his lover into some kind of state of shock. Good or bad, he didn’t want him to pass out. Before he could think of anything to do to help, Jase launched himself with enough strength to send Emil staggering back.
“Yes! I’ll marry you.”
Emil hugged him close before pulling him around the counter to wash the cake off the ring and slip it onto Jase’s finger. “Thank God. I thought for a moment you were going to say no.”
Jase held out his hand to admire the bling. It was a delicate color, more for a woman perhaps, but it matched Jase’s ethereal beauty. “It’s gorgeous. When?” he said suddenly, his arms around Emil’s neck now.
“Whenever you want.”
“Next spring. It’s a ways off, but I like those colors. Is that okay?”
Emil held him tight. “Everything’s okay when we’re together.”
* * * *
Val and Mackie
“You’re doing great, baby. Harry is almost done. Just a little while longer.”
Mackie stared at the ceiling, petrified and bored in equal measure. There was no pain in giving birth, not anymore, not with the epidural blocking it. He’d woken Val in the middle of the night when a searing, tearing sensation across his abdomen had sent him bolt upright and gasping. It wasn’t fair. They’d planned a C-section for a week later. It should have been easy and quick. Now, he worried that things would go horribly wrong. Harry was very reassuring, and Lucien was helping him with a serene expression on his face. They didn’t look concerned, but it was hard to tell with those two.
Val, of course, was an absolute mess, not that he said as much or showed it. The way he held Mackie’s hand, however… Yikes, I might be crippled for life. It was all his fault, though. He’d tried to pretend that it wouldn’t matter if Val did the sixties’ dad routine and paced in the figurative waiting room until someone came and told him it was a boy. Naturally, it was a boy. There was really no question about that. It was more a matter of when Val got to see his son—at the moment he was pulled out squalling and red-faced or after he’d been prettied up. Mackie knew that the last time Val had been in this position, he hadn’t been there to see it all go sideways. A good husband would have told him it was okay to wait outside, and Mackie had said the words, tried to mean them, but Val had seen through his effort.
The fact of the matter was that Mackie wanted his husband by his side, needed the solid comfort of having him there. He would also need his hand when it came to changing the baby and whatnot. ”Sweetie, could you possibly not squeeze quite so hard?”
Val’s gaze had been focused on the blue cloth that was erected between them and whatever horror Harry was inflicting down in Mackie’s nether regions. Now, startled, he looked at where their hands were clasped. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I know you’re scared. I am too.”
“There is absolutely nothing to worry about,” Harry proclaimed right before he held up a disgusting mass of wiggling flesh.
“Oh my God, what’s wrong with him?” Mackie shrieked.
Val only grinned. “Nothing, baby. He’s perfect.”
Mackie tried to sit up to get a better look, but Val held him down. “Stay still, baby, Harry needs to stitch you closed.”
The commanding way that Val told him what to do was a balm to his nerves. He was always happiest when Val was in charge. He lifted a hand to clasp the emblem around his neck that proclaimed him Val’s boy. And the fact that Val was no longer nervous helped, as well. He knew Val had seen a dead baby before, his own son with his long-ago lover. He trusted that if their son was in any trouble, Val’s demeanor would have remained strained. The idiot was grinning from ear-to-ear now, and why not? It wasn’t him that had been sliced open like a cantaloupe.
And it was also okay that Val had left it entirely his choice about having a hysterectomy. Knowing how much the guy might want another son—or even a queenly daughter—Mackie had decided to leave his new body as it was. There would be plenty of time to make that decision later. Much later. For the moment, he had to focus on this one. It’s so quiet. Is that normal?
Lucien took the icky-looking thing from Harry’s grasp and that was when the baby let out