Chevy rolled his eyes at that. “I think he’s a way off from his first word, so no worries there,” our son snipped before turning to me. “I can’t believe my little sister is going to be born the same day as my son,” he mentioned, awed.
“Maybe,” I told him before narrowing my eyes. “Watch how you talk to her too, Son!” I scolded as I pointed a finger in the direction of the woman who was about to give birth to his child. “You two might not be getting along right now, but she’s still the mother of your child, and she’s…” I stopped mid-lecture because the pain wrapping around my midsection was breath-taking, and not in the pleasant way. In that way that something literally steals your breath and breaks your spirit. Once it eased off some, I went right back to it. “…In labor right now, about to deliver your child. The least you can do is be respectful. Don’t make me come over there and…” Damn. Another contraction hit and that was it. Gabe was yelling out the door for someone to come help.
When the doctor came back in, he took one look at all of us and sighed, then quietly started barking orders to the nurse who was standing there gaping at us. “You’re both dad,” he said while pointing to me and talking to Gabe, “and grandfather?” His finger then moved to point at the other pregnant girl in the room along with Gabe’s son.
“Yeah,” Gabe answered.
“We’re going to make this easy on all of you, if you’re okay with it,” he told us just as the door opened and another birthing bed was being wheeled in.
“Yes, perfect,” I muttered.
“What’s perfect?” Gabe asked.
“We can both deliver in here, that way you two idiots aren’t…” and BAM! Another contraction stole my words. The bed was set up, locked in place, and I was quickly helped into it while others scurried around, setting up the monitors that I needed to be hooked up to. Once that was done, Gabe was by my side, letting me squeeze his hand.
“I’m just going to check you out really quick and see where you’re at,” the doctor informed me. I just waved him on because truthfully, I didn’t care who looked at that point.
Gabe gaped at me and then glanced over at Chevy as he wiped sweat from the woman’s brows. We had only met her hours before, after our son managed to hide something he’d known was happening for months. I still didn’t know the woman’s name, or how any of this came to be, but that was a story our son would be filling us in on soon enough. Once we could both get these babies delivered.
“Melanie,” the doctor called out to get my attention.
“Yeah?” I panted the word out.
“How long have you been in labor?”
“I don’t know,” I lied.
He gave me a look that said he absolutely didn’t believe me. “Are you comfortable with a nurse helping to deliver?” He asked me.
“What? Why?” Gabe’s voice suddenly sounded panicked.
“Because we’re about to have to deliver two babies at once from two different women, and I’m just not that good that I can split myself in two and be there to catch both,” the doctor informed him.
I chuckled. “Nurse is fine,” I told him as he quickly moved to the pregnant woman on the opposite side of the room.
“Mel!” Gabe hissed. “Were you going to just post up behind her bed, drop the baby out into my arms, and keep on going?”
“That’s absurd,” I told him just as I felt the need to push. “Oh God, I need to…”
“Okay, Melanie, deep breath and then go with it as long as the contraction lasts,” the nurse between my legs informed me.
“Wait!” Gabe called out. “We’re doing this now? This is happening now? That girl,” he yelled, while pointing towards Chevy’s whatever she was, “Has been here for hours now.”
“Yes, and your wife has been silently going through labor while offering her support the whole time. Now, it’s time to bring your baby into the world too.”
“Mel, we’re going to have a talk later,” he informed me in his stern, no-nonsense voice.
“Okay, babe, whatever you… FUUUCKK!” I yelled as another contraction hit and my body was left with no option but to push.
“That’s it, good job, Mel! You sure this is your first one?” I grunted a response, since it was all I could manage. She winked at me while I was mid-contraction and then grinned as she said, “Nurses just do it better.”
I swear, never in a million years did I think I would laugh during active labor, but in that moment, I absolutely did. The funny thing was it helped. “Her head is here,” the nurse announced. “One more good push and we’ll be able to wiggle those shoulders out and then it’ll be almost over.”
The minute she said that, there was an ear-piercing scream from the other side of the room. “Fucking hell! That’s not right!” Chevy yelped in response. The nurses did their best to keep from laughing at him while the doctor continued to coach the girl through what was happening to her.
The rest of the experience was lost to the immense pain and burning caused by squeezing a human being out of my body. Gabe was by my side the whole way. His presence never left, his love and support never wavered, even as his concern for his son tugged at his attention from time to time.
My daughter and grandson were born minutes apart, in the same room, with all four parents present. That was right before the woman, who had just given birth to our grandson, was rushed away to surgery when the doctor couldn’t get her bleeding under control.
We sat, and waited, as the babies were checked over – both healthy. We were eventually taken to a private room where I was to stay with my baby. Chevy followed us there, and his son was brought to him too. He had apparently brought proof of paternity with him so that there would be no question as to his right to be there. It turned out to be the best decision he ever made because his son’s mother died shortly after giving birth.
“Chevy,” I called out as the news the doctor had just delivered settled in. He came to me, handing his son to his father. Then he cried in my arms.
“I didn’t mean to kill her,” he wailed.
“Aww, honey, you did not kill her. These things happen sometimes,” I tried to soothe the ache I knew was forming in his chest. The two of them didn’t seem as though they were getting along well, but they obviously had at some point in time in order to make that beautiful little boy she left behind for him. Gabe was pale, the color drained from his face when a nurse came in to check on us and kindly took the baby from him and placed him back in the waiting bassinet.
“Gabe?” I called out as I continued to hold Chevy and rub soothing patterns along his back.
“That could have been you,” Gabe whispered.
“It wasn’t.”
“But it…” he started to say, but then our daughter began to cry.
“Would you bring her to me?” I asked. Chevy moved then and went to sit in the chair between me and the bassinet that held his son while Gabe brought our squalling daughter to me. I moved her around to where she had the best chance of latching onto my breast and then prayed that this went well, so I could continue to make these men understand.
“I’m fine,” I finally told Gabe. “See,” I rubbed the tiny little light brown hairs on our daughter’s head as she suckled from my breast. “She’s doing well, and I’m here.” Then I turned to Chevy and looked him in the eyes. “You have a lot to tell us, honey. Maybe, you should start filling in the blanks, so we know how to best help you, your son, and his mother.”
“She’s gone,” he whispered.
“I know that, but we’ll need to know how to honor your son’s mother – for him,” I nodded to the baby in the bassinet beside him, and my son’s tearstained eyes trained on the baby that was now his sole responsibility, and he told us his story.
~*~
Three weeks later, we sat around the den that had been converted into a playroom for the babies. There, we watched as Rúna, our daughter, and Torren, our grandson squirmed on the padded floor for tummy time. Torren, or Tor, as Chevy called
him, was already nearly twice the size of little Rúna. I was playing with both babies while the men were downstairs in the studio putting the finishing touches on Chasing Car’s second album. It took a moment for me to realize someone was watching me since I was so intent on just taking in every moment the babies were tiny.
I turned to see my husband in the doorway. “You are so beautiful it hurts to witness sometimes,” he told me.
“If that’s your way of asking for another baby, I think you’ll have to do better,” I teased. “You’re already 40 years old and I’m not that far behind. We’ll have to be satisfied with having our beautiful daughter, our son, and grandson.” I knew he understood that it wasn’t a sacrifice on my part. I loved our family. They were my everything, and I’d honestly be sad to see the day when Chevy and Tor moved out into their own place. It was bad enough that they already lived in the pool house out back. He had spoken about more frequently over the past week, about needing to find a place of his own, but I’d put my foot down and told him to give it a solid three months to adjust to having a baby to raise on his own.
“If that’s what you truly want, I’ll see to it that we’re covered and don’t have to worry about accidents happening,” he told me.
“I appreciate your willingness to take care of it.” I smiled over at him then. “Though, you might want to consider getting that done sooner than later. Maybe we’ll both be done healing up at about the same time?” I winked at him then as he made his way to me and groaned while sitting on the floor.
“Shit, when did it start to hurt just to get down here on the floor?”
I laughed. “I don’t know. Sounds like an old man question to me,”
“I’ll show you an old man,” he teased as he gently tickled my sides.
“You can’t show me your manhood for a few more weeks now, maybe a few after that, if you get the snip, snip,” I reminded him as I made a scissor motion with my fingers.
He covered his balls. “That’s cruel and unusual, and I’m going to have to ask you to refrain from traumatizing the babies.”
We laughed together before he leaned in and kissed my lips so sweetly that I damn near swooned right there on the playroom floor. “Will he be all right?” I asked when he pulled away. Gabe turned his attention to our grandson then and smiled. “They’ll both be just fine. As for Chevy, I set him up with my therapist and he finally agreed to go last week.”
“Good,” I told him as I leaned heavily on his arm.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and get a nap while I take over for a bit?”
I yawned before I could manage to actually answer him. “Are you sure?” I finally got out. “Don’t you still have things to do in the studio?”
“John can handle the rest. Go on, sweetheart, get some rest. You’re going to need it once we both get the all clear.” Gabe waggled his brows at me and offered up a smarmy looking grin to go with it.
“How can I argue with that?”
“You can’t,” he agreed easily enough.
My husband helped me up and then pulled me in close, hugging me tightly to his own body. “I love you more today than yesterday,” he whispered in my ear.
“That’s good,” I whispered back. “You didn’t love me nearly enough yesterday,” I teased him. He managed to pinch my ass as I fled from the room.
“I’m keeping score of how many spankings I owe you,” he called out. He couldn’t see that Chevy had been just outside the door though. My poor son looked as though he was about to be sick.
“Oh, shit Dad! I did not need to know that you spank my step-monster!” I almost cried to hear our boy making a joke, multiple jokes in one.
“I love you,” I told him as he started to pass by me to go collect his son.
“I know. You show me all the time, Mel. Thank you for that.”
“You never have to thank me.”
“I love you too,” he returned before going in to offer his father some time to nap with me.
“Are you sure?” I heard Gabe ask him.
“Positive. You have both done so much for me already. The least I can do is offer up some sleep to the two of you. Ford and Dakota will be up any minute. They’ll help me, if I need it.”
“If you’re sure.” Gabe turned the corner to find me still standing there, tears in my eyes. “You knew where to find us, if you need us.”
“Go on, and please, for the love of everything holy, do not let me hear you spanking her.”
I smiled at my husband as he grabbed my hand and walked with me up the stairs, to our bedroom. “He really is going to be all right,” I mumbled, more to myself, than for him.
“I told you he would.”
“It’s because he has you as an example.”
“And you, and Kendra, and Hex,” Gabe added. “He’s a lucky guy.”
“I love you,” I blurted out, because whether he knew it or not, the way his son was handling fatherhood was all down to watching how his father did it.
“More today than yesterday?” He asked, before yawning himself.
“Always,” I told him. Then, we took a nap, knowing that tomorrow would be the same answer again, and again until the end.
More to Come…
While Gabe and Mel’s story ends here, you will see them again, and find out what happened with Chevy in his own, self-titled book, that will be the first in the Chasing Cars Series.
Other Books…
Rock Star Romances
Valhalla Rising Series
Revived
T.I.E. Series
The Infinite Something
The Infinite Beat
M.C. Romances
S.H.E. Series
Angel-Girl
JoJo
Aces High – Dakotas Series
Dancing With Danger
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
The Restart and the Remedy
Aces High – Cedar Falls Series
Redemption Weather
Proven
Smoke and the Flame
Redemption Duet (box set)
Aces High – Tallahassee Series
Crushed
Aces High – Charleston Series
The Other Princess
A Love So Hard
The Princess and the Prospect
The Killing Ride
A Twist of Fate
Everlasting
A Year and a Day
Dark Leopards MC Series
Ridden by Darkness
The B Team
Contemporary Romance
Letters to… Series
Letters to Lily
Paranormal Fantasy/ Romance
Christine M. Butler
The Ancients Series
Shadows of the Ancients
Falling into the White
Branches of the Willow
Bound by the Moon
The Ancients Series (complete series)
Vukodlak Brew Series
Entwined
Death Viewers Series
Breathless
Other Books:
The Voodoo Follies
Catch a Falling Star
About the Author
Christine Michelle (aka Christine M. Butler) writes contemporary romance stories as well as paranormal fantasy/romance. She also survives on coffee and her Twizzlers addiction.
She's a mom to four humans (2 girls, 2 boys – most of whom are grown now) along with two fur babies of the canine and feline variety. When she's not doing "mom" stuff or writing books, she enjoys making pretty pictures, going hiking in the woods, or feeding her soul with live music at concerts.
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