“How are you? Does it hurt? What the hell are all these machines?” He snapped rapid-fire questions at me like a drill sergeant.

“I’m fine. Yes, it hurts, but not too bad yet. And all this stuff is just to check my vitals to make sure I’m doing okay. Except this one,” I said, pointing at a screen. “This is the fetal monitor. The top graph is the baby’s heartbeat, and the bottom graph measures my contractions. The higher it peaks, the stronger the contraction.”

His eyes widened in horror as he stared at the monitor. “But it says you’re having a contraction right now.”

I could feel it and grunted, “Yeah, not a bad one though.” I blew out a long breath, and my brother’s lips turned white as his gaze flickered wildly from the monitor to my face. “Dude, I’m fine. Stop with the crazy eyes.”

Evan smiled kindly at my brother and said, “Don’t worry, Beau. I freaked out earlier. I tried to come to the hospital in my pajamas, I almost left Blaire’s suitcase, I practically strangled her with her own jacket, and my hands were shaking so badly, I thought she was going to have to drive us. For some reason, the calmest one here is the woman about to actually birth an entire human being.” He reached down and took my hand between his two soft ones.

I gave him an affectionate squeeze and said, “Now that these guys are here, you need to go call your parents. Tell them not to come tonight, though. They can drive up and meet their granddaughter tomorrow. And grab yourself some coffee because we will be here for a while.” When he started to protest, I insisted, “Evan, I promise you’re not going to miss anything.”

After he left, Bode approached my bed, and I noticed that he was rubbing his upper arm. “Did my brother punch you?” I asked with a knowing smirk.

“Fuck, yeah. I didn’t even do anything wrong. I was just saying that all women have… never mind.” He halted what he was about to say when his eyes jerked to my brother, who was aiming a vicious death glare at him. “How you doin’, Blaire?” he asked, leaning over and kissing me right on the mouth. Bode always kissed me on the mouth, and I was convinced that one day, he was going to try and slip me some tongue. Luckily, while I was in a hospital bed about to have another man’s baby, that day wasn’t today.