Page 33 of Delivery After Dark
“Two babies in the same day,” Maddie said, who’d become an aunt again with the birth of her sister Tiffany’s son.
“What if they grow up to get married?” Mac said. “Wouldn’t that be something?”
“Easy, skippy,” Maddie said. “Give them a day to get acclimated before you start arranging their marriage.”
“I’m just saying… That would be something with them being born on the same day.”
“Like Quinn and me,” Mallory said with a smile for her husband.
“Any word from Providence?” Big Mac McCarthy asked.
“Nothing since Adam texted that Abby is in labor,” Mac told his dad. “I’m sure we’ll hear something soon.”
“Mom and I are heading to the mainland on the first boat,” Big Mac told them.
“I wish we could all go,” Grant said.
“We don’t want to overwhelm them any more than they already are,” Stephanie said. “Four infants. I can’t imagine.” She rested her hand on the curve of her own pregnant belly as the countdown to her delivery inched closer to February.
Mac loved nothing more than nights like this, surrounded by most of the people he loved. Adam and Abby were missing, as were his sister, Janey, and her family, who were in Ohio as Janey took the last exams before she graduated from veterinary school. Big Mac and Linda were flying to Columbus for the graduation, which was another thing Mac hated to miss.
But with five young children, including twin baby girls, there was no way he was going anywhere any time soon. That was fine, as he was where he needed to be with Maddie and their kids, but he wished he could also be there for his siblings as they achieved these significant milestones. “Question. Do we have to call the Brat doctor when she comes home?”
“I thought we’d decided to go with Dr. Brat,” his brother Evan said.
Evan’s pregnant wife, Grace, smacked her husband upside the head. “You’re not calling her that.”
“Why not? She’ll be disappointed if we don’t.”
“I highly doubt that,” their mother, Linda, said as she rocked baby Emma.
“I’m not calling her doctor,” Mac said. “Unless it’s Dr. Brat, and that’s all I’ve got to say about it.” Tormenting his younger sister was second nature to him, and that wasn’t about to change now that she was officially about to become a veterinarian. He was crazy proud of her, and he’d tell her so as soon as he could, but he’d still poke at her because it was so damned fun.
His brothers agreed.
“I’m with you, Mac,” Grant said. “Dr. Brat it is. We should get an engraved nameplate for her office so she doesn’t get too big for her britches.”
“Yes,” Evan said, pumping his fist. “Let’s do it.”
“You boys never learn,” their father’s best friend, Ned Saunders, said, chuckling. “How many times does Mac gotta lead ya’ll off a cliff before ya wise up?”
Mac puffed out his chest. “They’ll never give up on me.”
“Easy, big brother,” Evan said. “We’ve learned to be more selective in how much of your bullshit we’re willing to consume. In this case, the Brat will always be the Brat, doctor or not.”
“We’re going to have to add a wing onto the elementary school to accommodate all these kiddos,” Grace said, who was also due in February with their first child.
“The town council is already talking about that.” As president of the council, Big Mac was always in the know. “And they’re blaming us and our soon-to-be fourteen grandchildren—and counting—for creating the need. Not to mention the kids Laura, Shane, Riley and Finn have or will have in the future.”
The McCarthy cousins were contributing to the baby boom with three from Laura and her husband, Owen, one on the way for Shane and his wife, Katie, and more probably coming from Riley and Finn, the “babies” of the family, who were now married to Nikki and Chloe.
“That’s funny,” Mac said. “We are a prodigious bunch.”
“You are indeed,” Big Mac said. “We’ll need a whole new wing of the school for the ones being born this year alone to our family and friends.”
“Can you imagine all of them as teenagers together?” Maddie shuddered. “If they’re anything like their fathers, we’ll have to add to the police department, too.”
“One thing at a time,” Big Mac said, smiling. “We’ll beef up the police when they hit the teen years. And let me just say, I sure as hell hope I live to see that.”
