“Oh my, darling,” Mrs. Fisher said. “Is it happening again?”
Emma nodded, wordless. Driven to small hisses of air, in and out, as the world swam in streamers of sharp pain and her vision went out of focus. There was no doubt. This had to be it, only her water hadn’t broken yet. That was the puzzling thing.
Too late, she sensed a rush of liquid trickling down to her ankles and across the fancy, high-backed chair.
Yeah, now they were in trouble.
Her fingers trembling, she watched Sean accept his award as he searched through the crowd for her face. She knew exactly when he found her because his expression immediately shifted from pride, exhilaration, and joy to expectant terror.
“I’m so sorry, ladies and gentlemen. As much as I would love to stand here extolling everyone who has helped me along my path to this moment, the only thing I can think of right now is my soon-to-be wife…who appears to be going into labor. Please excuse me, but I have another, important future to attend to tonight. Thank you so much for this honor.”
He was barely done speaking, his voice still crackling against the microphone when he jumped off the stage and rushed to be by her side. He knelt down and grabbed her hand, looking into Emma’s eyes with concern and a fierce kind of love she had never thought she would see from anyone in her lifetime.
“Why didn’t you say something?!” he chastised lightly, rubbing her back with his free hand as she gripped down on his other hand with every wave of pain.
“I knew it would be…a while… Wanted you to have your…moment,” Emma gritted out through the next contraction.
“This, right here, is my moment, Emma. Nothing else matters right now.” Sean kissed her forehead, his own creasing with concern. “How far apart are they? Do we need to get you to the hospital?”
“Too soon. They aren’t close enough together for them to admit me.” Emma took a deep breath and mentally prepared for the next contraction to hit. By her calculation, she had about eight minutes, maybe a little less.
“Do we need to call someone?” Mr. Fisher asked, having finally caught on to what was happening next to him.
“No need,” Sean said. “You guys stay here; we’ll keep you posted if anything changes.”
Mrs. Fisher gripped Emma’s hand. “You can do this, dear. Just call us if there’s anything we can do to help.”
Emma thanked her then allowed her fiancé to help her up as he slowly walked her toward the exit. Talk about a grand exit. She would have felt embarrassed, if she had enough in her to retain anything other than terror and iron-willed determination to get through another set of contractions.
“You got this, beautiful,” Sean murmured in her ear. “We’re going to get you home and comfortable and then we’ll see about taking you to the hospital to deliver our baby. How does that sound?”
“Does that offer come to the table with cheese and cucumbers? Because I’m only taking it if there’s cheese and cucumbers.”
Sean laughed and hugged her gently as they stepped outside into the chilly night air.
“Will you be okay here while I get the limo?”
“Sure, peachy, never been better…” Emma smiled, gripping onto one of the pillars that stood at the entrance of the conference center. “You really think he’ll let me in the back of his car like this?”
“I guess you have yet to learn how much money can buy you, huh?”
Emma nodded and tried to take a deep breath, her thoughts on her birth plan. All of her papers were carefully labeled in a binder in their living room. Her hospital bag was by the door and Sean was prepped with the instructions to text Allison and Makenzie as soon as she was admitted.
“Honey? Sean?”
He turned back from the parking lot where he looked as if he was ready to drive the limo himself or hijack a car to get her home.
“Yes, beautiful? What do you need?”
“I’m proud of you, for tonight. For your award.”
Sean smiled a small, half-smile. “Not as proud of you as I am right now, Emma. Did you ever think we would wind up here? Together?”
“I didn’t think I would end up anywhere, until you saved me. I thought I was going to be lost treasure on the bottom of the ocean.”
“Good thing I’m an expert treasure hunter and you’re the rarest gem I’ve ever found.”
“Wow, baby, that’s corny as hell.” Emma laughed, grunting as another contraction ripped through her spine. “You…are going…to pay…for this…”
“I have no doubt about it,” he replied with a grin.
Chapter 31
Emma
Six Hours Later
“Is she okay?” Emma panted as she watched them take her daughter to be weighed and measured, unable to comprehend how something so tiny and pure could have come out of her body.
“She looks amazing. You were incredible, my love.” Sean squeezed her hand and smoothed back a sweaty lock of hair from her forehead. “Thank you, Emma. Thank you so much.”
“She’s fine, Mama,” a nurse commented softly.
At her words, Emma’s lingering pain turned into a euphoria unlike anything she had ever known.
She looked up at Sean’s glowing face, tears tracking down his cheeks, and burst into tears, too. Relief overwhelmed her while the nurses and her doctor swarmed her and the baby. It was all a blur except for Sean’s constant, beaming face.
There was nothing in the world that described what she had been through giving birth to their baby girl. But as a nurse placed her in Emma’s arms, the difficulty of the birth never even crossed her mind. Nothing existed anymore but her. Her tiny fingers flailing in her blanket as her mouth puckered, looking for her first meal.
“I can’t believe this is real…” Emma breathed as Sean crouched beside her, tracing their baby’s cheek. “Am I dreaming, Sean? I’m so tired, I can’t tell anymore.”
“This is real, beautiful. We’re a family now. You got exactly what you wanted and deserved, a happy little family with a tiny princess to rule over the whole kingdom.”
Emma choked back soft sobs as she led her daughter to breastfeed, unable to take her attention off her cherubic face for even a second.
“We’ll give you two some time to get settled with her and the nurses will be back to check on you in a little while,” the doctor said. She smiled, stripped off her gloves, and left the room with a final “congratulations,” and what had only minutes ago been a hive of activity became a peaceful sanctuary, filled with warmth and love.
Emma allowed her head to drop back on the pillow, keeping her gaze on her daughter as she suckled. An odd feeling soared through her, as if everything she had ever done in her life had led up to this pure exchange between mother and child. She knew then that she would give anything for the tiny human in her arms. Anything and then some, so long as it kept her happy, safe and whole.
“How do you feel, Daddy?” Emma glanced up at Sean. “Have you decided whether it’s going to be Dad, Daddy, or Father?”
Sean scoffed, seemingly as enthralled with their daughter as his wife-to-be, and he sniffled and ran a finger down her cheek.
“I don’t care. Whatever she calls me, even if it’s Sean, it’ll be all right by me.”
“I don’t think she’s going to call you Sean…” Emma replied, skeptical.
“You never know, we could become one of those super progressive households. Having a child changes things—”
“Not that much,” Emma interrupted him and kissed the top of her daughter’s head. “We already went over the plans for her schooling—”
“Knock, knock, can we come in?” Makenzie called out from the doorway.
“Wow, Emma, you’re already life-charting her until sixth grade, aren’t you?” Allison made an incredulous noise from behind Makenzie before they both came into the room. “And you let her get away with this, Sean? You know to take the highlighters and research away from her at some point, right?”
Sean laughed and sto
od up, allowing the ladies to gaze on his daughter as Emma looked up at her two best friends.
“Have you tried to take anything away from a pregnant woman? If she wants to plan out our kid’s life, I let her do it. Rather that than a cranky fiancée on my hands.”
“He’s got a valid point, Allison.” Makenzie beamed at Emma. “What did you name her?”
Emma looked to Sean and he nodded; they’d already discussed this.
“Girls, meet Mia,” Emma announced, nearly bursting with pride as her friends oohed and ahhed over their name choice. “Isn’t she gorgeous?”
“She’s the most perfect girl I’ve ever met, next to her mother,” Sean whispered in Emma’s ear as she moved to kiss him.
“I think it’s time for a family picture. What do you think?” Makenzie got out her phone and stood at the foot of the hospital bed. “Do you want some lip gloss or something, Emma? I have some in my purse…”
“Just take the picture, Kenzie,” Allison chided. “They probably just want to nap.”
“I don’t know how I can imagine ever closing my eyes again,” Emma said. “I swear, this is all a dream and I’m going to wake up any second.”
“It’s all real, babe, I promise,” Sean breathed. “You guys are my world, now and always. I love you.”
“I love you too, honey.”
Emma took her first deep breath in what seemed like years, cradling the small, warm weight in her arms with a reverence and peace in her soul she never thought was possible. A one, true hope that was never going to be hers to attain and was now made real, in every sense of the word.
Drying her eyes, she looked down at her daughter. “You are my peace, at last,” she whispered.
Chapter 32
Emma
Three days later Emma and Mia were escorted back into their apartment with Sean at their backs. Emma knew something big was going on because the man couldn’t keep a poker face to save his life, but she didn’t have the foggiest idea what it meant yet. Only that something was waiting for them back at their place.
When she stepped one foot inside the vast space, she was beyond thrilled to find that there was no secret surprise party waiting to startle her or wake up the baby who was sleeping in the car carrier.
“Okay, so no hordes of people. You at least spared me that,” Emma said with a grin. “So what was so important that we come back here instead of driving around the block another five times to make sure the baby was asleep?”
Sean tapped his nose conspiratorially, kissing the back of her hand before he led them through the apartment toward the nursery, the one room that Emma was unhappy about.
Despite her best efforts these past few months, she hadn’t been able to do a thing with the room. For some reason all of her rapid-fire planning stopped right outside that little door and it had saddened her up until Mia was born that her daughter wouldn’t have something beautiful to come home to when the time came. She groaned and dragged her feet as they approached the room.
“Do we have to go in there?” she whined. “It’s like a prison cell with the blank walls and no furniture.”
“You’re overreacting, my love. It’s not that bad.”
Emma was about to launch another solid protest before Sean opened the door to the nursery and she gasped.
“Wh-what? How?” Emma blinked, unsure what she was seeing until she took a few short, quick steps into the room. “Sean…”
She looked down at Mia, still asleep in her car seat, and almost burst into tears.
Sean had decorated the entire room while she was in hospital. Now, instead of drab, bare walls she was looking at a beautiful mural of the sea. There was a mermaid, a crab, coral, and reef fish—the whole thing was so intricate, she couldn’t quite catch her breath. As she gently spun around she noticed a yacht on the other wall, way off in the distance of a gorgeous sunset painted in the warmest tones she had ever seen, soothing purples, oranges, and pinks.
“You even switched out the furniture,” Emma whispered, reaching out to touch the beautiful oak crib that stood in the center of the room. “And a rocking chair! You remembered I wanted to go old-school…”
She wasn’t sure how he’d managed it, but Sean had picked out the most gorgeous rocking chair she had ever seen—with plenty of padding on the back, seat, and sides to suit everyone’s comfort levels.
“It’s absolutely perfect,” she breathed. “But how did you have time to do all this? You barely left my side the whole time I was at the hospital…” Emma stared in awe, her chest tightening with an overwhelming, irrepressible sense of love. “You even filled up her library and got her stuffed animals. Is that a stuffed octopus I see?”
“And an otter.” Sean shrugged happily and gathered Emma up in a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. “So you like it?”
“I more than like it. It’s everything I never knew I wanted, baby. Thank you so much.”
“We’ll have to send your friends some thank-you baskets—they helped out with everything from the second I brought the idea to them.”
Emma blinked back tears and closed her eyes. Of course her friends would do something like this for her. And Makenzie had managed to keep it a secret! Man, she was getting better at that. Emma would have to give her kudos the next time they saw each other.
“How long have you been planning this out, mastermind?”
“A few weeks now.”
“Did I ever tell you that I love you?”
“You did, but I’ll never get sick of hearing it,” Sean whispered, pressing a kiss to her lips as their daughter made a little squawk in her carrier. “Crap, is she awake?”
They both looked down at her as if she was a ticking time bomb. Now knowing the noises she made when she was upset, the analogy wasn’t altogether wrong.
“False alarm,” Sean whispered, still holding Emma tight.
Emma put down the carrier and looked into Sean’s eyes, watching the love they had for each other shine through his smile as he stared down at her face.
“This really is only going to go up from here, isn’t it?”
Epilogue
A Year Later: Emma
“Are you sure, Emma? We have a car waiting if you need to pull a runaway bride.” Makenzie snapped her gum and applied another coat of lipstick. “I have a helicopter on standby too, because you never know.”
Emma smiled patiently at her friend as Allison fussed with the veil on her head. Allison didn’t even bother to acknowledge Makenzie’s comment, only to meet Emma’s gaze in the mirror and roll her eyes good-naturedly.
“I think it’s a little late for that, Kenzie,” Emma said with a grin. “We have a one-year-old together and we live with each other, plus, he’s the love of my life. People don’t find that twice, you know.”
Makenzie picked up Emma’s bouquet as she got up from the dressing-room table and looked out at the ocean view. They were back in Cancun, exactly where Emma and Sean’s love had first blossomed, at the very same resort where Sean had booked their first hotel together and they had spent a night on the yacht instead.
“Today is your day, hon. Just breathe and try to take it all in.” Allison kissed her cheek and pulled back to do a full survey of Emma as she held her arm’s length out by the shoulders. “Don’t forget to eat during the reception and know that if Sean cries, Kenzie will snap of picture of it real quick.”
“I’ve been practicing my quick draw.” Makenzie grinned and came up to Emma.
With her two best friends by her side on one of the biggest days in her life, it was hard to remember a time when she had ever felt out of sync with them. When, eleven years ago, she had been terrified that these deep, amazing friendships would be ripped to shreds because they all lived so far apart, living vastly different lives. But she should have known then what she knew now—that no amount of twists in life’s path would ever take them away from each other.
“Thank you so much for being in my life, sweethearts. You have no idea how m
uch you mean to me, both of you.”
The girls melted and they all corralled into a tight group hug, Emma doing her level best not to ruin her makeup before she saw Sean.
“I don’t know what I would have done without you in my life,” Emma whispered happily as she pulled them in tighter.
“Well you wouldn’t have nearly drowned, for one thing,” Makenzie chimed in helpfully. “But then you also never would have met Sean.”
“So you mean I have your dumb ass to thank for this day, huh?”
Makenzie grinned, shameless. “I take payment for my matchmaking efforts in gift cards, check, or cash. How would you like to pay me back?”
Everyone shook their heads as Makenzie looked out at the sprawling beach where they were going to have the ceremony.
“How does it look out there?” Emma asked. “Everything okay?”
Makenzie gave Emma her bouquet and she twisted it in her fingers, taking comfort in the delicate scent of the purple and white blooms she had picked for the arrangement. She knew it had to be almost sunset and that meant showtime.
Delicate goosebumps worked up her body from the tips of her toes to her head. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted the big moment to hurry up and happen already or whether she wanted everything to slow down so she could cherish each second.
Makenzie stepped back from the window, her smile wide. “It’s just the way you wanted it.”
Emma grinned, just as her wedding planner bustled into the room clapping her hands.
“All right, ladies, it’s time. Emma, you look stunning. Are you ready?”
Emma nodded, her stomach lurching down to her feet as she took a shaky breath and tried to swallow, promising herself that regardless of how nervous she was, in the end it would all be worth it.
A moment later and they were hustling down the back staircase that led out to the patio and then the beach where their guests were waiting. Each step forward she became more and more confident, even as her heart nearly beat out of her chest. She had never been so certain, so sure of anything.
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