I could have stood there forever, remembering…but:
“The sun will be setting soon,” Josh reminded me, taking my hand again and guiding me back towards the path. “We should keep going.”
We laced up towards the main road, then looped back around towards the pond again. We followed it down towards the water’s edge, and when we reached a park bench, Josh stopped us.
“Let’s stop here,” he said, helping me down onto the bench. He slid into the spot next to me, and then we both gazed out at the scene before us. The sun was started to set in the distance, and the orangey-yellow rays of light were scattered over the soft, still surface of the pond. The water seemed to be tinted gold in the light.
“The baby just kicked,” I whispered. I took Josh’s hands and wrapped them around my bump. He must have felt the baby move a hundred times, but it never got old for him; he always looked just as amazed.
“He’s going to come out kicking,” Josh smiled.
“He?”
“Just a guess,” he smiled again, then his face folded into a serious expression and he cleared his throat.
“So,” he said. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”
“Uh-oh. Why don’t I like the sound of that?”
“It’s nothing bad,” he assured me quickly. “Well…I hope you don’t think it’s bad. But you have been known to throw me for a loop in the past…”
“What is it?”
Josh took a deep breath, then he slid off of the bench and landed on his knee directly in front of me.
“Holy shit,” I gulped. “Josh, are you--”
“Vanessa,” he said as he reached into his pocket and produced a small blue box. “I know you’re probably already thinking of a million and one reasons why we shouldn’t get married…”
No, I’m not! I wanted to stammer, even though he was absolutely correct.
“You’re probably going to remind me that fifty-percent of marriages end in divorce.”
He’s right...
“You’re probably thinking about your parents right now. Or maybe you’re thinking about every friend you’ve ever known who has had their heart broken, or been cheated on, or been dumped, or hurt.”
Right again…
“I thought about coming up with my one list of a million and one reasons why we should get married, to counter every one of the reasons you have for why we shouldn’t,” he said. “But when I started making that list…I realized that every single counter-argument was exactly the same, I love you.”
My heart fluttered in my chest and I felt my face wrinkle up as my eyes fogged with tears.
“Vanessa?”
My mouth gaped open to say “YES!” but the only sound that came out was a squeak.
“Holy shit, Vanessa…” Josh’s face fell, and my eyes shot down to see what he was looking at.
Then I felt it: trickling down my legs, and forming in a puddle around my feet…
“I think your water just broke…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE | JOSH
“How the hell did we make something so…perfect?” I marveled as I gazed down at the rosy pink little baby, swaddled in gauzy white blankets and held tight in Vanessa’s arms.
“I have no idea,” Vanessa whispered, tracing her fingertip gently over the baby’s soft pink lips.
I always used to think that people were crazy for claiming that a baby “looked like” one parent or the other. I had always thought that all newborns looked identical: like lumpy little potatoes. But not my baby. No, I could tell exactly where every trait and characteristic came from.
He had inherited a full head of my jet-black hair, and Vanessa had passed down her giant, curious hazel eyes flecked with gold. The baby had gotten my lips, locked in a perpetual smirk, and my dimpled chin…and he had Vanessa’s button nose and rosy cheeks. Above all, he was perfect…and I never wanted to take my eyes off of him.
Thomas Bailey Hudson had entered the world screaming at 6:05 AM, weighing exactly seven pounds. We had already narrowed down the list of potential boy names to about a dozen options, but once we saw our son…we knew.
We named him Thomas, after my grandfather. He looked like a Thomas; he had noble eyes and an honest face. And I figured that, once he got a little older, he’d be delighted to discover that he shared a name with a certain bright blue Tank Engine, too…
‘Bailey’ was Vanessa’s mother’s maiden name. After Vanessa’s father had walked out, they had both taken on the surname to replace his. Her mom wasn’t around anymore, but Vanessa was still incredibly proud of that name; it symbolized strength and independence. Those were two of her strongest traits, and I hoped that she would pass them onto our son someday. In the meantime, at least he’d have the name ‘Bailey’ to honor the strength and bravery of his mother and grandmother before him.
Then there was the last name: Hudson.
“Are you sure you don’t want to hyphenate?” I had asked Vanessa as we sat side by side, filling out our son’s birth certificate. “I read in one of the baby books that hyphenated surnames are becoming more and more popular, especially for unmarried parents.”
“But we’re a family now, remember?” Vanessa had smiled up at me. “A family of Hudsons.”
“Wait a second,” I had paused, pen poised over the paper, and turned to Vanessa. “Does that mean…”
She had smiled, clenching her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Yes,” she had nodded. “The answer to your question earlier is yes! I do want to marry you!”
I had been in such a rush to kiss her that I almost dropped the birth certificate and pen. Then I remembered the ring in my pocket. I slipped out the box and popped it open. Even in the dim light of the hospital room, the ring had sparkled.
The center stone was pale turquoise blue and in a cushion shape. Surrounding it, there was a halo of bright white diamonds.
“It’s aquamarine,” I had explained. “Our son’s birthstone.”
“I love it, Josh!” Vanessa had gasped. “And I love you!”
Now, as I watched Vanessa cradle our son in the hospital bed, I saw the ring sparkling on her finger. Somehow, it suited her perfectly.
My cell phone vibrated in my pocket, and I reluctantly reached for it. I didn’t want any distractions or interruptions from the outside world, but ignoring my phone wasn’t exactly an option: we were waiting for a very important message to come through.
“It’s Brie,” I reported, glancing down at the phone screen.
Vanessa’s eyes immediately shot up, and her face went perfectly still. This was the text message we had both been waiting for…
I stared back, trying to hold my poker face.
“And?!” Vanessa demanded impatiently.
“And…” I couldn’t hold in the news any longer. “Our offer was accepted on the Main Street property! It’s all ours!”
Vanessa cupped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from squealing. I leaned over the bed and kissed her, then I kissed our sleeping son’s forehead.
“Hey little guy,” I whispered to him. “Good news, we just got our first house!”
Then we both heard a soft knocking sound coming from the door of our hospital room:
Knock, knock.
“Sorry to interrupt,” a nurse said, poking her head through the gap in the door. “But you have some visitors…”
“Visitors?” Vanessa wrinkled her brows together thoughtfully and glanced up at me. “But…we’re not expecting anyone until later this afternoon?”
“They insist on coming in,” the nurse said apologetically.
“They?”
“Yes,” she pursed her lips together. “There are eleven of them.”
Eleven. There could only be one explanation.
Vanessa’s face softened into a grin as she figured it out, too. Then she turned to the nurse, “Send them in!”
The nurse nodded and disappear
ed. I listened to her footsteps track away down the hallway outside of our room. Then I heard a door creak open somewhere in the distance, followed by the sound of eleven rowdy voices echoing through the corridor. The walls and floor seemed to shake as eleven of Hartford’s finest firemen made their way down the hallway and filed into the room, each carrying some sort of gift: a bouquet of bright blue balloons, flowers, cookies…
“Holy shit, Josh,” Brady said proudly, shaking my hand. “You’re a dad now!”
I’m a dad…I repeated to myself, letting the words sink in.
“Don’t let it go to your head, though!” Duke encouraged me from the other side of the room. “Be a cool dad!”
“If I see you wearing socks that go past your ankles and telling shitty dad jokes, I will stage an intervention,” Logan added, pointing a finger at me meaningfully.
“And don’t even think about getting one of those ‘dad bods,’” Troy said, sneaking up from behind me and massaging my shoulders. “I expect to see you in the Firehouse weight room, bright and early on Monday morning!”
“I’m on paternity leave for the next few weeks,” I reminded him.
“I don’t care, I still want to see you in that gym on Monday. We have to stop this ‘dad bod’ in its tracks! Prevention is the best cure, my man!”
“Yeah, February!” Duke slapped my back. “You can’t let yourself go. You’ve got a legacy to uphold now!”
“Guys, it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet,” I said, staring down at my stomach. Even through my t-shirt, I could clearly see that I was every bit as chiseled as I had been before my son was born.
“Doesn’t matter,” Bryce said grimly. “Once that baby pops out, it’s all downhill...” He tapped a hand over his own stomach and added: “It took me six months to work off the baby weight that I gained after Ava was born.”
“Y’all don’t need to worry,” Walker smiled, stepping forward from the group of guys that were swarming around the hospital bed. “I have a feeling that Vanessa here is going to keep our boy in line…”
I glanced back at Vanessa. She just smiled and shook her head, amused.
“She sure does!” Logan laughed. “Who would have ever guessed that Josh would be the next one of us to settle down?!”
“He did catch the bouquet at my wedding…” Brady said thoughtfully.
“That’s not the only thing he caught that night!” Duke added. He cackled at his own joke, then fist-bumped Logan.
I just rolled my eyes.
“He’s awake,” Vanessa reported, glancing down at the baby in her arms.
I could feel the tension in the room as all twelve members of Firehouse 56 -- myself included -- immediately fell silent as we braced ourselves and waited for the deafening scream of a newborn.
But the baby didn’t scream. Instead, he wiggled around in his blankets and cooed.
“False alarm,” Duke said, breathing a sigh of relief. Then, “So, uh, Josh…are you going to introduce us, or what?”
“Of course!” I said. Vanessa lifted the baby towards me, and I took him gently in my arms. I still hadn’t quite gotten used to how light and fragile he felt…
“Guys, I’d like you to meet Thomas Bailey Hudson,” I said proudly, positioning the baby in my arms so that everyone could see him.
“And Thomas,” I added, speaking to my son this time, “Meet your eleven crazy uncles…”
Eleven different voices greeted him at the same time:
“Hi, Thomas!”
“Can I call you Tommy?”
“Just so you know, I’m the cool uncle!”
“I like your hair, Tom-cat!”
“Hey Thomas, I hope you know that the statistical likelihood of you becoming a fireman is, like, 100%!”
Thomas squinted his wide, curious eyes, as if he was already taking it all in and sizing the crew up. I reached my head down and whispered into his ear, “Thomas, I love your uncles to death, but don’t listen to a word they say!”
The guys booed and rolled their eyes as I passed the baby back to Vanessa on the bed.
“Oh!” Duke said, snapping his fingers. “I almost forgot!”
He reached into the shrine of balloons and flowers that had been constructed in the corner of the room, and he plucked out a small blue gift bag.
“Just a little something,” he shrugged, handing me the bag.
I reached inside and pulled out a fire engine red baby onesie. It had a silk-screened fire truck design and, above it, the words ‘FUTURE FIREHOUSE 56 CREWMEMBER’ spelled out in baby block letters.
“Duke, this is awesome!”
“I found a place that makes custom onesies online,” Duke shrugged. Then, “There’s another one in the bag…”
I reached back into the gift bag and my hand found a second onesie. This one was black. At the top, tall white letters read: ‘MARCH IS MY FAVORITE MONTH!’
Underneath that, there was a cropped version of the photograph that had been used for the month of March in the Firehouse 56 calendar, a shot of Duke peeling his shirt off in the firehouse locker room (that had been the photographer’s clever solution for working around Duke’s ‘wax’ dilemma…)
“Duke!” I chuckled now, tossing the shirt back into the gift bag.
“What?” Duke shrugged innocently. “I figured March would be his favorite month! It’s his birth month, after all!”
I just rolled my eyes and smiled, “Thank you, Duke. For everything. You were really there for me when I needed you, brother…”
For a split second, Duke smiled back. Then he twisted his face into mock disgust, “I know you’re a dad now, but that doesn’t mean you need to get all sappy and gross!” He snorted at me. But then he shot me a wink, as if to remind me that his tough guy persona was just an act that he kept up around the crew. Underneath it, I knew the real Duke…and I was glad that I did. I winked back.
The guys stayed around for a few more minutes, asking questions and admiring the new baby…until someone remembered that they had all left the station unmanned, and they all decided that it was best to head back to the firehouse before the chief realized that they had left.
The crew said goodbye and filed out of the hospital room just as quickly as they had arrived, and then just Brady was left.
“I just wanted to say that I’m really proud of you, Josh,” he said. “And I’m looking forward to you showing me the ropes, before Cassidy gives birth. I’m going to need all the parenting pointers and advice that you can give me…”
I smiled, but it wasn’t because I would finally get to be the one teaching my big brother about something…rather, it was because I knew we were about to embark on this awesome, terrifying, crazy adventure together. And there was no one in the world that I would rather share the misadventures of fatherhood with, than my brother Brady.
EPILOGUE | VANESSA
Three Months Later
“Hey hot mama,” a gruff, husky voice hissed into my ear, startling me from behind. I jerked up and twirled around, nearly spilling my glass of champagne in the process.
When I saw the source of the voice -- Summer Adams, practically bent in half from giggling so hard -- I scowled and crossed my arms.
“You looked like you were about to karate chop me in half!” Summer gasped, her voice strained from laughing so hard.
“I was about to! I thought you were some creepy guy!”
“Aww,” Summer recovered from the fit of laughter and gave my shoulder a gentle nudge. “It’s good to see that motherhood and finding true love hasn’t turned you into a total softie.”
“Me? Soft? Never,” I smirked.
I glanced around the white crowded space and felt a swell of pride fill my chest. After months of construction, we were finally ready to open the doors of our new salon for business. Today was the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Fairy Godmother Beauty Salon.
The space had turned out even better than anything I could have imagined. The grungy old floor
had been replaced with white marble tile. The walls were painted white, and beaded chandeliers were hung over the rows of sleek chrome work stations. Each station was outfitted with a chrome vanity table and a square mirror surrounded with bright white light bulbs.
We had wanted to create a space that mimicked the look and feel of a TV studio’s green room, and if the buzz in the room was any indication, we had succeeded.
It had been a lot of work, but we had all hands on deck to help. Twelve sets of hands, to be exact; the entire Firehouse 56 crew had volunteered to help us with the remodel. Without their help, we wouldn’t have been able to pull everything together as quickly as we did.
We had already gotten glowing write-ups in the Hartford Courant and other local publications, and a few of our loyal New York City clients had even made the trek north to Hartford to attend our ribbon-cutting ceremony.
It was great to see everyone come together to celebrate our grand opening, but it was even better to see how the business had taken off before we even opened our doors. We were fully booked for the next six months, and the phone still hadn’t stopped ringing off the hook…
I took a sip of champagne, admiring the salon around me.
“Ok, ok…maybe you haven’t gone totally soft,” my business partner conceded. “But I think you found your soft spot.”
She grinned and pointed a finger across the crowded room. My eyes followed and locked onto Josh. He was standing at the opposite side of the salon with his back to us.
“Soft spot, indeed…” I murmured as my eyes trailed down to his ass. He must have sensed that we were staring, because he slowly turned around.
My fiancé looked great from behind…but nothing could beat the view from the front. He was wearing our son strapped to his chest in a baby carrier, and when he spotted us, he lifted Thomas’ limp wrist and waved from across the room.
“Ok, I’m pretty sure my ovaries just started on fire,” Summer said, fanning herself with a salon brochure. “Which one of these firemen is going to help me with that?”
February Burning: A Firefighter Secret Baby Romance Page 19
