He knew Raven would let him cut the cord first, but he wanted Devon to hear him, to know it was going to be time to rest in just a few minutes.
“He’ll let us know when it’s time. Your son is one big baby.” Raven placed him on Devon’s chest, and Laird wrapped his arms around both of them—not because he was scared that Devon would drop the baby, but because he needed to hold his world right now. “Now I know that you both know that we’re going to have to let the cord stop pulsating, get all that good, rich blood into this baby, then we’ll deliver the placenta. He’s gorgeous, Dev. Look at this baby.” Raven sounded as awed as he felt.
“He looks like you, Laird. He’s absolutely a McCallum.” Devon was sobbing, his poor, exhausted body shaking with exhaustion.
“He does. I’m so lucky. He’s beautiful. You tell me when you’re ready to move up to the bed.” He would feel safer if Devon and Cameron were on a mattress, but he wasn’t going to push.
No way.
“You don’t have to. We can just stay right here. Laird can totally get the cord from here when you’re ready.”
Devon snorted softly. “I don’t think I can move. I think I might just live right here on this stool. This can just be mystool. We can move it to my office, and I’ll stay here forever.”
“Oh, I think that’s more than fair.”
Raven didn’t putter around or interrupt their first moments with their baby. It was quiet and warm, and it was his son’s birthday.
He kissed the top of Devon’s head. “Thank you. Thank you so much, love. I didn’t know that I needed to be a dad.”
He knew it now, though.
“You’re going to be an amazing father.” Devon glanced up at him, smile tired but bright.
“You think so?” He hoped so. He had a good role model in his dad, but he didn’t know. He just had no idea how to do this, but he decided he and Devon would figure it out together.
“I do. I think you’re going to be stunning.” He leaned into him, and Laird had never felt so utterly content in his whole life as he did holding his omega and his baby in his arms.
“I know you’re going to be an impossibly cool omega dad,” Laird told Devon kissing the top of his head. “You have this huge heart, and you already have a way with babies.”
“Yeah, we’ll see how I do once he gets to the terrible twos, huh?” Devon chuckled and then went a little more boneless against him. That was when they decided to start cleaning everything up and getting Devon in a bed where he could rest.
Laird sat and watched over Devon and Cameron both, because he needed to make sure they were safe. This was his job now. His main job, even though he would still be doing the EMT stuff until school started. He couldn’t imagine anything better than this.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
“Love, are you ready?”
“Huh?” Laird turned to peer at him from behind his laptop.
They were supposed to be having everybody over. It was coming up on Thanksgiving, and he and Laird had decided to host a Friendsgiving ahead of the actual day because Devon’s folks were coming in for Thanksgiving, and they were going to eat at Laird’s parents’ house, with all of them together.
This way they could have Nick over, and a couple of guys who went to the Bad Badger, a few of the other EMTs, Naomi, Raven, and Ben. It was just going to be a wonderful thing.
If he could ever get Laird to stop doing his homework.
He did not sigh. “Okay, I’m going to speak slowly so that you hear me. You are in your pajamas. The baby has been bathed and redressed twice today. Everything is ready. All the cooking is done that needed to be finished today, and you have exactly seven minutes before our company arrives. If you do not get your ass up out of your chair andshut that computer, someone’s going to die, and it’s not going to be me.”
Devon offered him his best smile, knowing that he sounded as sweet as sugar as he said it, because he was practiced at this.
Thank God he was back at work. He loved that Laird was going back to school, but he needed to learn to manage his time just a little bit better, or they needed to learn to just say, “No, we can’t”.
“Shit. Sorry, baby.” Laird was up in a flash, closing his laptop and rushing to get dressed. “I just wanted to get all my assignments in, so I could take the time off.”
At least Laird had already bathed. And he knew Laird did a lot. When Devon was working, Laird watched Cameron, cooked, cleaned, and went to school.
But today he needed the man moving.
