Texas #4_Texas Christmas (2 page)

He also spent time worrying about Liam. Some days the young man was skittish and jumpy and that made Jack nervous. Added to that, Hatty wasn’t well, but no one could find out what was wrong with her. She only seemed to perk up when Max was over with Rebecca.

Then there was the nanny problem. Even though he and Riley had initially decided they weren’t going to have a nanny, the reality of the situation was that they needed another pair of hands in the house. Family helped them in emergencies, but two responsible careers—him with the ranch, Riley with the oil—meant that they needed a third in the house on a more permanent basis. Someone they could trust.

The concerns and stress tumbled in his head, and only when he finally addressed each one individually did he manage to push the issues into boxes in his head enough to relax against Riley and close his eyes.

The phone startled Jack from sleep and he saw it was five am when he fumbled for the phone.

“’Lo.”

“Hi, Jack. Beth is having the baby if you want to get to Mercy.”

Jack blinked the sleep away and a combination of fear and excitement gripped him. He tried to move in the bed but the sheet was somehow wrapped around his leg and stuck under Riley’s ass. “Is she okay?”

Steve chuckled. “Mother and son doing fine so far. She’s got a couple of hours yet.”

“We’ll get the twins sorted out and we’ll…okay…did you call Mom and Josh?”

“Yep, in that order. They said they’d meet you there.”

Riley rolled onto his side and the action released the sheet so Jack could finally move. “Beth?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Jack didn’t know what to do first. Should he just get dressed? Nah, he needed a shower first.

It was like Riley read his mind. “Get a shower. I’ll call Mom and Dad to come sit with the twins.”

Jack scrambled out of the bed and was in the shower as soon as he could. When he came out, Riley went straight in.

“They’ll be here in an hour. You go, I’ll bring Hayley and catch up later. Call me if anything changes.”

Only fifteen minutes after getting the call, Jack was in the truck and on his way to the hospital. He couldn’t help the dread inside him. He wanted to be excited, but all he felt was fear. Last time Beth had been this close to giving birth she had collapsed and they’d nearly lost her. This time everything had been so calm and on time. She’d gone longer than Rebecca had with the twins, but then she was only carrying one baby, a brother for Emily, they wanted to call Zachary.

Jack still couldn’t understand why her obstetrician had said she could try delivering naturally. All the strain on her heart had to be bad. But no, he’d even asked Marcus to check with Rebecca’s team and the advice was sound in her circumstances. Beth had agreed with the advice, and here she was in the hospital with Steve and Jack could do nothing to help her. He pulled into the hospital parking lot at exactly the same time as Josh, and the two men walked with purpose to the delivery suites. They didn’t talk until they joined Donna and Neil, who were already there.

“How is she?” Josh asked urgently.

“She’s had an epidural, and she’s gotten to three centimeters already,” Donna said. She didn’t sound fearful, she was relaxed and composed, but Jack knew his mom well enough that she was hiding what she really felt. Small tells gave her away, such as the way she gripped Neil’s hand so tightly that it probably hurt, or the way she couldn’t look Jack or Josh in the eyes.

“Is Emily okay?” Josh asked.

“Eden is at home with her.”

“What can we do?” Even though Jack was fully aware he could do fuck-all to help, he had to at least try.

“Coffee, Jack. I think your mom could use some,” Neil said softly.

Jack nodded. He could do that. He had change in his pocket. He could get coffee because it gave him purpose. Signs told him which way to go to find the coffee shop, which sounded a damn sight better than coffee from a cheap machine. Getting to the quiet area, he saw there was no one manning it and abruptly he recalled how early it was, which explained why the place was all closed up. He peered at the sign and saw it opened at six am. He had five minutes to kill, deciding that checking his emails was a good use of his time. He flicked unseeing through a couple spam mails, a request from a ranch in south Texas to send two representatives up for training, and a PDF bill from his feed supplier. Seeing those didn’t fill the five minutes, but by that time at least the shutters were up to reveal the biggest,
baddest
coffee machine he’d ever seen.

Unfortunately, it also had an equally big sticker on the front of it announcing it was awaiting repair.

In the end he was given four coffees from the less impressive machine in the corner, probably not much better than the vending ones. Still, it was black, hot, and full of caffeine. He didn’t know how long Beth would be in labor, and anything to keep him occupied was a win. He could be the chief coffee finder.

When he got back to Donna, she advised that nothing had changed, and they sat quietly with very little talking for a long time. Jack lost himself in thoughts about Beth and Josh and just how close they all were.

“You remember when Beth was born?” Josh asked suddenly. Obviously Josh had been thinking on the same lines as Jack.

“Yeah,” Jack said immediately. He’d been eleven, Josh was thirteen, or near as, damn it. Everything had changed when their squalling sister had arrived at the D. Even at eleven, Jack had the impression Beth was a result of his parents making up after their constant fighting. He wasn’t stupid. He could see that his dad hadn’t been interested in Beth. Not so him and his brother. They doted on her, especially when it was discovered she was ill. She was twenty-four now, a wife and a mother, but he and Josh would forever be the big brothers who watched over her.

“You remember when she was sick all over your saddle?”

Jack huffed a laugh. “Only ’cause you fed her an entire package of cookies and she was allergic. Took me ages to get that saddle clean. What about her first boyfriend, he was what, fourteen? We went all Van
Damme
on his ass.”

This time it was Josh’s turn to laugh. “We scared the shit out of him.”

“Only because you told him I was a cowboy with a gun, and I would hunt him down if he hurt Beth.”

“Well, you were a cowboy with a gun,” Donna interjected. “And I bet you would have hunted him down if he upset Beth.”

Jack quirked a smile. “I sure would.”

“Hell, you married a man to save her life,” Riley’s voice came from behind them and held laughter. Jack was never happier to see his husband, especially considering Riley had a tray of Starbucks and Hayley held a box of doughnuts. Jack had no worries about Hayley hearing the soft teasing remark. She knew all about how her daddy had met
Pappa
. It was never a secret, they’d just played down the whole blackmail thing—they’d explain that later should they need to.

Riley leaned down and kissed Jack.

“Was worth it,” Jack said with a grin.

Riley shook Josh’s hand, then Neil’s, and finally he gathered Donna up in one of the patented Riley hugs. She burrowed into the hug and clung to him fiercely, another tell that she was looking for support.

“I got doughnuts,” Hayley announced.

“Have,” Riley, Jack, and Josh all corrected her.

She pouted and rolled her eyes, which Jack thought still remained cute even though she was twelve. “Whatever,” she said and thrust the doughnuts out to Neil. Then she proceeded to hug Josh and her
Gramma
, then Neil while at the same time relieving him of one of the sugared goodies.

Jack ate two and drank real coffee and finally felt more human.

The door to the delivery suite opened, and a woman in scrubs popped her head out. Jack and Josh immediately stood.

“Beth is asking for her mom,” the midwife said softly. Donna passed her coffee to Neil and took a moment to straighten her shirt and jeans before inhaling and nodding. “Nothing to worry about,” the midwife added. Jack exchanged glances with Riley. Didn’t matter what the midwife said, Jack would still worry.

Riley did his bit by keeping the conversation flowing, talking about the twins and Max and oil and what Sandra looked like without her makeup and pearls at six am this morning. Jack simply listened and was never happier than when Hayley sat next to him and leaned against his arm—her presence was another distraction.

At nine thirty the door opened again. This time Donna came out and she was grinning from ear to ear.

“A boy, six pounds, eleven ounces. They’re both doing well. We can go in to see her in a while.”

Jack hugged everyone and when they were finally allowed into the delivery room, he was stunned at how beautiful Beth looked, at peace with a tiny scrap of a baby in her arms and Steve next to her, the proud daddy.

Neil had a decent camera on his phone and took enough photos to chart every one of the baby’s first few minutes with her family.

Jack pressed a kiss to Beth’s forehead then to the baby’s.

“Hey, Zachary Murray,” he said gently.

“We changed our minds,” Beth said as she looked at a grinning Steve. “My family is everything to me and Steve said we should name our son Campbell, to keep the family name.”

Donna smiled through tears and Jack was choked. His dad may well have been an idiot, but Donna had loved him and his family name meant something to him.

“His middle name is Jay,” Steve said proudly. “After Jack and Josh, his uncles.”

Jack didn’t know what to do with himself. He was overcome with emotion, and Josh looked as wrecked as he felt.

“Cam for short,” Beth added.

“Then welcome, Campbell Jay Murray, Cam for short,” Donna whispered softly. “Welcome to the family.”

Riley opened his eyes to bright sunshine, and his immediate emotion, well the one after his brain kicked into action, was panic. He couldn’t understand why. Beth was okay; she’d gone home yesterday from hospital and Cam was a good baby who seemed to do little else but eat and sleep. So why was he panicked?

He looked at the clock. Eight am and there was no noise from the twins. Jack was in bed with him—he could feel the weight of his husband against him.

Dread skewered him, and he jumped out of bed in an instant and was at the twin’s door in seconds. He stubbed his toe on the doorjamb, but even that didn’t stop him from stumbling into the room.

The twins were fine. Connor had his eyes open and was making little
snuffly
noises that were the precursor to the feeding cry. Lexie was still fast asleep, but she was breathing. Riley knew that because he checked. Every time he went past the room he checked that they were breathing and yes, he knew he was being an idiot.

“What’s wrong?” Jack said urgently from behind him.

“Nothing,” Riley said softly. He scooped Connor up out of his crib and patted his diapered bottom. “Connor slept through.”

“Oh my God,” Jack said with relief in his voice.

“I panicked when I woke up,” Riley explained.

“Me too. But he’s okay.”

“Needs a change and breakfast, but yeah, he’s okay.”

Lexie let out a similar snuffling sound to Connor, and Jack lifted her up and out of the crib.

“I can’t believe we slept through the alarm,” he said.

Riley grinned at his husband. “I’m sure Robbie and Liam have it covered.”

They changed both babies, then moved out to the kitchen for milk. The routine was familiar and one of the best parts of Riley’s day.

Jack made coffee one-handed, something that he had grown adept at doing, and soon the fragrant scent filled the kitchen. Riley fell on his cup like a man starved and the first sip was nectar.

“You ready for the interview?” Jack asked when enough caffeine had kicked in so they could have a decent conversation.

“I just hope she’s the right person,” Riley said. “And that we’re doing the right thing.”

Deciding they needed help here was not something they’d come to with lightly. Even though Riley had cut his hours, he still had responsibility for so many people, and Jack managed to fit what he could of the ranch around the times Riley was here to back him up.

“We’re doing the right thing,” Jack stated. “When Max gets here we want to balance family and work, and we want to help Max and have a nanny for the twins. On paper she’s perfect.”

“Are we taking Max out after?”

“That’s what we arranged. We need to pack up the twins’ stuff.”

Riley nodded and pushed aside his doubts, and the two men moved through the morning routine with the added luxury that neither of them had planned work. Today was finding-a-nanny day, then spending time with Max. At last the clock clicked around to eleven and the nanny arrived for interview one. Marcus had recommended her. In fact Marcus Walker, half owner of the surrogacy agency that they had used, was a big part of his and Jack’s life. He was a friend and someone they respected. This nanny had his endorsement, and Riley held out high hopes.

The car that pulled up outside was a late-model sedan, and the compact woman that climbed outside was a surprise. Riley didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but she didn’t fit the picture he had in his head of a nanny. She waited next to her car for a moment, then turned a full three-sixty, slowly examining the land and the house. Riley wondered what she saw. They’d fixed the road in so that would have been smooth, and the fencing and fields were immaculate, all Jack’s department, of course. The house was half finished with different sheets of tarpaulin and scaffolding at various spots around its perimeter, but workers were there every day attempting to get everything finished on schedule.

He saw her nod, then move to climb the steps to the main front door. No one used that door, if anything it was the kitchen that everyone walked into.

“She’s here,” Jack said quietly from the hall.

Riley fought down the nerves and excitement that churned inside him.

“Best let her in,” he said.

Jack opened the front door, and Riley stopped himself from leaving the good room and immediately going into the hallway and demanding answers to a whole load of questions.