Found by Love (54 page)

"Now Cru, I hope you're joking because I could handle a couple of more kids running around." I gritted my teeth because I didn't want to have an argument in front of the babies in the labor and delivery room.

"That's not something you tell your wife after she just gave birth to twins that she never knew she was carrying Nerd Boy. You're the one with the super sperm so do I need to tell the doctor to schedule surgery in the morning for me to get my tubes tied? One way or another, this is it Sweetheart." I could tell by the look on his face that I just squashed any dreams that he had of having a house full of children and I felt bad. "Okay, okay. I'll give you one more but not for a couple of years, deal?" The grin that he gave me made my decision seem a little more bearable.

"Deal and since I seem to have, what did you call it? Super sperm? I like that so if the next one is a boy I want to put in a request to name him Kalel or Lana for a girl. Ya know…. from the Superman movies." Oh he kills me sometimes with his damn favorite movie characters.

"That's not happening so you can forget it. We already have a Luke and Leah and it’s bad enough that they're going to get teased their whole lives over what a nerd their dad is so no. I am putting my foot down to that crazy idea now." He nodded his head at me and leaned down and grabbed each of the babies hands.

"Your Momma has a bit of a temper my darling babies but you'll get used to it. I promise, her bark is worse than her bite." He looked at me with his devilish grin. "I promise that you can name the next ones." I growled at him but remembered that I was holding the babies and tried to lower my voice.

"One Caleb! One!"

"Okay, okay. Note to self; never mess with your wife after she's delivered your children. I got it Baby."

Leah started to whimper from me raising my voice so I started rocking back and forth to get her to quiet down. I looked up at him and he winked at me letting me know that he was only messing with me so I chuckled under my breath and shook my head at him. I looked down at my babies and wondered how in the crap does one person breast feed two babies. I was so excited to get to enjoy everything with my daughter that I didn't get to enjoy with Grayson and now I have two of them. I kept asking the doctor how come they couldn't tell that I was carrying twins and all that he said was that it happens sometimes. Sometimes my ass! I've never heard of it!

"Honey, are you starting to get used to the idea? Is the shock starting to wear off?" I grinned and nodded as I tightened my hold on my newborn babies as they nestled closer to my chest.

"Yes. How many of them know that we've had twins? Is everyone up here? Please tell me Olivia hasn't had another baby has she. She still just has the one girl? Mercy?" I was trying to rack my brain at what her middle name was and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. "Lincoln! Mercy Lincoln! Oh my word, if we all aren't going to get made fun of when the three of them graduate from high school and the superintendent calls out their names. Haha!" I got a chuckle out of him and I couldn't help but laugh again.

"No, they don't know that we've had twins so how about we surprise them the way that we were. Cash and Olivia still only have one baby so I think they're safe and Mercy is doing well and weighs eight and a half pounds. Speaking of weight, how about we let the nurses take these two gorgeous ones to the nursery so that we can find out how much they weigh. I can already tell that little Princess Leah outweighs her brother by a pound at least. Maybe that's why Luke was hidden so well behind her. We can let everyone in but not tell them the good news until the nurses bring them back. Does that sound like fun?" I love how his mind works, most of the time anyway.

"Yes! It sounds like a lot of fun." He reached over to push the nurses’ station call button and put the babies in their bassinets. When the nurses showed up he told them what we were planning to do and to bring Leah in first so that we could surprise everyone. The nurse patted me on the hand and I realized that she was the one that seemed the most concerned at my reaction to Luke's appearance into the world.

"Thank you for not judging me. It's not that I didn't want him but I really only thought that I was having one baby so I was quite shocked and I didn't mean what I said when I told the doctor to put him back." She checked my vital signs and grinned at me.

"Of course you were shocked. I would have been shocked myself if I went my whole pregnancy thinking I was only having one baby and end up delivering two. Don't worry about it sweetie because I've seen it happen a few times and I would have been worried about you if you weren't shocked. Just thank your lucky stars that it wasn't triplets because I've seen that happen a couple of times as well." Triplets? Oh no, no, no!

"Oh you would have had to have put me in the psyche ward if there were three of them. I can promise you that."

"Me too sweetie! Me too. We will be back with your babies in about an hour." She looked over at Caleb and asked. "The girl first right?" We both nodded at her and let out a big sigh when she walked out and shut the door. He crawled up into the bed with me and pushed a few buttons that lowered the bed in the process. I thought it was accidental until he tucked a pillow under his arm and cradled my head on his chest. I looked up and into his eyes and my heart melted by the way he was staring at me.

"You amaze me more and more every day Cru. You're everything I've ever wanted for most of my life and you've given me even more than I could ever imagine. I keep falling more in love with you every day and I never thought that I could love you more than I did this morning but I do. Thank you so much for loving me and for fulfilling my life and especially for making me a father for the first time with Grayson. I just want you to know that my feelings will never change towards him because he has my heart as well."

I wrapped my arms around him and nestled further into his arms. Boy if he doesn't know how to read my mind. I was so happy to know that we were having a girl because I wouldn't worry and wonder if he would love his own son more than he loved Grayson but my stupid mind was only playing tricks on me like they always do. I leaned my head back and kissed him.

"You sure have a way with words Nerd Boy. You're stuck with me and I know that you love Grayson as if he were your own. I see it to the depths of your soul every morning when you watch him eating his breakfast. I see it every time you two leave for baseball practice or when you play catch with him in the back yard. I never thought that I could love anyone until I loved myself first and you did that for me Caleb. You helped me see myself through your eyes and you wanna know what I found out? I found out that I'm pretty awesome and that I do deserve to be loved in return. So Nerd Boy. You're the one that amazes me, every day." He pulled my hair back out of my eyes and kissed me on the forehead. I don't believe that I've ever felt as full of love and contentment in all my life.

"Knock, knock. Is it safe to come in?" Hearing my son’s voice after him being gone for a week caused my heart to skip a beat.

"Grayson! Come here my darling son. I've sure missed you!" His eyes lit up when he saw us and he ran to the bed and attacked me with a hug.

"Be easy Grayson. Your mother did just give birth to your sister. Come over here and give your dad a hug." I couldn't wait to see what his reaction was going to be when he finds out that he has a sister AND a brother. I giggled when he ran around the bed to give Caleb a bear hug.

"When can I see her? What does she look like? Who does she look like? Have you seen Mercy? She looks just like Uncle Cash and Gideon and Hank! Can you believe that? Isn't it cool that you and Aunt Olivia had your babies on the same day?" My mind was frazzled at how many questions he spit out in such a short time that I couldn't even begin to answer him.

"Oh Grayson my boy, one question at a time for your mother alright? Wow! It's almost one in the morning and you sure do have a lot of energy." He grinned at Caleb and leaned against him to try to calm himself down.

"Oh that might be my fault you two. I gave them some money to run to the vending machines and all they've had to eat or drink has been pop and candy." I got excited when Cash led the entire group of parents while pushing Olivia in her wheelchair with little Mercy in her arms. He rolled her right up next to my side of the bed.

"Hey you, as slow as you give birth I could have had a litter by now. I didn't ever think we were going to get the word that you had her." She looked around the room and back at me. "Where is she? The nursery?" I nodded my head and decided to answer all of Grayson's questions.

"Yes she's in the nursery but should be back here in a few minutes so that we can find out how much she weighed. Grayson, she looks just like Caleb and has blonde hair and I'm assuming that she will probably have blue eyes as well but they could change. Oh and yes! I think it's pretty cool that Olivia and I had them on the same day." I looked over at Olivia and down at Mercy who had her eyes open and was looking around. "I see someone's awake. Who would have thought that we'd be giving birth to our husbands’ mini-me's today? I don't think anyone's going to believe we carried them since they don't even look like us, haha."

"Oh you're not kidding and this one already has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. I haven't heard her cry since we were in the limo. Every time she grunts he picks her up."

"How are you feeling Claudia? I know you have to be worn out. Maybe we should let you rest and maybe we can go see little Leah in the nursery before we leave." Amelia and Elizabeth were at the foot of my bed patiently waiting to get their hands on my baby because I know how they both are around newborns.

"No I'm okay you guys. I want you all to see Leah. She's a little chunky thing and we aren't kidding about how much she looks like her daddy." I heard the door open and knew that it was the nurses and I couldn't wait to surprise all of them.

"Speaking of daddy's girls, here's my little princess right now." Caleb made sure to be the first one to pick his baby up and scooted his mother and Elizabeth out of the way. Cash went to pick Mercy up and held her in his arms and walked over next to Caleb.

"Mother, would you take a picture of Caleb and me with our beautiful daughters?" I leaned back and treasured this moment and felt Olivia grab my hand and I looked at her and she had tears in her eyes which made me start tearing up.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry but this is truly a special moment. You're like my sister and I can't believe that we married brothers and ended up having our babies on the same day." She started waving her free hand in front of her face to keep the tears at bay.

"We sure have gone through a lot together that's for sure but I think today puts the icing on top of the cake." I leaned over and whispered to her as the door to my room opened again. "Watch what happens next." I looked up and Mattie walked in with a confused look on his face.

"Um why is there a baby boy with a Kingston name tag in his bassinet surrounded by nurses in the hallway outside your room? I thought you had a girl?" Well talk about letting the cat out of the bag in a dramatic way. Everyone gasped so loud I started hysterically laughing.

"Oh we did have a girl but we had a boy too." I looked at all of the dropped mouths in the room and grinned. "Surprise everybody. It's a girl AND a boy!" No one seemed happier than Grayson and when he gets over the shock of it all I can't wait to hear what all he has to say.

Everyone started oohing and awing over all three babies and they all disappeared to the corner of the room leaving Caleb and I with Cash and Olivia beside my bed who couldn't quit grinning.

"Well congratulations on both of your babies. I guess Derek was right after all. Wow! So how shocked were you Claud? Or did you know all along?" I shook my head but Caleb answered for me.

"Are you kidding? After Leah was born and Luke came out she asked the doctor to put him back. No. We had no idea but evidently it happens a lot." Olivia chuckled and had to hold her stomach in to keep from hurting.

"You're really naming them Luke and Leah? Oh my word but that's funny! What's Luke's middle name?"

"Nathaniel."

"Skywalker."

Caleb and I answered at the same time and I had to hold onto my sides at the hilarity of him even thinking that I would give my baby Skywalker as a middle name.

"Over my dead body Caleb! That's not happening." I patted him on the shoulder as he shrugged his shoulders and grinned. "Good try though Baby." I looked back over at them and Cash was rolling his eyes and chuckling at his brother. "Nathaniel means 'gift from God' and that's what I wanted to name Grayson if I kept him but I never got the name out of my head. Since we had no idea that we were getting a Luke in the first place I want that to be his middle name." I glanced over at Caleb to see his reaction and he rose up and kissed me.

"It's a good strong name Cru and I love it. By the way you guys, I was just joking about Skywalker being a middle name." We all laughed at him because we all knew him better than that.

"Sure you were brother. Sure you were." Cash shook his head but all of a sudden started laughing hysterically and couldn't seem to stop. He started to say something but would start laughing even harder.

"Honey, what is so funny? What Caleb said wasn't that funny?" The three of us were looking at each other and were trying to figure out what was going on in his head that would cause him to laugh so hard. He finally calmed down and tried to catch his breath and finally let it out.