23.

Wedding rings are the do not disturb sign of the dating world.

Dice

D ICE

“Did I do something wrong?” Cydney asked quietly before she sniffled and then took in a watery breath. “I did, didn’t I? I should have known that it was labor. What if he’s been waiting for so long that there’s something wrong? What if . . .”

“Every time they look at the monitor, they say he’s perfectly fine, Cyd.”

“But is he, though? Is he going to be okay?” Cydney asked before she lifted her hand to wipe her face and then let it fall again when she had another “cramp,” which we now understood was actually a labor pain. The second she could breathe easier, she sobbed and asked, “Will he ever forgive me? Will you? What if . . . Oh God, Kenny! What if they have to do surgery? What if . . .”

Cydney started panting, and I wasn’t sure if she was having another contraction or a panic attack. I leaned over to press my forehead against hers so she could mimic my breathing. While she focused on that, I tried to get my hand out of her iron grip, but she wasn’t having it. I finally said, “Cyd, babe, let go of my hand for a second. I’m just going to step out into the hall and ask one of them how much longer it’s going to be.”

“Take me in your truck, Kenny. It’s getting harder and harder not to do something.”

“Something?”

“I feel pressure like I need to . . .” Cydney groaned loudly before she lifted her head up off the bed and grunted. I realized what she was doing and snatched my hand out of hers and damn near killed myself getting around the table to the door.

While I scrambled frantically, I yelled, “Stop that shit right now, Cydney! Lay your head down and stop!”

“I . . . can’t!” Cydney ground out between groans. Her face was an alarming shade of red now, and there was sweat on her brow. Suddenly, she lifted her legs and grabbed her knees before she let out a throaty yell.

I yanked the door open just as Amethyst appeared in the hall with a concerned look.

“She’s pushing! I think she’s . . . Oh fuck!”

“What?” Amethyst yelled before she started barking orders at the nurses around her. She shouldered past me and then skidded to a halt when she saw Cydney curled up, gripping her legs.

“Seriously?” Amethyst asked as she yanked a pair of gloves out of the box on the wall. “What’s with all the drama? Can’t you ever just do anything like normal people?”

“Fuck. You,” Cydney growled in a terrifying voice that belonged in a horror movie.

“I swear that the second you’re recovered from this baloney, I’m going to kick your booty all over town and tell them what a pain in my ass you . . .” Amethyst abruptly stopped talking when she lifted the end of the sheet to see what was going on. I knew things were getting all too real when she yelled, “Get Roscoe . . . or Wren . . . or a priest! I haven’t . . . Holy fuck, Squid!”

“You . . . don’t . . . cuss . . . bitch!”

“Bitch, I don’t usually look at your pussy either, yet here we are!” Amethyst snapped. She looked over at me and yelled, “Move, dumbass! Get help!” Cydney lifted her head and yelled again before Amethyst slapped her on the inner thigh and said, “Stop fucking pushing, Squid!”

“Can’t stop . . .” Cydney moaned right before I fled out into the hall.

I found Wren standing in the office with her arms full of supplies looking at Roscoe who was barking orders into the phone. I put my hand on her shoulder and yelled, “I can see his hair!”

“What?” Wren screamed. She plowed past me, hitting me so hard that my head slammed into the doorframe. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings and follow her, and by then, Roscoe was already out of the office, following close behind her.

I could hear Cydney moaning the second the door opened, and then Amethyst’s angry voice yelled, “Don’t puss out on me now, Squid. One more.”

“I can’t,” Cydney whined as her head fell back. “God, it hurts!”

“Stop being a little bitch, and do it, Squid! One more! Now!”

Cydney sucked in a deep breath and then curled up again, but this time, Roscoe was on one side and Wren was the other, holding onto her legs while they assessed the situation and gave orders to nurses who had hurried into the room behind them. Even over all the chaos, I could hear Cydney cursing like a sailor and calling Amethyst every name in the book. She took another lungful of oxygen and then concentrated again, but I couldn’t look up at her.

I was too busy watching my son come into the world, held in the very capable hands of Cyd’s best friend and archnemesis who had tears streaming down her face. The second she was able, she laid the baby on Cydney’s stomach and then jumped off the stool to give Roscoe room to work.

I squeezed past her to get up to Cydney’s head and pressed my cheek to hers as we looked at our squalling little boy.

When Roscoe offered me the scissors to cut the cord, I took them along with his direction and severed the link between our son and Cydney. I couldn’t tell if that affected the baby at all because he was already angry at the world and the women who were bothering him, but the second Wren pulled down the front of Cyd’s gown and Amethyst laid the baby on her bare chest, he calmed.

“Oh, Kenny! He’s here! We did it!” Cydney sobbed.

“ You did it, babe,” I whispered as I stared at our little boy. I rested my hand on Cyd’s shoulder and reached out to touch the baby but then pulled my hand back. Wren gently took my hand before she placed it on his tiny arm and got back to work.

Wren rubbed the baby’s back vigorously with the towel in her hand, but he didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. He blinked at me and Cyd, and I swear he rolled his eyes at all the attention before he yawned so big that his bottom lip started to quiver.

“You got him, Amy?” Wren asked as she took a step back.

Amethyst still had tears on her face as she took Wren’s place on Cydney’s other side so Wren could assist Roscoe.

“Look at him,” Amethyst whispered before she rested her hand on his back.

Suddenly, his eyes flew open and he let out an ear-piercing scream. The second she jerked her hand away, he quieted again. I watched his entire body shake as Cydney started laughing. Amethyst laid her hand on his back again, and once again, he screamed which made Cydney snort and laugh even harder.

When Amethyst touched him again and he started wailing, she stepped back and said, “I can already tell he’s going to be as big of a pain in my ass as his mother.”

“Look at our son, Kenny! Two minutes on the outside, and he’s already helping me in the fight against evil.”

“Fuck you, Squid,” Amethyst grumbled as she leaned forward and touched her forehead to Cydney’s. “I hate you so much right now.”

“I hate you more,” Cydney wailed.

“I can’t believe you made me look at your cooter!”

“I can’t believe you enjoyed it!”

“Can we not right now, ladies?” Roscoe asked grumpily.

Amethyst and Cydney rolled their eyes at the same time, and Roscoe just shook his head.

“Let me get him cleaned up, okay? I need to get his measurements and do an in-depth assessment. Roscoe’s going to take care of some things, and as soon as he’s finished, we’ll load the three of you up in an ambulance and send you in for . . .”

“I don’t want to go to the hospital unless he needs to for some reason,” Cydney argued. “I want to take him home.”

“Let me look at him, sweetie,” Amethyst said, her demeanor calm and professional now, which was the complete opposite of the woman I’d seen a few minutes ago. As she picked him up from Cydney’s chest, the baby started squirming and opened his mouth to scream, but Amethyst tucked him close and whispered, “Cut that baloney out right now, Squidlet. You can’t talk to your Aunt Amy like that and get away with it.”

“I’m so proud of you, but I’m so fucking pissed,” I whispered before I kissed Cydney. “I want to hug you and kill you and love you and choke you all at the same goddamn time.”

Cydney winced before she said, “I just thought I needed to poop.”

“The next time we do this . . .”

“The next time we do this?” Cydney interrupted.

“Yeah. I mean, if you ever want to again.”

“I’m stuck on the ‘we’ part, but I’m sure it will pass,” Cydney muttered. She smiled at me with fresh tears in her eyes and said, “I love you, Kenny.”

“God, baby, I love you so much it hurts.”

Cydney chuckled before she said, “Right now, you’re not going to talk about how much anything hurts just like you’re not going to talk about how we did this, okay?”

Roscoe barked out a laugh that he tried to disguise with a cough, but Amethyst and Wren weren’t nearly as nice about it and cracked up.

“I love you so much.”

“We’re making a family of our own together, aren’t we?”

“We are.”

“My family is going to love him, but it’s going to be very hard to explain how this all happened.”

“My family is going to love him too.”

“Maybe even more than they love you.”

“I’m perfectly okay with that.”

◆◆◆

CYDNEY

“At some point, you’re going to have to lay him down, you know.”

“I have to go to the bathroom, so I will in just a minute,” Kenny said as he looked at me with a soft smile. “What are you doing up, babe? You should be resting.”

“Why? I already did all the hard stuff.” I had to admit that I wasn’t feeling great, but I wasn’t hurting nearly as bad as I had after my surgery a few months ago. “Besides, he’s going to want to eat again soon.”

“Have you thought of a name yet? When I told you that we were cutting it close yesterday, I didn’t realize how close we were.”

“I have one in mind.”

“What is it?”

“I want to hear your idea first.”

“I want his name to be strong, and I want him to have a connection to the people who will love him forever. I want his name to mean something to the family around him.”

“They’ll all love him no matter what his name is.”

“I know, but I just want something . . . permanent.”

“Generally, once you give a kid a name, it sticks.”

“No. I mean something good. Something honest and pure and bigger than us. Bigger than me.”

“Are you going to tell me what it is?” I asked.

“You first.”

“We could do this all day, but we’re going to have company again soon. Mom sent a text and said that my parents are taking your parents to eat at the diner. They’re going to bring us breakfast when they get finished there.”

“Okay. Tell me yours.”

“Why don’t we do this? On the count of three, we both say the name we want out loud.”

“On three or after three?” Kenny asked. He grinned when I narrowed my eyes at him and said, “I’m just fucking with ya. I heard you and Amethyst arguing about that at the office yesterday when she was helping you sit up.”

“She’s coming over later to fill out the paperwork for his birth certificate, so it would be a good idea if we resolved this before she gets here.”

“Okay. One, two, three, name.”

“Yes.”

Kenny and I counted together and then said the name we’d chosen.

“Turner.”

At the same time, I said, “Mason.”

“Turner Mason Hawkes.”

“It’s perfect,” I whispered as tears filled my eyes. “Frank and my dad are going to be over the moon.”

“This boy’s going to have everything I never did, I swear,” Kenny said before he cleared his throat and swallowed hard. I walked over to stand beside the rocking chair and rested my hand on my sleeping son as I leaned over to give Kenny a kiss. He lifted the baby up and kissed his forehead before he murmured, “You’ve got a great family, Turner Mason Hawkes. The best.”

I kissed my son in the same spot before I added, “And you’ve got a great dad too.”

Kenny reached up and wiped the tears off my cheek before he said, “I love you, Cydney. With all my heart. I can never repay you for the gift you’ve given me. I never imagined that I could have everything I’ve found with you, and I’ll work my ass off to be worthy of our family.”

“Just be you.”

“I’m going to be a good dad, Cyd, but I want to be a good husband too.” I watched as Kenny reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. “Will you take a gamble on me and make me the luckiest man on the planet?”

“Nothing with you is a gamble, baby. It’s a sure thing.”

“You’ve gotta say it out loud.”

“I’ll yell it from the rooftop if that’s what you want,” I whispered before I gave him another kiss. When I finally pulled away, I said, “Yes, Kenny, I’ll marry you.”

“You’ve already given me a life I never even dreamed I could have, and now we have a family. For once in my life, I’m the luckiest man alive.”