Happy Ever After in Christmas

by Debbie Mason

  “What are you…” Ty trailed off when she drew back her arm and threw the rock at the branch beside the blackbird’s perch. It took off with an outraged squawk. Ty hugged her. “You’re my hero.”

  “I don’t think I’m his, so let’s hope he doesn’t—” She broke off as the twins Holly and Hailey approached wearing formal black-and-white waitstaff attire. Unlike Chloe and Cat, Hailey and Holly, the owners of the Rocky Mountain Diner, were easily distinguishable. Holly wore her dark hair in a beehive, and Hailey had a short, spiky cut that currently sported green tips. The sisters were catering today’s event.

  Holly gave Jill a smile that oozed sympathy and concern. She looked down at her blue sundress. It wasn’t that bad, was it? Though maybe it was since Ty had suggested she should have left it in the back of her closet. She didn’t think it was that out of style. She’d bought it eight years ago when Jack brought Grace home to meet them.

  When Hailey offered Jill a similar smile, she knew it had nothing to do with her dress. Other than her hair, Hailey was as fashionably unconscious as Jill. Holly rubbed Jill’s arm. “How are you doing? We’ve been worried about you.”

  Jill briefly closed her eyes. Brandi. The three women hung out together all the time. She should have known Sawyer’s manager wouldn’t keep her mouth shut. Jill had nearly bowled her over when she ran from his apartment. There’s no way the other woman wouldn’t have noticed that she was upset.

  Ty frowned. “Why would you worry about—”

  The last thing Jill wanted was for Ty to hear about it. Heart pounding, she cut him off. “We should probably get inside. The guests will be—”

  “Because she got her heart broken, that’s why,” Hailey interrupted Jill while looking her in the eye. “It’s not the end of the world, you know. Sawyer’s a great guy, but there’s someone else for you. You just have to put yourself out there.”

  “Oh, Jilly Bean, why didn’t you tell me? You asked him out, and he said no.” Ty pulled her in for a hug. He was the huggiest, touchiest person she knew. Jill wasn’t.

  “No, no, she didn’t ask him for a date. She kissed him. Brandi said he was totally shocked and kind of grossed out.” Jill drew back from Ty and stared at Holly, who held out her hands, palms out. “I’m just repeating what Brandi said. But, Jill, what did you expect? The poor guy thinks of you as his little—”

  Ty sniffed the air. “Is something burning?”

  Hailey’s eyes went wide. “Holly! Did you put the canapés in the oven?” Without waiting for her sister’s response, Hailey ran for the patio doors with Holly chasing after her.

  “I don’t smell anything burning,” Jill said.

  Ty gave a distracted wave of his hand. “I just wanted to get rid of them. Don’t worry, I’ll keep them busy in the kitchen for the rest of the day.” He looked at her, his face scrunched up. “Was it true, what Holly said?”

  “Of course not…” She began, then sighed. “Yeah, I went back to the bar last Friday. I kissed him. I can’t honestly say how he felt about it, but he dropped by that Sunday and brought me scones. So I guess he wasn’t totally grossed out. But, Ty, I’m done. I have to forget about him and move on.”

  “Maybe. But you know, you should be proud of yourself. It may not have turned out like we’d hoped, but you put yourself out there. I’m proud of you. And hey, it could have been worse. You could have told him you were in love with him.”

  “Yeah, thank God I didn’t tell him that,” she said, hoping she managed to keep the truth from her face.

  Ty looked at her like maybe she hadn’t, but she was saved by voices filtering through the screen door. “They’re here. Come on,” Ty said.

  He dragged her through the kitchen—where Holly and Hailey were taking turns sniffing the oven—to the entrance of the bungalow. Liz was ushering the guest of honor into the house. Since it was Vivi, who in her previous life had been an investigative crime reporter, there’d been no sense trying to keep the shower a surprise.

  Chance stood at the door hovering over his very pregnant wife. Vivi wore a white sundress and a scowl, which she directed at her husband. “For the last time, I’m fine,” she said, rubbing her back. She caught the direction of her husband’s frowning gaze and dropped her hand. “You’d be rubbing your back, too, if you were carrying forty extra pounds in your stomach. So stop worrying about me. I’m fine and our child is fine. So go paint…its room with your dad.”

  Jill felt a little sorry for Chance. He’d lost his first wife and unborn child six years ago in a car accident, so he was understandably overprotective of Vivi. But as strong and independent as Vivi was, his need to keep her safe drove her kind of nuts. Jill sympathized with her, too, but didn’t think Chance was overreacting. At least not today. Normally Vivi had a beautiful, glowing complexion. Today her olive skin held a tinge of gray. Chance caught Jill’s eye and lifted his chin at his wife.

  Jill nodded, silently promising to watch out for her. Vivi caught the exchange and rolled her eyes, but didn’t have an opportunity to call them on it because Chance’s dad joined them. “There’s my beautiful daughter-in-law,” Paul began, then frowned. “Honey, are you feeling all right? You’re looking a little—” He broke off when, behind Vivi, Chance gave a warning shake of his head.

  “Vivi darling, why don’t you come in and sit down,” Liz said, intervening before her husband got himself in hot water with the guest of honor.

  Vivi nodded and walked toward the great room. She came to a stop and pivoted. “Chance, you told them we’re having a girl!”

  “It wasn’t me,” he said, turning as the door opened and Cat and Chloe walked in.

  Jill shot Ty a disgruntled look. He’d banned her from wearing pants and a T-shirt, but that’s exactly what Cat had on. Of course Chloe wore a hot pink dress and sparkly shoes, but that was Chloe. “Surprise!” the actress said, obviously not getting the memo that it wasn’t one.

  Vivi ignored her, seemingly determined to find out who gave their secret away. “Paul, did you tell?” she asked her father-in-law.

  “Me? No, of course not.”

  “Told what?” Chloe asked, looking from Dr. McBride to Vivi.

  Vivi gestured to the pink tissue paper flowers decorating the fireplace mantel. “That we’re having a girl.”

  Chloe grimaced. “I may have mentioned it. But it was for your own good, Vivi. You would have gotten yellow and green unisex clothes. Now you’re going to get adorable pink outfits you’ll actually use.”

  “Okay, time for us to leave, Dad,” Chance said, then walked to his wife. He framed her face with his hands. “You need me, you call me, Slick. And don’t give me any lip.” He whispered something in her ear that made her blush, then kissed her, gently rubbing her baby bump before heading for the door.

  Ty sighed. “I love that man.”

  Chance and Dr. McBride were barely out the door before a steady stream of women started to arrive, including Nell McBride and Jill’s sister-in-law.

  “Hey.” Jill waved at Grace.

  Grace smiled and held up a pink gift bag. “Come here. I’ll show you what we got.”

  Jill had contributed to the gift, but let her sister-in-law pick it out. “In a sec. I’m on drinks duty.” She hadn’t been, but she was now. She was worried that somehow Grace had heard about the episode with Sawyer and would want to chat. Jill didn’t want to talk about it with anyone, least of all Grace. And not only because she was married to her brother, but because of the almost-relationship between Sawyer and Grace. It made things even more awkward. Mostly in Jill’s mind, she knew.

  Grace and Jack were head over heels in love. It was obvious to anyone who saw them together. Sawyer and Jack were good, too. But Jill sometimes wondered if Sawyer still harbored romantic feelings for her sister-in-law. If he did, he did a good job of hiding them. And she knew he would never act on them. He loved Jack like a brother, and he would never do anything to damage their friendship. But still…

  Jill was serving a ma
son jar of pink lemonade to Liz when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nell waving her over.

  “Time for the games, ladies.” Ty clapped his hands to get the women’s attention. “We’ll go outside now.”

  Jill sagged in relief. She wasn’t a fan of games, but it was the perfect way to avoid Nell and Grace. Two shower games later, Jill decided she’d rather talk about her embarrassing episode than play another one.

  “Okay, Jilly Bean, you have to step it up. We lost the last two because of you.” Jill was on Ty and Chloe’s team. As far as she was concerned, she’d drawn the short straw, not them. “Hey, it wasn’t me who put Grace, Madison, and Skye on the same team. They have babies. They know what they’re doing.” She was reaching. It wasn’t like she didn’t have experience with babies. Grace and her nephew had lived with her for over a year when Jack was missing.

  “What does not knowing which candy bar is which have to do with babies?” Ty asked. Chloe was completely oblivious to their conversation. When she wasn’t texting Easton, she was taking photos to put on Instagram.

  “If you ask me, that was a stupid game. Not to mention gross.” Several diapers with different types of melted chocolate resembling poop had been passed around the room. “Besides, I don’t eat chocolate.”

  “I know, you told us that five times. I think it speaks to a defect in your Y chromosome.”

  “Oh be quiet and pass the toilet paper roll.” This game was as ridiculous as the last. Two team members were supposed to make a diaper on the third teammate out of toilet paper. Jill had insisted that Ty be the diaperee. Since he was wearing pants, she’d thought it would be the least embarrassing. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  She glanced at the other teams. Liz, Cat, and Skye’s stepmother, Betty Jean, stood on one side of them while Nell and her best friends, Stella and Evelyn, stood on the other. But their real competition was the three beautiful blondes standing off to the far right. Skye and Madison were laughing with Grace, who was the diaperee. The two women were pregnant and glowing. Jill couldn’t help but wonder if it was hard on her sister-in-law. Jack and Grace had been trying to get pregnant for more than a year. As though Grace sensed her attention, she looked over at Jill and mouthed You’ve got this one. Best sister-in-law ever, she thought. She had to stop avoiding her.

  “Ready when you are, Vivi,” Ty said.

  The guest of honor sat in a comfortable chair with a stopwatch in her hand. “Okay, on your mark…” She winced, then forced a smile. “Get set…Oh,” she moaned.

  Jill dropped the toilet paper roll and rushed to her side. “Are you…” She glanced at Vivi’s stomach. “You should have told us!”

  “I didn’t want to ruin the party. You all went to so much work and they just started twenty minutes ago. I have lots of time.” She groaned and bent over at her waist, as much as she could bend over.

  Jill had kept an eye on Vivi’s tightening stomach and, if her hunch was right, Vivi didn’t have lots of time. “How long have you had the pain in your back?”

  “Since around two this morning. But that doesn’t have anything to do—”

  “Yeah, it does.” Ty and the women crowded around them. Jill took the stopwatch from Vivi’s hand. “Time the next one,” she said, handing the watch to Cat. Jill put an arm around Vivi to help her stand. “Start timing now, Cat,” Jill said, holding up Vivi while she breathed through another contraction. “Ty, call the hospital and let them know we’re on our way. Liz, call Chance and Paul.”

  They’d barely made it a couple steps before Vivi’s knees buckled as she was once again hit by a wave of pain. Jill wrapped both arms around her, taking all her weight. “Ty, call nine-one-one,” she said, keeping her voice calm and even.

  Everyone started shouting questions and instructions as Jill headed for the patio door. Cat whistled. “Stop yelling, you’re upsetting Vivi. Jill has it under control.” Cat darted past her, holding open the patio door.

  Jill looked down at Vivi, who was pale and sweating and biting down on her bottom lip. “You’re going to be fine. Paramedics will be here in no time at all,” she reassured Vivi as she half carried her through the kitchen and past the entrance to the hall. “Liz, we need a bed with clean sheets.” Vivi’s panicked gaze shot to Jill. She shrugged. “Better to be prepared, right?”

  Liz ran ahead of them with her phone pressed to her ear. She opened a door at the end of the hall. “It’s Chance’s old room. The sheets are clean.”

  “You’re doing great, sweetie,” Madison said, losing most of the color in her face. If Jill remembered correctly, her boss’s wife didn’t do well with pain. “What can we do?” she asked Jill.

  “Do you think a birthing ball would help? I have one at home,” Skye said.

  Vivi groaned at the offer.

  “You know what? Why don’t you go…boil some water? That would help.” Jill glanced at the other women trailing after her. “Actually, why don’t you all go do that,” she said as she walked into Chance’s bedroom. “Except you, Cat. You come with us.” As an ex-cop, she trusted Cat to keep her cool.

  “I played a doctor on Days of Our Lives; maybe I can be of some help. I did a lot of research for the role,” Chloe offered.

  Cat pulled back the covers, and Jill helped Vivi onto the mattress. “I wanna push,” Vivi said through a strained whisper.

  “Um, I’ll go boil some water, too,” Chloe said, backing out of the room. She grabbed Ty, who’d been wringing his hands in the doorway.

  “Cat, can you get behind Vivi on the bed and prop her up a bit, or do you want Liz to do it?”

  “I’m good,” Cat said. She positioned herself on the bed and guided Vivi into her arms.

  Liz leaned over to gently smooth Vivi’s hair from her face. “You’re doing wonderful, darling. Chance and Paul are on their way.”

  Nell appeared with a stack of clean towels. “Thought you might need these.”

  “Thanks, Nell. Vivi, I know it’s hard, but don’t push yet. I’m just going to wash my hands.”

  Vivi looked at her as Jill got off the bed. “The paramedics aren’t going to get here in time, are they?”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’ve delivered a baby before. Nothing to it.” Liz, Nell, and Cat glanced at her. It wasn’t true. But Vivi didn’t need to hear that right now. “Liz, get Chance on the phone. Let him talk to Vivi.” And if Jill needed help, Dr. McBride could guide her through the delivery. Because whether they liked it or not, this baby was coming.

  Ten minutes later, baby McBride entered the world. Jill had just cleaned and swaddled the baby when the paramedics and Chance and his father arrived. Cat, Liz, and Nell moved off the bed as Chance pushed through the men and rushed to his wife’s side, gently taking her in his arms. He buried his face in her hair. “That was the longest twenty minutes of my life. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you, honey. I tried—”

  Vivi pressed two fingers to his lips. “It’s my fault. If I wasn’t so stubborn, you would have been. I’m so sorry you missed—”

  He cut her off with a passionate kiss. “Doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but that you’re both okay.” He stroked her face. “God, I love you.”

  Jill cleared her throat and carefully offered the baby. “I think someone wants to meet you.”

  Chance looked from her to the baby, and his eyes filled. He took the baby from Jill, cradling the small bundle to his chest. “She’s beautiful. She has your eyes, honey. And your nose.” He kissed the baby’s forehead. “Daddy’s going to have his work cut out for him when you’re a teenager.” He looked around the room when they started to laugh and frowned. “Well it’s true. Look at her.”

  “You might want to take a closer look, honey. She’s a he,” Vivi said, her face glowing with laughter and love.

  “What? But the ultrasound…” He unwrapped the blanket and blinked, then a huge grin spread across his face. “What do you know? I guess you’re going to be as pretty as your daddy.”

  Once everyone got to meet the b
aby and congratulate Chance and Vivi, Dr. McBride insisted they go to the hospital and get checked out. He and Liz followed them there while everyone else gathered outside around the table. Jill sat between Nell and Ty. Holly and Hailey were serving the canapés when the patio doors opened. Gage came out first carrying his son, Connor, followed by Annie and Lily. Then there was Ethan with his daughter, Evie, in his arms, and Jack with Jill’s nephew in his. Easton and Grayson brought up the rear. Jill sat back and watched as they joined their wives and fiancées. It was like a movie playing out in slow motion. They were all smiling and laughing, the kids cuddling with their mothers, the men sharing loving looks with their women.

  Her heart squeezed. She wanted that. She glanced at Nell, wondering if the older woman ever felt like she’d missed out.

  Ty sighed. “I guess the three of us will have to be satisfied with being honorary aunties for the rest of our lives.”

  Nell turned her head to look at Ty. Jill saw the regret before the older woman covered it with a smile. “Not a bad thing to be, son. Not a bad thing at all.”

  Something wet plopped on Jill’s shoulder. Ty’s eyes went wide, and he covered his mouth with both hands. Jill looked at the gray blob on her shoulder.

  Nell grinned and patted her hand. “A bird pooping on your shoulder brings good luck, you know.” She leaned into Jill and whispered, “Probably a good thing because I’m thinking you might need some. Brandi’s more determined than I gave her credit for.”

  Chapter Ten

  Jill was a hero. At least according to this morning’s write-up in the online version of the Chronicle. Facebook and Twitter, too. Jill didn’t have an account on either, but Nell had just texted to inform her that she was trending on local social media. Nell had uploaded a picture of Jill with the over-the-moon parents and too-cute-for-words baby. The photo had broken the record for number of likes and shares on the town’s Facebook page. Jill didn’t fool herself that the likes had anything to do with her. Chance and Vivi were gorgeous and who can resist a baby?