Chapter Thirty-Two

The EMTs had Rose and the baby bundled into the ambulance and headed for the hospital in no time, and once they were gone, Daniel got on the phone to Will to tell him what happened.

Lacy listened to Daniel’s side of the conversation as he determined where Will was. He didn’t want to shock Will with the news if he was still on the road—that could only lead to sudden swerving and the possibility of a collision with a tree. It turned out that Will had arrived at the hospital moments before, and was just now running around trying to figure out if Rose had gotten there yet, and if so, where she was.

“Dude, you’ve got a daughter,” Daniel said into the phone, a grin on his face, looking buoyant. “It’s over. Rose gave birth on the side of Highway 46.”

As Lacy watched, Daniel listened to something Will was saying and then let out a laugh. “They’re both doing great. They’re on their way in an ambulance. We’ll be right behind them.”

Pause.

“No, it’s—Look, I’ll tell you all about it when I get there. Congratulations, Dad.”

Daniel hung up and just stood there for a minute, the phone in his hand and a big grin on his face.

“I can’t believe that just happened,” Lacy said.

“Me neither. But it did,” he said. And then the reality of it hit him, and he paled. “That could have gone really wrong. The cord. The baby could have—”

“But she didn’t,” Lacy said. “Because of you, she didn’t.”

She knew she was supposed to be angry with him. She was angry before all of this happened, so there was no reason she shouldn’t still be angry now. But somehow, all of that had evaporated from the moment Rose had begun to give birth. All of Lacy’s resentments and frustrations, the hurts she’d been clinging to, had vanished into the atmosphere in the presence of the bigger picture, the very balance between life and death.

It was as though some magical game show wheel marked MIRACLE and TRAGEDY had been spun, and as the studio audience had waited with bated breath, it had come up MIRACLE. Lacy felt profoundly grateful and awed.

And beyond that, she felt love. Love for Rose, love for the new baby, love for Will. Love for the children she would have one day, for the moment of discovery when they would one day be laid, wailing and new, onto her own chest.

And she felt love, overwhelming, passionate love for Daniel. He had been magnificent.

 

Lacy drove to the hospital with Daniel in the passenger seat. It had seemed like a good idea for her to take the wheel, because Daniel was still a little shaken up. He didn’t say much on the way there; he just sat there with a distant smile on his face, watching the passing landscape on the way to Templeton.

When they arrived at the hospital, Will was in with Rose and the baby while the doctors checked them out. Over the next hour, people started arriving, most of them bearing flowers and baby gifts: Kate and Jackson, Gen and Ryan, Rose’s mother. Will’s parents would be coming in from Minnesota as soon as they could arrange it.

Once Rose was settled into a room and was allowed to have visitors, Lacy and Daniel peeked in to find her sitting up in bed with the baby in her arms, looking pale and tired but glowing with happiness.

Will was sitting in a plastic hospital chair next to Rose, while Rose’s mother bustled around the room, straightening blankets and rearranging the pink plastic pitcher and cup on the tray beside the bed.

“Come in, come in!” Rose said when she saw the two of them hovering in the doorway. “Come and see her! She’s so beautiful.”

The baby was swaddled in a cotton hospital blanket, a little knit cap on her head. She still looked a little red and pinched, to Daniel’s eye, but was doubtlessly relieved to be through with her difficult journey into the world. Her eyes were closed and her little lips were pursed, as though she were in deep thought.

“Congratulations, you guys,” Daniel said. He felt flushed with pleasure, and with the feeling that, at this moment, all possible things were right with the world.

Will, who looked as though he’d been crying, embraced Daniel and clapped him on the back, as men did.

“Listen,” he said. “Thank you. Just … thank you. When I think of what could have happened …”

“It was my privilege, man,” Daniel said. He felt a kind of high, as though he could accomplish anything, as though he’d been chosen by fate or by God—whoever He might be—to bring this new, special person into the world.

When he and Will pulled apart, Rose’s mother was standing there beside them, looking at Daniel so sternly that he wondered if he were about to get scolded for having seen parts of Rose that he wasn’t intended to see.

Instead, she reached out, took hold of him, and pulled him into her arms. She was a trim woman, and he could feel the delicate structure of her bones.

“Daniel,” she said, crisply and in a businesslike tone as she clung to him. “Thank you for taking care of my daughter and my granddaughter. I’m so grateful. I don’t know how I can ever …”

She broke off, and when she ended the embrace, she turned away and dabbed at her eyes.

“Aw, come on, Mom,” Rose said. “We’re happy. We’re being happy right now. No crying allowed.”

Pamela nodded and went back to straightening things that didn’t need straightening.

“You’ll need help with the baby,” Pamela said to Rose as she bustled about the room. “I can pitch in, of course. I’ll have meals delivered. That little house of yours is not entirely adequate, but I guess it will do.” She clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Of course, this would all be better if you two were married, but—”

“Oh, we are,” Rose said offhandedly.

“A baby ought to have parents who are married, but I suppose—”

“Mom. We are married,” Rose tried again.

Pamela stopped in midfuss. “What?”

“We did it a couple of months ago while we were in Vegas,” Will confirmed.

“But …” Pamela sputtered. “You didn’t … Why didn’t …”

“We didn’t tell anyone because you’d have been mad that you weren’t there,” Rose said. “But we figured if we waited to tell you until after the baby was born, you’d be so relieved that your grandchild wasn’t born out of wedlock that it would counteract the anger.”

“Did it work?” Will asked tentatively, looking a little bit scared to hear the answer.

“But …” Pamela said. “There’s no ring. If you’re married …”

“Oh, I have one,” Rose said happily. “And it’s gorgeous. But it won’t fit on my finger right now. Bloating,” she explained. “It’s in a drawer at home.”

“Oh, honey. Congratulations. Twice,” Lacy said, embracing both Rose and the baby at the same time.

Daniel laughed and reached out to give Will a hearty handshake.

Pamela’s face reflected a range of emotions before she arranged her features into a neutral expression and nodded once, crisply. “Well, I suppose it did work, then,” she said. “Welcome to the family, William.” She pulled Will into a hug. It was more hugging than she’d done in the past five years combined.

Daniel and Lacy were about to leave the room to give the family their privacy when Rose said, “Wait. You can’t go yet. You haven’t heard the baby’s name.”

“Poppy, right?” Lacy said. “I love it.”

“Poppy Danielle,” Will clarified.

Daniel froze, feeling gut-punched, but in a good way. “Danielle?”

“Yup,” Rose confirmed, grinning widely.

“It was the least we could do,” Will said. “The very least.”

 

Everyone else was waiting outside in the hallway in an effort not to overwhelm Rose, Will, and the baby with too many visitors at once.

Daniel exchanged a round of handshakes with Jackson and Ryan, and hugs with the women, as he and Lacy recounted the events on the side of Highway 46 for everyone’s benefit.

Once everyone had been caught up and they’d all had a chance to see Rose and the baby, Daniel raked his hands through his hair and said, “Jesus, I need a beer.”

“You deserve one,” Kate said. “Jackson, go take the man for a beer. We can hang out here.”

Jackson turned to Ryan. “You coming?”

Gen shooed him off, and the three of them went into Templeton to look for a bar. They couldn't find one right away, so they ended up in a sandwich place that also sold beer. They settled into a booth with a pitcher between them, and they had the place pretty much to themselves, as the lunch rush had already passed.

Daniel, who had missed lunch in all of the excitement, ordered a thick sub and dove into it with the enthusiasm of someone who had earned a good meal. Jackson and Ryan ordered a plate of nachos, and they scooped up chips loaded with beans, cheese, and jalapeños as they rehashed the events of the morning and early afternoon.

“So, it seems like Lacy’s not mad at you anymore,” Ryan observed. He looked amused as he loaded up another chip with beans and cheese.

“Man,” Jackson said. “If I’d known all you had to do to make a woman forgive you is to deliver somebody’s baby, I’d have tried that a long time ago. Would have saved me some trouble.”

“Ah, I don’t know,” Daniel said. He paused, sandwich in hand. “She’s not mad anymore for now, but I don’t know if it’s gonna stick.”

Ryan looked at him thoughtfully. “So the problem is, what? Is this still about you not saying you loved her? Which you do, by the way. Obviously.”

“Yeah, I do,” Daniel admitted. “But it’s more than that. It’s also that I believed all the rumors floating around about her and her ex. And that I wouldn’t talk to her about it.” He shrugged.

“So why didn’t you talk to her about it, dumbass?” Jackson said with his usual subtle diplomacy. “That’s Woman 101. They like to ‘communicate’ about everything.” He made air quotes with his fingers around the word communicate.

“Hell, I don’t know,” Daniel said. He was still ravenous, and he took a big bite of his sandwich.

“I do,” Ryan said.

He left it at that, until Daniel raised his eyebrows and said, “You wanna let me in on it, then, genius?”

Ryan leveled his dark brown eyes at Daniel and pointed one finger for emphasis. “You didn’t talk to her about it because of the baggage.”

“Baggage,” Daniel repeated.

“Yeah, baggage. Everybody who knows Lacy knows that her dream is to have about a thousand kids. The whole big-family domestic bit. You’re scared shitless, but you can’t admit that, because it would threaten your manhood. So instead, you seize on the first problem that comes along and use that as an excuse to nix the whole thing.”

“Classic,” Jackson said. “I pulled that maneuver at least two times myself. In my younger days,” he clarified.

“Well … shit. That makes me sound like a dick,” Daniel said.

“Makes you sound like a guy who’s going to be single and lonely for a long damn time, with only your dog and your memories to keep you company,” Ryan said.

Daniel grunted, put down his sandwich, and drank some beer. At the moment, he really needed the beer.

“What about you guys?” he said. “I mean, you’re both on that path. Marriage. Family. The idea of kids has got to freak you out, right?”

“Aw, hell no,” Ryan said. “I’d love to have kids. As soon as Gen’s ready, I’m good to go.”

“Yeah?” Daniel said skeptically.

“Oh, yeah. I’m a Delaney. We’re all about family. Got to pass on the bloodline and all that. Besides, kids are a hell of a lot of fun. I can’t wait.”

“And what about you?” Daniel tipped his chin toward Jackson.

“Well …” Jackson rubbed at the stubble on the side of his face. “Kate and I aren’t there yet. But, yeah, I can see it. I can see us in a few years, married with a couple of kids running around. It sounds good. Really good.”

Daniel thought about Rose and Will, and how they’d fairly glowed with happiness in the hospital room, a little family unit with nothing but love and possibility in their futures.

He thought of Lacy, the touch of her hand on his skin, the way she smelled, the way she made him feel every time they were together. The way he felt whole and healed, just being in her presence.

“I dunno. God.” He shook his head. “It seems like not being with her isn’t an option.”

“Well, there you go,” Ryan said, as though that settled everything.

And maybe it actually did.