Eighteen months later…
“Move, damn it!” Trey carried Brittany in his arms, barreling past Mitchell and his five children to leave the patio of the house he and Brittany had lived in for over a year.
A gush of water rained over his arms and Brittany leaned her head against his chest, trying to moderate her breathing. Friends and family gathered and Trey grimaced, wishing Brittany hadn’t decided to surprise his mother with a trip to Hawaii.
“Yo, Trey, Brit ain’t gonna make it to the hospital,” Cedric said, hot on his heels. “Her contractions too close together.”
Brittany arched against him, crying out again.
“They’re less than a minute apart,” Bryson called, stuffing birthday cake into his mouth.
“Call a goddamn ambulance.” Trey rushed to their room and gently lowered Brittany onto their bed.
“Brit, we’re celebrating your twenty-second birthday,” Mitchell observed from the doorway. “Did you know the baby was due today?”
“Captain Thomas, we wouldn’t have scheduled her party if that was the case,” Trey snapped.
“Due…six…days,” she gasped. “Trey’s…birthday.” She bowed into another contraction.
“Get me some hot water and clean linen.” Since his mother wasn’t there he wished Spenser could’ve attended. But she and Brittany arranged a partnership proving very successful. Brittany was in school for graphic design so she’d have her degree, but she was learning on the job.
At the moment, Spenser was attending a conference in New York City.
Cedric marched in with clean white towels. “Hot water on the way.” He scratched behind his ear. “What that for anyway?”
“Fuck if I know,” Trey shot back.
“Baby’s…coming,” Brittany said on a long moan.
“Okay, baby girl! Just hold on.” He turned to Mitchell, Bryson and Cedric. “Out. All of you.”
“I’m getting more cake,” Bryson announced, moving away from the door.
The other two men trooped behind him.
Shoving her pretty dress above her heaving belly, he removed her panties. He reeled back. The baby’s head was already crowning. They’d decided on a VBAC but she needed to be monitored in a hospital. Having a vaginal birth after a C-section could be risky even in a medical facility.
Whimpering, she pushed. Sending up a quick prayer, Trey grabbed her hands.
“Squeeze my hands and push again.”
“I’m going to castrate you if you ever touch me again,” she cried when the contraction passed.
“I understand, baby girl.”
He felt like castrating himself watching her suffer to bring his child into the world. She dug her nails into his hands, indicating another round of pain.
“Push. Push. Push.”
At the end of the contraction the baby’s head was completely out. Before he could appreciate the sight, she screamed again, gripping his fingers and bearing down, delivering his son. Her chest heaving, sweat and tears pouring down her face, she fell back on the pillows.
Trey attended the baby, awed by the bloody, squalling bundle. The door burst open and Bryson led two EMTs into the room, running to Trey’s side to gaze at his nephew—Shawn Brice Wilson.
✽ ✽ ✽
Later that evening, Brittany clutched her son in her hospital bed, smiling as his little mouth rooted against her breast. “Not you too,” she said, leading him to her nipple.
“I’m loaning them to him, baby girl. They are mine though.”
She laughed, happy, content and a much better woman for all she’d been through.
“Thank you for giving me a beautiful son, Brittany. Thank you for giving me an experience I’ll cherish forever.”
She closed her eyes, the baby’s suckling sending waves of love through her for the boy and his father.
“What else could you expect of us?” she said softly. “Just you and I, conquering everything and bringing our son into the world without anyone else there.”
“In the very bed he was made.”
“Maybe. Or maybe we made him in the pool. Or on the dining room table.”
“Little witch.”
“Devil.”
He stood, removing the sleeping infant from her arms and kissing his forehead before calling for a neonatal nurse to return him to the nursery.
“I want him with us, Trey.”
“Tomorrow. Tonight you’re resting.”
As exhausted as she was she didn’t argue.
He brushed her lips with his. “Happy birthday, Mrs. Wilson.”
Brittany smiled at her husband and kissed him back. “Thank you, Lieutenant Wilson.”
She and Trey had conquered mountains and succeeded through all adversity. The promise of many happy tomorrows made her sigh with gratitude. “I love you, Trey.
“I love you more, baby girl.”