Page 67 of Brother to Brother

Several of the guys were laughing at Aaron, Archer among them, chuckling lightly. Even I had to smile and laugh as I snapped away, capturing his discomfort. Shelly would love it.

“Okay, they should be done. They say a few more hours yet. She’s dilated but not enough. No crowning or whatever. I don’t have the first clue about anything they’re talking about.”

“Go on, don’t come back until there’s a baby!” Duracell cried and a rowdy cheer went up throughout the group. I snapped a picture of Trigger cradling Ashton adoringly in his lap.

A few more hours dragged into almost eight or nine more before Shelly gave birth. We were all notified by Ghost coming out in his green hospital gown covering his tee shirt, cut, and jeans, paper booties on his feet and a surgical cap over his hair. He whipped off the cap and cried, “It’s a girl!” and the waiting room erupted into rowdy cheers and applause.

I took pictures of him handing out cigars and the guys hugging and congratulating him before Everett piped up over them all and said, “What’s the stats!?”

“Seven pounds and nine ounces; twenty and a half inches long with all her fingers and toes and her mama’s gorgeous eyes and a full head of her daddy’s hair!” he declared proudly and more cheering and applause went up.

I smiled and thus began the long procession of visitors, my camera earning me a VIP pass to the front of the line so I could take pictures of everyone getting to meet Harmony Rose Pauley for the first time. Shelly looked beautiful, all glowy and exhausted but just beautiful. Reaver was the first one she wanted to see.

I took all of the pictures, as Reaver bent over mother and child and kissed Shelly’s forehead, “You did so fuckin’ good, Baby Cuz,” he said, tears in his blue eyes, a match for Shelly’s.

“Thanks, Big Cuz,” she murmured and looked down at her beautiful baby girl. I was surprised to find that I held no bitterness or jealousy in my heart, just a pure shining happiness forherhappiness.

Archer was one of the last to come visit and I had to smile as I took photos of him meeting the tiny baby, her little fingers curling around one of his thick ones as she dozed in her mother’s arms.

The look of sheer longing on his face spoke to just how much he wanted this for himself, and it made me want more than anything to give it to him. Enough so, that I vowed to throw away the birth control pills I had secretly been taking as soon as I got to them. I hadn’t been ready for another child. I guess I’d just needed the assurance that if I were to get pregnant again, that I would be protected, and the next time it wouldn’t be anything like the horrific experience of before. I had that assurance, I had it in spades, and I couldn’t help but promise with my smile when Archer looked at me over the baby’s head, that our turn would be coming soon, just as soon as I could get pregnant.

I was ready now.

Chapter 28

Archer

“I got him,” I whispered and laid our son in his crib. Noah hadn’t gotten any real sleep or naps in the hospital while we’d waited on Shelly to give birth. I was amazed at how good he’d behaved, too. As long as he’d had someone or something to play with or food, he’d done okay. He’d racked out a few times on either me or Mel, but for the most part he’d been awake, thriving on the thrum of excitement that’d been coursing through all of us since Everett had reached out with word that it’d started.

I still thought it was cool that Doc had been allowed to bring Shelly and Ghost’s child into the world. I mean, he was the hospital’s emergency doc, not a baby doc. I guess he’d delivered plenty of babies in his time in the emergency room though, so the hospital had allowed it. I was kind of looking forward to a day when he delivered mine and Mel’s first child, but right now, something apparently needed sorting because Mel was looking down at Noah with an almost guilty expression on her face.

Her true blue eyes glassy with unshed tears, she turned to look up at me and murmured, “I have something to tell you.”

“Uh-oh,” I uttered quietly, drawing her into my arms, “Nothing good ever came of a conversation that startedthatway.” I was trying to be a goof, to inject some levity into the situation, pretty sure that I had a good idea of what it was she was gonna say but the expression on her face almost full on crumbled. I kicked myself, and figured I should just stick to being a solid bastard, that humor had never been, and would never be, my strong suit.

I tried something else instead, having been paying more and more attention to the guys with women, trying to learn how to best handle these kinds of things, even going so far as to ask ‘em questions on occasion.

I asked her, “If I promise not to be mad about whatever it is, would that help?”

She nodded, her mouth drawing down and her eyes squinting up as she tried not to cry and I pulled her lightly into my arms, wrapping them around her and thinking to myself just how much Ihatedto see her cry…

“Shh; it’s okay baby, whatever it is, we’ll get through it. I promised, didn’t I?”

“Promised what?” she asked with that heartbreaking warble to her voice.

“For better or worse, in sickness and in health, all of it… I promised and I ain’t going back on that promise. I swore it, I swear it, and I mean it. Now how can I fix it?”

Melody sniffed and motioned towards the bedroom and I nodded. It wouldn’t do to wake our little man up, so I struck out in that direction with my wife carefully tucked into my side. Once in the bedroom I sat down with her beside me.

“I haven’t exactly been holding up my end of the bargain,” she said miserably and I raised one eyebrow, pretty damn sure I knewexactlywhat it was she was talking about now.

“Oh?”

“I’ve been keeping on my birth control,” she said miserably and I nodded carefully.

“I think I kind of knew that,” I murmured, “I think I understand why, too. After that story, who would wanna get pregnant again?”

“You’re not mad?” she asked, voice tremulous and I pulled her tight against me again and kissed the top of her head, choosing my words carefully.

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