Best Friend's Sister (Slade Brothers Book 5)

by Alexis Winter

  I get her loaded up into the SUV and race around to the driver’s side, climbing behind the wheel. She’s hit with a contraction just as I’m backing out. Her screaming scares the shit out of me, and I stomp on the brakes. She catches herself on the dash.

  “What the hell, Hudson?”

  “Sorry, baby. You just scared me,” I say, finishing backing up the drive.

  Finally, we’re on the road. As I drive, I make sure to call everyone in the family. After they’ve all been informed, I take her hand in mine and let her squeeze it as I breathe along with her, hoping to help her through as much as possible.

  It feels like it takes forever to get to the hospital, but we finally make it and I wheel her through the front doors.

  “We’re in labor. Six weeks early,” I add on.

  “Okay, let’s get you back, honey,” the nurse says, taking the wheelchair from me. As we ride up the elevator to the maternity ward, all she does is cry and moan and cuss at me loud enough for God to hear. I feel angry for doing this to her, scared that she’s never going to let me touch her again, and happy to become a father soon.

  “Don’t worry, honey. She doesn’t mean anything that leaves her mouth right now,” the nurse reminds me. I feel a little better, but fear still consumes me when I think about how early these babies are.

  We’re taken to a room, and I help her strip down into a gown and get into bed. She’s hooked up to monitors and tubes and wires, and as she’s breaking my hand, the doctor walks into the room.

  “Has your water already broken?” he asks, pulling on a glove.

  “Yes, and the contractions are two minutes apart,” I tell him.

  He sticks his hand where the sun don’t shine and says, “Yep, you’re fully dilated and ready to start pushing.” He removes his hand and pulls off his glove. “Nurse, ready to go to delivery!” He looks back at us with a smile. “I’ll see you up there.” He leaves without another word.

  The next thing I know, I’m given some kind of gown, shoe covers, and a cap to put on, and we’re taken to another room that has a bright light hanging from the ceiling. The doctor walks in, barking orders to the nurses and snapping his gloves into place.

  He sits between her parted legs, which are draped over with a blanket, and levels his eyes on us. “You do know that with the babies being this early that there’s a chance they will have to be incubated, right?”

  She nods. “I know. Just get them out and make sure they’re safe, please,” she cries, big tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “I’ll do my best,” he promises.

  Time seems to go so fast but stand so still all at the same time. I don’t know how it’s possible, but before I know it, there’s a baby’s cry filling the room.

  “Baby number one: boy,” the doctor announces, handing the baby off. “Okay, Deven. Come on. Two more. You can do this,” he cheers her on.

  Deven’s face is covered in sweat, her dark hair lining to her cheeks as she bears down to push again. She screams and yells and cusses me out all while breaking my hand, but after only a few minutes, another cry fills the room.

  “Baby number two: boy,” the doctor says. “One more time, Deven. You can do this.”

  She lays back, shaking her head. “I can’t. I can’t do it again. I’m so tired. Hudson, please. I can’t.” She’s completely exhausted, barely even able to hold her eyes open.

  I place my hands on either side of her face and force her eyes to mine. “Look at me, Deven. You’re the strong fucking woman I know. You can do this, baby. You have to. You hear me? Reach deep down inside of you and find the strength you need. I’ll be right here, baby. If I could do it for you, I would. But only you can do this. Come on, give our boys a sister to protect. Give me a daughter.” I kiss her lips and she nods.

  “Alright, let’s go,” the doctor says.

  The room is only growing more and more loud with the boys already crying and Deven screaming out in pain. The doctor is cheering her on.

  Deven pushes for ten minutes before finally, the doctor says, “Deven, come on. One more big push. I can see the head. Ready? One, two, three.”

  Deven bears down and squeezes my hand as she cries and yells, but then I hear the most beautiful sound in the world. The sound of my daughter crying.

  “Baby number three: girl!” The doctor passes her off and gets to work on getting Deven cleaned up.

  She falls back flat on the bed and her eyes close. I run my hand over her hair and kiss her forehead. “Sleep, baby. You’re done,” I whisper.

  I cut my daughter’s umbilical cord and follow the nurses around the room as they weigh and measure each of the babies. I get a nice long look at each one before moving onto the next. I’m so lost in the beauty of the babies that I don’t even notice when something goes wrong.

  “We’re losing her. She’s bleeding out,” I hear someone say, and I spin around to see what the fuck they’re talking about.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, rushing back over to her. She looks dead already. Her skin is pale, and she has dark circles under her eyes. She seems so small and weak lying there with her eyes closed. Her once dark, tanned skin almost seems gray. Her lips are turning blue.

  “Cardiac arrest. Get the paddles,” someone else yells.

  “What’s going on?” I demand yet again, getting in their way.

  “Get him out of here,” the doctor yells, and a nurse pushes me backward out the door. I move around to the glass windows, but the blinds are quickly shut. I collapse, sliding down the wall and into a heap in the floor, wondering what happened, what went wrong, or if she’ll be okay.

  16

  Deven

  My eyelids feel so heavy, I can’t even keep them open long enough to see my babies. I’m tired and dizzy, and I can’t fight against this tug that keeps trying to take over. I’ve fought too long now. I fought to bring each baby into the world. I have nothing left in me to fight for myself. Darkness pulls at me, then swallows me up altogether.

  I wake sometime later, feeling sore, tired, and groggy. It’s like when you wake up in the middle of the night after you’d spent the evening drinking entirely way too much. You know you’ll just be pulled under again, but that doesn’t stop you from waking in the first place. I feel something move beside me, and I look to find Hudson’s head on my bed. He’s dead asleep. I lift my hand, even though it feels twice as heavy as normal, and run it through his hair. His head pops up, and his eyes are full of surprise and relief.

  “Deven?” he whispers my name. “Oh, thank God. They said you’d wake up any time now, but fuck, you scared the shit out of me.” He stands up and presses kisses to my head, hair, and face.

  “What…what happened?” I ask. My memory is fuzzy.

  He sits back down and take my hand in his. “You did it, babe. You delivered all the babies and they’re beautiful, Deven. They really are. And just like we were told, there are two boys and a girl.”

  I smile weakly, happy that they’re here and all okay and healthy.

  “After the last one though, you lost a lot of blood. And you lost it fast. They ended up having to give you two units of blood, and you’ve been unconscious since yesterday, but they said that you’d wake up. They said that you just needed to rest and let your body heal from the trauma that having three babies took on your little body. And here you are. You’re here with me and the babies, and they’re here and healthy. I think they miss you. They miss hearing your heart and your laugh and being all warm inside of you.” He kisses my hand.

  “Where are they? Can I see them?”

  “Of course. I’ll ask the nurse to bring them in. They’re in the nursery. They said we both needed the rest.” He stands up and leaves the room, coming back within minutes. “They’ll be here in a couple minutes,” he says, taking the empty chair beside the bed and taking my hand in his once again. “You did so good, baby. Everyone has been here to see the babies, all my family and yours. They’ll be glad to hear that you’ve woken up.
”

  “I wish I hadn’t been out so long. They’re already a day old.” Tears sting my eyes at the thought of missing my first day with the babies.

  “It’s okay,” he assures me. “They haven’t done anything but poop and cry anyway,” he jokes as the nurse comes wheeling them into the room.

  She puts them at the foot of my bed, and Hudson picks up one and brings him over. “This is baby boy number one,” he says, placing him in my arms. “And baby boy number two,” he says, placing him on the other side. “And here, we have baby girl.” He holds her against his chest, showing me her face.

  “They’re all so perfect,” I say, staring at them all in awe.

  He smiles and nods. “I know. They all have my blue eyes and your dark skin and hair. They’re gorgeous.”

  “You haven’t given them their names yet?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “No. I didn’t know which baby boy you wanted to name which. Thought maybe it was a mom thing, like you’d hold them and be able to tell which is which.” He laughs out.

  I look down at baby boy number one. “This is Axle, after your grandpa,” I say, thinking about my dad. Then I look at baby boy number two. “And this is Aiden, and that is Adrienne. Our three As.” I smile up at Hudson.

  He returns my smile. “Want to trade?” he asks.

  “Yes,” I reply, giving up one of the boys to hold my daughter.

  It’s four weeks before we get to leave the hospital, but with the babies being born so early, they wanted to keep a close eye on them and me since I lost so lost so much blood. The first few days were rough, but as time passed, I felt better. Other than the extra weight I’m still sporting, I feel back to my normal self. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. The day comes when we finally get to take the babies home, and excitement surges through me at the thought of having them home and all in their cribs.

  Hudson and I are finally able to sleep in our room, and I’m finally able to take in the upstairs of my own home. Everything is perfect and beautiful, just like I knew it would be, and having everyone under one roof is just how it’s meant to be.

  We get guest after guest when we get home, and everyone brings over food and gifts. Nobody stays too long, knowing that we need to rest and get settled. By the time the sun is going down, I’m completely exhausted. Hudson pulls me in for a long kiss that makes my toes curl. I’m not even healed from having the babies yet, but already, I’m excited for him to touch me.

  With his lips on mine, he picks me up against him and carries me to the bedroom, where we fall onto our brand new, fluffy bed, He wraps his arms around me and kisses me breathless.

  “I love you, Deven,” he whispers as that fire in his blue eyes ignites.

  “I love you too, Hudson,” I whisper, pulling him back in and kissing his thick lips again, not ready for this to end.

  Almost on cue, one of the babies starts crying from their room next door. For now, we keep them close by, not putting them in their own rooms just yet. The doctor explained that since they’re triplets and shared a womb, that taking them away from one another right now may be a bit trying. All three of them are in one crib, always touching one another as they look around or sleep.

  The two of us pull apart and go into their bedroom to find Aiden awake, big eyes looking around the room. I bend down and pick him up, holding him against my chest as I move across the room to change his diaper. Once he’s all fresh, I sit in the rocking chair to breastfeed him. Once he’s fed, burped, and sound asleep, I put him back with the other two, who are still sound asleep.

  Looking down at their small faces warms my heart in a way in a way it’s never felt before. I thought Hudson was all I needed to complete me, but now I know I was missing something all along: these three. I didn’t even know I needed them this much until I held them. Our family is finally complete. I have all I need to live right here in this room, and I know that I’ll never let any of them go. I’ll love them all, I’ll protect them, I’ll die for them. Before, I always felt like I was born with half a heart and Hudson was my other half. But now I know that I was born with only one small piece of my heart, and each of them complete me. Hudson, Axle, Aiden, Adrienne, and me, we all make up one heart, one love, one home, one family.

  Billionaire’s Unexpected Bride SNEAK PEEK!

  “The rules have been broken,” he says. “We can’t pretend like they haven’t.”

  * * *

  I don’t break rules. EVER.

  1. NEVER mix business with pleasure.

  2. DON’T put my job in jeopardy.

  3. Absolutely do NOT fall in love with a client.

  * * *

  Guess I should say . . . I didn’t break them, until I met my new billionaire client, Drake Slade.

  Arrogant, rude, hated by everyone in town, and 100% NOT my type.

  * * *

  The day my perfect LA life was uprooted to move to middle-of-frickin’-nowhere Colorado was the day I was convinced my life was over.

  * * *

  Raise and promotion be damned, what good is it if the only place in town is a Dollar Store?

  * * *

  But here I am, wearing a denim skirt and cowboy boots, rootin’ and scootin’ my way around town, and square dancing my way into Drake’s bed.

  * * *

  Don’t worry, I have a plan. Sort of.

  * * *

  He’s just a little distraction to make my time here pass. After I get the town to love him, I can move back to LA.

  * * *

  Now I just need to convince my heart . . .

  Chapter 1

  Celeste

  “WHITE chocolate mocha with an extra shot?” the barista asks with a pleasant smile the moment I step up to the counter.

  I smile and nod. “You know me so well, June,” I say as I pull the card out of my purse, passing it over.

  She quickly swipes it and hands it back before getting to work on my coffee. As I wait, I check the time on my phone and begin going through some emails. I click on one from my friend, Jenny. The subject line reads: Rumor Has It . . .

  Guess what I’ve heard being passed around the office? You’re moving from Los Angeles to Colorado! They’re giving you a promotion and you’ll be running the firm out there, being handed the largest client on the books for that office! Congrats, hon! P.S. Try to act surprised. I just couldn’t hold it in any longer. Love ya.

  Upon reading those words, my mouth drops open. Where did she hear this? Is it true? Am I getting the Colorado account? If I am, when will I be leaving? Are they going to tell me today?

  “Celeste?” I hear it like a whisper that creeps into my head, snaking its way through all my spinning thoughts. “Ma’am, your coffee,” the barista finally says, causing my eyes to jump up to her as she holds out my coffee.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” I say in a rush as I reach out and take the paper cup. “I was lost in this sea of work emails.”

  She offers up a small smile, but I’m sure she thinks I’m some kind of space cadet by the faraway look on my face.

  “Have a great day,” she says in her sweet voice.

  “You too.” I smile as I drop some cash into her tip jar and walk toward the door with a little extra pep in my step. Suddenly, I can’t wait to get to work. I can’t wait to find out if the rumor is true. If it is, I can’t wait to shove it down Jeremy’s throat. Jeremy has been my rival since college. We fought neck and neck for valedictorian, and I only beat him by a few points. I thought I was done with him and our competition, only to be surprised on orientation day. I walked into that board room thinking I had the world at my fingertips. I stopped dead in my tracks when my eyes landed on him, and his mouth dropped open when he looked up and saw me.

  We can’t stand each other and we do our best to avoid crossing paths at all costs. However, that’s close to impossible when you work in the same office. He likes to brag about his accomplishments whenever I’m within earshot, and even though I have accomplishments of my own, hi
s bragging always makes me feel inferior to him. But this tidbit of news is something he can’t beat, and I know when he hears my name come out of our boss’ mouth, he’s going to be more angry than the time I beat him for valedictorian. Just knowing this makes me giggle as I walk down the crowded sidewalk toward the firm.

  As I finish my walk to the office, I can’t help but think about the move. Colorado? I never dreamed of living outside the city. I’m not a fall in love, get married, and start reproducing as fast as possible kind of girl. I never daydreamed about small towns and kids running around the yard, nor do I tear up at the sight of a tiny sock. I’ve always preferred the busy hustle and bustle of city life. I like spending my days walking through endless stores. I love chance encounters with a celebrities or YouTube personalities when the girls and I go out for brunch. I love that I have at least 10 different options for coffee every morning. Could a small town even offer anything close to that?

  My mind is an endless sea of questions as I walk into the lobby of the Mason, Lawrence, and Howe Law Firm. The lobby is packed with staff, clients, and outside workers: mailmen, couriers, and independent contractors. They’re all busy talking or checking their packages or phones. I pass by them in a blur on my way to the elevator. I reach out to push the button, but someone beats me to it. I look up to find Gavin smiling at me.

  “You looked a little dazed. Figured I’d help you out,” he shrugs as his smile widens and his face reddens.