Read Proving Paul's Promise Online
Authors: Tammy Falkner
The tears don’t start until halfway through the episode, and they’re mainly from Garrett and Cody. We watch as Tuesday comes into the world. We let the cameras into the room, but they had to stay up by my head. So, when they pick her up and lay her on my belly on the TV, I can almost feel the weight of her on me now. I close my eyes and I’m right back there, right back to the day that Tuesday was born. I held her for a moment while Cody and Garrett cried on each other, and then I handed her over. She wasn’t mine.
They now had their family, and they were happy. So was I.
We all laugh at some of the outtakes in the shop that the cameras caught. We never know what the final cuts will look like, but so far, they have been a lot more about the customers than about us.
Our business has gotten so busy that we bought the shop right next door to ours, added eight more booths, and hired a slew of new artists. People wait months for appointments with us.
The episode is over, and everyone hangs out. No one is in a hurry to go home. They never are. The apartment is always full, and there are so many babies here that it never seems to quiet down. But we love it this way. We don’t want to change it. Ever.
People start to mill around, and Sam keeps trying to get close to Peck. I watch him from across the room. She sidesteps him and shoots him funny glances. She’s in her element here because everyone signs, so she doesn’t have to talk unless she wants to, which is almost never.
Suddenly, Sam is beside me. “So, what’s up with the tapping?” he asks.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I say crisply.
He rolls his eyes. “Yes, you do.”
Suddenly, Peck is right behind him, and she taps him on the shoulder. She doesn’t stop her finger from pecking as she speaks. “You could just ask me,” she says quietly.
He stands up. “I keep fucking up,” he says.
She nods.
“I was being really rude. It’s none of my business.”
She nods.
“What does Peck stand for?” he asks instead.
She taps the table and makes a sign for the word bird.
“Woodpecker?” he asks. “Peck is short for woodpecker?”
She nods and smiles. With her brown hair and brown eyes, she’s stunning. Absolutely stunning. And when she smiles, she lights up a room.
He looks to her band mates. “So you all have bird names.”
She nods. “We got them when we fell out of the nest—Fallen from Zero,” she says. She taps the whole time she’s talking. When she stops talking, the tapping stops. “You want to know what the tapping is about, right?” she asks. She rolls her eyes and blows out a frustrated breath.
Sam smiles. “I don’t particularly care what the tapping is about if you’ll keep talking to me.”
Tap. Tap. Her eyes narrow. “Does it bother you?”
“I fucking love it,” he says.
She blushes.
That’s the beauty of the Reeds. They look beyond the surface. They always have.
Sam and Peck go off to a quiet corner to talk. I see her refuse cupcakes a few times, even though he keeps trying to feed her. It makes me laugh.
“What’s funny?” Matt asks as he drops down beside me.
“Your stupid brother might have just met his match.” I point toward Sam.
He raises his brow. “That one might be a challenge.”
I grin. “It’ll be fun to watch.”
Suddenly, pain shoots from across my belly. I clutch for it, and Matt sits up. “Oh shit,” he says. “Paul!”
Paul is standing across the room, and he runs over. He takes Matt’s spot beside me and puts his hands on my huge belly. I’m a week overdue and have been having pains all day. I thought it was just Braxton-Hicks, but I think I was wrong.
“Is it time?” Paul asks.
“I think so.” I’ve done this twice already, so I have a pretty good idea of what’s happening. “We should probably hurry.”
When Tuesday was born, I was in labor for an hour and a half. That’s it. Just an hour and a half. I’d really like some drugs this time, though, so we should probably go.
Logan tosses Paul his keys and goes to scoop up his daughter. Emily gets my bag, and we all file into the hallway as one big unit. Even the Zero girls come, because they’re nosy, they say. But they’re quickly becoming family, too.
Paul takes my bag, and we go to Logan’s car. “I feel bad taking Logan’s car,” I protest. Another pain hits me, and I feel like I need to double over.
“He’ll find his way there,” Paul says as he buckles Hayley in. She’s been waiting for this baby. She loves her cousins, but I have a feeling she’s not going to let any of them be the first to hold her new baby brother or sister. We still don’t know what we’re having. We didn’t want to find out.
We get to the hospital quickly, and Pete and Logan pull up right behind us. Logan takes his keys back and goes to park the car. Emily gets Kit from her seat, and we all walk in together. Emily kisses my cheek. “Go get settled. We’ll see you in a little while.” She takes Hayley with her, even though Hayley protests.
The nurse scowls at the number of people we’ve brought with us. Even Garrett and Cody came with Tuesday, and the room is absolutely packed. This is my ragtag family, though, and this is what we do.
I change into a gown, and Paul sits down beside me. He was with me during Tuesday’s delivery and held my hand through it, but this one is different. This one is ours.
Suddenly, a little brown-haired boy pokes his head into the room. “Hi,” Jacob says. Jill walks in behind him and comes to kiss me on the cheek. “We came to see the baby.” He touches my tummy. “I grew in there, too,” he tells my stomach, his lips really close to my hospital gown. He looks up at me and grins. He lost another tooth last week, and he lost it when he was at our house. So, I’m getting to experience some of his milestones. Jill and I are really good friends.
“Yes, you did,” I say. “I think this one is ready to come out.”
He steps back. “Right now?”
I nod.
“Ewww,” he says. “Where’s Hayley?” He scampers off to find Hayley. Jill waves to me from the doorway as she goes after him. I didn’t know they were coming, but I should have known.
“Did you call them?” I ask Paul.
He shrugs. “Maybe.”
I lean over and kiss him. “I love you so much.”
I’m barely hooked to the monitors when I feel the need to push. “I think it’s time,” I say.
Paul jumps up and calls for a nurse. The room is suddenly filled with doctors and nurses and the real work starts. Paul talks me all the way through it, never leaving my side. He’s my rock. And I think I’m his.
This one is going even faster than Tuesday’s birth. Holy fuck, it hurts.
“You’re almost there,” Paul says.
“I wish you would shut the fuck up,” I say.
“Fuck you,” he tosses back as he wipes my brow with a damp cloth.
“Fuck you,” I say to him.
The nurses look at one another with concern, but this who we are. This is who we have always been.
“There’s the head, Dad!” the doctor says.
Paul doesn’t let go of my hand but looks down to watch his baby come into the world. His eyes shimmer with tears, and I push. I feel like I’m going to push forever, when finally, the pain and the pressure ease. I open my eyes, and they lay a bloody, purple mess on my belly.
“It’s a boy,” the doctor says.
Paul leans into me and presses his face into the side of mine. “Our boy,” he says. “He’s ours.”
I nod. I know he is. Paul cuts the cord, and I lay my hand on our son and he looks up at me. Then he starts to scream. They reach to take him from me. “Just a minute,” I say. I look down into his eyes, and I know this one gets to stay. The weight of him on my belly is so different from the weight of him inside me. He blinks up at me, and his skin turns even more purple as he screams. I count his fingers and toes, just because I can. “Okay,” I say.
They take him from me and clean us both up.
“He’s perfect,” I say.
“So are you.” Paul drags his nose down the side of mine, and I feel the hot splash of one of his tears as they hit my chin. He wipes them away.
Paul
I have a son. I dry my eyes with my shirt and walk out into the waiting room. They all sit forward. When did our numbers grow this big? Even Henry is here. Hayley runs to me and jumps into my arms. “It’s a boy!” I tell them all. “Eight pounds, nine ounces, twenty-four-inches long, and he’s here!”
Hayley squeals, and everyone claps. I give Hayley to Emily and go back to be with Friday because there’s nowhere else I want to be. After they’re all cleaned up, the nurses let Hayley and Jacob in for a few private moments. Then they let the family in, and they hand the baby around to everyone. Friday is tired, but her labor was pretty quick. She hasn’t been sleeping well, though, so she’s probably exhausted.
People start to file out as soon as they’ve had a turn with the baby. Matt and Sky take Hayley home with them, and when the room is finally empty, I sit down with Friday and put my arm around her in the bed. We’re alone, but we’re not. I’m surprised she’s not an emotional wreck; she’s pretty calm and cool. She’s done this twice but never with a baby she would be taking home. “I want to learn to breastfeed,” she says quietly. “I can do that, right?”
“You can do anything you want to do.”
She nods. “We did a good job.” A tear slides down her cheek, and she doesn’t brush it back. Friday still busts my balls, but she’s also more open and honest about her feelings than she was for a long time. Or at least she is with me.
The lactation consultant comes in and teaches her how to feed the baby. I’ve never seen anything sweeter than the sight of her with my baby at her breast. She flinches and says it’s harder than Sky and Emily made it look.
“You’ll get the hang of it,” I tell her.
“You promise?” she asks. She smiles at me.
“Have I ever broken a promise to you?”
She shakes her head. “Never.”
She promised me she would love me forever when we got married. She promised me we could weather any storm that comes that our way, and we have. She can’t promise me perfect, but she promised me her, and that’s all I need.
She closes her eyes while our baby suckles at her breast. I notice that her breast is plumped around his nose, so I reach over and dimple it with my finger, making some breathing room. She opens her eyes. “You’re still taking care of me.”
“You let me live in your fortress, Friday. I’ll protect it until the day I die. I promise.” I kiss her softly and watch our baby as she feeds him for the first time. I take a mental picture of it—Click! Click!—but I won’t share it with anyone. This picture is only for me.
Also from Tammy Falkner
The Reed Brothers Series
Tall, Tatted, and Tempting
Smart, Sexy, and Secretive
Calmly, Carefully, Completely
Finally Finding Faith
Just Jelly Beans and Jealousy
Maybe Matt’s Miracle
Proving Paul’s Promise
Zip, Zilch, Zero (coming winter 2014)
Regency Fantasy
A Lady and Her Magic
The Magic of I Do
The Magic Between Us
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