“Three minutes,” she replied, and Luke heard Cole’s voice in the background.
“Kane!” Luke bellowed as he turned toward the back entrance. “I’m on my way to the hospital! If Trent shows up, tell him I’ll call him later.”
“Shit!” Kane’s voice echoed through the cavernous bar behind him as he disappeared down the short hallway that would lead to the parking garage.
“Baby, are you there?” Luke asked once he was inside the truck. As he fishtailed onto the main road just a minute later, Sierra’s deep breaths filled the interior of his truck through the Bluetooth speaker.
“I’m here,” she whispered. “Please hurry, Luke.”
“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Or two more contractions.
Holy fucking shit! Any minute now, he was going to be a dad!
No one ever bothered to clue him in to the fact that minutes rarely factored into childbirth.
Ten long hours later, Luke was standing at the hospital nursery, staring at the beautiful baby girl lying in one of the newborn bassinets on the other side of the glass partition.
“Damn, bro. It’s a good thing that little girl looks like her momma.” Logan’s laugh echoed through the hall. His brother’s firm grip on his shoulder shook him slightly, and Luke smiled at his attempt at humor.
“I was thinkin’ the same thing,” Tag added, standing on the other side of Cole.
Luke glanced over at Cole who was standing next to him, smiling as he did. He looked about the same as Luke felt. Bewildered. Amazed. There were a shitload of adjectives that could be used to describe it, but no matter what, Luke was happy.
“Shouldn’t you be taking care of your wife?” Luke asked, his gaze once again fixated on the tiny body wrapped in a pink blanket just a few feet away on the other side of the protective glass panel.
“What do you mean by ‘take care of’?” Logan smirked. “We already had to find a way to pass the time for a few hours.”
“Nope. Don’t want to hear it,” Luke said with a growl that quickly morphed into a laugh. Shit, even Logan couldn’t get under his skin today.
The warmth of Cole’s shoulder against his was a lifeline that Luke found himself hanging onto. Ever since the phone call the previous day, he’d been going a little crazy. Watching Sierra in so much pain wasn’t what Luke considered a good time by any stretch of the imagination. He quickly learned that the nurses weren’t all that fond of him barking out orders either. Although, Sierra seemed to take it all in stride. How, he had no idea.
Between her and Cole, they’d managed to keep him from going insane, albeit barely. Since the doctor finally announced that it was time, Luke’s heart hadn’t stopped pounding. Even now, as he stared at the precious little dark haired girl sleeping so soundly just a few feet away, his chest continued to ache. In a good way.
“You hanging in there?” Cole’s voice was lowered, although Luke knew Tag and Logan heard every word.
“Yeah. You?”
“Barely,” Cole whispered. “It’s still a little surreal.”
Leave it to Cole to be honest with what he was feeling. That was something Luke was still working on.
“Is she as perfect as she looks?” Luke asked, not intending for the words to come out.
“She is,” Cole reassured him and their hands touched, their fingers linking together between them as they both stood in awe.
“Like I said, just like her momma.” Logan once again chimed in, but this time he sounded just as awed as Luke felt.
“So, what’s it feel like to be an uncle?” Luke asked Tag and Logan, not directing the question at either one specifically.
“It feels like I’m gonna get to give you a hard time about a lot more now. A girl, huh? I hope she gives you two a run for your money.”
Luke didn’t spare Logan a glance, but he laughed anyway. Yeah, he was pretty sure they were going to have their hands full with this one. If Sierra’s personality was anything to go by, then their little girl was going to be spunky and wild. And Logan was right about one thing, she certainly looked like her mother with her pretty blue eyes and dark hair.
Then again, he’d overheard Sam and Ashleigh talking, and there was a very strong possibility that she might just look like her daddy after all. According to them, dark hair and blue eyes were exceedingly common for babies.
They’d just have to wait and see.
Part One
Chapter One
Seven weeks earlier…
Reluctant wasn’t a strong enough word to describe Cole’s feeling about tonight.