Chapter 72
Montana lay in her room the next morning cuddling Michael, carefully studying her newborn son from top to bottom. He had latched on and begun to nurse immediately once he had been placed in Montana’s arms.
“One thing about it,” she chuckled, “you certainly don’t wait to get down to business.”
He was indeed a big, solid baby, with the same features and caramel-colored skin as his father and older half sisters. She also noticed Michael also had Paul’s long fingers, and while Mac had been bald as a cue ball at birth and Kira only a small patch of dark fuzz, Michael had a full head of near-black hair.
Montana couldn’t help but laugh when she saw her son’s feet. “My God, child,” she giggled, “you even have your dad’s feet!”
She looked up from the baby just as Paul and Brian came into the room with sodas they‘d gotten from the cafeteria, Paul staring at her with an odd expression on his face.
“What’s with you?” she asked, burping Michael.
“Don’t mind me,” he shook his head. “It’s been awhile with this baby thing. It’s going to be even more different getting used to another male in the house.”
“I’m sure you will have little difficulty adjusting to that part, dude,” Brian said, shaking his head and pulling a chair over to the bed so he could see the baby. “Hey, Mikey, what’s happening, big guy? You see that dark, hairy beast over there? That’s your papi.”
“See the blond midget sitting beside your mami with the lump on his head? That’s the weirdo who passed out when Mami was having you,” Paul retorted, laughing.
“Hey, I earned this lump.”
“He did,” Montana nodded, still patting and rubbing Michael’s back. “How is your head today, Bri?”
“Eh, a little sore, but I’ll live.”
“He’ll just get a bunch of shit in the locker room come the weekend,” Paul replied taking another swing of soda.
“Doubt it. Zeke’s got me covered.”
Soon the room filled with a loud belch.
“Fucking hell, Paul,” Brian made a face at him. “Were you brought up by wolves? There‘s a lady and a baby in the room!”
“Uh, Bri?” Montana spoke up with a chuckle. “That was Michael.”
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Paul replied, glaring at Brian.
“That was the baby? Jesus, that sounded like one of yours, PL. Looks like Mikey here is going to take after his old man in that department.”
“Oh, you’re just a barrel of laughs today, aren’t you, Spanky? You sure you don’t need to get that head checked out? I think something got rattled in there.”
“Nope, I’m fine. I answered all the questions right down in the ER yesterday anyway.”
“Questions?” Montana wondered.
“Yeah, like who the current President is and shit like that.”
“To make sure his brains weren’t totally scrambled, although no one is really sure if they weren’t scrambled to begin with,” Paul added.
“Back at you, dude,” Brian responded.
“Maybe that’s why you two blend so well,” Montana said. “Both of you have a screw loose.”
A few hours later:
Jack had brought the girls to meet their new baby brother, Kira peering into the window excitedly as a nurse brought Michael over to them.
“That’s him? That’s our baby?” Kira asked.
“That’s your new brother,” Jack smiled at her. “What do you think?”
“He’s really cute,” Mac replied.
“What’s his name? We can’t just call him ‘baby’,” Kira wondered.
“Of course not. His name is Michael,” Jack answered.
“That’s Papi’s middle name,” Mac nodded. “It’s nice.”
“I think that is why Mommy may have picked it,” Jack said.
“When do they get to come home?” Kira asked.
“Probably tomorrow, most likely,” Jack answered. “They don’t keep people around too long these days. Then you’ll get to enjoy your baby brother all you want.”
“Yeah, but that won’t be much fun till he gets a little bigger,” Mac said. “Right now, all he’ll do is sleep and stuff like that. They don’t do much when they’re real little.”
Kira wrinkled her nose. “He won’t? How boring.”
“It won’t be long,” Mac reassured her. “Then next thing we know, we can play with him all the time.”
“That’s right,” Jack agreed. “But right now, the little guy needs his rest, and I’m sure your mom would like to see you girls for a few minutes too before we leave. How about it?”
“Okay!” they cried in unison.
“Then you can tell her how much you like your new brother. Come on, let’s go.”
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