Mischief and Mistletoe (8 page)

Concerned, Tamara reached up and caressed his cheek. “It’s all going to be fine. I promise you.”

“If something horrible happens and you die…” His voice cracked on the last word. “I will kill you.”

Tamara didn’t even try to fix the crazy in that sentence because she knew exactly what he meant. “I love you too.”

“We can do this.” Russell’s voice lacked conviction but held strength.

“Yes we can.” And because she didn’t want him to overthink it too much, she for once just shut up and took his hand in hers. Sometimes not saying anything was the best thing to say.

Despite what he said earlier, Russell was far from sure that they could really do this, but when Juniper walked in the room almost an hour later, all of Russell’s stressed walked out. Yes, he was still nervous for his wife and child, but he was no longer worried that Ty was going to be the most knowledgeable person in the room when it came to delivery.

While Juniper checked Tamara out, Russell and Ty unpacked the tractor that Juniper ended up riding in on since the street wasn’t all the way cleared yet and hauled everything up to the guest room. When they were done,
Ty headed back downstairs to wait for the ambulance, but Charlotte stayed to help Juniper out. She was standing a little bit behind the midwife with a towel at the ready to take the baby once he was born.

And from the way Tamara was moaning, that was going to be at anytime. Climbing up beside her, Russell focused all of his energy and love on her and willed Tamara every ounce of strength he could. Not that she needed it. Like with all things, his wife faced this with grace and determination. She just amazed him. Women amazed him. Russell couldn’t imagine how the civilization continued on with what wom
en had to endure in order to reproduce. If his mother were still alive, Russell would have called her right then and there and thanked her from the bottom of his heart because seriously…he would rather the world die off than go through what Tamara was doing right now.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Tamara said suddenly out of the blue.

The midwife chuckled and scooted the footstool they’d grabbed from downstairs closer to the bed. “No, sweetie. The baby is just crowning. It feels like you have to go potty.”

Great
, Russell thought to himself. Now he was going to associate the birth of his son to taking a big dump for the rest of his life.

“I can see the head
, Tamara,” Charlotte said excitedly.

“Good, great. Grab him and yank his little ass out.” Tamara groaned, oh so
obviously ready to be done with the whole thing.

“Listen to me
, Tamara,” her midwife said soothingly. “We’re at the end of the line, sweetie. Time to do this, are you ready?”

“
Uh-huh.” Tamara nodded.

“With the next contraction, I want you to bear down and push but stop when I tell you.
Understand?”

“
Yes,” Tamara said as she pushed with all her might.

“That’s it
, baby. Push. Come on.” He held her steady as she pushed, all the while feeling completely helpless. His wife was in the fight of a lifetime, birthing their child, and all he could do was rub her shoulders and offer flat platitudes. He wished he could do more. Take the pain. Blink and put the baby in her arms. Anything and everything to be of some use. But the only thing he could do was be there for her and be damned if he let her down now. “You’re doing great, babe. I love you. I love you so much.”

“Oh
God, oh God, oh God.” Tamara bucked up and screamed at the top of her lungs. “Ted Nugent.”

It was so unexpected that it start
led a laugh out of Russell and funny looks from their friends. “Did you really just use our safe word?”

“Yes,” Tamara groaned. “Because I don’t want to do
this any…more…”

“Tamara
, I want you to stop now. Just hold for a second.”

“Fuck.”
Gasping for air, she slumped back against Russell, who was rubbing his hands up and down her arms and muttering words of encouragement and love in her ear.

“
All right, Tamara, let’s finish this up and get him out.”

“
Okay.” Tamara bore down. “Okay, okkkkkayyy.” And with that last push, their son slid safely out and into this new wild world.

Juniper placed the baby on Tamara’s belly and proudly proclaimed, “It’s a boy.”

“Oh my God!” Tamara exclaimed as she stared down in wonder at her son.

The first sight of his son did things to Russell he couldn’t put in words. Even gross and covered in yuck
, their baby boy was still the most beautiful thing Russell had ever seen…and also the loudest because the first thing he did once he was out was test his freedom by crying at the top of his lungs and waving his little hands about. This was one disgruntled customer and he was demanding to be treated as the royalty he so obviously was.

“He’s so beautiful
.” Tamara’s voice was filled with her awe and her eyes were filled with tears.

“That’s because you’re his mother.”

Without even asking if Russell wanted to cut the cord, the midwife severed the last tie from the baby to Tamara and then took him off Tamara and handed him to Charlotte who had been waiting patiently with a towel. Charlotte held him still for a moment as Juniper quickly checked his pulse and responses. “Looks good,” she said before turning her attention back to Tamara.

Charlotte looked over at Tamara and winked then took the baby into a
djoining bathroom while the midwife finished delivering the afterbirth. The pain that had been rocking Tamara’s body for the good part of three hours seemed all but gone as he stared down at his peaceful wife who was focusing her gaze on the bathroom.

“You okay
?”

She turned her gaze from the door and up to him. Her eyes were filled with tears. “I’m so much better than okay. We did it.”

“No, love, you did it. You are a god!” All the stress he’d been holding inside since the second her water broke just flowed from his body. It was going to be okay. No, scratch that. It was okay.

The
midwife stood with a plastic trash bag in her hand. “Good job, Mommy. You didn’t even tear.”

“Wait
.” Russell paled a bit as he eased from behind her and onto the floor. “Was that an option?” Because everything about that seemed just wrong.

“A very common and treatable option, but not for Tamara. She was a champ
,” she said as she patted Tamara’s knee. “I’m going to move these downstairs so they can be given to the EMT when they arrive for disposal and I’ll send Ty up.”

As she walked out, Charlotte
walked back in. The baby was wrapped in a different towel and he was clean. “Here he is,” Charlotte said to Tamara as she laid the baby into her arms.

His usual
loquacious wife seemed at a loss for words, but Russell couldn’t blame her. He was feeling pretty damn speechless himself. Really what was there to say when one was graced with such perfection?

As the three of them looked on with awe, there was a loud sound from the hallway, like a stampede of bulls
, then suddenly Ty was in the room, smiling from ear to ear. From the sounds of it, he ran the entire way. “Where’s my nephew?”

He and Tamara had wanted to keep the baby’s name a secret for as long as possible, but now, here with his family, Russell uttered the name of the next generation of Crichton men. Reaching down, he ran his hand gently over the baby’s head. “Tyson
Boyd Creighton.”

“Tyson.” Ty’s eyes grew bigger at the implication. “You’re naming him after me.
”

“You and my father,” Russell said proudly. “
Two good names from two good men. What do you think?”

Ty walked around the bed and en
gulfed Russell into a hug. They held each other for a moment before pulling back. “I’m honored.”

Russell knew Ty would make a big deal out of it, but to him it was completely normal. Russell was named after his father’s brother, it only made sense to him that he would continue the tradition with the man who was like a brother to him.
“You’re family.”

The bedroom creaked opened and Candace came into the room dragging in a well-loved
blankie behind her. She was rubbing a tiny closed fist over her eyes and let out a jaw-popping yawn as she came closer to the bed.

“Hey
, princess.” Ty scooped her up in his arms. “What are you doing up?”

“I heard noises and I thought it was Santa.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in Santa anymore.”

“You know what
Momma says, better safe than sorry, Daddy.”

Ty laughed and squeezed his pint
-size terrorist a little closer to him. “She does say that all right.”

“Well
, we had a visitor but it wasn’t Santa,” Charlotte said warmly. “Look who decided to come early.”

Tamara tilted her arms and turned Tyson so that Candace could see him better.

The little girl’s eyes widened to comic proportions. “The baby,” she whispered the words as though if she spoke them too loudly he might disappear. When he didn’t blink out of evidence, she started to kick her feet and push away from her father. “Daddy, let me go.”

“Sorry
, baby.” Ty laughed and set his daughter down. The minute her little feet hit the floor she booked it to the bed.

Tamara winced a bit as the bed jiggled under the weight of the little girl crawling excitedly toward her, but she shook her head at Ty when he went to grab Candace. Instead of complaining as most would have, Tamara merely held a free hand out to Candace and helped her get settled down between her and Charlotte. “Comfy?” she asked.

Candace didn’t answer, choosing instead to stare in awe at Tyson for several long seconds before finally looking up at Tamara. “Did Santa bring him?”

“Nope,” Tamara said with a grin. “I brought him. Carried him in my stomach all that time. Remember I let you touch my belly when he was moving?”

Candace nodded as she leaned closer to inspect the new arrival.

“Don’t touch him, okay
?” her mother warned.

“I won’t,” she said as she pulled her hand back, seconds away from doing just that. “How did he get out of you?”

The adults all shared an “oh crap” look before Charlotte cleared her throat and said, “Let’s just say magic and leave it as that for now.”

Candace shrugged. Luckily she was at an age where magic was still a pretty good explanation for things. “He’s so cute. Can we keep him?”

“No,” Russell tried kindly. “I’m pretty sure we want to take him home.”

“No
.” Candace shook her head determinedly. “He’s mine.”

Russell chuckled at her audacity. His niece was one of a kind. That was for damn sure.

“Candace, just because you say so, doesn’t mean it’s true,” Charlotte chided. “You can’t just keep people.”

“Uh
-huh. Daddy said he just kept you.”

“No, he didn’t. Ty, did you tell her that?”

Ty ran his hand over the back of his head and grinned sheepishly at his wife. “I might have said something similar to that.”

“Or exactly that,” Charlotte said, not amused.

“Or possibly exactly that.”

“I can’t believe you’re lying to our baby. Got her thinking she can just keep people.”

Russell had to turn his head to keep from laughing, because despite what Charlotte was saying, that was exactly what happened.

“I’m going to be really nice to him
, Mom. He can sleep in my room and I’ll even share my toys with him.” Candace paused for a second before amending her previous statement. “Well, some of them anyway.”

Her mother let out a sigh as she looked over at Ty. “You know this is your genes
, right?”

“How about this,” Tamara chimed in. “We’ll share him, that way he’s both mine and yours.”

Candace looked doubtful for a minute before she slowly nodded her head. “Okay, but I think I should get him most of the time.”

Russell scooped Candace up and tossed her into the air. “You think so, do you?” he asked as he caught her mid
-giggle.

“Yes!” the little girl shrieked. “He’s mine, mine, mine.”

“I have to say, I can’t fault your taste,” Russell said as he handed her off to her father. “He’s adorable. Just like you.”

“He’s also going to sleep,” Ty said. “Just like you need to.”

“But, Dad!”

“No
‘but, Dad’ nothing. Say good night, again, to everyone because its curtain time for you.”

“
’Night.” Her voice broke as she started to cry.

If Russell’s heart had been made of ice, it would have melted right then. He wanted nothing more than to pull her free so she could stay up with them, but he knew better than to say anything. He blew her a little kiss as
Charlotte and Tamara called out sweet good nights, then made his way over to his family.