Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

F inn took the bowl of white chocolate popcorn that Edith handed him and took it over to the tables they'd set up in their living room. Two six foot tables for game night, and Finn sighed happily as he put the popcorn next to a bowl of pretzels that he'd poured peanut butter M&Ms into a few minutes ago.

"Do you think we made the right decision in assigning food tonight?" Edith came to his side and looked at the few bowls of snacks, one hand resting protectively on her baby belly. Finn loved her endlessly in that moment, because she was soft and maternal and oh-so-beautiful.

"I think Alex and Nicki are more than capable of bringing drinks for ten people," Finn said.

"But we gave the main dish to Dawson and Caroline," she said .

"And they're both adults who've managed to keep themselves alive for three decades," Finn told her, pressing a kiss to her cheekbone. "It's going to be fine."

Link and Misty were bringing desserts, and Ollie and Aurora had been assigned side dishes to go with whatever main dishes Dawson and Caroline brought. Finn had no idea if they'd communicated with each other or not, and he didn't really care. No one would starve tonight, he knew that.

If anything, Edith would make sure of that. Before she could worry over it further, the front door opened and her brother walked in. "We're here," he said needlessly, holding the door for his wife, who carried a couple of cases of soda pop. Alex had some in his arms as well, and Finn went to relieve them of their burden.

The door didn't close, because Link and Misty had arrived too, and they'd apparently carpooled with Rory and Ollie. The island counter continued to fill with food, and Edith laughed at something Nicki said as she arranged the items where she wanted them.

Finn could count on cowboys to show up somewhere on time, so he wasn't surprised to find Dawson knocking on the door the moment the clock struck six-thirty, their agreed-upon time for dinner. He'd previously been part of a twosome with his brother, so having a pretty woman enter the farmhouse behind him was something new for all of them there.

Finn had met Caroline before, briefly, at Link's birthday party last month, but he hadn't spent much time of consequence with her. She was personable and bright, and she eased right into the group of ten as if she'd been there for years.

After several minutes of socializing and catching up, Edith clapped her hands and said, "Let's eat, because we have a murder mystery to solve tonight, and just because it's Friday doesn't mean you cowboys are gonna last all night." She grinned around at everyone, and since she was a night owl, she loved to tease about how early Finn and his friends went to bed.

The food started going around, and Finn settled into dinner beside his wife. They'd hosted several get-togethers over the last year since they'd been married, but tonight's was a bit different.

One, Mitch Glover wasn't here, and Finn took a moment to type a note into his phone to text Mitch in the next few days. Two, they'd started hanging out with Oliver and Aurora Walker more and more since Edith had found out she was pregnant.

Ollie and Rory had three kids, and Finn found he wanted to just sit in their house and watch how they did things. Edith was due in another week, which was why they'd chosen to have their game night dinner party tonight, and Finn wasn't sure how he could be trusted to keep a tiny, helpless infant alive.

He told himself that they had a bed for the little boy joining their family. Thanks to a huge baby shower at his family ranch a couple of weeks ago, they had diapers, and clothes, and bottles. If there was something physical he and Edith could prep, they'd done it.

What he couldn't prepare himself for was how to literally be responsible for raising a child. Edith had been reading a book here and there, but she didn't seem nearly as concerned about it as Finn. She'd assured him and reassured him that as soon as their baby was born, he'd know exactly how to hold the little boy, and everything else, they could learn.

Dinner finished up, and Finn got up to make a pot of coffee while Edith lingered with their friends. Alex joined him, and Finn tossed a smile in his brother-in-law's direction. "Nicki wants to know if you have hot chocolate powder."

"In the cupboard by the stove there." Finn nodded to it and opened the fridge to get out cream. "She liked that, huh?"

"She sure did," Alex said with a chuckle. "Now she's mixing and matching flavors all over the place." He didn't sound overly enthused about that, and Finn couldn't help grinning at the grumpy undertone in Alex's voice.

He worked his ranch hard, and he never said more than what needed to be said. Ever. He'd liked Nicki for months before he asked her out, and their romance had been very fast and very hot since that very first date. She was quite a bit older than Alex, and Finn had expected them to start a family as quickly as he and Edith had, but no announcements had been made yet.

Finn eyed Alex as the scent of coffee dripped into the house, but he seemed just fine. Nicki chatted with Caroline and Rory, a brightness about her she'd always possessed. Finn really liked her, and she'd brought out a lot of Alex's sunnier qualities too.

Others started getting up and bringing over their plates, as well as the main dishes. The snacks and desserts remained on the table, and Finn passed out coffee mugs while someone took the cream and sugar over to the table.

"Murder mystery," Nicki sang as she found the bulging box on the credenza where Edith had set it earlier. "Hurry up, you guys. We can't open it until we're all ready." She gripped the box like it contained a live hedgehog and it vibrated in its attempt to escape. Or maybe that was just her extra energy and excitement for the murder mystery.

Finn had never actually played one before, and he was unconvinced the ten of them would be able to complete the game in a single evening. In less than two hours.

He stifled a yawn as the coffee finished and he took the pot off the burner. He went around and filled mugs as others returned to their seats. Edith put a stack of clear plastic cups on the table, the way she liked to dole out snacks, and then she sat in her seat with a groan .

Finn watched her for a moment, and when she met his eye, he reached for her hand. "Okay?"

She nodded, her smile flashing back to her face. It only stayed for a moment, then it disappeared completely.

"Edith?"

"I'm okay." She pressed one hand to her belly, which also caused a flash of alarm to reverberate through Finn.

Then Link laughed, breaking into the bubble he'd put around himself and Edith. She relaxed at his side, and Nicki held up both hands. "Okay, okay," she said. "Let's get this murder mystery started."

She waited while they quieted down, though Link and Dawson continued to chuckle about something. Finn sometimes wished he'd found a ranch on the south side of town, where Link and Dawson worked. But if that had happened, Finn wouldn't be adjacent to his daddy's land, and he would've had to drive his own cattle out onto the range, without the help of his father's two dozen cowboys. Without the help of his mother's cooking.

Nicki read the instructions and started dealing out characters for each person. Finn picked up his character case study and flipped open the folder. "I have to be the balding guy?" His voice got lost among the others poking fun at their characters or showing them to the people next to them.

He looked over to see who Edith had gotten and found her staring open-mouthed at her portfolio. "Who'd you get?" he asked.

She blinked and tilted the folder toward him. "How could an old lady be the murderer? There's no way I could've done it."

The picture fake-clipped to the top of the folder showed a woman of at least sixty-five, her white bob, glasses, and straight-faced mug shot so unlike Edith. And a murderer.

"You never know," he said, showing her his photo. "This guy's not even thirty and he's lost almost all his hair."

She glanced at his, her giggle cutting off after only a second or two in favor of a gasp. Finn looked at her and found her dropping her folder so she could put both hands on her belly this time.

And not the top of it. The bottom, as it she needed to hold their baby up and inside her. "Ohhh," she groaned.

Around them, Nicki kept reading directions and handing out different items to people. The board would come together in pieces, but Finn's heartbeat drowned out everything. And he instinctively knew he would not be playing his first murder mystery tonight.

"Finn," Edith moaned next, and he found her looking down at the ground. "My water just broke."

His vision fuzzed. The whole world came to a complete stop, despite the activity around them.

Edith looked at him, her eyes wide, and that brought Finn back to reality. He jumped to his feet and said, "We have to get to the hospital."

That got everyone to stop talking as effectively as Nicki had earlier by saying she was going to open the box. His thoughts raced around his neural pathways, and he couldn't find the right thing to say into the resulting silence.

It took forty minutes to get to the hospital. Edith's water had broken already. Did they have time to get there? Could she get outside to the truck? What about their game night?

Edith groaned, and that seemed to open a dam of activity. Chairs scraped against the floor as Nicki and Rory both jumped to their feet and swarmed toward Edith. Alex said something, and before Finn knew it, someone had shoved his car keys into one hand and their packed-and-ready baby bag into his other.

"You know the way to the hospital," Oliver said. "Edith's a few steps ahead of you. We'll get everything cleaned up here."

Finn walked out his front door, still so unsure of anything that had happened in the past sixty seconds. Alex and Nicki flanked Edith as she took laborious step after laborious step, and Finn tossed the bag in the back seat and got behind the wheel while they helped Edith into the passenger seat.

When the door slammed, sealing just the two of them in the cab, he looked at her. Everything became clear in that moment, though his beautiful wife had gone pale and sweaty.

"We're having a baby," he said.

"If it happens in this truck, I'll never forgive you," she quipped right back.

Glad he'd found his wits again, Finn laughed as he started the truck and got them on their way. Edith groaned over the bumps in the dirt road on the way to the highway, where her next contraction hit.

Finn drove like he'd never driven before, his level of anxiety worse than it had been when he'd worked in Army Intelligence. Finally, he pulled up to the labor and delivery emergency entrance and hurried around the truck to help Edith down.

He helped her inside, where a nurse met them with a wheelchair. She took all the information she needed, and Finn once again felt his world start to spiral.

He needed to call his parents. Then Edith's. Had he even brought his phone? Or his wallet?

Everything seemed to be moving so fast—until they got into the hospital room. Edith changed into a gown with the help of two nurses while Finn, feeling helpless and insignificant, stayed out of the way.

He got a text from Dawson that said, Good luck, brother. We all want pictures when he's born, with all the stats.

He got a similar message from Alex, and Lincoln, and Oliver. His heart swelled with love for his friends, and he quickly tapped out messages to all of them, as well as his parents and Edith's family text string.

Then everyone left, and only the two of them remained. He took a seat next to her and took her hand in his. "We're having a baby," he whispered, lifting her wrist to his lips. "And we have the best friends and family in the world."

Edith smiled softly at him, her face only relaxed for a moment. Then another contraction came over her, and she cried out as she leaned forward over her belly. Finn wanted nothing more than to take this pain from her, ease this burden. It seemed to go on and on, and without any doctors or nurses in the room, Finn started to panic a little.

Then, just as the contraction started to fade, a man entered the room. Relief punched through Finn's whole body, making it easier to breathe. "Doctor Rougeman," he said, jumping to his feet. "She's contracting a lot."

"That's great news," the doctor boomed as he plucked a pair of rubber gloves from a box. "Because that's how babies are born, and it's time for this little guy to meet his momma and daddy."