by Piper Rayne
“Who are you messaging?” I ask.
“Dori. She told me to let her know if our plan worked.” She sets her phone back on the desk when she’s done.
“You have her cell phone number?”
“Yep. She likes me. Told me it’s a shame she doesn’t have any more single grandsons otherwise she’d fix me up with them.”
I nod. I took their advice on sneaking up to the cabin to surprise Kingston, but they don’t know about the sappy candles, rose petals, and asking him to homecoming. Sedona helped me snag his suit. Allie thought I should be naked in the hot tub when he got there. Imagine looking at Grandma Dori after that suggestion. All kinds of wrong.
“Looks like you got what you wanted.”
Her phone buzzes and her lips turn down after reading. “She said she already knew. How did she already know?”
“Maybe because Denver and Cleo ended up coming? But they stayed up there an extra day when we left. And Kingston dropped me off at my apartment only hours ago so he could get on shift, so I don’t think it’d be him. I don’t think Sedona would say anything.” I shrug. “I don’t really know.”
Her phone buzzes again and she picks it up, that smile I’m so used to shining once again. “She just sent me a high five emoji.” Her thumbs rush out a text and she places it down, exchanging her phone for a carrot stick.
“I’m concerned that your best friend is in her seventies.”
Ralph approaches the nurses’ station, a med student on his heels. “Dr. Harrison, you have a nice two days off?”
“I did, and now you can have a nice couple days off. Thanks for covering for me, Ralph.”
“That’s what a good colleague does. Let’s go over the board.” He pulls out his special blue marker.
I roll my eyes behind his back at Allie. She giggles quietly and picks up her phone to hammer out another text.
We go over all the patients before Ralph leaves me to take over. I head out to do my own rounds and assess the patients after he goes into the break room to get ready to leave for the night.
Five hours later, Allie’s waiting for me outside of exam room five.
I sanitize my hands. “What’s up?”
“There’s a Sedona Bailey here asking to see you.”
I tilt my head. “Sedona? She came all the way here?”
“She did. I can’t believe how much she reminds me of Kingston.”
“Which room?” I head down the hall, following Allie blindly.
“She’s in eleven.”
We cut through the nurses’ station as Phoenix barrels into the emergency room, Cara from admitting trying to stop her.
“It’s okay, Cara.”
Allie looks back at me. “That was her, but she was pregnant.” She points at Phoenix’s flat stomach.
“Oh, Stella, thank goodness. Sedona called me. She was up here shopping for something for the baby. I swear I’m going to kick her ass for doing all this shit on her own.” Phoenix barrels up to me. “I mean, she’s pregnant and her asshat of an ex-boyfriend is nowhere to be found. The rich fucker could at least pony up some money to buy his kid a crib.”
Allie’s eyes widen at me, so I say, “Allie, this is Phoenix, Sedona’s twin sister.”
“I thought the fact I haven’t had a proper orgasm in six months was starting to affect my vision.” Allie blinks and walks toward room eleven.
“Now I know you’re not Buzz Wheel’s most avid fan,” I tease her.
“It never said they were twins,” Allie whines.
I shake my head at her and turn back to Phoenix. “She’s in eleven, and Phoenix?” I put my hand on her arm. “If Sedona is in labor, let’s hold off on bringing all this up to her, okay?”
Phoenix walks into eleven before Allie or me, and I sanitize my hands. “Why are you in Anchorage on your own?”
Sedona is on the bed, rubbing her stomach. “I was picking up the crib.”
“I told you I’d buy you the crib.”
Allie leans into me. “It’s weird watching them fight, no?”
I laugh. “Hey, Sedona, how are you feeling? What brings you here?”
“My water broke. I just came directly here instead of calling my doctor.”
I sit on the stool and wheel across the room, then I put her legs in the stirrups to examine her. “Any contractions?”
“Yes, but I haven’t had one in a while.”
“Please tell me asshat isn’t going to show up here,” Phoenix says, holding her sister’s hand.
I shoot her a look. “I’m going to call labor and delivery. Your little girl is on her way.” I smile, taking off my gloves. “We’ll get you moved up to that floor.”
Sedona nods, looking uncertain. This is her first child and she’s doing it on her own. She turns toward her twin. “You can’t be like that when she comes. I won’t taint my daughter by allowing people to say bad things about her father.”
I’ll let them fight it out.
I head to the nurses’ station, Allie following me. “Call up to labor and delivery and see if there are any beds.”
She picks up the phone. I’m writing on the board when Kingston’s voice comes over the radio in the nurses’ station. Even though he’s telling us how many minutes they’re out and the patient’s condition, so we know how best to be prepared, a rush of excitement that I’ll get to see him runs through me. Allie answers while she’s on hold with labor and delivery.
“She has a while, so we can keep her here for a little bit if they need time,” I tell Allie.
I walk over to the ambulance drop-off just as it’s pulling up. Kingston’s smile is wide and welcoming when he sees me.
“Another flu case,” Lou says, stepping out of the back of the ambulance.
They wheel in the patient while Lou tells me all the stats of the patient. Allie comes out and helps me get the elderly patient situated, hooking her up to oxygen and doing vitals. Once we know she’s not in immediate danger, I walk out of the room, ordering blood work.
“Hey, you.” Kingston looks side to side down the hall and grabs me by the edge of my lab coat, tugging me toward him.
“You know I can’t do anything right now.” I slide my hand into his and lead him around the corner, sneaking into the break room that’s blessedly empty right now.
“And here is safe?” he says, caging me to the wall.
“Safer.”
His large hand slides under my jacket and molds to my hip. “I missed you.” He bends down and kisses me. “I’m not sure I can get through my shift.”
“Crossing your fingers that you keep getting calls that send you here?”
“I might just tell Captain it’s better for me to stay here.” He kisses me again, this time sliding his tongue into my mouth.
I moan, my back falling to the wall, my hands fiddling with the hair on the back of his head. His hand inches up my torso, over my ribs, and I anticipate his next move. But just as he’s making his way to my breast, the break room door opens.
“Hey, I’m all for the sneaky sneak and I totally would’ve allowed you two to do whatever, but Sedona is screaming, and labor and delivery is full at the moment. Dr. Foster is on his way down, but I figured you might want to help her in the meantime. Hey, Kingston. You’re welcome.” Allie leaves.
I push off the wall, but Kingston locks me once more, his large thigh sliding between my legs. “My sister’s here?”
“She’s having the baby.”
He nods. Not alarmed I guess since first-time moms tend to labor longer. “One more kiss?”
I glance toward the door and smack my lips to his. Our mouths tangle and our hands run along one another’s body as though we forgot what we felt like in the hours we’ve been apart.
The door opens again. “Lovebirds, get the fuck out here.” Lou shuts the door, laughing.
“I better go check on your sister. Phoenix is here too.”
We walk out of the nurses’ station to find Phoenix doing some kind of hand
shake with Lou. She points at us and her mouth slowly opens. “Does Grandma Dori know?”
“Give it a rest,” Kingston says, his hand sliding over my ass when he passes.
“She does.” Allie beams.
Phoenix looks at her then me. “Who’s this?”
“Allie is Dori’s new best friend.”
Phoenix puts it all together and she sighs. “She recruited you to get those two together, didn’t she?”
Allie smiles wide, nodding. “I want to be her when I grow up.”
Phoenix’s dark eyebrows shoot up. “Oookkkaayyy.”
“Did you call the family, Phoenix?” Kingston asks, looking all authoritative in his uniform. His ass is magnificent.
This is when I wish I could openly touch him. But he’s an EMT and I’m the ER doctor—hardly ethical if I’m groping him during work hours. At least in front of others.
“Not yet. I wanted to make sure.”
We all file into the hospital room. Dr. Foster is already there, head peering out from under the sheet.
“Whoa.” Kingston covers his eyes with his arm and backs up, pushing the rest of us to back up with him.
“You’ve seen plenty of pussies, King, don’t be a moron.” Phoenix slides by him and disappears into the room.
“Not my sister’s.” He cringes and looks at me. “Not my sister’s.”
I laugh and pat his shoulder. “I know. I know. You stay out here, and I’ll fill you in.”
Fifteen minutes later, Dr. Foster says Sedona is in active labor and since there’s no room up on the floor just yet, he’ll deliver her in the ER.
Dori’s voice sounds from down the adjacent hall, veering closer. “Thank you, Allie. My ungrateful grandchildren can’t even call me.” She rounds the corner. As she approaches, Kingston and I make the same sound—one of disbelief.
“Do you think she looked in the mirror?” Kingston whispers.
She points at us halfway down the hallway. “You two have finally come to your senses, but now I have to deal with Sedona. I’ll talk to you later.” She ducks into room eleven as Kingston and I share a look of shock.
“What the hell happened to your hair?” Phoenix asks.
“I was just at Clip and Dish. What’s wrong?”
“If you don’t want people to make jokes to you about Dory the fish, you need to tell them to tone down the blue in your hair. They’re gonna start calling you Smurfette.”
Leave it to Phoenix to speak her mind.
“Well, Smurfette was hot, so I’m not sure that’s an insult. Sedona dear, how are you?”
Kingston’s hand slyly slides behind me and he leans in close. “I’d do about anything to be buried inside you right now.”
“How about I meet you at your apartment after your shift? Sedona should be here with the baby.”
He pulls his keys from his pocket and takes off his house key. “Be naked in my bed.”
I take the key and put it inside the pocket of my white lab coat. “See you then.”
“Hey, King, we got a call,” Lou says.
“Shit, can you call me if she has the baby? I wish I could stay but…”
I look up and down the hall before kissing him once. “Go, I’ll let you know. She’s in good hands.”
“Well, I know that. Your hands are fucking amazing.”
“I meant Dr. Foster.” I chuckle and push him down the hall.
Kingston puts his hands on his chest as if he has breasts. I shake my head until he blows me a kiss and turns to Lou, the two of them walking out the sliding doors.
God, I love that man.
Twenty-Eight
Kingston
It’s been two weeks since Stella and I got together. The fact that she’s lying in my bed right now, sprawled out like an octopus, lightly snoring, still makes my heart pitter-patter like a lovesick fool’s.
A nap was essential after both of us had to work horribly long shifts this past week. That wasn’t the first thing on our agenda though, which is why we’re both naked.
The small cry in the other room causes Stella to stir. So I pull on a pair of sweatpants and tiptoe out of my room. Sedona named my new niece Palmer Doris Bailey and if she wasn’t already Grandma Dori’s favorite, she is now. Now it’s just a running joke between all us Baileys that Sedona is a kiss-up.
I swoop my niece out of her bassinet next to Sedona, who’s also asleep in her bed. Palmer looks at me with her big blue eyes like her father’s.
“Hungry, wet, or just needy?” I ask softly, going into the kitchen to grab the breast milk that Sedona’s been pumping.
Another reason Stella and I are exhausted is because we’ve been helping Sedona as much as we can when we’re not working. I put the bottle in the warmer and carry Palmer to the changing table.
“You’re going to make me a pro by the time it’s my turn,” I whisper, and she smiles, letting out a puff of gas as soon as I undo her diaper. “Was that just for Uncle Kingston? You really are a Bailey if that’s the case.” I tickle her stomach and her mouth opens in a yawn.
After changing her diaper and grabbing the bottle, I head to the couch and cradle her with my arm. She takes to the bottle, sucking away, and I flick on the television.
My bedroom door creeps open and Stella walks out wearing my T-shirt. She leans against the doorframe, watching me.
“That should be illegal.” She points and comes to sit down next to me. “Good afternoon, Palmer.” Her fingers run up my niece’s torso before touching her nose.
“She eats like Allie,” I say and pucker my lips to Stella.
She kisses me way too quickly for my liking. “She’s a growing baby. How is Sedona?”
“Sleeping.”
Stella grabs the remote and stops the channel on soccer. Jamison’s old team is playing. His picture is plastered on the screen, even though he’s no longer on contract with them. The commentators are talking about him and his failed future.
I shake my head and look at Palmer, silently promising I’ll be his fill-in since he’s not deserving of her right now. Not to see her sweet mouth open in a yawn or the small smiles that might just be gas but can still turn your mood from sour to great. “Change the channel.”
Stella’s lips dip, but she turns it to a daytime talk show.
“I’ve been meaning to thank you,” I say to Stella, removing the bottle and propping Palmer up to burp her.
Stella watches me with fascination. “For what?”
“For spending so much time in Lake Starlight. For agreeing to spend some nights here so I can help Sedona. Everyone else has their own lives and I know they’re doing what they can to make room for Sedona and Palmer, but I also know Sedona doesn’t want to ask for help.”
Stella’s hand runs along my back then up to the back of my head. “You don’t have to thank me. I’m happy to help her. I can’t imagine what she’s going through. And watching you with a baby is not a horrible thing.”
Palmer lets out a huge burp and we both laugh.
I reposition her in my arm and feed her the rest of the bottle. “You like me with a baby?”
Stella sighs. “King, I saw the Instagram post-Sedona put up of you holding Palmer and how many women commented. You know as well as I do that you with her makes ovaries explode all over the world.”
I shrug it off. “I only care about making one woman’s ovaries explode.” I lean forward and kiss her.
“Don’t worry, they explode on a regular basis. Just happened two hours ago.” She snuggles into me.
“So you want to have kids?” I ask. I know she’s said she does, but the question feels like it holds more weight now that we’re together. We’ve never talked about what we want our future to look like.
“Yes, I want kids. Not a lot though. Not nine.” She widens her eyes.
I laugh. “Eight?”
“More like two?” She shrugs.
“Twins run in the family, so two pregnancies could equal three, or even four, babies.”
“I could handle that.”
I smile. “What’s your end game when you’re done with your residency?”
She shrugs and puts her head on my shoulder. “I was thinking of maybe having a family practice?”
“Really?”
She nods against my shoulder. “Being your family’s on-call doctor—” She chuckles. “I think family practice might be where I want to concentrate. I’d get to see a lot of different types of cases and patients—from young to old. I think that might be where I fit.”
“And where would you have this family practice?”
She slaps me on the chest. “Ask the real question you want to ask.”
I chuckle and it startles Palmer. The bottle pops out of her mouth. Stella takes the empty bottle from my hand and sets it on the table. I burp Palmer, and once again, she lets out a burp like a college kid who just did a keg stand.
“Are you staying in Alaska?” I ask.
She doesn’t answer right away, and I wait with bated breath. I’ll follow her wherever she goes this time and she needs to know that. “Yeah. I think I’d open a practice in Lake Starlight.”
Her full lips part and perfect white teeth shine as she smiles at me. My fingers thread through the back of her hair, pulling her mouth to mine.
“I fucking love you,” I say.
“I love you too, and you don’t need to say fucking for emphasis.”
“Yeah, I do. I’m using it to reflect the magnitude of my love.”
She nods, giggles, and backs away. “What about you? Are smoke jumping and firefighting your true calling?”
“I can’t say I’ve thought about smoke jumping as a long-term career. I love it, but as I get older, I might not be able to keep doing it. Plus when I have a family, I’m not sure I want to be away as much as the job requires. I guess I’ll have to go to full-time firefighter at some point.”
“And always Anchorage FD?”
“I think so. Lake Starlight is way too slow.”
She nods and turns her attention to Palmer. “I need a baby fix.”
She takes Palmer from my arms and sits cross-legged on the couch rocking the baby. I don’t say so, but watching her with Palmer these past two weeks has slayed me. The fact that Stella’s given up all her freedom to help with Palmer has only made me love her more. And watching the way Stella makes faces at her, always pretends to be sad when she’s sad, or happy when she’s happy… for the first time in ever, I’ve given thought to what kind of father I’ll be. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I know one thing for sure—I want Stella to be the mother of my children.
