Page 47 of Be With Me
“Glad you made it. I’ll just go sit with the guys. Hmmm, we need a nickname for our group. How has that escaped me? I’ll think of something.” Danny placed a kiss on Debbie’s forehead. “You be okay.” He leaned toward her stomach and talked to it. “Boys, be good to your mama.”
“Made it as fast as I could.”
“Your boys are impatient. I’m so glad—” She choked on some tears. “I needed you here.” Debbie didn’t want to fight with Luny right now, but she’d needed him and he wasn’t there.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here.” Luny had tears in his eyes. “I’m so—” Debbie almost folded in half as a contraction crossed her stomach and she yelled. “Breathe, Debs.” He started panting.
A throat clearing from the bottom of the bed, made them both turn toward the sound. “Glad you’re here, Dad. Since he’s present, let’s do the ultrasound now,” Brandson suggested. “Let me get the nurse in here.” He stepped out into the hallway.
“No Pitocin, got it,” she told Luny, who nodded.
“Sure but if it’s a case of your safety? I might overrule that,” he said adamantly.
Brandson came back in with the nurse pushing the ultrasound machine. It didn’t take long for her to set things up and Brandson was pushing the probe across her stomach. He hummed and murmured to himself as they watched the monitor with their little boys on it. One of them was sucking his thumb.
The doctor finished and wiped the probe off before handing some towels to Luny to clean Debbie off.
“Okay, looks like baby B has decided that he wants to enter the world feet first. Not a good option for him or mama. We can see if we can get him to turn but with the little amount of space, I’m not sure he will.”
Debbie let that information set in before she gripped Luny’s hand. “C-section?”
Brandson nodded. “I think that would be the best course of action. You’ve been at four centimeters for a few hours now with the contractions getting closer.”
She looked at Luny, seeing the worry on his face. Did she want to put herself and the boys in danger? “Schedule it, doctor.” At her words, Luny let out a sigh. Guess he agreed with her.
Things moved fast after she’d agreed to the c-section. Once an anesthesiologist hooked her up for the IV and she signed the paperwork for the epidural, they rolled her into the birthing suite. After that, everything blurred but she did remember the doctor holding up one screaming little boy then another. She must have passed out after that because when she woke up, Luny stood across the room, looking down at two clear-sided bassinets.
Debbie must have made a noise because he turned to her with a big smile on his face. “Are you ready to meet our boys, Mama?” He picked up the closest baby and shuffled carefully over to her. “Camden, this is your mama.” He placed the baby in her arms and went back for the other. “Calvin, be good to your mama,” he said as he place the second one in her arms. “You know we need to pick out middle names,” Luny reminded her.
She smiled. “I’ve got the perfect ones. Have the guys seen them yet?”
“I was waiting for you.” Her husband was so sweet sometimes.
“Go get them,” she told him. Luny was out of the door like a bullet shot out of a gun. He was back with the guys in less than five minutes.
All seven crowded around the bed. Debbie looked at them all and then said, “Guys, I’d like you to formally meet Camden Jeffrey and Calvin Daniel Luna.”
She watched as the names settled over Mackey and Danny. Debbie would swear she saw tears in their eyes. She knew they were in Luny’s when she met his gaze.
“I think those names are perfect.” Luny slapped Mackey then Danny on the shoulder. “You know that you’re all their uncles and godfathers?”
“Mooney, I don’t know what to say,” Mackey answered.
“The heptad will be there for them always,” Danny promised, making the others turn to him.
“The heptad?” Brian asked. “Where’d that come from?”
“I was looking up things that meant seven while we waited. It sounded cool to me and it’s not something you hear all the time so unique to us,” Danny informed them, with a nod. “Calling us “the guys” is lame and can get confusing.”
Debbie watched Luny shake his head with a smile on his face. “You and your nicknames.”
