Chapter 71
Paul was crestfallen; by the time he had finally arrived at the hospital, Montana had indeed delivered the baby. He knew for sure his ass was on the line for sure.
He finally found Brian, in a room with an ice pack on his head. Paul had gotten the scoop on what had happened, and couldn’t help but break out laughing.
“One word, dude, and my foot goes up your ass,” Brian warned. “You’re lucky I like you or you’d been Ezekiel’s dinner tonight.”
“Look at it this way, Spank; this prepared you for your own kids.”
“More like to get myself neutered, thank you very much. Where the hell were you anyway?”
“Murphy’s Law,” Paul replied. “Traffic jam, every other fucking light turned red, then I got pulled over by a cop for speeding…”
“Hold on!” Brian piped up. “You got pulled over for speeding?”
“Save the smart ass remarks, Spanky. But yeah, considering my wife was in labor, I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. So this lady cop pulls me over, which delayed me further.”
“And you got nailed for a fine.”
“No, that was the good part. She gave me a warning and offered to be a police escort. Of course, by the time we got here, I found out Mon just delivered the baby and the nurses told me ‘Daddy’ passed out in the delivery room.” He began to laugh again.
“I’m glad you find my agony amusing, PL. By the way, the upholstery in my car is going to need cleaned from where your wife’s water broke, there’s going to be the bill from the fucking orange-sized lump on my head, and of course, the cab fare to get Mimi here so she can drive me home.”
“Yeah, sure, no problem. Thanks for being with her, man.”
“You should go down and see him, PL. Cute little fucker, mini version of you. Well, not so little; he’s ten pounds and about this long.” Brian spread out his hands.
“That might not be a bad idea, but I was going to see Mami first,” Paul nodded, “ provided she doesn’t kill me on sight.”
“After popping out a ten pound kid, I doubt she’ll have the strength, dude. She might let you live another day.”
A short time later:
As Michael Preston Sanchez-Garcia London slept in the nursery down the hall, Montana rested in her own room. A female police officer had just left, filling her in on what had had exactly delayed Paul.
At that moment, he hesitantly poked in his head. “Is it safe to come in?”
“Of course.”
“Um, Mon, I’m really sorry about not being here to—” Paul began before Montana cut him off, raising her hand, smiling and nodding.
“There was a nice lady police officer in here just a bit ago,” she replied. “She told me everything. I have to admit, though, the last person I’d expect to be stopped for speeding is you.”
“Oh, not you too. I just got heckled about this from Brian. Oquela.”
“So I’m guessing you saw him too,” Montana said.
“Oh yeah, after one of the nurses told me about him passing out in the delivery room.” Paul began to snicker.
“Paul, come on, that isn’t funny. I’m just glad he wasn’t hurt worse than he was.”
“Yeah, true, and if nothing else, it’s prepared him for birth up close and personal.”
“Yes. So have you seen Michael yet?”
“Who?”
“Michael Preston. Your son. I named him for yours and Daddy’s middle names.”
“Oh, okay. Actually, I came to see you first. Spank says the kid is ten pounds. He’s that big?”
Montana nodded. “Ten pounds, twelve ounces, to be exact, and twenty one inches long. Talk about pushing a bowling ball through a keyhole.”
Paul shuddered. “You aren’t kidding. Jesus.”
“Don’t knock it, Papi; you may have a World Champion on your hands someday.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You really think so, huh?”
“Either that or delivering some knockout punches like his Grandpa Hayes did in his day.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, missy; the kid isn’t even a day old.”
“I’m just messing with you,” Montana smiled. “All I know is whatever Michael decided to do with his life, I will be more than happy to support him.”
“Yeah,” Paul agreed, putting an arm around her, “as will I.”
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