Page 159 of Full Mountie

“You can answer it,” I whisper, and the tattoo artist lifts the tattoo gun off my skin.

“Do you need a minute?” he asks.

Lachlan shakes his head. “We’re good. Whatever it is, it can wait.”

But then on the other side of me, Hugh’s phone vibrates—and then starts playing music.

“Oh shit,” he says, his eyes going wide. “I mean, it’s fine, keep going, dude, but…” He pulls out his phone and shows me the screen. Max’s number. “I gave Max a ringtone because there’s only one reason he’d call me.”

“Oh my God.” I gasp and wave my hand at him. “Answer the phone.”

“Hey, Max,” Hugh says, grinning at me. “What’s up? No way. Cool news. Okay, well, we’re in the middle of something, but we can be there in an hour or so.”

“We can go now,” I say, pushing myself up.

Lachlan presses my shoulder back to the table. “The baby will wait,” he says, gesturing for the artist to continue.

Hugh hangs up and sits down again. “Baby’s not here yet. We’ve got some time, but they’re at the hospital, and Max thought we might want to do the classic hang out in the waiting room thing.”

“I do!” I realize my voice has carried clear across the tattoo parlour, and I drop it back to a whisper. “Yes, I want to do exactly that. Let’s go now.”

The tattoo artist laughs. “Give me ten more minutes and you can leave with a finished tattoo, how does that sound?”

“Like torture,” I moan, but I close my eyes and smile.

Hugh dropsus at the front doors of the hospital and goes to find a parking spot. Lachlan and I head straight to the new mom and baby ward, and run into Sasha in the hallway. She’s got a big bouquet of flowers.

“Oh, we didn’t bring anything,” I say. I don’t know where my head is at, that’s normally something I’d think of.

“On it,” he says, pulling out his phone. He texts Hugh.

Lachlan: SOS need a teddy bear. And chocolate. From the gift shop?

Hugh: On it.

I giggle at the accidental echo of my men sounding so similar.

“Where do we go?” Sasha asks, and Lachlan is apparently a master at reading the confusing hospital signs, because he glances around and then points us unerringly toward the waiting room. We find an RCMP officer standing outside, and inside, Gavin and Ellie are relaxing in the plastic bucket seats. They jump up as we come in. Ellie and Sasha hug, Gavin shakes Lachlan’s hand, and then they turn to me. I gingerly offer Ellie my non-bandaged side for a one-arm hug.

“I was getting a tattoo when we got the call. Have you had any further updates from Max?”

Ellie shakes her head. “But apparently Violet’s contractions were right on top of each other when they came in. That’s either a good sign, or excellent birth control.”

I laugh again. Tattoos make me super giggly, because I’m pretty sure that any other time, talk of contractions would have me squirming in a not-at-all good way.

“Where’s Hugh?” Gavin asks, and it blows me away that he’s just so accepting of our relationship. Although I’m not sure why…but I appreciate it.

“Parking the car.”

The next person to walk in the door is Violet’s best friend Matthew, who we met at the baby shower, and his boyfriend, who he introduces but I miss the name.

Then Hugh arrives with a cute little teddy bear and an entire basket of chocolate options.

He sits on the other side of Lachlan from me, and Lachlan slings his arm across the back of Hugh’s chair, squeezing his shoulder. “Find a spot okay?”

“The garage was mayhem, but someone pulled out just as I turned a corner, so we’re right next to the elevator.”

“Score.”

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