“You look pretty,” he commented as he merged into the traffic of the motorway.
I folded my arms under my chest.
“Thank you.”
Silence.
I glanced at Damien’s hands on the steering wheel and noticed how tight his grip was.
“Has Alec phoned anyone with an update?”
“Not yet,” he answered coolly.
I looked out the window and set my jaw.
“Does your attitude mean I’m on the couch tonight again?”
“You bet your arse it does.”
Damien grumbled to himself but said nothing further to me. We got caught in traffic, and it didn’t help either of our moods. I couldn’t believe when my stomach grumbled thirty minutes into the traffic jam.
“I can’t believe I’m hungry,” I said out loud. “I ate me weight durin’ breakfast.”
“I’m hungry too,” Damien grunted. “It’s times like this when I miss Wendy’s.”
I jerked my attention to Damien. “Who the fuck is Wendy?”
It took promptly zero seconds for Damien to erupt with laughter.
“It’s a … fast food place,” he said while gasping from his laughter. “Not a woman.”
I scowled at him but couldn’t help but feel a huge amount of relief.
“I love it when you’re jealous.”
I looked out the window. “Shut up.”
“You know you have no need to be, though,” Damien continued. “This dick and heart are entirely yours.”
“Ye’ spend too much time with Alec,” I said, my lips twitching. “Ye’ sound more like ‘im every single day.”
“That’s not a bad thing.”
“We’ll see.”
Twenty more minutes in the gridlock nightmare, and I was irritated by everything.
“Damien!” I growled, feeling his eyes on me once again. “Stop lookin’ at me.”
“Can’t help it. I visually enjoy you. I love you.”
I knew he loved me, and I knew how much he wanted to spend his life with me. As I stared at Damien’s side profile, I thought back to my conversation with Bronagh from two days ago, and one thing repeated in my mind. I wanted a marriage and children with Damien, so once again, I had to ask myself … what the hell am I waiting for?
A bouncing baby boy.
After just three and a half hours of active labour, Alec and Keela were the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy who weighed seven pounds even and was twenty inches long. That was as much information as Branna had given me, Damien, and Ryder as we crowded around my phone to listen to the news in the garage. I screamed and jumped up and down with delight; Ryder and Damien hugged and patted the hell out of each other’s back. Ryder gave me a squeeze, then Damien got his hands on me and held me so tight I felt his happiness deep in my bones.
“You’re an uncle,” I beamed. “Again.”
“And you’re an aunt again.”
“Auntie,” I jokingly corrected. “Oh, I want to see ‘im so bad.”
“Me too,” he said and checked the clock on the wall. “It’s only four ten … How long do we have to wait for visiting hours?”
“Six, I think.” I groaned. “That’s gonna take forever.”
I looked down at my phone when it pinged, and I screamed when I saw the first picture of Alec, Keela, and their stunning son.
“He’s a redhead!” I gushed. “Look at all his hair! Slater babies do not come out of the womb bald!”
Ryder and Damien stared at the picture.
“Look at how happy he is,” Ryder commented softly. “I never thought I’d see him so complete.”
My heart warmed. “He has his family.”
Damien gave me a squeeze, and I knew he wanted what Alec had, what Ryder had, and what his other brothers had. A family. Children. A marriage. I wanted that too, and the longer this day carried on, Damien’s and my relationship being rushed didn’t seem as big of a problem as it did two days ago.
“He’s gorgeous,” I said, staring at the baby. “He looks so much like both of them … but that hair. It’s just like Keela’s.”
“Red hair is a colour we don’t have in our family,” Damien commented. “Mine and the twin’s hair are the only different ones out of all of us. Everyone else has dark brown hair.”
“Things are changing, little brother.” Ryder chuckled. “You aren’t the odd one out anymore.”
Damien snorted as he gazed at the picture of his nephew. “He looks like Jax.”
“He does,” I agreed. “And that means he looks like Locke because those two are the double of Kane, and Nixon and Jules look just like you, Ry. There are so many mini Slater lads.”
“Then there is Georgie who is a Murphy girl to the core.” Damien chuckled.
“She has Nico’s dimples, so she’s not entirely a Murphy. She has some Slater genes in ‘er. Don’t worry about that.”
After two more hours of waiting, the lads were finally ready to leave work, and we headed straight to the hospital. I practically sprinted ahead of them once I knew what floor and ward Keela and the baby were on.