“When Payton was born, he was a bit early too,” Mal explained and then went to sit on the loveseat next to Mom.
Emery went to stare at her monitor, because of course he did. Demi rolled her eyes, then rode out a contraction. Sadly I’d taken her hand just before, and I had to hide a wince when I felt how the small bones were grinding together.
Once her expression smoothened again, she pulled me closer and I gave her a hug.
I was probably closest with Gemma because she worked with me, but Demi was my oldest sister and that was special.
“We’ll be fine,” she murmured into my ear.
I hadn’t realized how much I needed to hear that. I let out a breath, and she patted my back.
“It’s going to be okay, Hawk. I promise. I have a good feeling.”
“Yeah. Okay.” She was the first of my siblings to have had a baby before, so this was technically my second time going through this thing.
When our three youngest brothers had been born, I’d been too little to remember much. I didn’t remember Isley being born at all, but I did remember Keegan and Judson, because they were twins and they’d been loud. Also they’d been in the hospital for a bit and I remembered going to visit Mom and them during that time.
“So, Dad said Goddamn Cahill is in town?” Demi asked as I sat on the chair next to her.
“Everyone shut up!” Emery barked sharply enough for us to go quiet. He looked at the readings and closed his eyes ashe concentrated on the ka-thump of what I assumed were the babies’ heartbeat or heartbeats.
Without explaining, he went to press the call button attached to the bed railing next to Demi’s hand.
“It’s probably nothing, but—”
“But I trust you,” Demi said, and they did that thing where they pressed their foreheads together.
We’d always joked that they did a mind meld, but sometimes that didn’t feel far from the truth.
“I texted Luke,” Mom said calmly.
I tended to forget that she’d given birth more than most women ever did and had the experience of two sets of twins.
Something anxious bubbled up in my chest though, and Mal stood up.
“Come on, kiss your sister and then we can go back to the waiting room,” he murmured for my ears only.
I went to Demi and she gave me a brave smile. “I promised.”
“You did.” I kissed her cheek and put my hand on her belly for a moment, right next to that weird thing.
“See you on the flip side?” she asked, grinning a little.
“Yeah, definitely.”
“If this takes a while, go home. Get rest. So you don’t murder Cahill.”
I chuckled. “Okay. I’ll try.”
It turned out that whatever hunch Emery had, it was correct. An hour later, Demi was taken into a C-section, because Twin A’s heartbeat was… not right. It was either too slow or too fast, and they weren’t going to take risks with that.
Another hour, and Mom texted everyone that the twins were here.
Since they were going straight into the NICU, we also got a video where Luke was holding two tiny bundles in his arms.
“Okay, Emery, you take this one,” he said and Emery carefully extracted one of the babies.
Luke made eye contact with the camera. “Since Demi is in recovery, I guess it’s up to me to introduce these two to the family. This one”—he nodded at the baby in the crook of his arm—“is Phinneas Michael. With a PH and two Ns.”
