Every Glance (Every Life #3) (36 page)

It takes a little longer than expected to get her situated because Callie is quickly thrown into another agonizing contraction. Which only confirms how soon this baby is going to be here.

Devyn taps my shoulder lightly. “I’ll just wait outside.”

“No,” Callie objects breathlessly. “You can stay if you want. You’re one of us now. And you’re the only woman in the room who’s actually been through this.”

“I’m sure your mom would love to be in here with you. I don’t mind to step out. This is a very private moment.” Devyn takes a step back.

“My mom would pass out the moment she set foot in the door, and Wes’s folks aren’t interested in seeing this side of me. I’d love for you to stay and be a part of this with us. Besides, there isn’t really a shy bone in my body.”

“Ahem.” Sawyer steps forward. “You wouldn’t even answer me when I asked if you’ve had any discharge.”

“Shut up, Sawyer. You like a brother to me, and I’m not discussing discharge with you. EMT or not.” She cringes. “Unless you have drugs. If you have drugs, I’ll tell you anything.”

“Sounds like another contraction is on its way, Dalton.” Devyn says, just before Callie moans in pure misery.

I think every one of us is holding our breath, waiting for her torture to pass. Well, everyone except Devyn. She moves toward the head of the bed to remind Callie to breathe evenly and push the air out slowly through pursed lips.

Watching how easily she calms Callie, I imagine what it must’ve been like for her when Simon was born. Was anyone there to encourage her and hold her hand through the pain? She told me before that Carter wasn’t even in the room with her until she was ready to deliver, and her mom doesn’t seem the type to coddle.

When her pain finally subsides, Devyn silently moves to stand guard at the door to listen for the paramedics, acting as if this is just any other normal day. I mean, it may be somewhat normal for me, but she doesn’t seem the least bit rattled.

Pulling me from my thoughts, Sawyer moves to stand at my side, ready to get anything I’ll need. “All right. As much as I hate to, I think we’d better get this party started, Doc.”

“Let’s do it. Okay, Callie, before another contraction starts, I’m going to check to see how far dilated you are.” I turn to Sawyer and notice the blush on his cheeks.
Yeah, buddy…I feel you.
“Scissors, please.”

Callie jerks her head up in horror. “Scissors?”

“To cut off your…uh…panties.” I’m not normally shy about this kind of thing, but damn…it’s Callie.

I click on the desk lamp in the floor at my side and angle the light toward Callie’s knees. Oh hell. I’m just going to have to dive in there. I begin lifting the hem of her dress, and I feel Wes’s hand clamp on my shoulder.

“If I think for one second that you two are enjoying what you see, the ambulance is going to need to take care of you first.”

“Oh, good grief, Baxter.” Callie usually means business when she brings out the last name. “Shut the hell up and let Dalton feel me up. This baby needs to come out. Now.”

I can’t help snickering and rolling my eyes at him before wiping the bead of sweat off my brow. “Dude. This is a beautiful process and everything, but there’s nothing sexy about it. I promise. This is just as uncomfortable for me as it is for you.”

He only nods, so I continue the task at hand—literally. Finding the fabric at each of her hips, I snip through it, allowing it to fall away. I don’t know what changes things, but knowing what is next, knowing what job has to be done, my nerves and awkwardness are completely gone. The doctor in me takes over.

“Okay, Wes and Mak. I need you to hold her legs up. Callie, you’re going to feel a lot of discomfort, but it’ll be over quick.”

Callie whimpers and blows out a hard breath. “Oh. I need to push. I really need to push.”

“No! Not yet! Deep breaths. Wes, coach her. Deep breath in…deep breath out. Don’t push.”

While she’s distracted by Wes, I check her with the full expectation of finding that Callie is fully dilated, but that’s not all. She was right. I can feel the baby’s head.

“Okay, Cal. You’re crowning, and you should have a contraction starting any second. I want you to take a deep breath and push hard and steady. Focus your pushing right here in your bottom, okay?”

“Yes,” she gasps breathlessly. “I feel it coming now.”

I rest a hand on her stomach, and I can feel the tightness spreading. “Makenna, Wes, pull her knees up to her chest. Callie, as soon as you feel ready, go ahead and push.”

She takes a deep breath, and whether it’s out of pain, exhaustion, or determination, Callie gives it all she has. After only three pushes, the baby’s head is completely out.

After making sure the cord isn’t wrapped around its neck, I have Sawyer get a clean towel ready and look up at Callie. “This is it. You’re doing great. Just a couple more pushes, and you’ll be holding your baby. Go ahead when you feel ready.”

It’s just almost textbook the way it happens. With the next couple of pushes, Callie delivers the shoulders, and after a little coaxing, I’m holding the precious little…

“Girl. It’s a girl,” I choke out, finally allowing the flood of emotion to catch up to me just as her first cries fill the room. It’s fitting, really, because everyone else in the room is crying, too. Sawyer helps me to wrap her in the towel, and I hold her out to place her in Callie’s arms. “Wes and Callie…meet your daughter.”

“Shane,” Callie and Wes both sigh at the same time.

There’s a loud rap at the door, and Devyn cracks it open to see who it is. “Paramedics are here,” she says, ushering them in and wiping at her own tears with a crinkled tissue.

I quickly give them all the details of the scene and gladly let them take over the rest of the job. After washing up and changing into some jeans and a clean shirt, I stay back out of the way to let the last half hour sink in and look around the room at my friends. We really are quite a sight, and even at the risk of getting dismembered for it, I slip out my phone and snap a picture. Callie has a look of wonder as she looks into the deep blue eyes of the infant swaddled in her arms. With a fistful of tulle to hold the skirt of her wedding dress back, Makenna is stooping over Callie and cooing over the baby. Wes is doing his best to keep the towel from slipping off Callie’s legs while proudly telling the whole story to one of the paramedics. Sawyer—still in his tux sans the jacket—is helping the other medic move the gurney to the side of the bed. And Devyn is standing alone near the door, still teary-eyed and maybe even a little wistful.

Not exactly how I thought today would go, but seeing the sheer happiness of the people in this room, I think it is ending perfectly. I’m glad William was so adamant about not putting the wedding off. It’s not a day that anyone will soon forget, that’s for certain.

“Dalton, can you bring our parents in really quick?” Callie asks softly, as if she’s afraid to disturb Shane’s little ears. “I want them to see her before we go.”

I take Devyn’s hand and pull her out into the hall with me, and a collective gasp echoes into the narrow hallway. A crowd consisting of Wes’s parents, Makenna’s mother and aunt, several of Sawyer’s friends, and Callie’s entire family is gathered at the end, waiting on pins and needles for news. The new grandmothers are at the head of the pack, and they are already bursting with happy tears.

“It’s a perfectly healthy baby girl,” I announce loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Wes and Callie are over the moon in love already. They’re about to take them to the hospital to get them checked out and settled in, so I suspect they’ll be ready for visitors within an hour or two. But Callie and Wes would like for you…” I pause to nod at both sets of grandparents. “…to meet your new granddaughter before they go.”

They don’t need to be told twice. I barely get the words out, and they’re practically falling all over themselves to get down the hall. Which makes me a little sad. I’ll never have parents that behave like lunatics when my children are born, but then again, my parents never got excited over anything I did. I’m pretty sure they’d think that me having children would be a frivolous waste of time, much like everything else I wanted to do outside of my education.

“Is it true?” Simon’s chocolate-splotched hand is tugging on my sleeve. “Did you just deliver a baby?”

I crouch to his level. “I didn’t do all the work, but yeah, I suppose I helped.”

“That’s cool.” He seems to ponder something for a second. “But I don’t want to know any more details. There are just some secrets that a man doesn’t want to know.”

“You’re right about that,” I laugh.

After looking over at his mom and seeing her wrapped up in a conversation with another partygoer, Simon’s eyes narrow and one corner of his mouth quirks up on one side. “But I do know a secret that you might want to hear.”

“THERE’S JUST SOMETHING about newborn toes that makes me want to nibble them,” Devyn snickers, sinking into the couch next to me. “I didn’t think it was possible, but after they got her all cleaned up, she was even cuter. And when Callie told me the meaning of her name? Oh, I just about lost it all over again. You really have some great friends.”

“You’re right. I do.” I rest my arm at the top of her shoulders and pull her in close. The soft ticking of the ornate grandfather clock is the only sound in her house. “It’s strangely quiet without Simon here. Are you sure he wasn’t too bummed about having to go to Aiden’s tonight?”

She tugs on the lemon yellow band in her hair until it falls in gentle waves around her shoulders, wafting the floral scent around me. “Oh, no. After all the excitement at the wedding, he knew we’d want to go straight to the hospital. Besides, he loves to go to her place because she lets him stay up late and eat whatever he wants. It doesn’t hurt that she loves him so much that she’ll be his slave the entire time he’s there. She loves kids, but she can’t have any of her own.”

“Why not?”

“Well, when she was about sixteen, she started having severe abdominal pain. At first, doctors just chalked it up to menstrual cramps, but finally, someone took a closer look. She had cysts all over her ovaries, and as it turned out, one was cancerous. She went through some treatments, but she finally had a complete hysterectomy by the time she was eighteen.”

“Must be a heavy burden for someone as young as she to carry around with her, knowing she can’t ever have any of her own children.”

Devyn shrugs. “I don’t know. She’s a strong person and has always just rolled with the punches. But she should be able to have children, just not in the conventional way. We’ll just say she has a dozen or so eggs on ice for when the time is right. That’s
if
she ever settles down enough to find someone to fertilize them. Until then, she has Simon. Back when it happened, I told her that she’d have three or four nieces and nephews to keep her busy, but I guess Simon might be the only one in the cards for me, after all.”

After what Simon told me earlier, I know she’s just fishing for something. Sneaky little thing. “Yeah, I guess he is. It’s too bad, too, because Simon would probably have been a great big brother. But I’m sure he’ll do okay as an only child. He’s a good kid.”

I watch her eyebrows bunch and her eyes narrow almost imperceptibly. Messing with her is just too much fun. I can practically see the gears turning in her mind, grasping for reasons why I’m not correcting her, why I’m not telling her that we’re going to get married and have children.

I almost did that earlier tonight, you know. Beneath the gauzy drapes of fabric and surrounded by the flickering candles, I was so caught up in the romance of the wedding and soft music and having a beautiful woman swaying gently against me. Not just any woman…Devyn. More than anything else in the world, I wanted to drag her up to the front of the room and beg someone to marry us right then and there.

If it wasn’t for Callie’s impeccable timing, I probably would have seriously considered that.

But I’m glad it didn’t work out that way.

After thinking about all the hell she’s been through with Carter, I can’t just ask her to marry me and jump into our new life with both feet. That’s not good enough for her. For the first time in her life, she deserves to feel special and loved and someone’s number one priority. She deserves to go through the whole process the right way, to go on dates and be kissed goodnight under her porch light, to walk on the beach hand in hand at sunset, to be pampered after a long day, to be romanced and courted in a way that she’s never experienced before.

She’s already had a man who just expected her to be his dutiful wife and have his kids. But all along, she needed a man that loved her, that put her first. That wanted her as more than a wife and mother, but also a friend and lover. I want to give her all of that. She deserves a grand gesture to show her how much she truly means to me. Not a marriage proposal on a whim.

Even after Shane was born tonight, I still wanted to finish what I’d started to tell her. It wasn’t until Simon shared what she said that I knew it wasn’t the right time. He told me that he’d overheard his mom tell Aiden that she had a dream about marrying me. And she knew that, if it did ever happen, it would be like the being married for the first time. Of course, she didn’t realize he’d heard her say that until it was too late, and she told him not to repeat it.