Just What I Need (The Bradfords) (4 page)

Doug’s dad gave her a thumbs up and started rolling down the aisle with assistance from Jay, his caregiver.

Everyone was fine and taken care of.

When she turned back, Doug was talking softly to Sam—who looked like he wanted to throw up.

“You know what I’m gonna say,” Doug said to Sam as she headed for them.

“You’ll let me go with her if I swear I’m not going to be in the way or pass out,” Sam said. He ran a hand over his face. “I am
not
ready for this.”

“Pull yourself together. Dani needs you,” Doug said, pushing to his feet and offering his hand to friend.

With a sigh and a nod, Sam took it and let Doug pull him up.

“We should call the ambulance,” Sam said.

Doug pressed his lips together and nodded. “Yeah, probably.”

Morgan frowned. “But she’s surrounded by paramedics and an ER doctor and nurse.” Ben might not deliver babies every day, but he was the best and she was positive that he could handle this.

Doug looked over at her, his hand still on Sam’s shoulder. “The babies are probably going to need equipment we don’t have.”

Morgan looked at Sam. He looked pained. It was a moment where he definitely knew too much.

“Want me to call?” Morgan asked.

“I’m sure someone already did,” Doug said with confidence. He squeezed Sam’s shoulder. “Dani’s gonna be fine.”

Sam nodded. “I know. Let’s go.”

They let themselves into the dressing room where the bridesmaids had gotten ready and nearly ran Sara over as she reached the door at the same time.

“Come on.” She grabbed Sam’s hand and turned back the way she’d come.

“Where are they?” Sam asked as he looked around the room.

“Limo.” Sara headed for the door that led outside.

“
Limo
?” Doug repeated, taking Morgan’s hand and pulling her along with him.

“It’s the only car we can all fit into,” Sara said, pushing the door open. “And nobody wants to miss this.”

Of course. There was no breaking this group up. No matter what was going on. They’d even gotten the twenty-passenger-who-even-makes-a-limo-this-big limo. “Dani’s going to have the baby in the limo?” Morgan asked, picking up her skirt so she could jog along with them.

“Well, no. The hospital’s only ten minutes away,” Sara said.

Sam ran to the limo, his dress shoes slipping in the pea gravel surrounding the parking area. He grabbed for the handle on the back door and wrenched it open, barely catching himself from falling to his knees.

Dani was on the backseat, propped up against Jessica and lying on top of three tux jackets, her lap covered by a white dress shirt.

Jessica was talking to her softly. Mac, dressed only in a white undershirt, knelt next to her on the car floor. Ben, also in a white undershirt, was between her knees.

And Kevin sat on the seat across from the door…holding a baby.

Chapter Three

Sam stared at the tiny baby in Kevin’s arms.

He felt like every muscle in his chest was cramping. He couldn’t breathe and he wasn’t entirely sure his heart was going to be able to beat in another minute.

A baby was already here. A baby. One of
his
babies. One of his daughters.

And he’d missed it.

One of their daughters had come into the world without him.

A groan caught his attention and he was able to move his gaze from the tiny baby girl to the gorgeous woman who lay on the back limo seat.

Danika.

She looked up at him and the moment he looked into her eyes, everything cleared up.

“Sam.”

Before she even had his name out, he was in the limo, kneeling on the floor next to her.

Sam leaned in close to her, running his hand over her hair. “I’m here, babe. I’m here.”

He felt the car start as Dani grabbed his hand and squeezed, huffing and puffing through another contraction.

Sam watched her, his breathing nearly as ragged. Once the pain passed, he dropped his forehead to hers. “God, Dani, I’m so sorry I missed the first one.”

She lifted her hand to his face. “It’s going really fast, Sam. Way faster than we expected. It’s okay. I’m okay. Everyone’s here.”

Sam lifted his head and looked around the interior of the car. Everyone
was
there. Everyone they cared about, everyone they needed. Then his gaze landed on the bundle in Kevin’s arms again. He tried to swallow and couldn’t.

“She okay?” he asked his friend.

“Perfect,” Kevin assured him.

Sam turned back to his wife. He wanted to hold the baby so badly, but once he held her, he’d never want to put her down and Dani needed him right now. “Why didn’t you tell me this was starting?”

“Because you would have made me leave and we had plenty of time.”

Sam snorted. “Clearly.”

“Well, I went from barely there contractions to…” She gave a soft laugh and gestured toward their first baby. “…
her
in the matter of about an hour.”

“Do you have any idea how lucky you are?” Jessica asked with a small laugh. “You can
not
tell people that you had
twins
in a matter of an hour and a half. Every other mother will hate you.”

Sara was tucked up against Mac and her eyes had been stoically fastened on the window until her sister spoke. She spun on her seat to face them. “Did you say
twins
?”

“Twin
girls
,” Kevin said, gently patting the butt of the baby that was tiny enough to fit fully in one of his big hands.

“What’d you think we were still doing here?” Jess asked her sister with a smile.

“I don’t know how all this goes,” Sara said, waving her hand at everything in front of her. Her eyes were wide. “You didn’t tell us it was going to be twins!”

“Sam deserves twin girls,” Mac said before Sam could speak.

“Gorgeous twin girls,” Kevin added, gazing down at the baby he held.

Sam sighed. He’d been expecting all kinds of teasing from the moment he’d heard the doctor say it was twins. His friends were predictable if nothing else.

Sara slumped back into her seat. “Twins,” she said softly. “God.”

Dani sucked in a sharp breath, curling up and then groaning and panting through another contraction.

Sam held his breath through the entire thing.

“Oh, God.” Sara groaned, covering her eyes with her hands.

Sam glanced over, but the last thing he could do right now was worry about another female. Thankfully, with everyone else here, he wouldn’t have to.

Dooley frowned at her. “What’s your deal?”

Sara dropped her hands and leaned over to Kevin. “Give me the baby.”

Kevin grinned and handed the infant over. Sara tucked her into her elbow, cradling her close to her body, gazing down into her niece’s face.

Sam had to swallow hard again. Seeing his baby sister, the little girl he’d worried about and protected, hold his baby daughter was enough to make his chest tight again.

And then suddenly Sara was crying. Tears streamed over her cheeks and she sucked in a ragged breath, swiping at the wetness with the back of her hand.

“Sara?” Dooley and Kevin leaned toward her simultaneously. “You okay?”

Sam smiled at the protective reflex from the guys who had spent years feeling like, and acting like, big brothers to Sara. Her tears always made them nuts, even now that she was a married woman. A married woman with a very protective husband.

“She’s good. Great, actually. She’s a little emotional with…everything.” Mac pulled her closer. He was clearly bothered by her tears though.

The baby in Sara’s arms squawked and something in Sam felt like it was reaching out, trying to get to his new daughter. Then Dani gasped and groaned as another contraction took over and Sam was immediately focused on her again. He felt every inch of his body tense, wishing that he could take the pain for her, praying that it was almost over.

When Dani finally slumped back into Jessica’s support, a loud sniff pulled everyone’s attention to Sara again.

She was still crying and staring at the baby in her arms.

Mac looked around apologetically at their friends. “We weren’t going to tell you all today, but…we’ve decided to adopt Elijah.”

Jessica gasped. “Really? Oh, that’s so great.”

Sam pivoted quickly to look at his best friend. “Wow. Awesome, man.” He looked at Sara, pure pride flooding through him—on top of all the other emotions. He was thrilled to know that the little boy who’d captured all of their hearts was going to be a permanent member of the family. He was going to be an uncle again. He loved being an uncle. “Really awesome.”

“Yeah.” Mac smiled. “We were going to tell you in the next few days, but didn’t want to take away from Dooley and Morgan.”

Morgan moved over next to Sara and hugged her, careful not to squish the baby between them. “Don’t be silly. This doesn’t take away from anything, it adds to the celebration.”

“Glad you feel that way,” Sam said dryly. “We didn’t plan to have so much attention today either.” He stroked his hand over Dani’s hair again.

“Hey, it’s all good,” Dooley said, his voice a little thick. He cleared his throat then, obviously needing to lighten things up, he said, “You name one of the babies Nuptial and it’s all as it should be.”

Sam smiled and shook his head. These guys—including him—didn’t get mushy and emotional. Well, they didn’t get
this
mushy and emotional. Somebody had to do something before they all lost their man cards.

Sam appreciated the distraction from all the emotions that seemed to keep crashing against him like ocean waves threatening to knock him on his ass and smother him. He couldn’t go down. Dani and the babies needed him.

“We’re not naming one of the babies Nuptial,” he said, playing along.

“Or Tulle.”

Everyone looked at Mac.

“What? That’s a wedding term. You don’t hear people talking about tulle any other time.”

Dooley scoffed. “You want Sam to name one of his daughters Tool?”

“It’s Tulle. With a ‘u’,” Mac said.

“Right. But you say it ‘tool’,” Dooley pointed out.

“Well, how about Corsage? That’s pretty,” Mac said.

“How do you even know what tulle is?” Dooley asked, ignoring the corsage thing for the moment.

“I’m married to Sara. I know all about girlie things. Especially when she’s been talking about a wedding for the past few months.”

No one could argue with that. They didn’t get much girlier than Sara.

“You don’t really know what tulle is,” Sara said, smiling in spite of her wet cheeks. “You only know the word.”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re not naming anyone after wedding terms,” Sam said, thankful for every single person in that car. When they were all together, it really did feel like nothing bad could touch them.

“Come on. Corsage is really nice,” Mac said.

“Or Garland,” Kevin suggested. “Or you could do Corsage and Garland for both of them, keep with a theme.”

“Or Bouquet,” Mac said.

“I’ve got it,” Kevin announced. “Lace and Rose. Beautiful.”

Well, that wasn’t all bad, Sam had to admit. But he still muttered, “For God’s sake, these are my
daughters
.”

Too late he realized that the truth that Sam Bradford had daughters—gorgeous twin daughters who, if there was any justice in the world at all, would be a complete and total handful—had just fully sunk in for everyone.

For a moment the car was completely quiet. Not exactly what he’d been going for.

The quiet was finally broken by Sara sniffing again. When they all looked at her, she blurted out, “I’m pregnant.”

Sam felt like he should be shocked—or something—but maybe adding even one more emotion to the mix was impossible at the moment. All he could do was frown.

Mac froze, then slowly turned to face his wife. “What did you just say?”

She nodded. “I’m pregnant. I took the test this morning. I was going to tell you tonight when we were alone.” She gave her husband a small smile.

Mac was clearly stunned. He pulled his wife, and their niece, against his chest. “God, princess,” he muttered into her hair. “I… Christ…”

“And there is no way in hell you’re naming one of our kids Tulle,” Sara said against his chest.

Mac chuckled. “Of course not. That’s a ridiculous name.”

She hugged him with one arm, then pulled away to face everyone else. “We weren’t sure we could get pregnant. We’ve been trying for awhile.” She looked up at Mac. “It would have been okay. We were okay with it. We had Elijah and planned to take more kids in. But…” She sighed. Then smiled. “I guess it was time.”

The fog cleared a little and what Sara had just said fully hit Sam. “You’re
pregnant
?”

There was a beat of silence, then everyone laughed out loud.

He frowned at them all. Okay, so Sara’s big brother was a little slow on the uptake. Surely that was understandable, considering what was going on at the moment.