Carnal Christmas-epub (11 page)

“I don’t know, but I remember him saying that in my dream. Everything happens for a reason.” He closed his eyes and smelled summer. Warm cotton. Cologne. Travis.

“You must have heard the doctor talking to us this morning before they brought you down from the ICU. He said that.”

“Us?” He opened his eyes and looked around.

“Brent went home to change, but he should be back soon. Hake and Mandy, too. We’ve all been here all night.”

It came back to him then. “I had an aneurysm?”

She nodded. “It ruptured.” Her eyes filled and then her face crumpled as she leaned forward and rested her forehead on his shoulder. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, Joe. It took ten years off my life when they ran out with you like that.”

Joe reached up and rubbed the back of his knuckles on her wet cheek. “Does that mean I’m only three years older than you now?”

“Don’t laugh,” she scolded, sitting up to grab his hand and squeeze it tightly between both of hers. “The doctor said your heart stopped during the surgery. They almost lost you.”

Well that was sobering.

Then his eyes widened. Holy shit, his
heart
had stopped?

Everything happens for a reason.

A feeling of urgency gripped him. “Call Brent and see if he’s still home. If he is, tell him to bring the box I put under the Christmas tree.”

She gave him a puzzled smile as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Brent. “Hey, are you still at the house? Yeah, he’s awake, and he’s asked you to bring in the box he left under the tree. Okay, thanks, I’ll tell him. See you in a few minutes.” Tucking the phone away again, she said, “They’re on their way with the box.”

Joe relaxed. “That’s good. Thank you.”

He must have dozed off again because he jerked awake when the curtain was ripped aside and a cute little nurse with a short ponytail and piercing in her eyebrow bounced in.

“Joe, you’re awake! Excellent. I’ll let Dr. Sands know. My name is Heidi and I’ll be your nurse today.” She scrawled her name on a white board on the wall and then turned to check his IV and take readings from the blood pressure machine. “Do you need anything? How’s your pain on a scale of one to ten?”

He looked at Ariel, eyes wide.

“His throat hurts pretty bad,” she told the nurse. “I’d say a seven or eight. But the incision isn’t bothering him much.”

“Excellent! The doctor’s got something ordered for you, so let me go get that.”

After she left, Joe slumped. “Jesus, do they have anyone but kids working in this hospital?”

Ariel laughed. “You really are getting old.”

“That girl couldn’t have been more than sixteen!”

“Actually, I’m twenty-five, but thank you, Joe!” Heidi said as she bounced back in and handed him a plastic cup with a pill in it, along with a fresh cup of water to take it with. After he’d swallowed it, she fluffed his pillow and straightened his tray before she left, sliding the curtain closed behind her.

Ariel sighed. “She makes me tired.”

“No, sleep deprivation is making you tired,” Mandy said, pulling back the curtain. She carried a small Christmas tree in a pot, which she promptly set on his tray. “You need to sleep, honey. And look who’s awake! Merry Christmas, Joe.”

She took off her coat and threw it on the chair as Brent and Hake walked in behind her, then hurried over to take Joe’s face in her hands and give him a hard kiss. “I almost missed my chance to say this to you, Joe, so I’m not waiting one more minute. I love you, you big asshole, so get used to it because I’m not going anywhere and neither are you. So there,” she added with another noisy kiss.

Joe chuckled, and then groaned at the pain it caused in his belly. But that only made him laugh harder. “Ow! Fuck, it’s true—it only hurts when you laugh!”

Ariel handed him a pillow. “You’d better hold this on your stomach because we’re all punchy today. And don’t hold your laugh in because that hurts more.”

He obeyed without question, loving her worrying over him. Even loving the pain, because it meant he was alive. What had happened to his father had happened to him, but Joe had survived.

Everything happens for a reason.

Mandy moved over so Hake could take her place. He didn’t even say anything, just took Joe’s face the way Mandy had and pressed a long, tender kiss to his lips. Then he lifted his head and gave Joe a grave look. “What she said. You big asshole.”

Joe laughed before he had a chance to press the pillow to his stomach and then groaned again. “Ohhh, that hurts,” he laughed.

“Let it out, Joe,” Ariel reminded him, her blue eyes twinkling.

He thought about what Hake had said and laughed out loud this time. “You’re right—it doesn’t hurt as much. How’d you get so smart?”

She grimaced. “Between my parents and me, I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals. Not the best way to learn these nifty tricks, but I’m glad they help.”

Joe picked up her hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry to make you spend more time here. Let’s try and make this the last time for a good long while, okay?”

Hake stepped away and then it was Brent’s turn to move in and lay a big, hard kiss on him. Then he pressed his forehead to Joe’s and stared into his eyes. “I’m never letting you go, old man.”

Taking a long, shaky breath, Joe said, “That’s good, because you’re never getting rid of me, boy.”

“I love you,” Brent whispered.

Joe was too choked up to say it back. He just nodded and knew Brent understood.

Brent cleared his throat and straightened. “I brought your box.”

“Give it to Ariel, please.”

“Me?” She looked curious and pleased as Brent set it on the floor beside the bed. Crouching down beside it, she opened the flaps and pulled off the paper. “Oh, Joe…it’s beautiful.”

She didn’t sound thrilled, and when she looked at him, she was biting her lip.

“What’s wrong?”

“Joe…Mandy and Hake are keeping the baby.”

He looked back and forth among them. “Why?”

“Because when they wheeled you away like that and I thought you were going to die…” AJ closed her eyes and breathed for a moment before continuing, “Joe, there was nothing I wouldn’t have given to keep you. You and Brent are my whole life. I won’t let anything keep us apart.”

“Well you’re just going to have to expand your whole life because we’re keeping that baby…” He looked at Mandy. “If the offer’s still open.”

A huge smile split her face. “Of course it is! Oh, Joe!”

“We are?” Ariel repeated. “I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why?”

Joe took a deep breath and smiled. “Because the fear is gone.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. “That could be the drugs talking.”

“It’s not. But that’s why I wanted Brent to bring you the cradle. It was Travis’s. I made it for him. Brent, can you bring it up here, please?”

When Brent set the cradle on the bed, Joe ran his hands all over the beautiful oak rails and smiled. “Every time I tried to think about him, I’d think about him dead in my arms. Now I can remember how he was before—mischievous, hardworking, girl-crazy, football-crazy… I don’t know why I forgot it for so long, but I loved being a father. I miss it. I want it again.”

“That’s good, because you
are
her father,” Mandy said quietly. “The paternity test ruled out Brent as well as Hake because their mothers were identical twins.”

“I knew it!” Brent cackled.

“I kind of had a feeling too,” Joe admitted, relaxing deeper into the bed as contentment settled over him.

“You’re having a girl?” Ariel said, her heart in her eyes.

Mandy shook her head. “
You’re
having a girl. A daughter.”

“We’re all having a daughter,” Joe told them. “Brent, you need to propose soon so we can get the wedding out of the way before she comes.”

Brent gave him an uncertain look. “You’re the baby’s father. Don’t you think…”

“Don’t think, Brent—there’s a design here, and it’s perfect so don’t mess with it,” Joe told him lazily.

Hake scratched his chin. “What the hell kind of drugs they got you on here, Josiah? I think I want some.”

Joe just grinned at him, already plotting. When he said the baby was their daughter, he meant
all
of theirs. That little girl wasn’t going to miss out on any of her parents, not when they lived on five acres that could easily hold
two
new houses.

“As luck would have it, Joe,” Brent said, coming around the side of the bed to take Ariel’s hand, “I proposed yesterday. And I’ll propose again today, and tomorrow, and every day after that until she says yes.”

Then he dropped down on one knee and gazed up at her, his brown eyes so earnest that
Joe
fell in love with him all over again. How in the hell had he ever thought he could leave either of them?

“Ariel Jane Pender, until I met you, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted less than a wife,” Brent told her. “Now I can’t think of anything I want more. Please marry me and put me out of my misery.”

Although tears shimmered in her eyes, she smiled and leaned down to kiss him. “Of course I’ll marry you, Brent. I wouldn’t dream of messing with a perfect design.”

* * * * *

Later that evening, after a much-needed nap, Joe found himself enjoying something he’d never dreamed he would—riding in a wheelchair.

“Shouldn’t you be walking?” Brent asked as he pushed Joe out of the elevator and down the long carpeted hallway.

“Hell no. I’ve done my walking for the day.” It had hurt like a motherfucker until he finally got moving, and less than ten feet out the door, he’d practically fallen over from exhaustion. There was no way he’d make it down two floors to the maternity ward and back, especially with the IV pole in tow, and dammit, he was excited now—he wanted to see some babies.

Judging by how far ahead of them she was already, Ariel wanted to see some as badly as he did. His heart thudded with anticipation when she stopped to peer into a row of windows, but then put her hand on the glass with disappointed look.

“Aw, there’s nobody in here.”

A passing nurse paused to commiserate. “Oh, I know! It’s usually standing room only in there, but we’ve only had one baby born here in the last couple of days, a Christmas Eve baby.” Then she smiled. “But don’t worry, he’s just having a bath. They’ll probably bring him— Oh, here he comes!”

In the nursery, another nurse wheeled in a little plastic crib. When she saw the audience, she smiled and parked him right in front of the window while Brent did the same with Joe.

He was just at the right height to peer into the crib. Attached to the inside of the crib, a hand-lettered placard, decorated with little Christmas trees and snowflakes, told the baby’s name, birthdate, weight and length.

“Colton Jay,” AJ said softly, her nose to the glass. “How cute is he?”

Joe was too busy pressing his own nose to the glass to answer. The baby was swaddled in blankets and already asleep, his little rosebud lips slightly parted. Jesus, it had been too long since he last saw a baby. He’d forgotten how tiny they were, how perfectly sweet and innocent and lovable.

His heart stuttered as the baby’s lips moved as if he were sipping the air—Joe could almost smell his breath. God, he remembered, and it felt so damn wonderful, his heart could hardly contain it.

Ariel sighed. “Now I can’t wait to see ours.”

“Have you thought about names yet?” Brent asked.

She looked down. “Do you have anything in mind, Joe?”

“Hadn’t really thought about it. Do you have something you’d like to name her?”

“Well, I did always want to name a daughter after my mother. She went by her middle name, Jean, because she thought her first name was too fancy. But I thought it was beautiful.”

“What was it?” Brent asked.

AJ smiled. “Annabel.”

“Annabel, wait! I can’t keep up!”

Joe blinked as the shadow of memory chased through his mind and something settled deep inside him.

“It’s perfect,” he said, his heart thumping heavily.

The nurse came back in and tugged off the baby’s little white knit cap. Right before she replaced it with a blue one, Joe saw the fine halo of his carroty hair.

“Aw, a redhead!” Ariel laughed. “Isn’t he adorable?”

“Poor kid’s gonna wonder what he did to deserve that,” Brent said, laughing too.

“I’m sure there’s a reason for it,” Joe said softly, as the nurse put Colton Jay’s cap back on and left him to his newborn slumbers. “After all, everything happens for a reason.”

To A Carnal Christmas

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