Cherish & Blessed (16 page)

Miranda would probably have her kids call him Mr. Haight.

No, that wasn’t right. Things were better. Evan and Miranda had been working on their relationship in the past few weeks, since the Thanksgiving Disaster, and as a side benefit of her and Evan’s new connection, she seemed to actively hate Matt less.

So maybe her kids would call him Matt. He was fine with that.

Now, though? Now he was waiting for the birth of the little girl whose safety and well-being had pretty much been his job since her conception.

A few feet down the hallway of New York Presbyterian, the Ameses had a private suite. Only the best for former movie star Daisy and Mr. Warbucks of Broadway Bennett and their offspring. The Ameses were finally birthing their first child, Matt’s newest charge.

Bennett’s paranoia had deep pockets; after an incident a few years ago when a disturbed man went after Daisy at the theater, his natural tendencies had gone haywire. He hired Matt and gave him an unlimited amount of money to spend to keep Daisy safe.

It was putting Evan’s kids through college, but sometimes Matt wished Bennett could relax.

Although as his own adventures in pseudo stepparenting schooled him, with kids? The experience of guiding them and loving them just made your heart more fragile and your fears more pronounced.

“Anything yet?”

Matt startled at the voice, looked up to find a bleary-eyed Griffin Drake, holding two gigantic cups of cafeteria coffee.

“Nope, still pushing I guess.” Matt had delivered a baby once, as a newbie recruit, on the subway platform at Fifty-First Street. It was a rush of adrenaline followed by faking confidence and trying to remember that class he took with the EMTs.

Griffin made a face as he handed Matt his cup, then settled down next to him with a thump of his body against the rigid waiting room chair. He kicked his long legs out and leaned his head on the wall behind him. “Five hours? How big is this kid?” Griffin muttered to the ceiling, the overhead fluorescents bouncing off his glasses. “She’s a small person—they should be helping her.”

“She wanted all-natural childbirth,” Matt said dryly. After so many meetings and lunches, Matt had quickly learned all the terms and various details of this golden child’s arrival—it was the topic of conversation more often than not. The new house in the Hamptons, renovating the penthouse in Manhattan—all upgrades to the security and almost fortress-like living as Bennett demanded.

“I realize I have no right to comment, what with lacking the right equipment and having nothing to do with aforementioned parts in even a passing way, but why go through a ton of pain when some lovely person with a needle can make it all go away?” Griffin said, clearly struggling not to yawn.

Matt shrugged. Except for that baby on the subway platform, all the kids he loved arrived in his life independent and without much (physical) pain on his part. “I’m surprised Bennett’s letting this go on so long,” Matt started—only to pause at a withering stare from Griffin, whose head lolled to one side. “What?”

“What? I’m totally telling her you said that.”

“That… I just mean, he’s so protective of her….”

“Overprotective,” Griffin muttered.

“Right. So—I’m just saying he might try to persuade her to take something.” Matt glared back. “Jesus, trying to get me in trouble with the boss lady?”

“Pft. Daisy’s a terrible boss. I know, she used to run my life.” Griffin smiled as he straightened up in his seat and set to work on his coffee.

“Speaking of running your life….”

Griffin blew on his coffee, which was still producing steam like a chimney. “Jim’s back at the hotel, sleeping. As he put it, he doesn’t have a dog in this race and he wasn’t needed.”

“See? Dog in this race—you should tattle to Daisy about that!” Matt shifted in the seat. By God, people concerned about loved ones and new lives sat in these chairs. Did they have to be so evil? Whose butt even fit in these oddly shaped things anyway?

“I don’t tattle.” Griffin took a sip of his coffee and made a sound that usually indicated “this tequila is too strong” before shaking his head. “I merely bring things up at opportune moments, mostly to get myself out of trouble.”

They sat in silence for the next sixty minutes, drinking their coffee and perking their heads up every time someone went by. But so far, no Bennett. No nurse with good news. Nothing.

Matt’s phone buzzed at just after four thirty with a text from Evan; he excused himself to Griffin, who jerked in his chair when Matt touched his arm.

“Evan’s calling,” he murmured, and Griffin nodded sleepily.

“Say hi for me,” Griffin managed before sinking back into slumber.

Out in the hallway, Matt smiled as he walked past the nurses at the desk and then proceeded through the electronic double doors to the corridor outside the maternity wing, hitting the icon for Evan’s cell.

“Hey,” he said when a sleepy voice responded.

“Morning.” Evan yawned. Matt could hear sounds of Evan’s daily routine in the background. Fix the bed, into the bathroom to shave and brush his teeth. “No baby yet?”

“Nope. Stubborn little thing.”

“It’s a first baby—sometimes they take longer,” Evan said as water started running. “Miranda was almost twenty-two hours from first pains to first screams.”

“Stubborn,” Matt said dryly. “See?”

“Hmmm,” Evan said, laughing a little. “She’s getting better.”

“She takes after you—I don’t hold out hope for an easygoing personality to suddenly appear.”

Evan just made a noise of derision. Or agreement. Matt could hear him brushing his teeth. It was nice, though, after all this time and the struggle and the strain, to joke about things that used to threaten to break them apart.

Sometimes they even brought up Sherri and nothing terrible happened.

Evan spit out the toothpaste and rejoined the conversation. “They say you forget the pain of childbirth, which is what enables you to have more,” he said. Matt heard the cabinet open.

“I would assume so—after twenty-two hours? If it were me, Miranda would be an only child.”

“Same,” Evan laughed. “Which reminds me….”

“Uh-oh.”

“No, nothing bad. Miranda and Kent are apparently going to Florida in March for his birthday.”

“Disney World? He’s so going to propose,” Matt deadpanned, mostly just to rile Evan up.

“Shut up.”

“Father of the bride—this is going to be lovely. I’m sure Miranda won’t be a bridezilla at all,” Matt continued drolly.

They’d been relieved after the Thanksgiving debacle when Miranda assured them she and Kent weren’t ready for marriage, but all the work Miranda was doing to repair things with her family just seemed to settle the couple into something more mature and therefore escalating since then.

Matt and his favorite cohort, Katie, mined the fertile ground for teasing Evan at every possible turn.

“If she loves me, she’ll elope,” Evan muttered, which sent Matt into a full snicker.

They chatted for another few minutes, household details that Matt usually took care of as Evan worked long hours at the precinct. The four-child household was down to two, with the twins involved in numerous after-school activities that required shuttling around.

“Mrs. Reyes is taking Elizabeth to dance, and then Ollie’s dad is giving Danny a ride home from the batting cages.”

“I might be home by then, depending on when Miss Ames decides to make her entrance.”

“Did you sleep at all?”

“Since last night? No. But I have drunk enough cafeteria coffee to make my bloodstream run black.”

“So come home when you can and just go to bed. We can handle things. Car pools and dinner. Hell, I’ll even make sure you have clean clothes tomorrow.”

“I have a competence kink and you’re talking dirty,” Matt growled.

Evan laughed again. “Send me a text when the baby gets here.”

“Send me a picture of you in an apron. We’re missing Valentine’s Day—it’s the least you can do.”

M
ATT
ARRIVED
back at the waiting room just in time to find a disheveled Bennett hugging the hell out of Griffin.

“She’s here, she’s here,” he kept saying, sounding exhausted but jubilant. When Bennett stepped back from Griffin, who was blinking and smiling like he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, he spotted Matt, and his grin got bigger.

“She’s here.”

I
T
WAS
a full forty-five minutes before they could see Daisy or the baby. She’d had a rough time of it—there was mention of “stitching her up,” and Matt tuned out briefly. Private matter about his boss lady’s private parts—no, thanks.

When he did get into her room, Matt found a pale but smiling Daisy sitting up in bed, her red hair pulled back and her beautiful face makeup free. A pink robe covered most of her small frame, the rest tucked under a white blanket. There wasn’t anything glamorous about Daisy at this moment, but Matt figured she never looked more stunning.

“Did you see her?” she whispered as Griffin hustled around Matt to get to his best friend’s side. “She’s fine—they said she’s fine, totally fine.”

Griffin shook his head as he put his arms around Daisy. “Soon. I just wanted to see you first.”

Tears spilled down Daisy’s cheeks as she curled up in Griffin’s arms; they’d been through a lot together, and Matt knew from Jim just how much their estrangement had hurt Griffin. Now? They held each other, crying and whispering, and Matt had to clear his throat.

He was so blaming lack of sleep for the emotional twist in his chest.

“She’s fine, she’s fine,” Daisy repeated.

Bennett touched Matt’s arm, gesturing outside. “We’ll be right back, darling,” he called.

Daisy nodded, her face tucked into Griffin’s neck.

They stepped outside, letting the door close behind them.

“Everything’s okay, right?” Matt asked quietly. He didn’t remember either of the Ames being concerned about the baby’s well-being, but something had to be up, given Daisy’s reaction.

“She’s just tired,” Bennett said, the lighting making him look older and completely exhausted. His eyes, though? Bright and shining. “And I think she was worried—well, she used to drink pretty regularly, and….” Bennett trailed off, his handsome face going hard, as if anticipating something negative from Matt. “And take some… medications too often.”

Ah
, Matt thought. He shrugged in response. “That was a while ago, right? So there wasn’t a high risk for anything to affect the baby. I’m not surprised she was worried, though—Daisy’s gonna be a great mom.”

The smile that bloomed over Bennett’s face told him he’d said the right thing.

M
ATT
TEXTED
the news to Evan as they waited a few minutes to give Griffin and Daisy time together. Bennett scrolled through his phone, huffing at all the messages.

“You want me to have Amy come down? Help you out?” Matt asked, his finger already on the icon for Bennett’s assistant, who was one part saint and one part ruthless rainmaker.

Bennett sighed. “Yes, please. I should call a few people, though. My mother and brother are on their way right now.”

Evan’s response popped up on Matt’s phone.

Tell everyone congratulations. Will tell Helena.

“Evan says congrats and he’s going to let Helena know.”

“She probably already knows. Shane’s on his way.”

With Bennett’s best friend married to Evan’s former partner in Vice, they formed an incestuous little circle of relationships that actually helped cut down on how many Christmas cards they needed to send out.

Down the hall came the rattle of a bassinet. A smiling nurse in hot pink scrubs was pushing the newest member of that circle toward the doorway.

“Well hello, Daddy—how about we bring the little girl in to see her mommy?”

A second later they entered the room, with Matt forced to clear his throat at least ten more times as Bennett and Daisy introduced Sadie Catherine to her godfather. The radiant light of that much happiness in one little place did something to Matt’s heart.

He surreptitiously took a picture and texted it to Evan with a simple description.

Families are a beautiful thing.

“W
HAT
DO
you wear to a christening weekend in the Hamptons?” Matt bitched from the inner depths of his closet. “What the fuck is beach casual? Because I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean a T-shirt and shorts.”

“Sure it does,” Evan called from the bed, where he was refolding his polo shirt. “It just doesn’t mean the free T-shirt from the middle school car wash and your gym shorts.”

“Fuck.”

Evan stifled a laugh. At some point Matt would realize that there wasn’t a magical elf in the closet crafting things he would need for their upcoming trip, and he would come out.

Out of the closet.

So they could go shopping.

He almost wanted to text Helena to share his amusement. But then he imagined Helena was going through the same trauma about packing that Matt was. He’d never seen Helena in clothing that could be described as beach casual—her idea of attire to relax in was very similar to Matt’s. Her wardrobe seemed to consist of sensible work clothes and sexy evening wear—the blending of a Vice cop and a Broadway playwright’s life.