“Oh? What did she have to say? Everything all right?” asked Angie.
“Yeah. Everything is very alright. She’s met a man, and they are headed for New Zealand together,” said George.
“Wait a minute. She met a man and is going on the rest of her vacation with him and you aren’t twitching? What in the hell is going on?” asked Angie as she sat on his chest and grabbed his shoulders like she could actually affect some change by shaking him.
“Hold on! Don’t kill the messenger! His name is Lewis and they’ve hit it off well and have been talking pretty much for the last forty-eight hours,” said George dragging it out.
“What?! Come on George! Who is this guy?” asked Angie. “And what are his motives for chatting up our Sam for that long a period of time?”
“Angie, his name is Lewis Davy. He’s Buster’s great grandson and he recognized Buster’s scent on Sam’s hat bandana,” said George waiting for all the implications to settle in.
Angie finally heard everything George had said. “Oh. My. God.” was all she said.
“Now, when she calls next, she said she’d give us more details. From what I understand though, when she comes back in a month, we’ll have a new cousin to get acquainted with,” said George.
“Okay,” said Angie as her brain twisted and turned.
*
Ginny was running the front desk. ‘Solda was helping Meg nearly full time at the house and Bitty had run off with some guy she’d met at the picnic and not been home since. She expected Bitty to turn up pregnant when she did come home.
“Patrick, could you give me a hand?” she asked. The client list had grown after the court case and with Meg pregnant, Patrick had been taking her workload of clients.
“What do you need?” Patrick asked as he came out of the back offices.
“I need a schedule for our techs and a hiring strategy because Luc has been gone more and more as the babies get closer to their arrival,” she said. She wasn’t upset over any of this, but it was getting difficult to find enough people to do the work. Luc worked at home in the mornings to be with Meg and did jobs in the afternoon. Kevin was stretched thin and Cal and Peter seemed to live in the warehouse. They’d also given up and bought Buttercup and Fezzik outright from the security firm. When the dogs had gone back, they’d been sullen and refused to work. The handler had tried everything and just turned up one day at the office with the dogs in tow. He’d explained what was going on and Luc, Cal and Peter had gone out to the van.
The minute the dogs heard the men’s voices, they went ballistic. They were so happy, that the tail wagging rocked the van. When the two dogs were finally let out, they literally crooned. Luc settled on $1000 per dog. Everyone, especially Buttercup and Fezzik were happy at long last.
“Let’s go to lunch and see what we can work out,” said Patrick.
“Lamb burgers?” asked Ginny.
“Is there anything else worth eating?” teased Patrick as they headed out the door.
*
An hour after their lunch, they had a plan. Using the families list that Luc and Dr. Jeff kept, they put out a call for all under employed computer techs. If they were lucky, they’d have a pool to choose from in a few days time.
Ginny had just gotten back in the office when the phone rang. Ginny picked it up as Patrick passed her heading to his office. She blew him a kiss.
“Hello, Alpha Wolf Tech, how can I help you?” she said in her best office voice. “Oh hi Angie, what’s going on?” Twenty minutes later, she hung up the phone and walked down to Patrick’s office. She leaned against the door with a stunned look on her face.
“You’ll never believe what Angie just told me,” she said.
“What?” asked Patrick looking at Ginny who was leaning up against the door frame looking stunned.
“Well, Sam called last night,” Ginny started as she sat down in a chair opposite Patrick’s desk.
*
Meg woke up feeling odd. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but the babies felt like they were running laps. She tried to get comfortable, but it didn’t matter which way she turned, it didn’t feel good. In the end, she gave up and went to take a shower. Standing in the warm water helped. The babies settled down. Meg got out and dried off. She felt like a whale and she was just over eight months.
“Luc, could you come here?” she called knowing that he was working in the dining room.
“Just a second Meg,” he called as he put the phone down. Angie had just called him and told him the most amazing news. He wanted to share it with Meg, but he needed to see what she needed first. Luc walked into the bedroom to find Meg standing there with a towel around her body, and a puddle at her feet. “Oh God!”
“I just took a shower and then all of a sudden, I wet myself, but…” was as far as she got. Luc helped her to the bed and grabbed the phone.
“Jeff, I think her waters broke,” Luc said. He nodded as he listened to the doctor, and then hung up the phone.
“Jeff said to dress as comfy as you could and then we’re to head to the hospital,” said Luc.
“I have a nightie right over there,” said Meg. She pointed to a creamy lace and blue silk gown.
Luc grabbed it and helped her put it on. She slipped her feet into thongs and Luc grabbed some towels for her to sit on in the car.
Luc got Meg into the Subaru and headed out. “You feeling okay?” he asked.
“Achy. And the babies have gone from moving a lot to really quiet,” she said.
“Okay. We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes,” he said.
It took twenty. Luc was growling by the time they got there. He swore that they hit every red light. He helped Meg out of the car and into the hospital. He tossed the keys at a kid working valet and followed Meg and a nurse.