Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 22647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Scratch that. I made it within twenty minutes, but still.
I’d even managed to miss any and all cops on the way there, which was a miracle.
I wouldn’t have stopped, and I’d have had half a dozen cops following me to my wife.
I parked in the fire lane, unsurprised by the fire truck, ambulance, and two police cars.
“Sir, we’re gonna need you to move your car,” a police officer said from behind me.
I lifted my hand with the phone in it. “My wife’s in there having our baby. I don’t have time.”
He let me go with a nod, and I ran through the store, the phone pressed to my ear, following the commotion to the elevator at the very fucking back of the store. The lights that were surrounding the area were the only ones on in the entire building, so it wasn’t exactly hard to find.
“Sam!” I yelled loudly, causing my captain to turn and regard me.
He took in my frantic appearance quickly, before steering me towards the elevator where two medics were standing to the side while three firefighters worked on getting the elevator open.
“Is she okay?” I asked frantically.
I was answered with a yell from my wife, cussing me up and down about how she was going to kill me with the tailpipe of my motorcycle when she next saw me. Why the tailpipe and not a wrench, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t arguing with the woman.
“Goddamn you, Elliott. You’re never getting near my lady lumps again. No more hiding the salami. You had better cherish this baby, because never will you get another one. I really want to chop your dick off right now for doing this to me! Why’d you have to go and see your mother anyway? You should have been here with me. How could you do this to me?” Blaine wailed through the phone.
Then, all of a sudden, it all just stopped.
The sounds. The screams. The conversation surrounding us.
Then the most joyous sound of my baby’s outraged scream filled the air, and I could breathe again.
It was a loud, lusty cry that made my heart sore.
“Is he okay?” I asked Gabe, the man who’d saved all our lives countless times before, and had just done it again with my son.
He grunted in affirmation. “It’s a boy!”
I whooped in excitement. So fucking happy I couldn’t describe it.
“He’s perfect man. Just perfect,” he assured me.
Seconds later, the firefighters finally got the door to budge. It was a small gap, but enough to start shoving things through.
First the medics shoved a red bag, followed shortly by a bottle of oxygen and towels.
Sam and Max were barking orders left and right, but all my attention was focused on my wife.
I could see her laying on the floor of the elevator.
Her face was turned down, taking in our son that was laying on her chest.
Her face was a mess of tears and sweat, and she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
Nothing in my life was more beautiful.
I was thankful that the medics had gone up to the top floor, giving me an unencumbered view of my wife.
Feeling like I wasn’t doing anything, I took the towels that another firefighter was about to send to another man to deliver to the door, and held them up through the hole, desperate to feel like I was doing something.
Anything to dampen the need to be by my wife’s side.
I watched her face, and witnessed the instant something went wrong.
Her face started to drain quickly of color, and her eyes went from happy and animated to dead and lifeless within seconds.
Her mouth parted, and a piece of blonde hair fell over one eye, obstructing her gaze from my view.
“Blaine!” I called desperately. “Blaine, baby, wake up.”
My pleas went unanswered as Gabe and the medics started yelling to each other.
I didn’t hear what they were saying, though.
My eyes were on my wife, and I watched as the life slowly leeched from her body one minute at a time.
“Don’t do this to me, goddammit. Please don’t leave me, too. Please,” I cried.
***
“What are you doing in here?” Blaine asked, startling me back to the here and now.
I blinked up at her, realizing too late that I’d disappeared into that horrible dream again.
“Nothing,” I tried for innocence.
She looked at me sternly. “I told you that you need to leave him alone. If he’s sleeping, don’t pick him up.”
I snorted. “Do you think that by you telling me not to do it, I’ll listen?”
She sighed and shook her head, coming to sit on the couch’s arm beside me. “Unfortunately, no. That doesn’t mean that I won’t keep trying, though.”
She sighed and walked to the window where the snow came down softly. The flakes fell lazily to the earth, covering the entire area with a sheet of white.
“I can’t believe we’re having a white Christmas,” she breathed. “It’s perfect.”
“Believe it, baby. We started many new traditions today. Ones I hope to fulfill for a long time to come,” I told her, pushing the floor gently with my foot, rocking the chair back and forth softly.
“Did you eat the cookies?” She asked, staring from me to the plate accusingly.
“Hey,” I rumbled softly. “Somebody had to do it.”
She snorted. A most unladylike sound.
“I like his jammies, though. We’ll have to see if we can find some of the same next year,” she said softly, walking towards us again.
I nodded. “I can’t believe I agreed to take pictures with you like that. I’ll never hear the end of it from the guys.”
She waved in her hand in the air, dismissing my misgivings. “Yeah, but just think of all the pictures we’ll have we’ll have to put into his senior yearbook when he’s older!”
I winked at her, pulling her down until she was resting in my lap. “I love you.”
“And I you.” She looked down at our son, lifting her hand and running it down Justin’s cheek. “He looks so much like you it’s not even funny.”
I grinned. “You’ll have to beat off all the girls with a stick.”