Family Affair by Elle M Thomas

Chapter 31

 

Declan

 

“This cannot be happening.”

Liv looks up at me and I immediately feel guilty. This is not how she planned on spending her afternoon either and she is the one in labour, not me.

“But it is.” I try to lighten the mood. “We can do this together, right?”

“I think we’re going to have to, Uncle Declan.” Liv releases the strangest and loudest squeal I have ever heard, and I swear she is putting me off ever having sex again if this is a possible outcome.

“Baby,” Mase’s voice comes through the speaker of the lift.

“Mason, get me the fuck out of here!” she yells at him.

“I’m working on it, I promise. Livy, this will be okay.”

I smile at their exchange, especially when Liv replies. “Babe, I need you here, holding my hand and telling me I can do this.”

“I know and I need to be there too, and I will be, soon.”

She does her squeal thing again. Yeah, this is not attractive. Maybe it’s better that Mase isn’t seeing this, or my niece would certainly be an only child.

“Dec.” His attention is on me now. “I know I said I didn’t want you playing midwife, but you may have to. Livy’s contractions are speeding up and I can hear they’re becoming more intense. There is an ambulance on the way, but in the meantime, I have a lady from the ambulance service on the line.”

 

The next ten minutes pass by in a blur. Liv is propped up the corner and I have now seen her lady parts. Her contractions are almost constant, and I can see the baby’s head doing something I now know is called crowning. The ambulance crew have arrived, as have engineers and the fire brigade. On one side we have the noise of people trying to get to us and on the other is the woman directing me and Liv on how to get my niece out. We also have a side order of anxious dad giving advice and muttering curse words.

I watch as Liv has another contraction, and the head begins to emerge.

“Fucking hell! I can see her. Her head is coming out! What do I do?” I am well out of my depth here but am also emotional to see this little person entering the world. Even the sight of Liv and her lady parts is no longer looking as traumatic. This moment is fucking amazing, and I feel privileged to be witnessing it, no, sharing it.

The woman is telling me to support her head but not to pull! She is talking about the shoulders, and I am panicking inside that I may break my niece as she enters the world.

Liv looks at me and smiles. She can see or sense my turmoil.

“Uncle Dec, we have got this. You wouldn’t have been my first choice to do this with, but maybe you should have been. You’ve been amazing.”

“Don’t turn mushy on me now, Liv.”

I am genuinely touched by her words and the sentiment of them, but I need not to get emotional because if I do, I will go to that place where I missed my own daughter being born and then I will inevitably end up imagining Anita doing this, going through this, only to give up the baby she loved and in other circumstances wanted. A baby she would have been an amazing mother to if the father had been different.

“Liv, I want a baby,” I blurt out.

“That is not on the fucking table!” Mase hisses at me, making me laugh.

“Not with Liv, you dickhead.” I look at Liv again, “No offense.”

“None taken.” She smiles briefly before another contraction hits. She knows what I am saying.

Her scream is kind of blocked out by Mase shouting something about being on his way and the sound of metal scraping and then light hits us from outside of the lift. We have barely moved from the apartment. The men opening the lift are visible from just above the knees down.

The lift is suddenly filling up, paramedics appear a split second before Mase and before any of us know it, Liv is crying out again and I am literally catching a baby that resembles a bar of wet soap judging by how slippery she is in my grasp.

Her cry is the best sound ever. She is beautiful with dark hair and perfectly pink skin. I feel tears running down my face.

“She is fucking perfect. My little angel.”

The paramedics intervene. I have no clue how long it takes but suddenly my brother is cutting my niece’s cord while I hold her, both of us sobbing more than the baby and then she is being moved onto Liv who is also crying at the sight of her desperately wanted and loved little girl.

I get to my feet and look down at the sight of my brother holding his wife while she cradles their firstborn child and the phrase a picture paints a thousand words really makes sense. They are a perfect picture of happiness and love. I want that too. I had that and I threw it away because of my own ego and hurt.

“Liv, I want a baby.” My repeated words make her grin up at me.

“Then go.”

“What?” Mase is confused.

“I told you, Anita is leaving, and I can’t let her. I love her and I need to listen to her, then most likely beg her to forgive and try again.”

Mase frowns. He is still holding the grudge I am determined to let go.

“I. Love. Her. More. Than. Anything.” Punctuating each word seems to get my message across.

“Where is she going?” Mase asks.

Liv and I both shrug.

“She said she’d let me know but she was going to the airport.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” Mase orders. “Call Dad, he’ll find her.”

I’m already climbing out of the partially accessible lift before dipping back in. “Congratulations by the way, and I’ll be back for more cuddles with Auntie Anita.” I feel the face splitting grin form as I hit my dad’s number.

 

Anita

 

Chapter five has just ended and still I am sat on the runway. Cabin crew seem to be oblivious to what’s happening or when we might take off. There has been one further announcement saying there will be a further short delay. No shit Sherlock.

The ladies next to me are planning their first drinks at the hotel bar and I admire their commitment to having a good time when they start mixing their own cocktails aloud.

I glance back down to my book when there’s a commotion from the other end of the plane. I may lose my shit if we are about to be ordered off, although as I hear the family behind me discussing plane crashes and malfunctions, if that is what’s causing the delay, maybe I’d rather disembark.

The sound of cabin crew’s voices getting louder distract me slightly and then I hear something else and think I must be dreaming or having an out of body experience.

“Anita!”

I look around, checking for another Anita, but it can only be me this particular voice is calling.

“Cupcake! Where the hell are you?”

I stand up, unsure what I expect to see, but the sight of Declan Harding striding down the aisle of the plane towards me is far more than I imagined.

“Dec, what are you doing here?” I ask as he comes to a stop at my row.

“I’ve come to take you home.”

I laugh. What the hell is going on here? We are not together and as recently as a few hours ago he despised me and looked at me with contempt. He’s not looking at me with contempt now though.

“Dec…” I have no other words.

“Please. Forgive me for not letting you explain things. Give me a chance, one chance to listen, that’s all I’m asking for.”

I actually pinch the skin on the inside of my wrist, certain this is a dream. It must be because this cannot be real.

“If I need to get on my knees and beg, I will.”

I watch in horror as he does just that and with his hands pressed together as if in prayer, he repeats his earlier words.

“Give me a chance.”

I stare down at him, oblivious to all of the eyes I feel on me.

“Nothing will change the past,” I warn him.”

“It doesn’t need to. I accept your past, as you accepted mine, but if you’ll tell me everything, I promise to listen and not judge.”

I am unsure if Dec expects me to reject him and the offer he’s making. Hell, I have no idea if I am going to reject it based on the fact that this, us, is not going to be an easy or a quick fix.

Dec remains on his knees, adjusting his position until he is teetering on one leg and then, just when I think this can’t get any more surreal, he produces my engagement ring.

“Liv gave me this. I don’t want it. It’s yours if you’ll have it.”

I hear giggles and people muttering oohs and ahs. He is not doing this, is he?

“Anita, Cupcake, marry me, please.”

Okay, so yes, he is doing this.

“Declan, we can talk.”

He grins up at me.

“But I am heading for Greece right now…”

“Then so am I,” he declares.

“Not without a ticket you’re not,” one of the cabin crew says, coming alongside Dec.

“I have a ticket!” he snaps, holding up his boarding pass.

“Declan…why do you have a ticket?”

“Where you go, I go.”

I have no words. He has no luggage as far as I know and is standing here in the clothes he is wearing, a very dishevelled outfit of jeans and a t-shirt, planning on coming to Greece with me! He has thrown all of my plans up in the air. I love Dec, of that there is no doubt, never was and as much as I want his pledge to not judge me to be true, what if it isn’t?

“Cupcake, marry me?”

With no thought and very little co-ordination, I am climbing over the two ladies next to me and leaning down to kiss Dec.

“We need to talk first,” I whisper as he gets to his feet and pulls me in, preparing to kiss me.

Looking down, I see blood on his top.

“What happened, are you hurt?” Panic grips me as I wonder what happened after I left him with Liv.

“What? No. Why?” He looks down to where my eyes have settled. “Ah, no. I should have told you…this is baby blood.”

A couple of people nearby gasp at his phrasing.

He looks around. “Not like injured baby. I delivered a baby…my niece,” he explains then turns to me. “Long story, but me and Liv got stuck in a lift and she went into labour. I delivered the baby just as Mase and the paramedics got to us…I should probably have told you that. Oh, I told the baby I was going back for cuddles and bringing Auntie Anita with me, so, are we doing that now or after Greece?”

This is unbelievable. For whatever reason, Dec wants us to try again. He has just slipped my engagement ring back on my finger which is something we need to talk about, but not with a whole plane as an audience. I now discover he delivered our niece in a lift and that one way or another we are going for cuddles. Even with the whirring of my mind and the chaotic thoughts of what this might mean long term, there is no way I am going anywhere besides off this plane.

“Now. Let’s go.” I reach for my hand luggage while Dec grabs my free hand and with a smile for the cabin crew we are passing, we’re heading for the plane door that is thankfully still open.

By the time we are back in the airport, we are giggling like naughty schoolchildren until I stumble up a small flight of stairs. Dec pulls me back, preventing my fall and somehow, I end up pressed against a wall with his hands lacing through my hair.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers as his face moves closer to mine.

I know that he is going to kiss me and although it’s not our first kiss, it’s a kiss I never thought I’d feel again. The softness of his lips as they gently find mine shocks me. His kiss is tender rather than frantic, cherishing me and this moment. I feel as though I am trembling, but not from arousal or anything that basic. This is love, real, honest, true love, coursing through me, telling me everything about how Dec feels as much as how I feel. In this kiss, I know that Dec is the one. The only one for me and I could live a thousand lives and never find this again and having had and lost it, but lucky enough to have a second chance, I will not waste it or throw it away.