But I didn’t give that up either. I held River’s gaze until hurried footsteps rerouted my attention.
Then I was on my feet before the midwife appeared in the doorway, my name on her lips.
“Locke? You need to come with me.”
31
NASH
Orla was so tired. She’d given birth twice, in two different ways, and endured major surgery while she was fuckingconscious. But my woman’s eyes still shone with wonder as I placed our son on her chest. “Is he hungry?”
“Still sleeping.” I ran a finger over his velvet-soft brown hair. “He’s had a long day too.”
Orla smiled, fatigue heavy in her face. “We made it.”
“We did.” I brushed her hair back too. “They went to get Locke and baby girl. You think you can stay awake long enough to see them?”
“What do you think?”
I thought lots of things, but most of it was distant noise, no room in my universe for anything but love and awe for the woman who’d made it all possible.
And him.The door opened a little wider. Locke appeared with our daughter in his arms and placed her immediately in mine, the baby I’d only held in the back of an ambulance while Orla had bled out in front of me. That terror—I’d never forget it.
But the healing had already started.
Locke kissed my temple. Then squeezed around me to meet our son. “Dark hair, eh? You got one of each, queenie.”
Orla hummed, beyond words.
Locke stroked the shadowed smudges beneath her eyes, a shudder rocking him, knowing how close we’d come to losing her. Then he took the baby from her chest and I realised all over again how fucking small our son was. Any smaller and he’d have been in the special care unit on the floor above.
Locke’s hands dwarfed him, but he’d held a baby tinier than this, and perhaps for the first time, I truly grasped what he’d lived through to smile like he did as he gazed down. “Your brothers are here. Logan and Rubi too.”
Orla’s eyes blinked open. “Logan’s here?”
Locke nodded, gaze flickering, but she was too exhausted to notice as the midwife popped her head around the door.
“I let the other two brothers back in again. Turns out they take up more space in the corridor. Would you like to see them before we move Orla to the ward? There definitely won’t be room for them all down there.”
I cocked a brow at Orla. “What do you think? Are you ready to deal with that rabble?”
Orla smiled again, tired and beautiful. “It’s time, sweetheart. I need them close.”
The midwife knew our story. She told Locke where to hide, then flitted away to fetch the others.
I thought I’d hear them coming, but somehow even Rubi was quiet, like he’d learned to whisper on the way, though I felt his excitement like a current on the wind.
Bodies crowded into the room. Cam and River went straight to Orla, while Logan hung back, trying to preserve the space, already looking for Locke.
Rubi came to me, tears in his eyes. “Is this her, Nashie? Can I hold her?”
I placed my daughter in his arms, safe in the knowledge he’d have died for her before she was even fucking born.
His bottom lip wobbled.
River laughed. “You all right there, boo?”
“Not even a little bit.” Rubi brought the baby around the bed to where River perched, his hand clasping Orla’s. “Look at these little hands, Riv.”