Page 19 of Ward
“I know.” She smiles sweetly, and lifts up on tiptoe to kiss my cheek. “I love you, too. Lieutenant Fireman Man.”
The moment dissolves fast as the grandmas come rushing into the room. “It’s time!” Penn’s mom announces.
“You’re back!” Yvette says, and rushes up to hug her before Penn’s mom whisks Laney out of my arms.
“I got on standby the second I could. I’m so thankful I arrived.”
“Yes! Andyou’reback, too!” Yvette says to Hearth’s mom, hugging her next.
“And just in time,” another head pokes into the room. “I’m Abra, the midwife. Mama did great.” Abra flashes a smile at Penn’s mom. “Dad did too. Who’s ready to meet baby Austin?”
Hearth’s mom looks around at our little group, then says to the midwife, “We all are, if that’s okay with Hearth.”
“She’s so happy you’re all here and can’t wait for you to meet him.”
There are giddy smiles all around as we make our way down the hallway of the birthing center home toward Hearth’s room. Penn’s mom quietly pipes up, “Abra, Austin is a bit early…”
“Yes, by almost two weeks.” Abra glances over her shoulder at Penn’s mom, giving a reassuring smile. “He’s doing just fine. Perfectly healthy baby boy.”
I steal a sidelong look at Yvette. She said this was going to happen. I still don’t understand how she knew, or if she really knew. Is she a little…clairvoyant? I don’t think she can actually read my mind or predict the future—she’d be a lottery winner or something, surely, right?
“Shh,” she shushes me, catching my sidelong stare. “You’re being loud.”
“I didn’t say anything, babe.”
“Oh, are you sure?”
I pull a face. “Spark,” I whisper, taking her hand and walking her backward away from the group a couple of steps. “You knew…” I shake my head. “You knew he’d be here early.”
“Did I though?” She half shrugs. “I just…I had a feeling.”
A feeling. She is so connected to her feelings, so attuned to what’s inside her…it’s like there’s another part of her that’s alive, that’s lit up, that we don’t all have. That we don’t all have access to.
She amazes me to no end. And not saying she has to, but I have afeelingshe’s going to keep amazing me every single day.
For the rest of our lives?
Well. We’ll see about that.
One day at a time.
Penn’s mom transfers Laney over to Hearth’s mom, and Laney wraps her teensy body around her maternal grandma like a koala. “Ready to meet your baby brother, miss Laney?”
Laney pulls her head back and looks at Grandma, confused. I know that look. Laney needs a nap here pretty soon. Next thing you know, she whips the hat Hearth’s mom is wearing and chonks it onto the floor.
“Uh oh.”
Yeah… I chuckle to myself.One thing at a time.
Epilogue
Yvette
Eighteen Months Later
Where do I even begin? The last eighteen months have been awhirl. A year after Papa Donovan passed, Ditra and her sisters inherited a kind of “magic” diary that led them all to the loves of their lives. I’m talking actual, fated soul mates.Iwas even skeptical at first, but the Diary, “Ms. Diary” as Ditra calls her, brought Ditra here, to Tennessee! She fell hard and fast for one of the firefighters on Ward’s shift, and now they’reengaged. They actually got engaged about six months ago—which means they got engaged like, right away after meeting and having a whirlwind crazy romance.
Ditra calls it “insta-love.” Ward has another word for it—insta cray-cray. He doesn’t tell people he still carries the hematite crystal I gave him on our first date. His walls are made of the real-deal, heavy-duty fortified stuff, but I’m not in the business of breaking them down. He’s got to chisel that stone on his own—and I’m just here, always for him.
