Christmas Eve…
THE WAITING ROOM of the Riverton Health Center had been decorated like a TV holiday movie. The reception desk was strung with glittery garland, paper snowflakes were suspended in the windows and a huge tree filled one corner. An artificial tree, no doubt to abide by health and safety codes, instead of the giant pine that now dominated the living room of the Finnegan farmhouse and filled the air with the promise of Christmas. But every inch of this one had been covered with decorations, just like the one at home.
For the first time in a long time, Annie felt as though she was in a good place. Even being here, in a place for which she had an intense and long-standing dislike, felt right because tonight she was about to become an aunt. She had hoped Emily and Jack’s baby wouldn’t be born on Christmas Day…every child deserved his or her own special birthday…and it looked as though her wish was about to come true. Not that Christmas Eve wasn’t hectic, but at least it meant Annie’s niece or nephew could celebrate on a day when everyone else wasn’t getting presents, too.
Now, as she looked around at the expectant faces in the waiting room, her heart swelled. Her father and Libby, heads bent in quiet conversation, were holding hands.
CJ paced the room, periodically stopping to check her watch and then stare at the clock on the wall. “How much longer is this going to take?”
“It’ll take as long as it takes,” their father said.
Isaac sprawled in the seat next to Annie, looking through the newest dinosaur book Paul had given him. “What are they going to name the baby?”
“I don’t know,” Annie said. Emily and Jack had decided not to reveal their choices to anyone.
“If it’s a boy, they should call him Rex.”
He laughed along with everyone else.
“It’s a good name,” he said.
CJ scruffed his curls. “Sorry, sport. They’re not going to name him, or her, after a dinosaur.”
“Maybe they’ll call him Fred,” Fred said.
That earned him a round of guffaws.
He shrugged. “It’s a good name is all I’m saying.”
He’d been Emily’s best friend for as long as everyone could remember and had insisted on being called when she went into labor. Even on Christmas Eve, he claimed there was no place he’d rather be. And Rose’s being here likely had something to do with that.
As for Rose, she sat quietly, knitting a red-and-white-striped scarf. She said one of her counsellors had suggested the activity, and she claimed it calmed her nerves and kept her hands busy. Annie knew she still smoked—Paul said it would be too hard for her to beat more than one addiction at a time—but the uncharacteristic knitting did keep her from heading to the parking lot every fifteen minutes to light up. She had returned to Riverton three days ago, a completely different person from the one who had left, and it wasn’t just the knitting.
Rose was more subdued, but in a good way, and with a newfound confidence. She looked healthier, her appetite had improved and she even asked Annie to help her choose some new clothes that were, in her words, “a little less out there.” Annie had been happy to oblige. Her half sister now wore dark blue jeans that didn’t have a single rip in them and a hot-pink long-sleeved pullover covered with white hearts. She had added a matching pink streak to the bangs she kept tossing out of her eyes. Annie wasn’t sure the look qualified as less “out there,” but it worked for Rose.
All of this, Annie acknowledged, was thanks to Paul. She looked up at him now, feeling his love in the curve of his arm around her shoulders, seeing it in his eyes, hearing it in his whisper.
“I love you, too,” she whispered back. The words, once so impossibly hard to say, came easily now.
He had kept his promise and was being incredibly patient with her. But as the frequency of his visits to the farm increased and he pitched in by shovelling snow and putting up holiday decorations and even folding laundry for her, she was feeling less and less inclined to slow things down.
The double doors burst open at the end of the waiting room, bringing the family to their feet as Stacey McGregor emerged. “Dr. Woodward? Dr. Cameron would like to see you for a brief consult.”
“What’s happening?” CJ asked. “Is something wrong?”
“Dr. Cameron says Emily and the baby are both doing fine. Shouldn’t be much longer.”
Paul gave Annie a quick kiss. “I’ll be back with an update as soon as I can,” he said to everyone.
Annie watched them rush back through the double doors, and then she sat.
CJ was at her side immediately, arms around her. “There’s no point in worrying. Stacey wouldn’t say everything was okay if it wasn’t.”
Annie hugged her back. “Telling me not to worry is like telling me not to breathe.”
“I know, but I had to say it anyway.”
Annie could see her father and Libby were trying to keep their concern hidden, but Rose was now clinging to Fred’s hand, and Fred didn’t seem to mind one bit.
The seconds ticked by into minutes. At the ten-minute mark, CJ stood up and resumed pacing. Ten minutes later, the doors opened again and the wait was mercifully over.
Jack appeared, beaming with pride and carrying a white-swathed bundle. “Everyone, I would like to introduce the newest member of the family… Amelia Grace.”
With misty eyes, Annie looked past this proud new father to Paul, just steps behind him.
And she knew.
She rushed to him, threw her arms around him. “Thank you for bringing her safely into the world.”
“She was in good hands all along. Just a minor complication.”
After everyone admired Amelia and declared her to be the most beautiful baby to have ever been born, Jack whisked her back to her mother.
“Is Santa still coming?” Isaac asked, bringing everyone back to earth and making them laugh.
“He will,” Thomas assured him. “But first we have to get you home to bed, maybe put out some milk and cookies for him.”
They all drifted out to the parking lot. Thomas was driving Libby home, Isaac and Rose were returning to the farm with CJ, and Fred was making his own way home. Annie asked Paul if he would drive her home before returning to his father’s place, and he quickly agreed.
After the others drove away, Annie took Paul’s face in her hands and kissed him.
“What was that for?” he asked, sliding his arms around her waist.
“That was for being so patient and understanding all these weeks and months.”
“Annie, I love you. I’ll wait forever if that’s what it takes.”
She shook her head. “Forever is too long. How about we shorten that up a little?”
Even in the dark, she detected his surprise. “Annie Finnegan, are you proposing to me in the middle of a hospital parking lot?”
She loved that he could always make her laugh. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Besides, I’d rather be proposed to. I’m just saying…” Her breath caught before she could finish.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that when I saw you following Jack and the baby out of the delivery room, you looked as though you would like that to be you someday.”
She heard him suck in a breath, saw his slow exhale in the cold night air.
“More than anything.”
She gazed up at his beautiful handsome face framed by the starry night sky. “Me, too. I didn’t even realize it until I saw Amelia’s precious face and those tiny, perfect fingers, but I want that, too. I want another baby. I want a baby with you.”
“Annie, I don’t know what to say.”
“How about Merry Christmas?”
He kissed her instead, lifting her off the ground and spinning them both across the snowy parking lot. She was laughing and breathless when he set her down.
“You have just made me the happiest man alive. Merry Christmas, Annie Finnegan.”
As they stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing up at the stars and the thin crescent moon, Annie was already looking ahead to what next Christmas had in store for them.
* * * * *