The Strength of the Pack (Suncoast Society #30)(75)

Eva ran through terrifying nightmares. Of something being wrong with the baby, and of losing Nate and not being able to find him or their baby. Loud noises, shouting voices…

Pain.

Replaced by nightmares of her father, of what he’d done to her…

More pain…

Her eyes snapped open and she clawed, startled, at the woman leaning in over her.

The doctor caught her one hand while someone unseen grabbed the other. “Mrs. Crawford? Eva? I’m Dr. Harliss. It’s okay. You’re in the ICU at Proctor-Collins Medical Center.”

As English started processing through Eva’s brain she let out pained, gasping breaths, relaxing, no longer struggling. “Husband…”

“He’s right there.” She pointed to Eva’s other side.

Eva turned her head and Leo stood there.

Now her pulse spiked, pounding, and somewhere an alarm went off. No, that couldn’t all have been a dream, could it? Maybe she’d ended up in the hospital after all the morning Jesse found her lying in the bathroom, but then why would Leo be there and not—

Jesse rushed in. “She’s awake?” The doctor let go of her hand and got out of the way so Jesse could edge in next to Eva on that side.

She calmed. “Where’s Nate?”

Leo gently squeezed her hand. “He’s up in St. Pete at All Children’s Hospital with the baby.”

“Baby?”

Now she could isolate the source of the pain. She looked down and realized she no longer had a huge baby belly. When she tried to reach down, Jesse gently caught her hand.

“No, sweetie. They took the restraints off when they started bringing you up because we knew you’d panic, but you can’t do that. You can’t touch your incision.”

Now she started crying. “What happened?” More awareness settled in, and she realized she also wore an oxygen cannula, and her throat hurt like holy f*ck. She had an IV in her left hand, the one Jesse now held, and was connected to monitors and leads.

Dr. Harliss had moved to stand at the end of the bed. “Eva, your placenta detached, and you started bleeding severely. You also had severe preeclampsia. We had to deliver your baby by emergency C-section.”

Leo stroked Eva’s forehead and she looked at him, at his sad, blue eyes.

“What else?” she asked. “Tell me everything. Is something wrong with the baby?”

“He’s doing good,” Leo assured her, pulling out his phone and showing her a picture. “Cherise texted me these. See? He’s okay.”

She cried as he scrolled through them for her. They’d planned for everyone to be in the room when he was born. “It’s a boy?”

“Kenneth Leonard Jesse Cooke-Morrow-Crawford.”

Now she knew she was still dreaming. “Say whut?”

Leo smiled, still holding the phone for her. “Blame your husband. He named him.”

“No. It’s…perfect.” If they were having a boy, she’d wanted his first name to be Kenneth, after Nate’s step-dad. The middle names she honestly hadn’t considered yet, but…

Perfect. Their pack.

Although she would have a word or two with Nate about three last names. That was just overkill.

Still, she loved him for it.

But Leo looked sad. “What’s wrong?” she asked after she realized the doctor had left them alone. “I know that look. We were married for twelve years. What’s wrong?”

Jesse squeezed her hand to make her look at him. “Sweetie, they had to do a partial hysterectomy to save you. You wouldn’t stop bleeding. You had two surgeries. The first time, they thought they got the bleeding stopped, but then you started bleeding in recovery and they had to rush you back in. The second surgery, your BP tanked and they nearly lost you. We told them whatever they had to do to save your life, that they had to do it.”

She stared into his brown eyes, so different from Nate’s, her vision blurring from tears. “Hysterectomy?”

He leaned in close, stroking her head. “Sweetheart, it was that, or lose you, and we cannot lose you.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, sobbing now. “I’m so sorry, Jesse.”

One of her monitors beeped and now both men worked to calm and soothe her. The nurse came in to check on her, silencing the alarm. “We can give her something to calm her, if we need to,” she gently said.

“No,” the men said. “She’ll be okay,” Jesse said. “She’s just waking up and processing.” The nurse left them alone again.

Jesse continued stroking her hair, refusing to let go of her hand. “Sweetheart, you come first. Your life comes first.”

“But I f*cked this all up,” she whispered. “I was supposed to have a baby for you.”

He kissed her forehead. “Eva, listen to me,” he whispered. “You are supposed to be alive to help raise our daughter, and now our son. I’m going to love that baby every bit as much as if he had my genes. And you still have your ovaries. Maybe at some point we can talk about a surrogate, but right now, our priority is getting you healed up so we can take care of our son. He’s part of the pack. Just like Nate’s part of the pack, and Laurel’s part of the pack. Community property.” He smiled. “Okay?”