URGENT (Book 2 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 90: Nice Guys See God

Is everyone ready for Babycakes ?!?!? Gosh, I know I am! Without further ado, let's see Adam watch his baby being born! FYI, I imagine at some point after the arrival, Adam plays this song softly in the hospital suite, and someone in SCIC---probably Kat--captures this. In my mind, Adam announces the baby to social media with this cover of "I Saw God Today" by George Strait. The song is about how a man sees everything differently after his child is born...

Adam, first night in the new house

I come awake all at once, the absence of Mac my first awareness.

It's dawn, and Mac is gone from the bed. Not normal. We're still on tour time and never get up before nine, and the House Blessing Party was still in full swing six hours ago. No way should Mac be up this early after the long day she had yesterday. I sit up, straining to hear familiar sounds in this new environment. I can't hear her moving in the bathroom. I'm on my feet in about five seconds, confirming that she's not in there.

I find her in the kitchen. She's sitting at the massive island on a bar stool, head in her hands, a bottle of half-drunk water in front of her. "You okay, Shorty?"

"Fine," she says softly. "Headache."

I kiss her head. I draw her hands to mine and kiss them, but also to check. They are swollen. As I reach down and draw her foot up, she pulls it back.

"Adam, I'm fine."

I grasp her foot again, pressing her ankle, watching by the light of my phone as the indentions remain, after I release them. "You're swelling."

"Pregnant women have swollen feet. I'm fine."

I don't even bother arguing with her. Mac has been in denial about her preeclampsia since the moment her blood pressure went borderline and the doctors warned us that she was in the early stages of this serious condition. It's like, she just couldn't take anymore pregnancy worries, after the subchorionic hemmorhage, and the gestational diabetes. She just refuses to accept what the doctor was telling us—that she would likely not make it to a forty week delivery. I decided after that one blow-up about going to LA, I would not fight Mac on this.

She could be in denial if she needed. I would take care of her; I would not create more stress for her.

I would be her shelter, not her storm.

So that's what I've done. I coax her to stay on the couch watching movies with me. I pretend to sleep way more than I can, snuggling with her in bed. I make playlists and ask her to sit on the swing listening to them with me. When she tries to work out, I seduce her and make love to her gently, just enough to get her fuck drunk and napping. Even last week, in the studio, I got Dev and Kaspar with the Mac-needs-partial-bedrest program, and we did most of our songwriting on massive comfortable couches. Mac thought Dev was stoned, but he was actually petrified she might go into labor in the studio, so he was all for keeping her as chill as possible.

I think she has an idea what I'm doing, but she's too fatigued to bite back about it. We love to bicker, but this season of our life is too tender and sweet for that.

Even now, when I should already be on the phone with Mac's doctor, I'm gonna let Kade play bad cop. Thank god he's still here. Kade had a few last night and tried to call an Uber, which I nixed immediately. He's SCIC, and we have fucking mansion with more than a dozen bedrooms. He stayed over, just like everyone else.

I sit down at the barstool beside Mac, rubbing her back gently. "It's a good thing you woke up," I tell her. "Kade asked me to get him up;, he's got an early shift."

Remember when I said I never lie to Mac? Yeah, that was a naive husband thing. Kade has the day off. I'll lie through my teeth to her to protect her from herself.