RELEASE TOUR - Brokered Betrayals by Aimee Nicole Walker
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A surge of panic flooded through Royce. He casually leaned closer to the bed. “Are we talking minutes or hours?”
Kelsey giggled and patted his head. “She’ll get here when she gets here.” She opened one eye to look at him. “But I’d say two hours tops.”
Royce glanced at the clock and noted that it was seven thirty. He kissed the back of Kelsey’s hand and went back to studying the monitor for the next spike. Holy shit. Was he really just two hours away from meeting their daughter? Royce glanced over at his husband and found him looking just as shell-shocked.
“Two hours?” Sawyer mouthed.
Royce’s head suddenly felt funny, and someone turned down the volume in the room. The edges of his vision grew fuzzy, and black dots danced in front of his eyes. Sawyer’s mouth moved, but Royce couldn’t hear the words for the weird buzzing noise. Was that a monitor? Was something wrong with Darla? He tried to claw his way through the fog, but he felt trapped. The harder he fought, the smaller his world became until his vision narrowed down to two tiny pinpricks. What the hell was happening to him? A hand landed on his shoulder, the touch warm and comforting. Sawyer’s lips pressed to his ears, and a whisper of sound traveled through the canal to penetrate his brain.
“Breathe, baby.” Sawyer’s voice was a little louder this time, and it had the same magic effect as always.
As Royce’s vision expanded, the room became brighter, and he noticed his pounding heart and restricted breathing. He sucked in a lungful of air and coughed.
“Easy,” Sawyer cautioned, turning Royce’s stool until they were eye to eye. He took Royce’s hand and placed it over his heart. “Breathe with me. Nice and slow.”
Royce closed his eyes and concentrated on the rise and fall of Sawyer’s chest as he matched his breaths. Each inhale and exhale brought him back to his body until his awareness fully returned with embarrassment hot on its heels. He scanned the faces he loved and was relieved that he saw only concern or sympathy. “I don’t know what just happened to me, but I didn’t like it.”
Kelsey reached over and patted his hand. “Sweetheart, you’ve realized your entire life is going to change in a few hours, and you had a minor panic attack.”
“Are you sure?” Royce asked. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”
“We’re sure,” Sawyer, Kelsey, and Andrew said.
But Royce wasn’t convinced. “I think it was an alien abduction.”
Kelsey snorted. “Drama queen.”
“I recognize a panic attack when I see one,” Sawyer said, using his strong fingers to massage the tension from Royce’s neck.
“The same thing happened to Andrew,” Kelsey said. “You’re never as ready as you think you are.”
“Her nursery is ready,” Royce said. “We bought the best infant car seat on the market. Her clothes are clean and ready to go. We have diapers, butt cream, formula, and all the bottle stuff on hand. We’re ready.”
Andrew chuckled. “There’s physically ready, and then there’s emotionally ready. Buying all the stuff is the easy part.” He tapped his temple. “Preparing this is an entirely different beast. About this time, panic sets in because you realize this tiny human will depend on you for their very existence and well-being. And just when you think you know what you’re doing, life will throw you a curveball. Sleep schedules change, skin develops sensitivity to laundry detergents, and suddenly, they don’t like the baby food they loved just the day before. You just roll with it, man. I won’t tell you there’s nothing to worry about. You’re cops. You know there’s everything to fear in this insane world, but you’ll never be alone.”
Royce turned to Sawyer and smiled. “We’re ready. Not just the clothes and food. We can do this.”
“It’s a damn good thing because she’s coming, ready or not,” Kelsey said.
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