Page 34 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

“Oh hush, you! Real proud of you, girl. I’ve never seen a woman handle labor like that before in my life. I cried and cursed everyone up and down the east coast for breathing when I was in labor, and you just started doing everything all on your own.”

I giggled at Shannon, but even that seemed to take more effort than I had to give. “We’re just going to sit here with you until your dad brings your boy back. We’ll make sure you’re safe. Rest now.”

I didn’t bother responding and instead just closed my eyes. “Why is she so paranoid about safety all of a sudden?” Stacey asked her mom.

“The most vulnerable a woman feels in life is when she gives birth to her child, especially the first. You’re so tired that you know you can’t protect them for long. And honey, after everything she’s been through, someone needs to protect her too, even if it’s just from that womanizing little shit who got her pregnant.”

“Do you think he’ll show up?”

“No, honey. I really don’t think he’ll man up enough to do that.” That was the last thing I heard as I snuggled under the warmth of the heated blankets and drifted off to sleep.

~*~

When I finally woke again, my eyes barely opened, but it was enough to see that the room was darker. Night had fallen fully and there was a small light on over the sink to the right of my bed. That same rolling bassinet was at the end of the bed, and my father sat in a chair that was positioned between that bassinet and the door to the room. He was on guard, and it was the cutest thing. The in-room phone was stretched over to where he sat.

“He’s a handsome guy. Seven pounds, fifteen ounces.” My dad paused before quiet laughter erupted from him. “Yeah, nearly the size of a good eight-ounce steak, you idiot.” There was another pause, and the laughter left his voice.

“He never showed. Don’t know if she got in touch with him, but he was told to be home while we were gone, and from what Junior and Crew had to say, he’s been at the clubhouse more than not since we’ve been gone. Nah. I’m not calling the bastard now. Don’t know if she even wants him here at this point. If he’d been home, she wouldn’t have had to make a bunch of frantic calls to try to get a ride to the damn hospital. For fuck’s sake, she delivered in the middle of a hallway in the ER. What would have happened if she hadn’t gotten Stacey and her mom to the house in time?”

There was another lengthy pause then my father sighed. “Yeah, I’ll ask her what she wants to do when she’s up. Hurry back, yeah?” The way my father spoke to Boone made me think of the way he used to talk to my mom on the phone when she would go visit her parents before they died. Once again, it made me wonder if the two men were more than just best friends. Some days, it felt like they were so much more.

As soon as my dad hung up the phone and put it back on the table beside the head of my bed, I moved to let him know that I had woken up.

“Hey baby girl,” he called out while leaning in to kiss my forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I just squeezed a baby out of somewhere it never should have fit,” I answered.

Dad threw his head back and boomed out laughter that startled the little baby burrito in the bassinet. “Shit. Sorry,” he apologized and went to retrieve my son before he could start screaming. “The nurses bottle fed him earlier because you were knocked out and they hadn’t been able to ask if you wanted to breast feed or not.

“I’d like to try,” I admitted. “It’ll be cheaper than buying all that formula.”

“Hey!” Dad scolded me. “If you need formula for the baby, then that’s what we’ll get him. Don’t you worry about the cost.”

“I’d still like to try. I read about it and it’s better for the baby. They get stuff from mother’s milk that keeps them from getting sick.”

“All right. You need me to leave the room while you try to do that?”

“No. You might want to turn around for a minute though. I’m not really sure how to do this.”

“I’m gonna go get the nurse,” he told me as he handed my son off to me. “They said they could help with him latching on, if you needed.”

I nodded my head in response but was already placing the baby up to my nipple by the time he got out the door. When he came back with a nurse in tow, my son was happily suckling away.

“Well, it looks like you didn’t need me after all. I’m just going to check on a couple things while the little guy gets his fill.” She picked up one of my wrists and then wrote down something on my chart. “Don’t forget to swap sides with him too. How are you feeling? Any cramping? Have you been to the bathroom yet?”

She promised to come back and help me to the bathroom when I was done feeding the baby, so I took the time to swap sides, and let him get his fill, until his little milk-filled mouth popped off. Then I burped him, and my father put him back in the bassinet for me.

“Could you get the nurse again. I need help with the…” I nodded toward the in-room bathroom just across from my bed.

Once I was finally situated again, my dad asked the pressing question I had been waiting for since he hung up with Boone.

“Do you want me to get Merc here?”

I shook my head.

“He has a right to meet his son.”

“I tried calling the number to his phone several times because I needed a ride to the hospital when I couldn’t get in touch with you or Boone.”

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