A Vow to Love (17 page)

B
randon Halloran stood in the hospital hallway gazing raptly at the baby who was squalling his head off in the bassinet right down front in the crowded nursery. The nurse had pointed him out, but Brandon was convinced he would have recognized him anywhere.

"Looks just like you," Lizzy observed.

He gazed down at his beloved wife and saw the twinkle in her eyes. "He is a handsome little devil, isn't he?"

"I was referring to his big mouth."

He scowled at her affectionately. "Hush, woman. That's my great-grandbaby you're talking about."

"And mine," she reminded him tartly. Then her voice softened. "Oh, Brandon, he really is precious, isn't he? Have you ever seen a baby as cute?"

Brandon heard the chuckles behind him and turned to find Sam and Penny watching them, their eyes sparkling with tolerant amusement.

"Even though it's barely dawn, we thought we'd find you here," Penny said, hugging them both. "Couldn't you even come to say hello to the new mother first? Everyone else has gone home now."

"Thanks to your bad planning, we took that blasted red-eye flight. I'm getting too old to fly all night and still be sociable in the morning." His gaze narrowed. "What made you think we'd be down here? How'd you even know we were back in town?"

Penny laughed. "Are you kidding? We've had minute-by-minute reports from the second your plane took off from Los Angeles, primarily because that's how frequently you called. Whoever put telephones into airplanes obviously had you in mind."

She gazed up at her husband. "How many times did he check in with your sister?"

"Six at last count," Sam reported, to Brandon's chagrin. "Jason unplugged the phone."

"And with Kevin and Lacey?"

Sam shot him a grin. "I believe they stopped answering after the first ten calls."

Penny nodded. "Sounds about right. Add that to the half dozen calls fielded by the nursing staff and the one that actually got put through to the delivery room and I'd say you didn't miss one single minute of my labor. By the way, the doctor says he's charging extra for having to put up with your consultation. He wasn't overjoyed by all your questions about his qualifications, either."

Brandon took the taunting in stride. He loved the sass the women in his life gave him. The men, too, for that matter. The fact that they still indulged in so much affectionate teasing made him feel alive. Some men his age were all but ignored by their families. Knowing that would never happen to him filled him with joy. He gave thanks for it every day of his life.

He frowned at his granddaughter. "If you hadn't gone and had him so blasted fast, I'd have been here before the end," he informed her huffily. "You always were in a rush."

"It didn't seem fast to me," she protested. "And, frankly, I wasn't about to let it drag on just to suit your timetable. If you wanted to be in on the delivery, you should have come back a week ago when I warned you I thought he was going to be early."

Brandon shot an I-told-you-so glance at his wife and caught Lizzy lifting an imploring gaze toward heaven. That look was mighty familiar. She often asked for help in putting up with his shenanigans. Made a big deal of it, in fact, but he guessed she wouldn't have him any other way.

"Don't get him started on that, please," she begged Penny. "It's all my fault. I told him first babies were almost never early and that labor always took a long time. He grumbled at me from the minute the call came in and never let up until we touched down in Boston. Don't blame me if he takes up residence in your guest room from your seventh month on next time."

Brandon leaned on the cane that more and more seemed to be a necessity since he'd broken his hip in an absurd skiing accident in Switzerland the previous winter. Whoever heard of putting a tree smack in the middle of a ski run? At any rate, he was just glad it had been him and not Lizzy. She was never going to let him forget it as it was. She had told him they had no business trying to learn to ski at their age. He'd figured they didn't have any time to waste. He wanted to try everything he'd missed out on over the years. He might even take up roller-blading one of these days.

But no matter how far they traveled or how many adventures they shared, coming home to family was still what he liked best. He thought he could relax a little now that his favorite granddaughter and that rapscallion husband of hers had finally settled down. Getting them married had required the last of his matchmaking skills. He thought maybe it was time to retire from the meddling business...at least until the next generation was a little older and needed some sage advice.

He gazed into the nursery at the squalling baby again and his heart swelled with pride and a sense of accomplishment that wasn't rightly his to feel. "You named him yet?"

Penny and Sam exchanged a look.

"There was never any doubt about it," Sam said.

Brandon regarded the pair of them with tears in his eyes as he anticipated the answer. He hadn't dared to hope they would honor him this way.

"With your permission, we'd like to call him Brandon Halloran Roberts," said the fine young man Brandon had always thought of as one of his own.

Penny reached out and squeezed his hand. "We love you, Grandfather," she said.

His throat clogged with emotion. "Nothing could make me happier than having this baby as my namesake," he told them. "I just pray he'll have half the life I've had."

His gaze went to Lizzy and turned gentle. "And some small measure of the love," he added. "If he has that, his life will be rich, indeed."

Sam slid his arm around Penny's waist and regarded Brandon with all the strength and determination Brandon had always known he possessed. It was Penny, though, who had given him the ability to see it in himself.

"We'll see to it that he does," Sam promised. "He's got a father who's finally learned what love and family are all about."

Sam's gaze settled on his wife then and Brandon could see the depth of emotion these two shared. It had been a long time coming, but it was the kind of bond that would last through all time, just as his had with Lizzy.

With his own heart overflowing with joy, Brandon reached for his wife's hand.

"We've been blessed, Lizzy."

She reached up and touched his weathered old cheek. The caress still had the power to stir him.

"Twice blessed," she reminded him. "It's a legacy we can leave to all the generations of Hallorans to come."