Allison

After our quickie, Rhys and I put ourselves back together in the bathroom. The last thing I wanted was my parents to suspect anything because of his wild hair or my smeared lipstick. Once we were finished, we headed back downstairs with the luggage.

Thankfully, our absence hadn’t been noticed since Mom and Dad had been in the process of saying goodbye to Andrea and her kids, which meant helping pack up the car. Jake, on the other hand, gave us a somewhat curious look, but then appeared too disgusted to question it.

Once the car was packed with our luggage and Mom had handed over a bag of leftovers to munch on during the drive, we said our goodbyes. Normally, I wasn’t as tearful, but today there something about impending motherhood that made me more nostalgic for home and my parents.

As we started down Mom and Dad’s road, I flipped on the radio. Rhys groaned when I settled on a station playing Christmas music. “Oh, come on, Scrooge. It’s Christmas Eve.”

“How about we make a deal?”

“Okay.”

“You get the first two hours of road trip music, and I get the rest.”

I grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”

We were almost two hours south of Atlanta when my phone rang. My heart stopped the moment I saw the caller id. It was Keira. I crossed my fingers she was calling to wish us an early Merry Christmas. “Hello?”

“Um, hey, it’s me. What I thought was my back hurting from overdoing it wrapping presents….it was actually labor.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I actually just got checked in to the hospital.”

“What? Why didn’t you call us before?” I demanded a little more sharply than I should have. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I wanted to make sure I was really in labor, and it wasn’t a false alarm.”

“Of course. That was the right thing to do,” I assured her.

When I glanced over at Rhys, he stared wide-eyed back at me. “Turn around,” I mouthed.

Thankfully for us, an exit was just in the distance.

“Are you guys close?” Keira asked.

“We’re almost to Macon.”

“You’re two hours away?”

“It’s okay. We’ll get there in plenty enough time. Remember what we learned at the birthing classes? Labor can take hours….sometimes days.”

“I know. I just really wanted you guys to be here.”

“We will. We’re getting off on an exit to turn around right now. We’ll be there just as soon as we can.”

“See you soon…I hope,” Keira replied.

“Me too.”

After I hung up the phone, I shook my head. “I can’t believe this. She’s three weeks early. First time babies usually never come early.”

Just as we came off the exit from turning around, Rhys responded by slamming his foot down on the accelerator, sending the car lurching forward. As we started careening down the interstate, Rhys began zigzagging in and out of lanes to pass different cars.

“Rhys, slow down!” I screeched, as I braced one hand on the dash and the other on the window.

Rhys tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “Do you want to get there in time to see our baby born or not?”

“Of course, I want to get there, but I’d prefer to get there alive and in one piece.”

“This is too important to miss,” Rhys countered.

“Take a deep breath, but most importantly, take your foot off the accelerator.”

After uttering a frustrated growl, Rhys finally eased up a little, and we slowed down. “Thank you.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Your heart was in the right place even though your head wasn’t,” I mused.

Once we were back up the interstate at a reasonable speed, I started breathing a little easier. Of course, my mind began whirling with panicked thoughts. “Dammit.”

“What?” Rhys questioned.

“I don’t have our bag.”

With an expression of confusion, he replied, “Yeah, we do. It’s in the trunk.”

“No, not that bag. The one with our clothes and the baby’s clothes in it. It’s back at the house.”

Rhys nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll go back for it sometime tomorrow.”

With one crisis averted, I flipped to another one. “We haven’t finished babyproofing the house.”

With a chuckle, Rhys said, “Considering he won’t be crawling or walking anytime soon, I think we’re good.”

“I hope so.” My mind kept whirling with thoughts. “Oh God.”

“What is it?”

“Our quickie,” I hissed.

“What about it?”

“I can’t believe we’re going to meet our son after sex and without a shower.”

Rhys threw back his head with a laugh. “Seriously? That’s what you’re worried about at the moment?”

“I can’t help it. I wanted everything to be perfect, and now it seems tainted.”

“We can always stop at one of the Flying J truck-stops and grab a shower.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I think I’ll pass on a truck-stop shower. Although freshening up might not be a bad idea. As long as Keira isn’t progressing too fast.”

“Whatever you need, babe.”

I’m not sure how we made it the two hours back to Atlanta without having a nervous breakdown. Well, Rhys managed to shave at least ten minutes off our time with his lead foot. Thankfully, traffic wasn’t too heavy into the city considering it was Christmas Eve.

We screeched into the Emory Midtown parking lot and quickly parked in the deck. Apparently, the cell reception was fuzzy inside the hospital because we hadn’t received an update from Keira in the last thirty minutes. After sprinting from the car, we continued jogging all the way inside the hospital and over to the elevator. Once we located the maternity floor, we began frantically searching for Keira’s room number.

When we found it, Rhys and I skidded into the room before getting tangled up in the curtain. “What the hell?” Roland’s voice boomed at the spectacle.

After we burst out from behind the curtain, I said, “Sorry. It’s just us.”

“Oh, I’m so glad you made it!” Keira cried.

“So are we,” Rhys replied.

My gaze bounced from Roland to her. “How are you doing?”

She smiled. “Pretty good.”

Rhys’s brows furrowed. “Wait, are you supposed to be smiling in labor? I thought you’d look like something from The Exorcist right now.”

As I smacked Rhys’s arm, Keira laughed. “I’ve had the good drugs.”

Roland exhaled a ragged breath. “Thank God. I was just about to lose my mind seeing her in so much pain.”

A petite, grandmotherly woman entered the room. “Hi, Keira, it’s good to see you doing so well.

With a nod, Keira said, “Hi, Sandy.”

“Looks like we’re ready to get things going by starting to push.”

Keira’s formerly amused expression turned to one of panic. “Um, okay.”

Although I wasn’t the one about to push out a baby, my rising fear echoed Keira’s. Mainly it was the fear of the unknown that gripped me. I’d never been ringside for a delivery before. When Andrea gave birth, I was stationed out in the waiting room until after the big moment. With Abby having a c-section, I’d done the same thing. I realized I was about to get way more personal with Keira than any other member of my family. In a way, it made sense considering she was giving birth to my son.

When the stirrups came out and the blanket and sheets came off, it was Rhys’s turn to freak out. “Maybe I should wait outside?”

Keira shook her head. “No. It’s okay.”

“But you’re….” He appeared unable to form the words. Something about saying she was half-naked was just too much for him, least of all to see it.

“It’s okay. You can stand at the top of the bed and you’ll see the most important part,” Sandy suggested.

Rhys glanced at me, and I nodded. “You’ll always regret it if you don’t see him the minute he’s born.”

He appeared to be mentally giving himself a pep talk. “You’re right.” He then walked around me to stand so far at the top of the bed he was almost against the wall.

I’d watched babies being delivered numerous times on television and in the movies, but nothing could adequately prepare me for being in the moment. Time moved in a strange continuum where it seemed to speed up and slow down at frantic paces. Getting Keira through a contraction seemed to take forever, but then it seemed like she’d just begun to push. I didn’t even glance at the clock to see how long she’d been pushing. Instead, I focused on the baby’s progression. One minute you could faintly see a crowd of dark hair and then he was almost out.

“Okay, one more push, and he’ll be here,” Sandy instructed.

After pinching her eyes shut, Keira’s face contorted in determination. All her muscles tensed as she worked on pushing her son—our son—out into the world. Her grip on my hand tightened, and it felt like all the bones in my hand were going to be crushed. I ended up breathing right on through the contraction with her.

When it was over, my son had entered the world. His first breath came in a hearty cry. It was the most precious sound I’d ever heard. Tears blinded my eyes, but I didn’t let go of Keira or Rhys’s hands to wipe them away. Blinking furiously, I tried to clear them so I could see the baby.

Oh God, he was so perfectly beautiful. Even bloodied from the birth, he was still gorgeous. He had a headful of dark hair that caused me to grin because it was the color of Rhys’s and mine.

A flurry of activity commenced as he was cleaned up and weighed. I momentarily tore my eyes away from the baby to check on Keira. As she rested her head against the pillow, she wore an expression of absolute exhaustion. I couldn’t imagine what she’d been through physically. One day I assumed I would experience it with the payoff for the arduous ordeal being a beautiful baby. But Keira wouldn’t be getting that payoff, and it broke my heart.

With the baby swaddled in a blanket, a nurse started to hand Keira the baby, but she shook her head. “No. He’s theirs.”

Wrenching pain twisted its way through my chest at her words. “Are you sure you don’t just want to hold him for a minute?”

Keira gave me a sad smile. “It’s probably best I don’t.”

Just as the wailing bundle was about to come into my waiting and ready arms, I cried, “Stop!”

The nurse jumped in front of me. “What’s wrong?”

Holding up a hand, I then stared into Keira’s eyes. “It is not too late.” When her brows shot up into her forehead, I said, “I cannot in good conscience take this baby from you if you’re not one hundred percent sure you don’t want to be his mother.”

“Allison,” Rhys said softly by my side.

I turned to look at him. “I’m serious. We can’t take him.”

A heartbreak I’d never seen flashed in Rhys’s eyes. One I felt responsible for inflicting. But it was the truth. We couldn’t possibly take the baby if Keira wasn’t completely sure. I couldn’t live with myself knowing I’d caused her anguish—that I had deprived her of the motherhood she deserved.

With my heart pounding against my breastbone, I turned back to Keira. When tears pooled in her eyes, I feared my knees might buckle, and I’d tumble into the floor. This was the moment I’d feared over the last seven months. The moment we would come so close to parenthood only to have it whisked away from us.

Keira drew in a ragged breath. “I’ll never be one hundred percent sure. But ninety-nine percent of me knows this is the right thing to do for him.”

“But what about the right thing for you?” I asked.

Tears spilled over her cheeks. “It isn’t about me. It’s about him.”

At those words, the dam holding back my emotions broke, and I sobbed openly. Rhys pulled me into his arms and held me tight. I don’t know how long I wept. When I finally came back to myself, the room was quiet—not even the baby was crying anymore.

After easing out of Rhys’s embrace, I glanced over at Keira. “I’m so very sorry I just did that.”

“It’s okay.”

I stepped over to the bedside. “What you just said about it being about him—that’s what a mother would say.” After swiping a tissue, I dabbed my cheeks. “You will always have a place and a part in his life.”

Keira and I were twin waterworks again. When we finally settled down, I noticed Roland had the baby in his arms. “Sorry. Someone had to take him,” he replied at what must’ve been my surprised look.

“It’s okay. I’m glad you held him.”

Roland appeared relieved. He then stepped over to me. “Now it’s your turn.” With a smile, he said, “Here you go, Mom.”

“Um, wow…okay.” Even though I’d been preparing for this moment for seven months, I still didn’t think I was ready. The moment the baby was placed in my arms, I would be a mother. There would be no going back. For the rest of my life, he would belong to me. I would be responsible for ensuring he was fed and clothed and brushed his teeth and did his homework. All the thousands of tiny details that mothers oversaw of their children.

When Roland transferred him into my arms, I once again teared up. With one eye open, he eyeballed me almost suspiciously. “Hi there, sweetheart.”

His response was to poke his tongue out at me. “You know, your arrival today has set the bar pretty high for future Christmas presents.” I grinned down at him. “But I can imagine you’re going to be the gift that keeps on giving, aren’t you?”

“Have you guys decided on a name yet?” Keira tentatively asked.

I glanced back at Rhys, and he nodded. “Samuel Rhys, and we’re going to call him Sam.”

Keira smiled. “I like that.”

“Yeah, I think it suits him,” Roland added.

“What about you? Do you like your name?” Sam responded by letting out a giant yawn. “I’ll take that as an undecided.”

Cradling Sam to my chest, I closed my eyes as I felt Rhys at my side. In that moment, we were truly a family. It was the most amazing Christmas gift I’d ever receive.