Page 91 of More Than Anything

“So then wefound two more out in the back. I asked him, ‘Will you sell me these for five dollars apiece or are you keeping them?’ He just looked at me like I was crazy and said, ‘If you can find more, I’ll sell them too!’” Avery boomed, laughing aloud.

Jason was laughing so hard he was crying. “Did he even know what they were?”

“I don’t think so! But those things are hard to come by, and they were worth at least twenty apiece. I rooted around and found five more, and I walked out of there with two hundred dollars’ worth for fifty bucks!”

“My husband, the bargain hound,” Lydia giggled, her big belly jiggling as she did.

“Danette’s the same way,” Jason said, pointing at his fiancée. “She talked an old guy at a flea market out of a genuine Coach purse for ten bucks!”

“You didn’t!” Lydia shrieked. “Did he have more?”

“Nope. Got the only one,” Danette said proudly.

“Wish you could find her one or two for ten bucks. Her and those bags are going to bankrupt me.” When Avery looked over at Lydia to grin at her, there was an odd look on her face, one he’d never seen before. “Babe? You okay?”

She stared at him, then looked at the floor. There, at her feet, was a puddle, and something was running down her leg. It took Avery all of two seconds to figure it out. “Oh, shit! Your water just broke! Oh, god, okay, what do we do? You’ve got your bag packed, right? And you guys still have a key, right?” he babbled, looking to Danette and Jason, who were grinning at him like monkeys. “Oh, and I need to call your parents, and I?”

“Avery.”

“?should probably?”

“Avery!” His head snapped around when his wife shouted his name. “Could you calm down please and help me get cleaned up?”

“Oh! Oh, yeah! Um, should I…”

Danette was already on the move. “I’ll get a bath towel. It’ll be okay. Hang on.”

“Thanks,” Lydia snarled. “I knew he was going to be no good in a crisis.”

“It’s a crisis?” Avery barked. “Is something wrong?”

“No. That was a figure of… Ohhhhhhhh, god. Oh, it’s starting,” Lydia moaned, grabbing her belly and doubling over.

“No-no-no-no-no,” Avery told her, taking her arm and helping her to the sofa, but she wouldn’t sit. “No. You sit right here. What do we need to do?”

“I need to walk around as much as I can until they’re about five minutes apart, and then we need to go to the hospital. Call them and tell them I’m in labor so they’ll know I’m coming.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Jason offered. “You just take care of her,” he told Avery, pointing to Lydia.

“I’ve gotcha, baby. It’s okay.” He helped her down onto the sofa, then sat down beside her and took her hand.

“Avery?”

“Yes, baby?”

“I’m scared,” she whispered.

“I am too. But we’re together. That’s what matters. If you can push it out, I can take it from there. Deal?”

Lydia giggled. “Deal.”

“Good. We’ve got this, babe. We’ll be fine.”

Nine hours later, Avery stood between his wife’s legs as she gave one last enormous push and out popped a wriggling, shrieking, seven pound, nine ounce, eighteen-inch-long baby girl with cottony white hair and big blue eyes. The crying infant calmed as soon as they placed her on Lydia’s chest, and Avery looked down into his wife’s crystal blue eyes as they filled with tears. “You did it, babe. She’s beautiful.”

“We did it, Avery. You and I. Oh, god, baby, I’m so happy.”

Avery couldn’t help it. He let out a shuddering sob and kissed his wife, then nuzzled the back of the baby’s head and released one huge, contented sigh. “There’s no man on earth who’s happier than I am right this minute. My life is complete.”

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