I was crying so hard I could barely see Ben as he left the room. I cried harder as Mark stood and shuffled over to his brother and father, enfolding them both in a hug.
Marga was wiping away tears as she stood, pulling me up with her. “Let’s give them some time,” she whispered and I just gazed at her. The daughter was wiser than the mother.
Down the hall, we found Ben standing before a cross hanging on the wall. He was praying, his hands folded, his eyes closed. Very gently, Marga steered me to the waiting area and pushed me down into a chair. “I’ll get you a cup of tea.”
I watched the hands on the clock move as the tea cooled in my hands. Thankfully they knew enough to put an analog clock with a second hand there; otherwise, time would stand still. Footsteps echoed down the hall, and I turned to see Hawk, Worth and Mark heading our way. Tears were streaming down their faces, seeming to have washed away their anger.
Back in the waiting room, Hawk began pacing again. Ten steps to the left. Ten to the right. I noticed that Worth’s eyes didn’t leave him. He looked heartbroken for his son.
A door slammed open, and we all whirled around to see a gurney being wheeled toward us, turning sharply toward the elevators. A very pale, very tearful Liane lay aboard. Hawk lunged to her side, calling her name. “We’re taking her to the OR,” barked the doctor. “We can’t wait any longer. She’s losing too much blood. You can follow us to the third floor in another elevator.” The doors opened, and they disappeared inside. Hawk was madly punching the elevator button, but Marga reached forward and took hold of his arm.
“You’ll only screw it up, Hawk. Stand back and let me do this.” She calmly pushed the button and then stood back enough to watch the car’s progression by the lighted numbers overhead. The doors opened, and we all crowded inside. Marga tapped the button for the third floor, and soon we burst out into a corridor. A sign directed us to an OR waiting room, and that’s where we headed.
A half hour passed and there was no word. “Should it be taking this long?” Hawk groaned.
No one said a word. Marga stood up and paced a bit, peeking down the hallway for some advance glimpse of the doctor. Suddenly, she twirled toward us and beckoned madly, pointing down the hall.
We crowded around the doctor. “Congratulations, Mr. LaViere, you have a tiny, but healthy baby son. Mrs. LaViere has been taken to the ICU where she will be monitored. We expect her to survive, but she’s not out of the woods yet.”
I held my hand over my mouth to stifle the cry of relief. When Hawk’s legs buckled, Worth stepped over quickly to hold him up. Ben stood on his other side. Mark placed a hand on his shoulder while Marga began to cry again in earnest.
“Your son will be in the NICU, but you won’t be able to visit until the doctors there have examined and stabilized him. He may require a breathing apparatus. Even then, only the father is permitted at first. I would appreciate if you would wait an hour before trying to see your wife. They will be settling her in the room and hooking up monitoring equipment. If nothing unexpected arises, she has a very good chance. Tomorrow will tell us much more.”
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Auggie
I sat in the sunshine next to Liane and watched the baby sleeping in his carrier, shaded by a soft baby afghan. It was nearly Christmas, but a warm spell had sent us outside. As we Kentuckians like to say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.” It was supposed to snow tomorrow.
As tiny as Benjamin Bernard LaViere was, he could wail louder than an ambulance when hungry. He’d spent his first four weeks of life in the hospital, growing strong enough to come home. He hadn’t stopped eating since and had chubby baby cheeks to prove it.
Liane was still weak, and the sunshine felt good to both of us. Hawk was hovering nearby. He and Worth were looking over the house plans and for the first time in decades, looked like father and son. They had, by all accounts, gone through a religious experience, even if it had been delivered by a very earthly, very angry vicar. Liane and Hawk had named the baby for him, adding the middle name for our beloved Bernie. Nothing could have been more appropriate.
The holidays advanced upon us and this time, everyone, including Grandpa Ben, Hawk, Liane, and the baby joined us at Carlos Acres, making it the most special Christmas of my life. I still missed my dad and when I hung his special ornament on our tree, the ache for him was nearly unbearable.
Brandon and Lily stopped by on Christmas Eve and Letty outdid herself with a very British Christmas meal, in honor of the vicar. She smiled at him often, and he seemed to enjoy the flirting. I looked at Worth, and he nodded. We would have to invite the vicar here more often.
After the holidays, Worth and I flew to the condo for a couple of weeks and I learned what it was to be a wife again. Mark and Marga chose to stay behind and took up residence with Hawk, Liane and the baby while we were gone. Marga was turning into quite the helpful babysitter while Mark helped Hawk with the farm. Good therapy, he called it. In fact, the exercise was doing him a world of good.
We’d left Lettie behind as well, giving her some much needed time off. I cooked, I cleaned, and Worth took care of the yacht and helped me when I needed it. We traipsed the towns along the coast, and I began to accumulate a collection of miniatures. I had always been fascinated with scale, and Worth had bought me a dollhouse for Christmas, which I was now enthusiastically decorating. “It’ll cost me a lot less for the architect,” he had teased, and I’d playfully slapped him.
We Skyped with Hawk and Liane, and they’d hold baby Ben up to the camera so we could virtually pinch his cheeks. He was growing at a healthy, normal rate and couldn’t be more perfect.
Worth and I made love almost every night. After the hunger of long abstinence was sated, we had settled into slow, luxurious and sensual sessions that left us both fulfilled and more in love each time. We learned about one another, one on one, without the interference of work or family drama. For me, it was like an extended second honeymoon.
But when it was time to go home, we were ready.
Time passed and Spring came, and before I knew it, it was Mark and Marga’s graduation. Because Mark had been so studious before the accident, he’d taken a number of honor’s courses as well as advanced placement. So even after missing a semester, he still had enough credits to graduate with his class. I still wonder sometimes if Worth had bribed the principal, but never got up the nerve to ask.