Page 87 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
“We,” he pressed out.
I shot him a questioning look.
“Wewill have a beautiful baby,” he explained, staring into my eyes as if willing me to agree with him.
As if I could deny him anything at this point.
“You're right. We will.” I squeezed his hand again. If he was okay with it, I would claim this baby as mine right along with him. There was nothing I wanted more. He smiled at me, even through the pain he was in.
Times like this, I didn't know how I deserved him.
I only knew that I would do everything I could to protect his smile.
Maybe that was why it was so difficult for me to be there for the birth. Watching the person I loved suffer was hard and it was even harder when I knew there was nothing I could do to ease their pain. I felt useless standing next to Rhys' bed when the doctor finally came in to get things moving along. All I could do was let Rhys crush my fingers between his as the contractions came and went.
“You're being so good,” I told him when the doctor told him to push and he looked back at the lady as if she was off her rocker.
Rhys' eyes focused on me. That was good. Maybe I could distract him if there was nothing else I could do. “You still holding up?” he asked in a tone of voice that was almost teasing in spite of the exhaustion etched into his features.
“I don't know. I'm feeling a little bit woozy. They might have to put me up on a bed next to you,” I joked. For the most part, I felt alright. Probably because I kept my attention on Rhys' face rather than on anything else I might be seeing in the room.
“I don't think there's any time for that.”
“No?”
“No. I want... I want to be done... with this.” I watched him push as soon as he was done speaking, his whole body tensing under the effort until he fell into the sheets again. I stroked a strand of sweat-slicked hair back from his forehead.
“You'll be done soon,” I promised. “Just think, we'll be taking our new baby home soon, and then we'll have to pry Nathan away from the kid. We should try to snap a few pictures of him holding the little one, in case he tries to deny it again.”
“He'll be a good brother.”
“Yeah, he will be. Caleb is probably going to take a little while to understand how to handle a baby, but he'll get there. He's a good kid.”
“He is,” Rhys agreed, and I just kept talking, even as he started pushing again. I couldn't tell if he was even listening to my ramblings anymore, or if he could hear them over the sounds he made himself.
Maybe not. I went on regardless, talking about Nathan and Caleb and my crazy grandmother and how we would welcome this new life into our family. And when I was done talking aboutthat, I talked about his brother's upcoming wedding. “We just finally settled on a catering service,” I said. “Nick has been—”
“Nick!” he said, suddenly, looking at me. “Did you call Nick?”
I had not. “Sorry, I didn't—”
He shook his head. “It's okay. He'll know. I knew when... he was giving birth.”
“All right.” I stroked his hair and didn't ask any further, even though he wasn't exactly making sense to me. He didn't have to. Not right now. “Anyway, we've finally confirmed catering,” I went on, prepared to launch into a long rant about how much of a struggle it had been to get Rhys' twin to decide on anything, when I was interrupted by the doctor announcing she 'almost had it.'
“Give me one more big push,” she encouraged Rhys, and I shut up for this one, watching Rhys give it all he had. He was being so strong.
How could anyone ever claim omegas were weak?
I was an alpha and I had to focus on not fainting just watching this birth.
“Okay, one more, you can do it,” the doctor said.
Rhys screamed, and after a short moment, he wasn't the only one crying anymore.
The doctor was holding his baby in her hands. Our baby.
“You did so great.” I kissed Rhys' forehead.
