Page 21 of Calling from the Heart
"I'm glad you found out I was pregnant." Owen admitted. "I'm glad that you found out that you didn't let me run away, and you decided that you wanted more than a casual fling."
"Oh, baby." Jeb sighed softly. "You've given me everything. I almost lost it."
He'd almost just thrown away the best things that would ever happen to him because he was being macho, because he wanted to be the alpha male who didn't get tied down and didn't do this and didn't do that and he'd almost fucked up.
Bad.
He'd almost lost the opportunity to meet his little girl. His daughter. His little Carrie. He would never have forgiven himself.
Now he didn't have to. He'd fixed what he’d broken, and he was committed to doing that -- over and over. Well, maybe with less breaking and more emergency fire putting out.
"I'm glad you're here." Owen grinned at him. 'I know that I'm supposed to be all screaming and stuff, but it's not time yet. I've always wanted to be a daddy. Ever since I can remember, I knew that I was going to have babies."
"Sweetheart, you are a kindergarten teacher. They do come in the ‘I like kids’ mode, for the most part."
"At least for the first few years, right? I hope my sub can read my lesson pl--" Owen stopped, curling over his hugely swollen belly, panting softly.
"Maybe we ought to focus on having Carrie, baby. Debbie will make sure your sub knows what she needs to do, okay?" He kept his voice gentle, but not Humor the Lunatic.
He didn't want to lose his balls this early in the situation, after all.
“Okay.” Panting, Owen nodded. “I can do that.
“Good deal.” Jeb stroked Owen’s hair back off his face. “I know you have this.”
Owen searched his face, eyes bright with a mix of pain and hope. “You think so?”
“I know so. You have no idea how strong you are, baby.”
“I hope you’re right. I guess we’ll find out.”
And find out they did. Over the next eighteen hours, they found out a lot about how strong Owen was. Because Jeb had to admit, there was a lot of walking, a lot of pacing, but Owen seemed...comfortable?
No, that wasn’t the right word.
At peace, as if he was working hard, but he knew it was for a purpose.
In between contractions, he would rest. Have some water or some juice, doze even, but Jeb didn’t see a lot of actual, genuine panic.
At least not until about four in the morning when Owen grabbed his arm, sinking his nails into the skin, and he realized he’d dozed off. “Something’s wrong, something’s different. You need to get Devon, and you need to get him right now.”
Jeb didn’t argue. He stood up like a shot and went running to the hallway to call for Devon, Raven, somebody. “I need some help. Owen says something’s wrong!”
Raven came running in. “Devon’s asleep. My turn. Let’s look and see whether things are.”
Owen was screaming now, and when they ran in, there was a head.
“Oh my God, there’s a head. Raven, catch it!” Jeb didn’t know what to do.
“On it. Good job, Owen. You’re doing great. Just pant for me for a second. Her head’s out. You did the hard part.”
“Yes, and neither one of you were in here. Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
Oh, somebody was pissed. Jeb headed over to support Owen’s shoulders and kiss his temple. “You did great, baby; you’re doing great.”
“I’ll show you great.” Owen snarled. “I just want it out; it hurts.”
“All right, well, we’ll need one or two more pushes. So when you’re ready, we’re going to push nice and easy, not anything hard.” Raven’s voice was smooth as silk.
