The Billionaire's Baby (The Romero Brothers, Book 5) (13 page)

“Well,
congratulations, bro. Welcome to the wonderful world of wedded life.” Carl
playfully slugged Jules’s arm. Jules had just applied for the marriage license so
that he and Amber could exchange vows before the baby arrived. They hoped to
tie the knot sometime next week.

The two men were
in his office at City Hall following Carl’s chamber meeting with the council.
Carl then leaned back against his desk and folded his arms across his chest
with a proud smile on his face.
 
“Man, I’m so glad you decided you’re
going to do the right thing. You know Granddad is going to go crazy,” Carl
continued.

“The right
thing?” Jules asked, perplexed.

“Yeah. You know
Amber is the right woman for you, I just wasn’t sure how you were going to
handle this situation with biological kids and everything that you were talking
about.”

“Well, you know,
Carl, I thought about what you said and you’re right. I don’t want to miss out
on something amazing with Amber because of this situation. I already lost her
once. I’m not making the same mistake twice.”

“What did she say
when you told her about…?”

“She looked a
little stunned at first but then she shrugged and said it didn’t really matter.”
Jules wiped a smudge off his belt buckle as he stood in front of his brother. “What
matters is that we can be a family—together. And we can always adopt if
we want more kids.”

“Nice. Amber really
has a heart of gold.”

 
“Tell me about it.” Jules looked out the
window, his heart racing hard and fast. The city road was busy with cars
zooming by. Construction workers were outside drilling. He felt like there was a
drill pressing into him right now. Sure he was happy that Amber said “yes” to
his proposal and it was good that she said she didn’t mind that they may never
have biological kids together but a part of him still didn’t sit too well with his
situation.

“You look like
your mind is somewhere else, Jules. You okay? You’re not having second thoughts,
are you?” Carl arched a brow.

“Nah. Not a
chance, man. Listen, I’ve got to run. I’m meeting with Brenda so she can brief
me on some upcoming changes with the Family Center.”

“Oh, and how’s
that coming along?”

“As expected. The
current employees were a little anxious about the change in ownership and
worried about layoffs, of course.”

“And? You’re not
going to lay off anyone, are you?”

“Are you kidding
me? If I thought I would have to do that, I wouldn’t have bothered. You know me,
Carl. I’m just as passionate about saving jobs as you are. In fact, they were a
bit surprised that frontline workers at the center would be getting raises and there
will be job expansion, not decrease.”

“Sweet. Now
that’s called progress.
Betcha
they’re glad a Romero
took over the facility.”

“Well, the old
owners were hoping that I’d have an epic fail so they were the only ones who
were reportedly disappointed with all of this.”

Just then, Jules’s
ring tone sounded. The tune “My Girl” played.

Carl couldn’t
help but chuckle. “Dude, that is so lame. Surely, you can do better than that,
Jules.”

“Nothing’s lame
when it comes to…my girl. Besides, it’s one of our songs—Amber’s a huge
oldies fan, you know,” he said, answering the phone. It was Venus. Why was Venus
calling from Amber’s phone?

“Thank God, Jules!”
Venus sounded frantic. “I’m with Amber. We’re at the hospital. We had to call
an ambulance.”

Jules’s heart exploded
in his chest.

Amber shrieked as
she was wheeled into the delivery room on the maternity ward. Her heart raced
in her chest, her body felt pumped as if it were on a massive adrenaline spike.
The nurses sprung into action while her obstetrician was paged.

“It’s okay, baby,
I’m right here with you,” Jules assured. Amber squeezed his hand. Everything
happened so fast. She didn’t even remember how many centimeters she was dilated
when the nurse did the examination at the emergency room before they sent her
to
labor
and delivery.
 

Amber was in
active phase of
labor
—the phase before the
final stage, which would be the transitional or advanced
labor
.
Still, she felt as if she were about to give birth any time now but the ER
nurse said she wasn’t dilated enough yet.

Amber’s
contractions were growing stronger and stronger by the minute and the pain more
intense and memorable.

She just moaned
and groaned.

“Just breathe
like we learned in the classes, Amber,” Jules instructed.

“Ah!” she
screamed out as another shot of pain crippled her nerve.

“Okay, baby,
that’s good.” Poor Jules didn’t know what else to do.
She was
gripping his hand so tightly
,
it almost hurt
.
Good thing he was strong and firm like an impenetrable boulder. She needed him
to be her rock.

“Oh, Jules,” she
finally managed to articulate. “I wanted us to be married first.”

“It’s okay. It
doesn’t matter.”

“But it
does
matter. I want us to be married
first. Please, Jules.”

“What?”

Amber cried out,
unbearable pressure stabbing her lower back and tightness in her throat.

Dion got there in
time and Jules’s assistant Brenda was nearby. “Okay, guys, where’s the nurse?”

“I’m right here,”
a woman in blue scrubs called out. She was jotting down notes on a clipboard
while watching the monitor with Amber’s vital signs.

“What can I do
for you?” the nurse asked sweetly. Poor thing. She was probably trained to
cater to the needs of expectant mothers providing whatever she could for them;
however, she was obviously unaware what this expectant mother needed.

Most women asked for
a back rub during this phase of
labor
or a
wash cloth
, not a minister who could perform wedding ceremonies.

Amber tried to
follow the directions she’d learned in her prenatal class about keeping calm
and relaxing her muscles but it was increasingly hard to concentrate when her body
was going through an avalanche of painful contractions.

 
“We’re getting married,” Amber panted.

“Oh, that’s nice,”
the nurse said. “When is the date?”

“Now!” Amber
screamed out as another shot of pain struck her like a lightning bolt. Despite
the agony, she tried to contain herself. Tears moistened her eyes. She felt her
spine burn as if it were afire.

“Now
?!
”
The nurse’s eyes widened.
She
glanced at her notes as if to see if the mother-to-be had any history of mental
illness. Her pupils were probably as dilated as the size of a mother about to
give birth.

Amber cried out
again as the onslaught of fire blazed through her. She had always prided
herself as someone who had a high pain tolerance but that was until she went
into
labor
. It was true then, there was no pain in
the world quite like it.

“Do you have a
minister on hand at the hospital?” Jules asked.

“Um…I…we…um… do
have a chaplain on call,” the nurse fumbled. She was almost lost for words.
 

“Amber, are you
sure you want to do this now? I don’t mind waiting,” Jules reassured her as he leaned
over her to hold her hand while stroking her forehead with his other hand.

“Don’t you want
to marry me?” Amber demanded. Why was she getting so testy all of a sudden? Was
it the tsunami of hormones caving down on her from every direction? She wanted
this to be a perfect day for her, the baby and for Jules.

Amber so badly
wanted her baby to be born in wedlock and she came so close. She didn’t want
her daughter’s birth certificate to resemble her own with the admission of
“unknown” where the father’s name should be. If Jules and Amber were legally
married, then
by law, Jules would be
named the father.
Period. It meant so much to her. She’d lost so much in her life, her parents,
her
brother... So many things she did not have control over
but she wanted to have a little control over the birth of her precious baby. She
didn’t know why she wanted this now, she just did. Something in her gut was
telling her that it would be done and could be done safely. She wasn’t even
fully dilated yet.

An hour later,
Amber was still in the active phase of
labor
and
nearing the advanced phase. It could be at any moment when she would come face
to face with her precious little miracle.

Carl had managed
to make it in and got an
officiant
, Mr. James
Calderwell
, who was also a JP, justice of the peace, on
hand to perform the “
labor
” vows at the bedside. It
was a good thing Jules had already applied for the marriage license. Jules was
grateful to his brother for being there for him at the right time.

“Right, we’re
going to do this, honey,” Jules reassured her. He never left her side since he
got to the hospital. He wished he’d never left her side that morning but he
really thought she would be fine. She wasn’t due for another few weeks. This
was so sudden. But he was a Romero. They always knew how to rise to any
challenge, expected or unexpected.

Seeing Amber in
so much agonizing pain was like a wrench to his gut. He was pained him to see
her like this. Man, he really respected the body of a woman more than ever.
Seeing
beautiful,
sophisticated Amber bravely
preparing her body to deliver a human being into the world.

He wondered why
more men were not at the bedsides of their wives during this awesome yet
emotional time.
He was overcome by the spirit in the room
.
The obstetrician and nurses were preparing to deliver their precious little
angel into the world, while the elderly JP—the man who was qualified in
the province of Ontario to marry them, dressed in a dark business suit, wiped
sweat from his brow with a cloth and adjusted the round-rimmed glasses on his
nose as he prepared to race through the vows.

Ordinarily the delivery
room would only have those involved with the delivery and the mom and dad but
Carl and Venus along with his brother Dion were there as witnesses. The rest of
the Romero clan was gathered in the waiting room—those who heard the good
news and were able to make it.

“Okay, let’s
begin,” Mr.
Calderwell
announced as he opened his
Bible.

Amber bellowed as
the pain hit her full force again. Oh, man! What Jules would do to take away the
hurt and go through it himself so she would not have to.

Mr.
Calderwell
was understandably nervous. Jules remembered
Carl saying that old man James admitted he was way beyond retirement. He was
also a friend of Toni Romero, Jules’s grandfather. They went way back. Jules
only hoped that there wouldn’t be any
colorful
language in the room as Amber came close to the delivery phase when she would
have to push. He trusted Amber would do just fine. She was strong, and like the
majority of women, she could do just about anything.

The physical
demands on her body were exhausting Amber, but she had to do this. She must get
through this for her baby’s sake. It was the right thing to do. She felt it in
her body, her bones, in her soul. She wanted the best for her baby. The best
start to life.

Amber’s mind ran
quickly to a TV show she’d seen many years ago, an old re-run. She couldn’t
remember the name of the show but she remembered that memorable scene with the
woman being rushed to the ER and a minister on hand as she was saying her vows—right
there before the delivery of her baby. How crazy was that? Amber had thought at
the time.

Never in her
wildest imagination would Amber have thought that the same darn thing would end
up happening to her. Imagine that! That famous scene from that show played out
in
her own
life!

This was real. It
was really happening.

The minister
started talking nervously. Noise. There was a cacophony from every direction
from the doctor and nurses prepping her and monitoring her vital signs. Less
unsettling was Jules by her side, stroking her forehead, comforting her while
holding her hand. Carl, Dion and Venus were off at the side somewhere in the
room out of the way of the bedside to give her privacy but close enough to
witness, while the minister looked as embarrassed as could be.

No birth goes
exactly according to plan, the prenatal coach had told Jules and Amber. Well,
heck! If her prenatal coach could only see
this
birth!

“Do you, Amber,
take Jules Romero to be your lawfully wedded husband, promising to love and
cherish, through joy and sorrow, sickness and health, and whatever challenges
you may face like childbirth, for as long as you both shall live?” the minister
said as loudly as he could over her panting and grunting in pain.