by Luna, David
Braden chuckled and murmured confirmation. Cade put him back down on his feet, but continued to kiss Braden’s forehead and his temples and then his lips again; he hugged him one more time and then bent over a grinning and teary-eyed Maya. “Aren’t you a sneaky little thing?”
She nodded and chuckled tiredly. “I love you guys.”
Cade grinned at her. “Oh sweetheart, you have no idea. We can’t even express the love we have for you. This deserves presents. Do you need a new car? New wardrobe? Jewelry?”
Braden piped up. “She needs a new commercial grade espresso machine.”
Maya’s eyes flew open wide and she shook her head. “No, Braden. I have enough to get it myself. That’s not what….”
Cade kissed her forehead. “Shhh, now. Don’t insult us. We know damn good and well you didn’t carry our babies for nearly nine months for a coffee maker, but that doesn’t mean you’re not going to get one.”
Cade looked over at Braden and he nodded. “It’s already ordered and should be here in a couple of weeks, shipping direct from Italy.”
Maya gasped. “Oh, Braden, you didn’t.”
Braden and Cade grinned. “Oh, Maya, I did. Among a few other things you need out front.”
Maya narrowed her eyes. “You found my list.”
Braden grinned unrepentantly. “I did.”
Cade laughed. “You’re both pretty good at being sneaky.”
Cade and Braden grinned at each other, while Maya scrunched up her face and shook her head. They all turned when they heard the doctor clear her throat. “Maya, you’re gonna need to start pushing soon, if you wanna have the other one before the epidural wears off.”
Maya made a startled sound and then got herself ready. When Dr. Thomas told her to push, she did. It only took three really good ones before everyone heard another squall as Baby B made his first appearance. Sylvia, tears still streaming down her face, gasped. “It’s a boy! Oh you guys, he’s perfect, he’s gorgeous! I can’t believe my baby had twins!”
Another nurse wrapped him up and brought him near for everyone to see and then whisked him away toward his sister. Cade and Braden leaned down over Maya, hugged her, kissed her, and told her they loved her. She had tears streaming down her face and she whispered, “I know all that, I do. I love you both. Now go. Go see your babies.”
They did as she bade. The nurses were busy weighing the babies and running tests. They got as close as they could and watched as their little ones were wiped clean, poked and prodded, squalling all the while. They held hands and Braden leaned toward Cade and whispered, “Now you know why I did their bedroom in neutral colors and pretended I didn’t want to know the sex. We needed to settle on a name for both a boy and a girl and that was the way I figured I’d keep it from you. I didn’t avoid buying clothes for them, like I said I did. They both have a full wardrobe for the first year already. Maya and I went a little crazy. The shoes, Z, the shoes are so adorable and tiny!”
Cade grinned down at his husband and chuckled at that last bit. “Do we still need to buy double everything? You set their room up with one of everything, to keep your sneaky secret. Do we keep them in separate rooms?”
Braden looked horrified by the thought. “No way! They were in the womb together—we can’t separate them. All of the doubles were kept at Maya’s. As soon as we had her move in, when she was having a few complications with the gestational diabetes and we wanted to keep her close, we began putting all the double things at her place. Cooper is the only other person who knows, and that’s only because he walked into my kitchen one day and heard us talking. So we enlisted his help. He has the second car seat in his car. Before we bring the babies home, he’ll be bringing over everything for their nursery as well and getting everything set up for us, or at least built, and we can move it where we want.”
Braden broke off as he saw Sabrina had approached. “OK, so I’m gonna hit you with a lot of information all at once. They were born at thirty five weeks, so hospital policy is to place them in the NICU until they are checked over by a NICU doctor. They are both under six pounds, so we’ll want to be sure they are big enough to ride home in your car seats. Most likely they’ll just end up being ‘growers and feeders,’ but the doctor will need to check them for sepsis, which is infection, hyperbilirubinemia, which is jaundice, congenital defects, poor feeding, respiratory distress and blood sugar instability.
Those things all sound pretty scary, but your little ones look pretty healthy, just a little small due to their age, so some of these things might take a little time. Their bodies need to learn how to breathe properly, feed properly, and process blood sugars. None of the things I listed are necessarily life threatening and are very common in preemies. Twins are born early more often than not, so thirty five weeks, though it’s five weeks earlier than a singleton full term birth, isn’t that early for twins. Most of the time, twins are delivered sometime in week thirty seven or thirty eight, which is often considered full term for twins. Otherwise they start to get too big and it often becomes unsafe for both mother and babies to leave them in any longer.
People fear the NICU, but really, it’s a great place for babies to grow and for their bodies to learn how to do these new things on their own that were sprung on them a bit early. And for parents, it’s also a great time of learning, as you have doctors and nurses helping you with feeding, learning how to hold them, burp them, swaddle them, and change them.”
Cade spoke up. “Can we hold them?”
Sabrina smiled wide. “Oh yeah. They just need to finish up what they’re doing right now and then you’ll be able to hold them. As the babies aren’t in distress, you should be able to have a little bonding time before we take them to the NICU. Why don’t you take off your shirts and we can have you hold them skin to skin. It helps them stabilize and helps with bonding. Mother’s bodies actually help with temperature control, but because we’ve got two fathers here, you’ll have to be careful not to overheat them. We won’t bundle them, but we’ll keep a blanket at their backs while you hold their fronts to your chests.”
With that, she walked toward the NICU nurses and helped bring them toward their fathers. When the NICU nurses actually placed them, naked, in both of their arms, the new fathers just held them, rocked them, and looked at them in awe. Braden heard the click of Sylvia’s camera, but couldn’t tear his eyes away from their little girl. He finally was able to look toward Cade and was so moved to see tears in his husband’s eyes that tears came again to his. They moved even closer to each other so that they were, all four of them, touching. They rocked like that for several minutes and then Cade whispered, “Let’s switch.”
Braden smiled and nodded and the nurses helped them swap babies. They all settled back into each other again and Braden smiled wide as he heard Syl’s camera going wild again. After another few minutes, Sabrina interrupted. “It’s about time to get them to the NICU.”
Cade spoke up, “Is there a way for family to see the babies right now?”
Sabrina looked toward the NICU nurses who nodded. One of them spoke up. “There is a viewing room you can visit before the doctor sees them. You can sit in a rocker or stand by the window and hold them and your family and friends can come peek through the glass. That will have to do until they’re approved for other visitors.”
Sabrina smiled and told them she’d head out there and let them know, but Braden shook his head and looked at Cade. “Why don’t you go with them into the NICU. Hold the babies by the window and Sabrina can help me lead the family there so that I can talk to them and give them the news.”
Cade’s brows rose. “You sure?”
Braden nodded and grinned, enjoying the excitement on Cade’s face at being able to stay with their babies, knowing his protective instincts were already kicking in. Cade left, a proud new papa, pushing the rolling crib that was holding both of the swaddled babies and following the other nurses to the NICU. Braden turned toward Maya as they were leaving, and saw that sh
e was asleep, and being cared for by Vaughn. He smiled at that turn of events and walked toward the waiting room, to introduce their babies to their new family.
As Braden and Cade walked toward their babies to meet them for the first time, Maya let out a relieved and tired sigh. Vaughn gathered her close and kissed her softly on the lips, wiping her tears away with his thumbs. While the doctor finished up with her, she gazed into Vaughn’s eyes and saw something she hadn’t expected from him, tears in his eyes and emotions she couldn’t help but see. She pulled in a breath as he promised, “The next time you do this, it’s gonna be our baby you’re having and you’re gonna be Mrs. Bowman.”
Her eyes flared wide. “What?”
He kissed her soundly before she could argue, and when he pulled away, she had a dazed and yearning expression on her face. He murmured, “I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t care what I have to do to win your heart. You’re worth the wait and the effort.”
With that, he looked up and caught Sylvia looking on both of them with hope and a happy grin on her face. He grinned right back at her and winked. “Wanna hug your girl?”
She nodded. “I do.”
Vaughn stood up and made to move away to give them privacy. When he did so, however, Maya caught his hand in hers, squeezed it, and held on, keeping him by her side. The gesture moved him beyond measure, so he settled in beside her again, held her hand in his and did his best to keep his racing heart from beating through his chest as mother and daughter had a whispered conversation involving a lot of tears and hugs. He knew that they’d just crossed some invisible barrier that she had erected to guard her heart, and he had a feeling he had two gorgeous little bundles of joy to thank for that.
Thankfully, Maya was blissfully unaware of the remainder of the birthing process, as the doctor worked fast to finish up. She was soon covered in warm blankets, which was good, as she had been feeling rather cold. Vaughn brought her the water cup and she sipped, and when he kissed her forehead and moved away, she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “You’re not leaving, are you?”
Vaughn turned back toward her. “No, baby. I’m not going anywhere. Mikayla’s at my sister’s house and can stay there for as long as she needs to stay. She loves it there, and my sister loves having her. I’m not going anywhere until you ask me to leave.”
She knew, from the way he said it, that he wasn’t just talking about today, he was talking about their future, and something within her shifted. She was scared, but she also felt something for this man that she’d never felt before. They’d become good friends over the last year or so and she had wanted to say yes to him when he first asked her out on a date, but she’d held on to her past and had refused to truly move on.
She wasn’t quite sure why she’d finally given in, except maybe it was the family picnic they’d both been at where she’d seen him interacting with his daughter. The sight of the huge, muscle-bound former MMA fighter being so tightly wound around his daughter’s little finger was such a wonderful thing to see. She’d started to open up around him more and began to trust that the man she saw was the man he truly was and that he wasn’t hiding anything from her. As she drifted off to sleep she felt an overwhelming sense of peace. It was a feeling she couldn’t remember ever having felt before. But somehow she knew she had a bright future ahead of her, with Vaughn by her side.
Braden walked down the hall with Sabrina, heading toward the waiting room. As they entered, Braden could barely believe his eyes. Half of Cade and Cooper’s staff from Custos was there, along with Nana and Cade’s family and several other friends. He cleared his throat but had to laugh when no one noticed him at all. They were all engrossed in various conversations, mingling together.
He came up behind Nana and wrapped an arm around her. She looked up at him in surprise and let out a gasp, which quieted down the group, for about a second. As soon as they all saw him, however, they erupted with questions. He held up both of his hands to quite them down. “Cade is in the NICU—”
There were more gasps and many ‘Oh no’s.’ Again, everyone erupted with questions and he grinned and held up his hands. “Shhh. It’s alright. It’s not a bad thing. Come on. Maya’s nurse, Sabrina, will show us the way and you can see for yourself.”
With that, he wrapped his arm around Nana, her expression quizzical. He squeezed her and kissed her head and continued on, following Sabrina. As they approached the windows, Cade’s back was turned to them and a nurse looked to be handing him a bundle. She nodded behind him and he turned around, holding both babies in his big, strong arms, a mile wide grin splitting his face. And again, with the comical gasps and gaping mouths as they all realized he was holding two babies instead of one.
Nana approached the window first, tears streaming down her face as she reached up and touched the glass. Cade walked closer to the window and Braden saw, in the reflection, Nana’s hand come up to cover her mouth. She turned toward him, tears streaming down her face and a grin hidden by her hand. She reached up, clasped Braden’s cheeks, and kissed each one before turning back to the window.
The hall had grown so quiet they realized that Syl had followed them and had kept her camera going. Braden looked at Cade and then back at their family and closest friends and announced quietly, “We’d love for you to meet the newest additions to our family, Harper Addison McCade and her younger brother by seventeen minutes, Hunter Finnegan McCade. Finnegan is for my brother-in-law—without him, I wouldn’t be here and neither would they. Addison is Maya’s middle name. Without her, we wouldn’t have them.”
Sylvia gasped, camera forgotten, and began to cry and Jon gathered her in his arms, a huge smile on his face. Cooper stepped forward and hugged them both, a happy smile on his face.
Braden continued, “Maya did great. She was a trooper. She’s recovering right now, resting peacefully. I’m sure she’d love to see some of you, when she feels up to it. The babies were born at thirty five weeks, so they are considered preemies and will need some time in the NICU. They are healthy, but as you can see, they are quite small and need to have constant supervision, should they need a little help with their respiratory system, or possibly some other things that shouldn’t be life threatening. As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know. We need them to see the NICU doctor as soon as possible, so I’ll be joining them right now. Visitors are allowed, but they’ll need to see their doctor first before we can figure out a rotation. We’ll keep you all informed.”
He hugged Nana once again and was then pulled into hugs from the McCades. When he was able to address them again, he smiled. “Thank you all for coming. Each and every one of you mean so much to us and to have you all here, to celebrate this moment, feels right and means the world to us. I know some of you have been here for hours, maybe all of you. We don’t know how long it will be before Maya will want to see people or before we will be able to bring visitors back to see the babies. So, since it’s the middle of the night, please, everyone, go home and rest. We’ll be in contact with you once we know more.”
With that, Braden waved and headed toward the NICU doors to join his family.
The next eight days passed in a blur of hospital staff and what Cade and Braden had dubbed ‘the twin learning curve.’ They had made a promise to each other that they wouldn’t leave the babies alone while they were in the hospital. However, once their family caught on, after the first two days, that they’d each been doing alternating twelve hours on, twelve hours off and spending absolutely no time together there as a new family of four, they were inundated with help during the off hours.
They were finally able to spend some much needed time together with their newborns. They arrived every morning at 8 a.m. and left every evening at 10 p.m. Not only did their family and friends pitch in to bring them a late breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner every day, and spend time with the babies while they took an hour at each meal time to spend together, but someone was always available to spend the night, so that their little ones were neve
r alone.
Turned out Harper had a bit of jaundice and both of them had trouble with feeding and breathing. They trusted the hospital staff implicitly, but they just couldn’t fathom leaving their newborns alone overnight without someone there, should something happen. Cooper had jumped right in and built their second crib and set up the rest of their nursery. He was running Custos without Cade, and Braden had his talented new assistant fully trained to manage things on his own while he was away. They’d both taken several months off to be at home with their little ones, so neither of them had to stress about work. Harper’s jaundice had cleared up in a few days, but it was another six long days before the twins were both deemed strong and stable enough to be sent home with no complications.
Once home with their precious cargo, they were finally able to introduce Thor to his new brother and sister. Needless to say, the huge dog was immediately protective and wherever the babies were, Thor was right there, keeping an eye out for them. Neither of the men could quite get over the fact that they were now responsible for not one, but two gorgeous babies. In such a short time, the twins had grown and gotten so much stronger. They were amazed at their progress and so proud to be the parents of such beautiful and tough survivors.
One thing was for sure, they counted their blessings every day, to have each other and to have been blessed with their two new, beautiful warriors.
Stay tuned for Saving Sebastian (Custos Securities Series Book 3)
Thank you for reading Protecting Braden. I hope you enjoyed the conclusion of Braden and Zavier’s story. I can’t wait to continue the Custos Securities Series with Sebastian and Gideon’s story, coming next.
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