The Forgotten One (The Heirs #2)

Chapter Thirty-Three

Max drove.

Piper and Chase were in the back seat of the truck.

Alex took the passenger seat.

Gaylord and Vivian took a second car.

“I thought the first baby is supposed to take a long time,” Max said, looking in the rearview mirror at Chase.

“Tell that to the contractions,” Alex said.

It wasn’t that Piper’s contractions were right on top of each other, but they had started just moments after her water broke, and from the noise Piper was making, they didn’t sound very pleasant.

It had taken them a half an hour to make sure everything was off in the kitchen, put food away, call Piper’s doctor, and retrieve Piper’s go bag.

Max wasn’t sure what was in a pregnant woman’s go bag, but apparently, they had one with them.

While Max followed the navigation to get them to their desired hospital, Alex was trying to distract them. “Look at it this way, you’ll never forget her birthday.”

“It’s not Christmas,” Max told Piper. “The date changes every year.”

Alex swatted Max’s arm. “Work with me here.”

“What is her name going to be?” Max asked.

Piper groaned.

“Breathe, honey.”

“It’s not that,” Piper said. “I should have listened to you.”

“About what?”

“This is happening. She’s coming today.”

Max glanced at Alex.

Alex bit her lip.

“We knew it was any day ...”

“No, it’s, ouch, ouch, oh, damn.”

Max winced, picked up his speed once they hit the freeway.

The contraction didn’t last long before Piper was talking again. “We’re going to have to sign the birth certificate.”

“Okay,” Chase said with a lift of his voice. “We knew that.”

Max looked through the mirror.

Piper was staring at Chase.

“We have different last names. We’re not married.”

Max and Alex both looked at each other.

“Honey, it’s okay—”

“No. I should have listened to you. We should have gone to the courthouse. Why didn’t I think this through? Our names are going to be different on her birth certificate. I don’t want her to ever think we had to get married.” Piper started to cry.

Max pulled into the emergency entrance to the hospital.

Alex jumped out to get help, and Max opened the back door while Chase helped Piper walk around the car.

An employee arrived with a wheelchair and took Piper and Chase away.

“We’ll see you up there,” Alex called out.

“That was intense,” Max said.

They parked the truck and met up with Vivian and Gaylord in the labor and delivery waiting room.

Ten minutes after they were settled, Sarah walked through the door.

Max stood and met her with a kiss.

“How is she?”

“Not wasting any time.” Max told Sarah what he knew. Piper’s contractions were picking up in intensity and speed, making everyone nervous before they walked into the hospital.

Max introduced Sarah to Vivian and Gaylord before taking a seat next to him.

“Dammit,” Alex said, staring at her phone.

“What?”

“I left my charger at the house. And my phone is almost dead.”

Sarah reached for her purse. “I got you.”

Max grinned. “You brought a phone charger?”

“Yeah, these things can take hours.” Sarah handed Alex the charger and dipped back in her purse. “I brought snacks and a little something to calm the nerves.”

Max looked down, saw two airline-size bottles of some kind of amber alcohol and two single-serving bottles of champagne. “You are resourceful.”

“My mother’s idea.”

Chase walked out of the door leading to the labor and delivery rooms, running a hand through his hair.

Vivian stood. “Is everything okay?”

Chase shook his head. “She’s freaking out. Won’t let them give her anything for the pain.”

“A lot of women want to deliver without drugs, honey.”

“No, Mom. It’s not that. She wants to find a justice of the peace, or a minister ... someone to marry us right now . Before the baby is born so our names match on the birth certificate.”

“Sweetheart . . .”

Chase wasn’t hearing his mother.

He turned to Max and Alex. “We need someone. Get me someone.”

“I don’t know any ministers,” Max told him.

Sarah shook her head. “Sorry. There might be a chaplain in the hospital.”

“No, the nurses already called. The on-call guy is two hours away, and that’s only if traffic is good. It’s never good on Thanksgiving.”

Alex lifted a hand in the air. “I got it.”

Chase pivoted.

Everyone stared at her.

“Nick. He did one of those ‘something life ministries’ things online so he could officiate his sister’s wedding two years ago.” Alex was reaching for her phone.

“Perfect. Tell him to drive fast.”

“Are her contractions close together?” Vivian asked.

“They’re not bad. But the nurses said once they give her medication, the legal documents—”

Gaylord patted Chase’s shoulder. “We understand, son. Go back in there and assure Piper we’re going to make this happen.”

Chase’s head bobbed up and down like a doll.

“Nick!” Alex said the man’s name into the phone like a prayer. “We need you.”

It took an hour and thirty-five minutes for Nick to arrive.

“I got here as fast as I could,” he announced as he blew through the waiting room door, wearing emerald green latex pants and a white-and-black striped shirt. He looked like something out of a comic book instead of someone qualified to perform an emergency marriage ceremony.

Everyone turned to look, jaws open ... eyes wide.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Alex’s question was filled with judgment and disdain.

“It’s Thanksgiving,” he said as if that made sense to anyone. “Friendsgiving?”

Sarah whispered close to Max’s ear. “He’s the one with an eye for fashion?”

“This year’s theme was the Joker.”

Alex shook her head.

“It was this or the crazy pigtailed girlfriend. Count your blessings.” Nick turned a full circle. “Where is the happy couple?”

Alex pointed to the labor and delivery door.

Vivian walked past Nick, stopped to look him up and down. “The Joker is going to marry my son to the love of his life.” She shook her head.

Nick lowered his chin an inch. “Sorry, Mama V. It’s Friendsgiving.”

Vivian patted Nick’s arm. “I’m sure we’ll laugh about this next year.” She continued on to the door leading into the delivery room and picked up the phone that alerted the nurses on the other side. “Hello ... yes. Our minister has arrived.”

Sarah and Max both laughed.

A few minutes later, a nurse opened the door and stepped into the lobby. Her gaze hitched on Nick; she blinked but said nothing. “We moved Piper to our large suite that can accommodate all of you.”

“How far apart are her contractions?” Vivian asked.

“We’re at about five minutes. She still has a way to go. As soon as we can get this marriage thing out of the way, we can make her more comfortable.”

“We’re not going to see anything ... are we?” Nick’s lips curled with his question.

The nurse looked him up and down. “You’re worried about what you’re going to see?”

Gaylord busted out a laugh. “Exactly what I was thinking. Poor baby comes into the world, takes one look at you, and jumps right back in the womb.”

Nick stiffened his spine. “It. Was. Friendsgiving!”

Alex walked past her best friend. “Calm your jets. We’re just giving you crap.”

Max stood and reached for Sarah’s hand.

“You sure she wants me in there?” Sarah asked.

Alex used a waving motion with her hand. “C’mon. It’s fine.”

The nurse stopped each of them at the door and took their temperatures. From there, she made everyone take a turn at a sink to wash their hands.

Sarah waited her turn and took in the corridor. Unlike other stark places in a hospital, the labor and delivery unit was painted in soft colors of pink, blue, and yellow. A continuous beeping sound was interrupted by the occasional moan. Nurses and aides hustled, and the place smelled like antiseptic and hope.

Max and Sarah stayed behind the others as they were brought into Piper’s delivery room.

Piper’s head was elevated on an adjustable bed. She wore the customary blue spotted hospital gown, had an IV running in her arm and wires running all over her. A soft, rapid swish, swish sound pulsated from a monitor at her side.

“Hello, Mama.” Vivian walked to the opposite side of the bed from where Chase was sitting and placed a kiss on Piper’s forehead. “How are you doing?”

“I’m grrrrr. Oh, boy.”

Piper’s eyes closed, her face twisted with pain.

Chase held her hand and told her to breathe.

“That looks uncomfortable,” Sarah said softly to Max.

He looked at her and nodded.

Nick ... being Nick, said, “I’ve never been so happy to be a boy in my life.”

A woman wearing a lab coat over normal clothes pushed into the room and went straight to the bed.

“Hi, Piper.”

Piper nodded as she kept gasping out short breaths.

“This is Piper’s doctor,” Chase said. “Dr. Resnik.”

The doctor glanced around and then turned her attention back to Piper.

“Everything looks perfect. The anesthesiologist is on his way up here from the OR and is ready to give you the epidural as soon as you’re ready.”

The contraction finally eased, and Piper’s smile returned.

Dr. Resnik turned to the crowd. “Who is our minister?”

Nick held up his hand.

The doctor gave him a once-over. “Friendsgiving?”

Nick held up both hands as if offering a blessing to the gods. “Finally, someone gets it.”

“Let’s do this,” Piper urged.

Nick stepped to the end of the bed. “Do you have a marriage license?” he asked.

Piper looked stricken. “License? It’s at home.”

“We have one at home,” Chase told him.

“As long as you have one.”

One of the nurses moved around Vivian with a handful of fake flowers. “Here,” she said, handing them to Piper. “We can’t have live ones. I found these in the hospital lobby.”

Sarah placed a hand on her chest. “Awahh.”

“Who are your witnesses?” Nick asked.

Piper pointed to Alex.

Chase glanced toward Max and Sarah.

Max stiffened at her side.

“Step up, brother.” Chase waved him over.

Max glanced around the room. “You sure ...”

“Get over here!” Piper nearly yelled. “This shit hurts!”

Sarah nudged Max forward.

Vivian and Gaylord stood to one side, Sarah on the other. Dr. Resnik and four other faces, probably nurses, hung back by the door to watch.

Nick cleared his throat and started to read from his phone. “Welcome, family and friends. We’re here today to witness Chase and Piper as they start their new lives together as husband and wife. Where they—”

Piper’s eyes squeezed tight as another contraction took her over.

Sarah looked to her left and saw Dr. Resnik glance at her watch.

The ceremony paused until the contraction passed.

Then Nick started again. “Where they—”

Piper made a rolling motion with her hand. “Skip the flowery and get to the point.”

“Shit ... okay.” Nick scrolled on his phone. “Wedding vows are not something to go into lightly or without thought.” He paused and looked around the room. “They are a promise of deep conviction and commitment that should be felt to the core.”

“My core is feeling it!” Piper kept the rolling motion with her hand.

Nick fussed with his phone. “All right, here it is. Chase, will you take Piper to be your lawfully wedded wife? Will you love her, laugh with her, comfort her, honor and protect her, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?”

Chase lifted Piper’s hand, stared in her eyes. “I do.”

“Piper, will you take Chase to be your lawfully wedded husband? Will you love him, laugh—”

“Oooouch!” Piper wiggled on the bed.

“Breathe, honey. You got this,” Chase cooed.

Sarah noticed the doctor look at her watch again.

One of the nurses was looking at the monitor above the bed.

When Piper’s breathing slowed, Nick started over. “Will you, Piper, take—”

“I do. I do, forever and always.”

A nurse at Sarah’s side laughed.

Nick looked up from his phone. “Rings. Do you have rings?”

Piper tugged at her engagement ring that didn’t want to come off. “It won’t ...” She kept twisting and pulling.

One of the nurses picked up a bottle with gel and squeezed some onto Piper’s hand.

“I don’t have a ring yet,” Chase informed Nick.

“I got you, son.” Gaylord removed a ring from his finger and handed it to Chase. “Until you can get your own.”

Piper’s ring came free, and both Piper and Chase handed over the rings and looked up at Nick.

Nick stood taller. “For thousands of years, men and women have exchanged—”

“Get on with it!” Piper said between clenched teeth.

Nick looked flustered, moved his script forward.

Sarah exchanged glances with Max, who was having a seriously hard time keeping a straight face.

Nick found what he wanted, blew out a breath. “Chase, take Piper’s hand and repeat after me.”

“Not her ring finger,” Dr. Resnik shouted out. “It’s too swollen—use her pinky.”

Chase moved the ring over one slot.

“Repeat after me. Piper, I give you this ring.”

Chase smiled, slid the ring on Piper’s hand. “I give you this ring.”

“As a sign that I choose you.”

“As a sign that I choose you,” Chase repeated.

“To be my wife and my partner.”

“To be my wife and my partner.”

Nick looked up. “And my best friend to the end of my days.”

Chase smoothed Piper’s damp hair aside. “And my best friend to the end of my days.”

Vivian cooed.

Alex tilted her head to the side, moisture in her eyes.

“Your turn, Piper. Repeat after me. Chase, I give you this ring.”

“Chase, I give you this ring.”

“As a sign that I choose you ...”

Piper’s face squished, but she kept going. “As a sign that I choose you.”

“To be—”

Piper cut Nick off. “To be my husband and partner and best friend to the end of my daaaays!” She started to pant.

Nick gave up with his phone.

His next declaration was a rush of words.

“By the power vested in me by the Universal Life Church and the State of California, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Chase, you can kiss your bride.”

Piper kept it together enough to lift her lips to Chase before she let out a scream.

Dr. Resnik pushed Sarah aside and took Nick’s place at the end of the bed. “Everyone out. We need to see how much she’s dilated.”

Nick shuddered and was the first one out the door.

Max patted Chase’s back as he rushed away.

The last thing Sarah saw before the nurse closed the door on all of them was the fake flowers gripped in Piper’s fist as she called out in pain.