Just What I Need (The Bradfords) (5 page)

But maybe Sara’s news was hard to grasp because he didn’t let himself believe that Sara and Mac had sex.

“That’s right, Sammy,” Mac said with a huge grin. “And I promise you that it was not an immaculate conception.”

Sam opened his mouth to reply to that, but suddenly Dani gave a sharp gasp.

“
Ah
.”

Immediately everyone’s attention was back on the main event.

Until the driver lowered the partition between him and the back of the car. “Uh, Mr. Miller?”

“Yeah?” Dooley asked.

“We have a little issue up here.”

Sam leaned forward to look out the windshield. He became aware they weren’t moving. “What’s going on?”

All he could see was the back of other cars. A lot of other cars.

“Traffic jam, I guess,” the driver said. “We’re at a standstill here.”

Terrific. Looking around Sam realized they were blocked in on all sides.

Dooley turned to the other guys. “Okay, we’re stuck.”

“Yeah, we’re not going to make it to the hospital with only one baby anyway,” Ben said calmly.

“We’re only two miles away,” Dooley said. “We should call 9-1-1. Maybe they can get to us.”

As if he’d conjured it, the sound of an ambulance siren suddenly pierced the air.

Dooley looked around quickly. “You all hear that right?”

Kevin grinned at him. “Yeah.”

Mac leaned toward the window. “Must be more than traffic.”

Dooley loosened his tie and pulled it off as he kissed Morgan’s cheek and got out of the car. Kevin was right behind him.

Dooley and Kevin jogged ahead, led by the siren growing closer and came upon the accident about two hundred yards in front of the limo.

“Anybody still inside?” Dooley asked the pickup truck driver who had a gash on his forehead but was pacing and talking on his cell phone.

“No, it was just me and those two.” He gestured at the man and woman standing next to the car Dooley assumed was theirs. The car that the big pickup had rear-ended.

“You okay?” Kevin asked the man, dipping his knees to look the woman in the face.

“Yeah, I guess. Her ankle hurts.”

“Ma’am?” Kevin asked. “Where’s it hurt?”

“My foot jammed into the floor when he hit us.” She shot a glare over their shoulders to the truck driver behind them. “I think it’s sprained.”

Kevin started to kneel when the ambulance came to a stop along the shoulder and two of the paramedics bailed out.

“Hey, Dooley,” Derek Williams greeted as he took in the scene. “What are you doing here? Isn’t this your wedding day?”

“Long story,” Dooley told him.

“What’s going on here?”

Kevin gave Derek and Mike a run-down of what little they knew before the guys turned to the accident victims, who seemed in much better shape than their car.

“Hey, Conner,” Dooley called as the third member of the crew showed up.

“Hey.” He took in Kevin and Dooley’s attire. “You bailing on the wedding? Where’s Morgan?”

“Ha-ha,” Dooley said dryly. Conner had offered Morgan a chance to run off with a real man. More than once. He was hilarious. “We’re married, it’s official, no chance for you.”

“Too bad.” Conner grinned. “But seriously, what’s up?”

“We’re on our way to the hospital. Danika Bradford’s in labor in the limo back about two hundred yards.”

Conner glanced in that direction. “No shit?”

“No shit. So if these people don’t need you, think you could head back that way?”

“Yeah, of course.” He craned his neck to get a look at the traffic situation. “We probably can’t get the rig back there, but we’ll bring the gurney. She okay?”

“Already had one of the two,” Kevin said. “Baby’s doing okay. She had an APGAR of ten at one and five minutes,” he said, naming the assessment they used to determine a newborn’s immediate status after birth. A ten was a perfect score.

“There are
two
coming?” Conner asked. “No way.”

Kevin nodded. “Twin girls.”

Conner grinned. “Sam Bradford’s having twin girls. That’s awesome.”

Kevin and Dooley couldn’t help their grins. It really was.

“We’ll get there,” Conner assured them. “Let me grab the gurney and me and Ryan will head back there.”

“Great.”

Once Kevin and Dooley were back to the limo, Kevin offered to stay outside and make sure Conner and Ryan could find them—though they were the only limo on the street. Eve climbed out to keep him company and Dooley slid in next to Morgan, just as Ben said, “Okay, Dani. Let’s get your other girl here. It’s time.”

Dani nodded, her breathing shallow, her eyes locked on Ben, and within moments twin number two arrived in the world. They all held their breaths, with huge smiles, waiting.

The baby made a small mewling sound, but Ben muttered something under his breath. Then he said simply, “Need a shirt. Something.”

Dooley and Sam shrugged out of their dress shirts, handing them over quickly. Ben wrapped the baby in one and put her on Dani’s chest. “Hold her close, Dani. Keep her warm.”

“She’s so tiny,” Dani said, her hand, much smaller than Ben’s, covering her daughter’s entire back.

“Yes, she is,” Ben agreed. “But we were expecting this.”

Dani rubbed the baby and nodded.

“We were expecting one to be tiny?” Sara asked, moving closer, a worried frown pulling her eyebrows together.

Ben nodded. “It’s not uncommon in twins.”

“She’ll be okay though?” Sara asked.

“Sara, bring her here,” Dani said.

Sara handed the first baby to Dani, who laid her beside her sister. Sam helped arrange the babies against one another and laid another shirt over both, keeping his hand over his wife’s.

Ben started to lean back, but Sam grabbed his friend’s shoulder. “We okay until we get to St. A’s?”

Ben huffed out a breath. “Not my area of expertise, Sam.”

“Tell me what you think,” Sam said, his hand gentle on Dani’s hair, even as Dooley noticed it was shaking.

Morgan slid closer to Dooley and he put his arm around her, the warmth of her body comforting him even as he ached to do
something
for his friends.

“She’s breathing well, but she’s going to have trouble keeping her body temperature up,” Ben said, meeting Sam’s gaze directly. “She’s going to have to work to thrive, to gain weight and grow.”

Ben was the unflappable one, the one used to calming chaos, the one they all trusted to be honest but gentle. He did it every day in the ER with the families of his patients.

They all understood that Sam needed Ben to spell everything out because Sam wasn’t able to be unflappable or calm right now. Dooley was sure Ben had studied up on all of this the moment he knew there were twins coming into their family.

“She’ll need the NICU for a few days, an incubator,” Ben said. “She’s likely anemic and they’ll have to monitor for apnea.”

Dooley frowned at the list. Premature babies often spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit. That was a given, probably for both babies. The incubator would only be needed until she was big enough to regulate her own temperature. The anemia, the low number of red blood cells, might require a transfusion though, and the apnea, where she would periodically stop breathing, was also more serious, of course.

And Sam knew all those things as well as Dooley did.

Ben looked around at the group of friends. “We knew all of this was probably going to happen. There are no surprises here.”

“What else?” Sam asked Ben.

“There are no deformities. The labor wasn’t hard. Dani was healthy during her pregnancy, the only risk factor here was being a twin,” Ben said firmly.

Sam pulled a breath in through his nose and looked down at his wife. Then his daughters. He nodded. “Okay.”

Dooley felt Morgan tighten her arm around his waist and realized he’d started to move forward. “You can’t do anything,” she whispered.

He knew that, of course. He didn’t have an incubator or a heart monitor in his back pocket. “But, I…” He trailed off, not even having words.

Morgan leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I know.”

Eve jerked the car door open. “The paramedics are here.”

Ryan and Conner crowded into the doorway with equipment. Finally.

Dooley sighed with relief.

“So, this is how people feel when we show up,” he said in Morgan’s ear.

She hugged him tight. “Yep.” Her voice was scratchy.

Dooley kissed the top of her head.

Ben filled the paramedics in on what had transpired with Dani and the births.

They loaded Dani onto the gurney, both babies still in her arms. Within minutes they were in the ambulance on their way to St. Anthony’s.

It was nearly thirty minutes later that traffic started moving again and the limo pulled up in front of the emergency entrance at St. Anthony’s.

Everyone piled out and headed into the hospital, but Dooley held back, keeping Morgan with him.

Morgan sighed. “The tux shop is going to be
very
unhappy.”

Dooley couldn’t believe it, but he chuckled. “I think it’s safe to say that we’re not getting our deposits back.”

Morgan slipped her hand into his. “Totally worth it.”

“Yeah.” For a moment he was overcome with the reality of what had just happened. And the fact that his new wife was taking it all in stride. He really knew how to pick ’em.

Morgan turned to him. “So, we going or what?”

Dooley took a deep breath. He wanted to go on his honeymoon so badly. He wanted to get back in the limo that already had their suitcases in the trunk and head for the airport. He wanted to be at the five-star resort in Italy, naked next to Morgan for the next two weeks. They could leave whenever they wanted to. Morgan’s ex-boss, Jonathan Britton, was giving them use of his private jet as a wedding gift and Morgan’s sister had called to say that everyone was at the reception and having a great time, even without them.

And they probably should stop by the reception. But…

He glanced at the ER’s sliding doors.

How could he tell his new wife that he wanted to postpone their honeymoon? Even if it was for only a few days, could he really do that?

“Mr. Miller?”

He looked at the driver over the top of the car. “Just give us a second.” He turned to Morgan. “Sugar, I was thinking…”

But she had her cell phone to her ear. “Hi, this is Morgan James. I mean, Miller.”

She shot him a quick grin that made possessive heat flood through him. She was his. His
wife
. He was going to wake up next to her every morning for the rest of his life.

“Yes, we need to postpone our flight.”

He straightened.

“We’re not sure. We’ll let you know. But not tonight. Thanks though.”

She disconnected and looked at him. Obviously his surprised showed. “What?” she asked.

“Who was that?”

“The pilot. Thought it was pretty rude to make him sit there waiting when we’re not going tonight.”

“We’re not?”

She frowned. “Of course not. We need to be here. When Dani and the babies are okay, we’ll talk about Italy. Or we can go in a few months. But we need to be here right now.”

He grabbed her hand and brought her palm to his mouth. He kissed her hand and said, “God, I love you.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know. Let’s go.”

Chapter Four

“I can’t even tell you how
outstanding
this is,” Kevin said, handing Sam a can of Pepsi and slumping into the chair next to him.

His friend was obviously exhausted, but Kevin knew Sam wouldn’t sleep until he had some word on his girls. Dani was in the bed in the room just a few feet away, blessedly asleep. She was doing fine. Better than fine. She’d been incredibly diligent about her health during the pregnancy and the doctor had no concerns about her recovery.

No one had told them anything about the babies yet, though. So Sam wasn’t going to sleep or even leave the small waiting area outside of Dani’s room.

Which meant Kevin was going to help keep Sam awake and at least a little distracted while he waited.

“It’s outstanding that my daughters are five weeks premature and in the NICU?” Sam growled, popping his soda can open.

“Of course not,” Kevin said easily, “but it’s outstanding that you
have
daughters. It would only be better if they were triplets.”

Sam moaned, leaning his head on the back of the chair.

Kevin chuckled as he took a drink from his own can. It really was outstanding. Sam was going to be a great father. And if there was a God—and Kevin absolutely believed that there was—Sam’s daughters would have
lots
of boyfriends.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there with you to meet anyone who wants to take Lace and Rose out.” He would. Yes, to make sure that the guys were good enough for the girls. But also to watch Sam squirm.