Page 18 of Her Baby Daddy Mix-up

“Well, hopefully this will be her rock bottom and things will get better from here,” Grace said, and Brianna fully agreed.

The next six weeks slid past quickly. Brianna had updates from the others about their visits with Ashley at rehab, but she stayed away, enjoying her now huge belly, and the way Carter loved it and her. She might struggle to get up from the bed and chairs, but she wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

They were at the office Wednesday afternoon when her water broke, telling her the contractions she’d been having all morning weren’t the fake ones any longer. She pushed herself up after calling down to Marsha asking her to come up to cover for her—not telling her why precisely. She wanted to tell Carter that first, and she slid into his office not bothering to knock despite the meeting he was in the middle of.

“What’s wrong, angel?” he asked immediately, quieting the other man that started to complain about the interruption.

“I need you—we need you,” she added, breathing in a bit deeper as a new contraction hit.

“Now?” Carter asked, smiling fully as he jumped out of his seat, moving to her side.

“Yeah, my water broke,” she said as Marsha came in the other door.

“We’ve got this,” Jarred told him, and Carter ushered down to the car and to the hospital.

“You are about six centimeters,” Janelle said after her initial exam, and Brianna was honestly shocked. She’d barely been one centimeter on Monday at her appointment.

Emily got there about ten minutes later, and she laughed seeing the surprise on Carter’s face that she hadn’t been lying about being in the delivery room with them. He accepted it when he realized she was wearing scrubs and Brianna couldn’t believe they’d never told him she was a nurse on top of being her best friend. He’d never asked her what she wanted during labor, hadn’t pushed her to let his mom in when she’d told him that her mom likely wouldn’t stay because she couldn’t handle seeing people she loved in pain, let alone the blood from the delivery would make her faint.

“You don’t have your own floor to cover?” her mom Emily asked when she arrived about forty minutes later, squeezing Brianna’s hand giving her a forced smile.

“Nope, I’ve had backups worked up starting last week to cover my shift for whenever this guy decided he wanted to make his appearance,” Emily assured them. “I’ve got this Ms. Veronica. I know you can’t stand this part. I promise, I’ll come get you as soon as he’s here and momma’s ready to part with him for a few moments.”

Brianna nodded and was thankful for her best friend over the next six hours, but especially when she made certain their baby boy was put on her chest as soon as he was there. Carter’s hand slid behind her head, lifting her face to his, and she laughed to stop from crying seeing the sheen of tears in his eyes. “I love you, you and Dominic, so much.”

“He’s perfection, baby. Thank you…for him, for being mine, loving me, letting me love you,” Carter said, kissing her softly until Emily tore them apart.

“Okay, mush on your own time. You’ve got lots of it to come,” Emily teased, and Brianna couldn’t wait.

Epilogue

Brianna smiled as she leaned over Carter’s shoulder, giving him a kiss, watching him rock their baby boy. He was ten months now, growing like a weed and she adored him just as much as she adored his older brother who was now two. Dominic was about five months old when she got pregnant with Micah, a complete surprise to both her and Carter.

Yes, they’d been all over each other but neither of them had really expected it to happen. Not with her potential decreasing egg production and his lowered sperm count. They hadn’t complained in the least about it though and now, she wasn’t complaining about the results she’d just gotten after almost fainting for the second time while checking on her sister.

Their family had changed a lot in the last two years. Not only just with her and Carter adding in a new baby.

Ashley ended up losing her job, barely keeping her license to practice law. She only did thanks in part to completing rehab and spending a year in intense therapy. Things were definitely tense when Brianna told the family she was pregnant with Micah, but thankfully Ashley hadn’t snapped again. Carter was overly protective of them, especially whenever Ashley did eventually come around, but she loved it—as much as she loved being home with her babies because he truly had known her best.

She kept pushing back her return to the office and when they realized she was pregnant again, Carter teasingly told her he couldn’t have her outside his office door, knowing she was growing their baby yet again. That he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off her and he’d run the business right into the ground. So, she stopped in, letting Marsha know that the job was hers permanently and spent her time with Dominic, spoiling him before his brother got there.

It was while she was pregnant with Micah that her sisters sat down and talked, got past some of their issues that were still lingering, and Grace offered Ashley her eggs that were frozen. That news shocked all of them, when Grace admitted that she’d had hers frozen when she was twenty-five, well aware of family issues and also that she didn’t want to run into the risk if she changed her mind when she was older and did want kids.

Carter gifted Ashley and Jacob the money to cover the IVF and about a month after she had Micah, they got pregnant with their baby boy Jacob Junior, or JR as they said they were going to call him, who was about to be here.

“Three grandbabies…I never would have thought this day would come,” her mom said hugging on Dominic who chortled happily.

“What would you say if I told you it was going to actually be four in about seven and a half months?” Brianna whispered to Carter as she snuggled into his side, giving him a full grin.

“What?” he said, his eyes widening in surprise and hope.

She opened the paper she held, showing him the results of the blood test Emily had the doctor run for her, then turned over the ultrasound photo, nodding as his jaw dropped. He gave her a slow kiss, making her sigh happily before quietly telling him what happened, assuring him she was fine, that even the doctor agreed she was. “Emily knows but for now…it’s Ashley’s day.”

“I won’t say anything right now, you tell me when you’re ready and I’ll be there, grinning like the lucky guy I am,” he said, and two months later, at Micah’s birthday party, they let the family know not only was another grandbaby coming, but thanks to the hidden surprise in the cake Micah destroyed with his chubby little fists, that it was a girl.

“Finally, a girl,” her dad teased, giving her a huge hug. “She’s sure to be just like her momma and be the best fisher ever.”

“Sorry to disappoint you Dad, but I hated fishing and the worms…yuck,” she said, laughing at his surprise. “You can take her and her brothers, but don’t be disappointed if she hates it.”

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