Page 89 of Why Not Forever?
“You were in labour more than twenty-four hours?” I say, aghast.
Lis laughs. “That’s not uncommon. Especially for a first.”
“He’s a week early. I thought first babies usually come late.”
Lis shrugs, looking down at her little bundle. “He decided he didn’t want us to start the new year without him. He was born at 12 o’clock and thirty seconds.”
“But you’re okay? You’re both okay?”
“Mm-hm. Tired. Also kind of full of adrenaline. It’s coming down though. We should probably go so I can call Daze, then go to sleep.”
“I can come later?” I ask.
“Yes,” Spencer says. “But don’t bring anything. We’ll just have to bring it home after. We’ll have people over soon.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later. Congratulations.”
“Congratulations,” Tanner says.
We hang up with them and I lay back down. Tanner does as well, lying on his side facing me. He hasn’t taken his glasses off.
“How do you feel?” he asks.
“I’m so excited. Westley is more like my nephew than I think any kid Liam will ever have. He’s my very first nephew, Tanner.” I grin. “I am going to spoil that boy completely rotten. Adalie’s baby, too. And Derek and Ava’s if they decide to have any. I don’t think I’ll have as many as you, but still.”
He strokes my hair away from my face. “That’s all?”
I search his eyes and realize he’s still concerned. “Were you worried I’d see the baby and want one?”
He shrugs. “Maybe a little. I’ve been around babies for twenty-six years. I was ten when Skylar was born and have had baby after baby come into my family. I know you don’t want kids, but people change their minds.”
“What about you? You were so certain you wouldn’t change your mind, you got a vasectomy.”
“That’s true. I don’t know. It’s not really that I worried you’d change your mind. I guess everything has just gone so well between us, my mind was trying to find reasons it might go wrong.”
I push on his shoulder, shoving him onto his back. I prop my chin on my hand over his chest and tangle my legs with his. “Isn’t it my job to be the worrier? Nothing is going to go wrong. Now, Mr. Uncle Expert. What kinds of things should I do to spoil these kids?”
Chapter 32
Tanner
WemeettheBlueVista crew at the hospital and everyone coos over tiny Westley. He’s pretty cute and I can see both Spencer and Lis in his features. They’re released the next day, and we visit them when they’re home, bringing dinner so no one has to cook anything, though Lis says she wants to.
“I haven’t spent so long outside of a kitchen since I was a kid.”
We visit again on Sunday, seeing if there’s anything they need. We hang out, helping them get settled in as new parents. Vic holds Westley like a pro and has already started spoiling him. I’m reminded of how I wanted to be with all my nieces and nephews. I wanted to give them everything I hadn’t had growing up. For me, it was fun activities my parents couldn’t afford or had time for. With Vic, I think it was love.
I return to work and everything goes to shit. Richard is pissed I took so much time off over the holidays, despite me explaining that no one wants to be in the office at this time of year, so nothing would have gotten done even if I had been around. He doesn’t care, giving me project after project to complete, which means I’m back to staying late most evenings. When I get home, sometimes I’m so late, I can do nothing but crawl into bed beside Vic and hold her while she sleeps. When I try to tell him that I have plans with Vic, he reminds me that I’ll be CEO soon. I need to put the business first.
What he’s really saying is, if I don’t stay in line, and despite our contract, he’ll stop the transfer, and I won’t get anything.
Part of the problem is that I’ve just had a week and a half off and I know what it’s like to be able to be home with my wife, spend time with my brother and my other friends, because that’s what the Blue Vista crew has become again. Friends. These are all things I’ve been missing in my life.
When I started at Sterling, I had to prove something. To myself. The world. I had student loans to pay off. I had a financial goal I needed to achieve. But I’d achieved it years ago and never did anything with it, too afraid to spend money for fear it wouldn’t be there later.
Now, I realize how much time I’ve spent focusing on the wrong things.Worriedabout the wrong things. I want to do something that makes me happy. I won’t ever be able to do that if I work at Sterling. Even if I own it.
This is the realization that hits me in the middle of the Board meeting on the first Friday back after the holidays. The Board has turned down all the proposals I brought them that I would have liked to work on. A small restaurant on Commercial Drive, a bakery in Metrotown, and a coffee shop in Surrey, not far from the new Blue Vista location. Instead, they want more upscale hotels, more golf courses. And they want me to do it all.
