“It’s going to be okay, baby. The dads are here, and they have more experience with childbirth than most women do!”
“That’s what I’m counting on,” Lily said just before she went silent as another contraction hit.
“I can’t hold off any longer,” Lily panted. Her face was red with strain and her cheeks puffed outward as her entire body coiled into a knot.
Lauren rushed in with all the things Michael had asked for, and Ryan took them from her and began arranging them on the side of the bed.
“Tell us what you want to do, son,” Ethan said. “Though I have a feeling our young lady here planned it this way, and she probably wants you to deliver her child. If she talked to your mother at all, then the idea would have been planted that this baby would be born here.”
Holly’s lips tightened and Lily flashed a guilty smile.
“Busted,” Lily murmured.
“Is that what you really want?” Dillon asked as he wiped her hair from her brow.
Lily glanced up at Dillon and then to Seth and finally at Michael. “Yes,” she said quietly. “I want our child to be born here. Delivered by his fathers. I want our children to grow up in this house just like you all did in the house you were born. I can’t think of a better way to usher in the next generation of Colters.”
Tears gleamed brightly in his mother’s eyes. The dads were no less affected. Adam wiped at his face before lowering his hand to touch his wife’s shoulder.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Seth said, kissing Lily again. Then he looked up at Michael. “What do you need us to do?”
“Stay there and support Lily,” Michael said. “Hold her, support her, talk to her. Encourage her. She needs to push now so our child can be born.”
In the distance he heard Callie’s and Max’s voices. Knew they were here. Satisfaction gripped Michael. Lily was right. What better way for their child to be born then right here, surrounded by parents and grandparents. Aunts and uncles.
“Help me,” Lily said, breathless as she struggled upward.
Seth and Dillon went into action, propping her forward like she wanted. They each wrapped an arm around her back, anchoring her in place.
Adam quickly went to work sorting through all the things Lauren had brought in. Michael spread a blanket over the mattress and tucked it under Lily’s bottom. The baby’s head bulged, pressing forward, stretching Lily as it prepared to make its entrance into the world.
“Okay, honey. Bear down with this next contraction okay? I need you to take a deep breath in, hold it and then count to ten.”
Her face reddening, she sucked in a breath and then leaned forward, her chin nearly to her chest. Beside her, Dillon began counting.
“Too fast, Dillon. Slow down some,” Michael said. “I don’t want to rush things and I don’t want her pushing too hard. She’ll tear. Let’s just take things nice and easy and let the baby come in his own time.”
He locked gazes with Lily and then his brothers. This was it. The woman they adored beyond reason was gifting them with something more precious than anything in the world. She’d struggled and overcome so much adversity in her young life, and he was determined that she never go down that road again.
When Dillon got to ten, Lily slumped back against Dillon’s and Seth’s arms, her breath escaping in rapid pants.
“This hurts,” she ground out.
Dillon pressed his lips to her temple, his face a wreath of agony on her behalf. Dillon looked as helpless as Michael felt. He’d do anything to spare her this pain.
He’d been so absorbed in monitoring her contraction and the progress of the baby’s head, that he hadn’t even noticed his mom and the dads had made a discreet exit. Panic nearly overtook him again, and he was tempted to call the dads back. Or at least Adam. Not much rattled him. Except when it came to Holly.
Lily leaned forward, sucked in her breath, and Dillon began to count again.
“That’s it!” Michael said excitedly. “It’s coming! I’ve almost got the head. Don’t relax until I tell you, honey.”
The warm, gooey head slipped into Michael’s waiting hands. And then Seth was there, handing Michael the suction and a blanket. Michael suctioned the baby’s airway, and then the most wonderful sound he’d ever heard. The baby let out a soft wail that echoed through the room.
“Okay, Lily. Just one more push, honey. Can you do that for me? The baby will be here. Just one more push.”
Her body heaved, and then she bore down and the baby slid easily into Michael’s grasp. He stared down in befuddlement at the squirming, sticky baby in his palms.
“A son,” he said reverently. He glanced up at his brothers and then met Lily’s tired gaze. “We have a son!”
Seth quickly helped cut the umbilical cord, and then wrapped his son in a blanket before carrying him very carefully to the head of the bed, where Lily waited.
Her expression was one of awe as Seth laid their son in her arms. Dillon’s eyes were bright with unshed tears, but as soon as Lily held their child to her breast, they slid down his cheeks unheeded.
“He’s beautiful,” she choked out. She lifted her head to stare at her husbands, so much love reflected in her gaze that Michael couldn’t breathe.
They’d done it! Mother and baby were fine.
“I need to ensure the placenta is delivered and there is no hemorrhaging,” Michael said in a low voice. “Help her nurse him.”
No one paid him any attention as he tended to Lily’s needs. She barely even registered the placenta being delivered or his carefully cleaning her afterward. He itched to hold his son again. But he was nestled firmly in his mother’s arms, sucking at her swollen breast.
He stood at the head, staring down for the longest time until Lily lifted her head and their gazes connected.
“Thank you,” she whispered in a voice tight with tears. “Thank you for this. For my son. For another chance. I’ll never forget this day. Never.”
Michael swallowed back his own tears. “No, thank you, honey. For giving us our son. For loving us.”
“He’s beautiful,” Dillon said hoarsely. “The most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen.”
Seth smiled, wiping away his own tears as he gazed down at his wife and child. “You up to letting everyone come in to see the newest Colter? I imagine Mom and the dads are chomping at the bit out there.”
“Yeah,” Lily whispered. “Let them come. I want them to see their first grandchild.”
CHAPTER 5
I’M reminded of when Seth was born,” Adam said, his voice aching with memories.
Holly smiled at her three husbands as they sank onto the couch at home. They’d left Lily and the boys just a half hour earlier, and returned home to rest and leave the new parents to fuss over the baby themselves. The boys insisted on bringing Lily and the baby to the hospital the next day so both could be checked out and make sure there weren’t any problems. But Holly had a feeling that if Lily got her way, they’d settle for having the doctor come out and tend to mother and child at home.
“Never a more beautiful moment,” Ryan said softly.
“I’m reminded of when you came home,” Ethan broke in. “That first time I saw you after all those months. Big and swollen with our child. I’ll never forget that day. It was the best day of my life.”
Adam nodded. “Can’t argue there.”
Holly sighed and settled between Ryan and Ethan on the couch. She was just as beautiful, if not more so, as she’d been nearly thirty-five years ago when she’d had Seth. Adam loved her more with every passing day, and he hadn’t imagined being able to love her more than when she’d returned to them.