrated, I threw my sweats into the
hamper, walked back to the bathroom and hopped into the shower, being careful
to keep my hair and face away from the water. I reached out to turn the water
back off and froze. Oh. My. Word.

“BRANDON!” I
stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me, “Brandon!”

He came
bursting through the door less than a second later, “What’s wrong?!” His eyes
were wide and panicked. “Are you okay?”

I laughed and
nodded, “My water just broke!”

“Are you
serious?” His face fell for a few beats then broke out into a wide grin.
Closing the distance between us he kissed me until my knees were weak. When he
pulled back, he cupped my cheeks tenderly and smiled. “So he’s coming?”

“Guess so, you
ready for this?”

Brandon
suddenly gasped, “Wait, we have to go! That means we have to go!” He turned
around and took off into the bedroom. By the time I dried myself off, I could
hear him on the phone with either my family or his.

I felt
strangely calm as I pulled on the dark blue shirt, and searched around for a
clean pair of sweats. Brandon rushed out of the room with the hospital bag, I
heard the front door open, close, open and close again before he came running
back to me. I was sitting on the bed smiling at his behavior.

“Harper, we
have to go. Come on sweetheart, is there anything else you can think of?”

“Phone
chargers.” I watched as he yanked both ours from the wall. “Headphones, can you
grab me one of your sweatshirts?” I didn’t care if it was September, the nights
were cool, and when we’d been in that hospital last week, it was freezing.

“What else?”

“I need you to
kiss me, then calm down and drive us to the hospital.” I smiled against his
eager lips as he gently pulled me to my feet and led me out of our house.

As soon as we
were driving, he was back on the phone calling the rest of our family. He was
so excited, his smile stretched across his face farther than I’d ever seen it,
and all I could do was sit there and stare at my favorite dimple. I reached out
and ran my fingers over his buzzed hair and he looked over quickly before
looking back to the road.

“Are you okay?”
He asked as he set his phone down in one of the cup holders, “You’re really
quiet.”

I shrugged,
“I’m great. I was expecting it to hurt or something, or to freak out. But I’m
just really happy. I feel peaceful. Is that weird or what?”

Yeah. That
didn’t last long. Right before I was taken to my room the contractions started
getting really painful, another two hours later and they were even worse and
coming much too often for my liking. I gripped Brandon’s hand tight as another
one started and he brushed a few loose strands of hair behind my ear before
resting his forehead against mine.

“Good job
Harper, it’s almost done. I love you so much.” His deep voice was slow and
rhythmic, I’m pretty sure it was the only thing keeping me from screaming right
now.

I blew out a
deep breath when it was over and relaxed my hold on him. He kissed my lips
softly and sat back in the chair, keeping his hand wrapped around mine. If
there was ever a next time, I was definitely getting the epidural, I didn’t
care what they had to stick in my back. I looked around at my family and smiled
at them. They were all caught in conversations, reading books, or talking on
their phones to extended family and friends. Jeremy walked back in with bags
and boxes from In N Out.

“I hate you.” I
grumbled as I caught a big whiff of the delicious food.

“Sorry sis,” he
grinned and started passing out the food, “I got you a cup of ice.”

I narrowed my
eyes and everyone but Brandon laughed. He shook his head when Jeremy passed him
his food and I pulled my hand from his. “I know what you’re doing, if you don’t
go eat, you’re not staying in here when it’s time.” We obviously hadn’t gone to
dinner, so I was starving, and he hated that all he could do for me was get me
more ice.

He looked at me
for a moment, brow furrowed, then with a sigh walked to the side of the room
where the food was. I put my headphones back in my ears and closed my eyes.
When another contraction hit I gripped the side of the bed and tried not to
inhale too deeply, I knew Brandon would come right back to my side if he knew
what was going on. But since I couldn’t hear them, I’d forgotten about the
monitors and within seconds his hand pried my fingers from the thin mattress
and held it tight until it was over. When I relaxed, he kissed my hand and went
back to his dinner.

Another hour
went by and everyone was now curled up on the couches and chairs watching
something on the muted TV. Brandon helped me onto my side, and when I was
comfortable he brought his chair around the bed so he could be facing me and
rested his head next to my chest. One hand acting as his pillow, the other
holding mine loosely for when I would need it again. I was glad he was going to
get some sleep. I knew when I rolled to the side, he would think I was going to
sleep as well, and would do the same. But that hadn’t been my reasoning. I was
now in so much pain, I couldn’t hide it anymore and I didn’t want the family to
see. My face twisted when another one hit, but I kept my fingers from curling
around Brandon’s large hands. A few tears escaped my eyes and I let out a sigh
when it was over again. Brandon’s thumb started making slow circles against my
palm and I opened my eyes to see him watching my face, his head still resting
on his other hand. He looked like he was in as much pain as I was by just
having to watch me.

He rose out of
the chair, bending over to brush the tears off my cheeks, and then rest his
forehead against mine. “Is there anything I can do for you sweetheart?”

“You’re doing
it.” I replied. I wouldn’t have been able to do even this part of it without
him. He was my rock. “What time is it?”

Brandon glanced
at his phone before shoving it back in his pocket, “Almost eleven. Try to
sleep, he’ll be here before you know it.” He kissed me softly once, then
pressed his lips harder to mine.

“As long as you
get some sleep too.”

He sat back in
the chair and put his head back on his hand, this time it was next to mine, so
our noses were touching. His other hand cupped my cheek and his jaw fell slack
within minutes. I smiled at him and braced another fierce contraction before
dozing off as well.

Loud persistent
beeping jolted me out of my nap, Brandon jumped out of the chair and turned to
look at the monitors. His eyes went wide and he ran to the door but a nurse was
already coming through and began checking everything. She had me turn onto my
back again and made everyone except Brandon and Mom leave. Another nurse came
in and they spoke quickly back in forth while having me do certain things. Mom
was holding one hand while Brandon gripped the other, keeping his gray eyes
trained to mine. I felt like neither of us was breathing while we waited for
the monitor to go back to normal, or for one of the nurses to tell us what was
happening. Dr. Lowdry walked in and began speaking with the nurses and taking
one of their spots, but I couldn’t look at her. Brandon was now cupping my
cheeks with both hands, and whispering to me, trying to calm me, but his own
eyes looked terrified.

“Okay Harper,
are you ready?” Dr. Lowdry asked from the end of the bed, Brandon released my
face and I finally looked to her, “We’re going to have to do this now, the
umbilical cord is wrapped around his neck, but you’re both going to be fine.
Just do exactly as I say, and we’ll have him out in a few minutes.”

I nodded and
took a deep breath, squeezing Brandon’s hand like it was the only thing keeping
me tied to this earth. Mom squeezed my other hand telling me everything would
be fine, Brandon kissed me quick and hard and continued to say reassuring and
loving words throughout the next six minutes. We all cried in relief when we
heard little Liam’s piercing wail. While they cleaned him and did a quick check
to make sure he was okay, Brandon leaned over and alternated between kissing me
sweetly through our smiles and pressing his cheek against mine to tell me how
proud he was. As a nurse brought Liam over to us, she repeated information
they’d been saying sporadically throughout their mini exam. Fourteen point
three inches, six pounds six ounces, born at twelve oh three in the morning.

She handed me
Liam and I knew I would never be the same. He was no longer crying, his wide
eyes were staring right into mine while his mouth was shaped in a perfect
little quivering O, like he didn’t know if he should cry again or stay silent.
He was beautiful. Mom was standing near my head, silently crying, Brandon was
bent close to us, lightly brushing his fingers up and down Liam’s side. His
eyes were bright and his smile breathtaking as he looked at our son.

“Hi Liam.” My
voice cracked as I smiled down at him.

He wiggled his
hands out of his blanket and was clasping his long fingers around each other.
While still brushing his fingers down his side, Brandon let his thumb brush
against Liam’s fists, and Liam instantly grabbed hold. Brandon’s breath came
out in a huff and we looked at each other, smiling wide before looking back
down. Mom rubbed her fingers over where Liam was holding onto Brandon, before
kissing each of us on the cheek and leaving the room to let the rest of the
family know.