“When is this baby going to get out of me?”
“That’s between you and little baby Herbert,” Eva said to her unhappy friend in the bed.
“The name is not Herbert.” Olivia scowled.
“Hubert?” Eva guessed.
“No.”
“Humphry?”
“Stop.”
“If you’d just tell me the girl and boy names you picked out, I’d stop guessing.”
“No. You have to wait like everyone else.”
“Fine. Little Henrietta will come when she’s good and ready,” Eva said, working her way through the alphabet with her baby name guesses. The letter I was coming up next. She made a mental list of names that began with the letter so she’d be prepared.
Inga, Ignatius…
She was about to unleash those gems when Olivia said, “Ooo.”
“Ooo what?” Eva asked.
“Something feels… different.” As Olivia rubbed her belly, Eva sat up straighter.
Different was not good. Not with Olivia nine months pregnant and looking like she was ready to pop.
“Should we call your doctor? Or go to the hospital?”
“On New Year’s Eve?” Olivia said, as if the suggestion had been crazy. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“It’s a hospital. Not a bank. They don’t close for holidays. And we don’t know it’s nothing.” Eva glanced at the doorway in a panic.
Olivia’s room was usually like Grand Central Station. Packed full of people and animals. Lousy with Wilders and friends. And now when she really needed someone for backup, there was not a soul around.
“Where is everybody?” Eva asked, trying to sound casual as she pulled out her cell and considered who to text. And what to text.
“The guys were picking up the karaoke machine from the Last Call. We’re borrowing it for the night since they’re not using it and none of you can go out to celebrate because of me.”
“Stop. I like staying home on New Year’s Eve anyway. Too many drunks and crazies on the road.” Eva waved away Olivia’s concern and typed in a text to Linc.
“Who are you texting so furiously?” Olivia asked.
Eva glanced up guiltily. “Um. Linc.”
Olivia broke into a smile, which would have been more encouraging if she wasn’t still rubbing her belly and continuously readjusting herself in the bed, as if she were really uncomfortable. “You two are so cute together.”
“Cute. Great. Thanks. That’s exactly what I was going for.”
“I can’t believe all three of us ended up with brothers. It’s like serendipity.”
“Yup. That’s what it is.” Or it could be the six of them were the only available, attractive, age-appropriate singles in the tiny hole in the wall town of Bitter End.
Olivia made a face and Eva leaned forward. “You’re cringing. Why? Are you in pain?”
“No. It’s not pain. It’s just a feeling. But I wasn’t cringing over that. I’m worried about what will happen if you know who comes back. That all feels…unfinished.”
Eva snorted. “It’s finished. I promise.”
Olivia eyed her suspiciously.
“Do you trust me?” Eva asked.
“Of course.”
“Then trust me when I tell you John T’s old will and the snake are not a threat to the Wilders anymore.”
“Okay. I believe you.”
Relieved to put an end to this conversation, Eva said, “Good.”
“But, Eva?”
“Yes?”
“I think my water just broke.”
Oh, shit.
It was obviously past time for Eva to take control and do something. But what?
“Where’s Poppy?” she asked, hoping Olivia didn’t hear the panic in her voice.
“With Darcy and William. Out in the barn with the pony.”
Okay. She could do this. Phone up again, she typed in a text.
She’d used more exclamation points just today than the sum total of every text she’d ever sent in her damn life. Of course, she’d never faced the horror of the possibility of her best friend giving birth with no one but her there to help before.
A string of emojis that only a Gen Z would understand was Poppy’s reply to the text but Eva took that as a sign she’d gotten the message and the urgency of it and was on her way back.
The following hour passed in a whirlwind.
Apparently an ice storm had hit while she’d been all cozy in the bedroom with Olivia, followed by the freezing rain that was falling now.
Wyatt had called the doctor at home, and as only would happen in a small town, she’d decided to come straight to the mansion to check Olivia before they tried to make it down the mountain to the hospital with her.
Meanwhile, Eva had barely ever heard her soft-spoken friend raise her voice before, never mind scream. But as the contractions started to come, increasingly closer together, there was plenty of screaming. Which scared Darcy into hysterical crying.
William took the girl to Linc’s lodge to wait out of hearing range of Olivia’s extremely powerful lungs.
With Poppy on one side and her on the other, Eva held Olivia’s hand and tried not to pass out as they waited for the guys and the doctor to arrive.
That seemed to happen all at once. They went from being alone and scared to part of a crowd who were being ordered out of the room.
Only the doctor and Wyatt were allowed to stay with Olivia, which left Eva, Linc, Poppy and Ethan standing in the hall with nothing to do but worry.
“This could take a long time,” Linc observed. “We can’t just stand here.”
Ethan shot his brother a sideways glance. “If you have any suggestions of what else we could do, I’d love to hear them, bro.”
“Is that karaoke machine in the truck?” Poppy, who loved nothing more than a night of karaoke, asked.
Eva cocked up a brow. “I’m not sure this is a good time for karaoke.”
“It’s always a good time for karaoke.” Poppy grinned. “If we set up downstairs Olivia should be able to hear from up here. We’ll entertain her.”
“It might take her mind off the pain,” Ethan said, raising his voice to be heard over a renewed round of screaming.
The door opened and Wyatt popped his head out. “We’re staying here.”
“Like she’s having the baby here?” Eva asked.
Wyatt nodded. “With the roads so bad, the doctor’s afraid we won’t get to the hospital in time.”
“Giving birth here does seem safer than in the truck on the way,” Ethan pointed out.
“You’re imagining how much mess having a baby in the truck would make on the upholstery, aren’t you?” Poppy accused.
“That too,” Ethan admitted. “But seriously, between Dad, Linc and me, you’ve got three of the best calf pullers in the state right here.”
Eva’s eyes flew wide. “Forgive me if that isn’t comforting.”
“Wyatt, do you need us to do anything?” Linc asked.
Her man was proving to be calm and logical in the face of this crisis. As she suspected he would be after years in the service.
Wyatt glanced back into the bedroom before he answered, “The doctor called an ambulance to meet her here, but they’re a long way out so just let them in when they get here.”
“You got it.” Linc nodded.
“Hey, mind if we set up the karaoke machine?” Ethan asked.
Wyatt frowned then shook his head. “Do whatever you want.” Then he slammed the bedroom door and blocked out most of the sound of Olivia’s moans.
“You heard the man. To the karaoke machine,” Ethan proclaimed, leading the charge down the stairs like a general heading to battle.
“You two are made for each other. He’s just like you.” Eva said to Poppy, shaking her head.
“So are you and Linc.”
Eva shot Poppy a glare. “He and I are nothing alike.”
Poppy screwed up her face. “Are you kidding me? You two introverts are so much alike. Everyone sees it but you.”
“No. You’re wrong.” Eva shook her head, but damned if the comment hadn’t gotten her thinking as the two brothers got the machine set up in the living room in no time.
Then, for better or worse, it was karaoke time.
“Okay, what are we all going to sing?” Ethan asked, squinting down at the computer hooked to the monitor.
Eva stepped forward and edged him out of the way. “Oh, no. Since you Wilder men screwed me out of a victory in the Christmas challenge, we women get to choose your songs and you have to sing them.”
“All right. I’m up for it.” Ethan grabbed a microphone, flipped the power switch and said, “What have you got for me? Do your worst.”
Eva had a song in mind already and had it loaded and playing before Poppy and Linc could settle into their seats for the show.
When the first strains of Beyonce’s Put a Ring on It played Linc broke out laughing.
“Don’t laugh. You’re up next,” Eva warned.
That sobered Linc considerably. But they all did enjoy Ethan’s rendition, which included all the appropriate choreography and some pretty good dance moves on his part.
Linc was less enthusiastic about his command performance of Madonna’s Like a Virgin but it was still equally amusing for the small but engaged audience.
And at Ethan and Linc’s demand that they had to do their share to entertain Olivia too, Eva and Poppy both performed, but the songs were their choice.
In keeping with the karaoke tradition established a year ago when they’d first arrived in Bitter End looking for the snake, they stuck to man bashing songs.
Poppy was brilliant at Britney Spears’ Toxic and together Poppy and Eva did a duet of Pistol Annie’s Hell on Heels.
As the song ended, flashing lights outside alerted them to the ambulance’s arrival.
As he applauded their performance, Ethan jumped up from his seat. “And now it’s time for an intermission while I let the EMTs in.”
“I’ll run upstairs and get a baby report.” Poppy headed for the stairs, leaving Eva and Linc alone.
“Come here.” Linc reeled her in for a kiss. And since they were alone, she let it get a bit more heated than she should have, given they were in the Wilder living room.
When he pulled back, he leaned his forehead against hers. “It’s almost midnight.”
“Yup. Looks like this baby is going to have a January first birthday.” Just like her, although no one realized that.
Her birthday was something she’d long ago chosen to happily ignore. And since she hadn’t met Poppy and Olivia until after it had passed last January, they didn’t even know when it was.
Last January.
It struck her that this all had started one year ago. Their road trip to Bitter End to find and punish Emmett Wilder. Them crashing Olivia’s RV on Roan Mountain.
Their finding the Wilder brothers instead of the snake might have been the best thing to ever happen. To all of them.
“Do you realize we came here almost a year ago?” she said, still amazed how much time had passed. Even more amazed at how much had happened in that time. Olivia married. Poppy engaged. Her living with Linc.
“And I’m very glad you did. And that you decided to stay,” Linc said, pulling her closer. “I love you.”
Dammit, she was not going to cry. Even so, she found her throat wasn’t working all that well as she swallowed hard.
Finally she managed to say, “I’m pretty sure I might love you too.”
He smiled, accepting her without question, such as she was, as he always did.
The screams from upstairs they’d been ignoring during this tender moment changed. Now, they were no longer Olivia’s. The pitch was higher. The volume lower. What they heard now was definitely a newborn baby’s cry.
“The baby,” she breathed.
“And two minutes before midnight,” Linc said, grabbing her hand and tugging her toward the staircase.
Poppy appeared at the top. “He’s here!”
“We can hear that. It’s a boy?” Linc asked.
Ethan strode to stand next to Poppy. “It’s most definitely a boy. I saw the evidence myself as Wyatt was holding him. But I suggest you ladies wait for a viewing until they clean him up a bit.”
Darcy was going to have a baby brother. But one question remained, and Eva was tired of waiting for the answer. “What are they naming him?”
“Hang tight. I’ll ask.” Ethan disappeared, but was shortly back again. “John William Wilder.”
John for the man who’d started the Wilder dynasty over a hundred and fifty years ago and William for Wyatt's father.
“That’s fitting.” Though it had not been one of Eva’s guesses since she’d never made it to the letter J.
She turned to Linc, who held his cell phone displaying the time in one hand and a small, wrapped box in the other.
He smiled. “It’s after midnight. Happy birthday.”
She looked from the box to him. “How in the world did you know?”
He cocked up one brow. “Do you really think I’d let three strange women into our lives without checking them out thoroughly? You have computer skills but I have contacts with computer skills...and possibly access to the NSA database.”
The minute she got back to her computer she was doing a deep dive on Lincoln Wilder. It was long past time she discovered for herself what exactly he’d done in the Army.
She narrowed her eyes at him until he thrust the box closer. “Open it, birthday girl.”
As she considered that he knew exactly how old she was, and how much older than him she was, and he had for a while now but didn’t seem to care, she took the box. “I usually don’t celebrate my birthday.”
He tipped his head to one side. “Since it falls on a major holiday, you don’t really have to, do you? The celebration is kind of built in.”
“Why do I think that’s not going to be enough for your family?” She remembered the big dinners and cakes and family celebrations the past year had held for all the others’ birthdays.
He smirked. “We’ll see. And if you don’t open that gift I’m going to do it for you.”
Whatever it was, he was excited about it. Maybe she was a bit curious herself.
She tore into the wrapping, letting it fall to the floor as she opened the hinge on the velvet box.
Her mouth opened on a breath as she saw the gold chain from which dangled a small ornate key.
It was beautiful and delicate and like nothing she’d ever owned before.
“It’s an exact replica of our key. I had it custom made,” Linc told her.
She looked up at him. “The key we fought over? The one that almost ruined your family?”
“The key that brought us together,” he corrected.
“Yes, it did,” she admitted.
And she was certainly happy it had.