Jesus Christ!” He drops it like it bit him and covers his eyes. “Ah, some things just can’t be unseen, andthatwas one of them!”
“Drama,” John says, laughing.
“Really?” Mike flips it open and graces them with a woman giving birth to a baby. It’s still half inside of her.
Oh! Come on, man!” John is turning to leave when the door opens.
“Oh my God!” Sue bursts into the waiting room with a proud Daniel behind her. “She so perfect!”
The whole room bursts into excitement. Sue cries, Daniel cries, the guys are cheering, but best of all, Mark’s brother is so incredibly happy. It is perfect.
Chapter Thirteen
Mark
Two Days Later
“Keep walking. Just a little farther.” Mark holds Savannah’s hand as she blindly follows him downstairs to see their gift to her. Cole follows but won’t let anyone blindfold him. Mark understands. He’s been through too much to feel out of control, even if they are in the safety of the house.
Mark opens the door, and there are Mike, John, Paul, and Keith ready to show off the room.
“Okay, we’re here.” Mark carefully unties her blindfold. “Open your eyes.”
Savannah reaches out for his arm. “Oh…wow!” Cole is speechless too as they take in their daughter’s new playroom.
Cole steps around Savannah with Olivia in his arms. “You guys did all this?”
Keith nods before Paul takes over, showing who did what to the room.
Savannah starts to cry. She cries a lot now. Something about hormones and such. Mark chose to tune out Abigail when she decided to educate him on it.
“This is the best present you could have given us.” She starts to say something else but stops when Mark hands her an envelope. “What’s this?”
“My gift to my niece.”
She grins and rips open the top then pulls out the paperwork. “Is this from the bet?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“I know, but I wanted to.”
She stands on her tippy-toes and kisses his cheek. “Thank you, Mark. This means so much.” She tucks the papers in her pocket and joins the tour Paul is giving.
John sits Livi on the giant teddy bear so she stays propped up and disappears behind the puppet stage and returns a moment later dressed as Kermit, and Mark joins him as he jams a Miss Peggy mask in his hands.
Seriously?John gives Mark a dirty look, so he pulls it on.
Meanwhile, Keith is building a Lego fort, and Savannah is eyeing a troll shelf with other toys.
“Wow, you guys really thought of everything.” She dabs a tear away.
Cole
Later That Night
Cole checks the time and sees it’s 2:00 a.m. Savannah is in a deep sleep, completely exhausted, so he decides not to wake her to breastfeed. He goes downstairs to warm a bottle of pumped breast milk.