#Heart (Hashtag #6) (41 page)

Thank God she wasn’t screaming.

I shook my head and made a sound. Then I leaned over the bed and spoke directly to my wife’s stomach. “Listen up, critter,” I said. “Don’t you be making your mother suffer for hours before you decide to come out. Football players don’t dally at the one yard line.”

I nodded and then glanced up. Ivy was watching me with an amused expression.

“What?”

“The one yard line?”

“He knows what I mean.” I defended. “Football’s in his blood.”

Another contraction took over, and her face clouded in a mask of pain. Just as I was about to get the nurse, she came into the room with a doctor wearing a pair of gloves and a cap on his head.

He did a few things down below that I didn’t care to watch and then glanced up with some surprise in his eyes. “I think it’s time to have a baby.”

My stomach flopped.

Another contraction ripped into my wife, and she whimpered.

Everything started happening at once, and people were telling her to push, and she was squeezing my hand until I was sure the bones were shattered.

And then the sound of crying filled the room.

My heart literally stopped.

The doctor scooped up a little baby and placed it immediately on Ivy’s chest.

“It’s a girl!” he said.

Ivy started crying and pulled the baby close. “Oh my goodness,” she crooned. “Look how beautiful you are.”

The sound of her mother’s voice made the baby stop crying. Her eyes—which were deep blue—focused on Ivy and held on.

“Braeden,” Ivy whispered, unable to take her eyes of the baby.

“You did real good, sweetheart,” I said, brushing the hair from her face.

The baby knew my voice, too. She turned to me immediately and her lower lip wobbled.

I literally felt like someone ripped my heart right out of my chest.

I had a daughter.

“Let me clean her up a bit and ger her weight.” The nurse reached for the baby, and Ivy tugged her closer. I grabbed the nurse’s hand and glared.

The nurse didn’t seem put off by my animalistic behavior. “I’ll just be right there.” She pointed across the room. “Then you can have her back for a minute before I take her to the nursery.”

“What the hell does she need to go to the nursery for,” I demanded. But I did it softly. I didn’t want to scare the baby.

“A general checkup. You can come with her.” The nurse assured me.

I grunted, and Ivy relented and handed over the baby.

She started crying again, and Ivy started fretting.

I got up and towered over the nurse, watching her with my daughter, making sure she treated her right.

“Well,” the nurse said to her as she worked, “you’re definitely gonna have a hard time getting away with anything with this one around.” She thumbed a finger at me.

“Watch her head,” I ordered.

The nurse laughed. “I can assure you I’ve had lots of experience.” When the baby was wrapped up in some generic blanket, she picked her up and held her out toward me. “Want to hold your daughter, Dad?”

I blanched. She wanted me to hold her?

Oh fuck.

I’d never held a baby before.

She started fussing again, and I didn’t like it. My instinct was to reach for her, and I went with it. “Watch her head,” the nurse said, and I gave her a dry look.

When the nurse stepped back, I stood stiffly, staring down at the tiny little bundle in my arms. I was afraid to move, afraid to breathe. Holy crap, she was smaller than the damn dog.

The baby was still fussing and her lip was wobbling.

“Now don’t be doing that,” I told her softly. “Just tell me what you want and you’ll have it.”

The baby stopped fussing and looked at me. I smiled.

The nurse laughed. “Daddy’s already wrapped.”

“Is she okay?” Ivy worried from the bed as the doctor still worked around her.

“She’s perfect,” I whispered and walked over to show her.

“You both are,” Ivy said, looking at me holding our daughter.

I sat close to the bed, staring down while the doctor and nurse finished with Ivy.

“Is she okay?” I asked, worried when the doctor pulled off his gloves.

He pulled the mask off his face and smiled. “Mother and baby appear to be doing great.”

The nurse nodded. “You, my dear, had a quick labor for a first time.”

It was because I told the baby. We had an understanding, my daughter and I.

“She’s going to be okay, then?” I asked again, wanting to be sure Ivy was all right.

“Yes, just fine.”

“Gimme,” Ivy said and held her hands out to the baby.

“She likes me,” I told her.

She smiled. “I never had any doubt, but I want my daughter before you get to go with her to the nursery.”

I sighed. “Fine. I guess since you did all that pushing and shit.”

The nurse laughed. “Does she have a name?”

“Critter Walker,” I said, gently handing the baby to my wife.

Ivy made a rude sound. “Not.”

“I’ll give you just a minute with her, but then I really need to take her to the nursery.”

“Thanks,” I said, watching Ivy with my daughter.

I thought I understood love before, but this was a whole new level. Seeing my wife holding my baby was something so profound I was momentarily struck silent.

“Oh my goodness,” Ivy was saying to her. “You are just the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. And look at your hair,” she practically sang as she drifted her fingertips over the whispy light-brown downy hair on her head.

She was a beautiful kid. Best-looking one I’d ever seen.

I mean, really, it wasn’t a surprise. She did come from my loins.

She was tiny, maybe six pounds. Her skin was all pink, her head was perfectly round, and her cheeks were chubby as hell. Her eyes were so big and so round and so blue that even the whites around them seemed tinted blue.

I watched as she yawned, her tiny mouth opening wide and her hand—which was practically the size of one of my fingers—reached out.

I brushed my finger against it, and her fist closed around it.

There was a light knock on the door, and Romeo stuck his head in the room. “Safe to come in?”

I waved him in. I still didn’t trust my voice not to crack when I spoke. Rimmel slipped past him and rushed in first. Her shoulder brushed against my side when she leaned in for the first look.

“Meet your niece, sis,” I said.

“It’s a girl?” Romeo asked from the foot of the bed.

“She’s perfect,” Ivy said.

“I thought I was getting a nephew,” Romeo said with a hint of jest in his voice. Then he came around the other side of the bed and leaned over to see her. “But she’s pretty cute. Guess she’ll do.”

“You wanna hold her?” Ivy asked him.

Romeo glanced at me, and I smiled. “Better do it now before that nurse comes back. She keeps trying to take my kid.”

“You’re sure?” he asked.

Ivy laughed. “Here. Watch her head.”

Romeo let Ivy put my little girl in his arms and tuck the blanket around her. Romeo was wearing a pair of scrubs already, and he pulled her in against his chest and backed up slowly to sit down in a nearby chair.

Beside me, Rimmel sighed and stared at them both.

I draped an arm across her shoulder. “You’re next,” I whispered.

She smiled.

Romeo made some sounds I’d never heard him make at the baby, and then he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

“Smalls,” he whisper-demanded, “I’d like to place an order. I’d like one in blue.”

Ivy laughed. “You can’t just place an order for a baby.”

“Why the hell not?” he demanded.

The baby made a sound, and everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her.

“What’d you do to her, man?” I rushed around the bed. “What’s wrong with her?”

Romeo looked like he was holding a bomb he accidentally detonated. “I don’t know.”

The two of us stood there and freaked out, trying to figure out what was wrong, and behind us, the girls laughed.

“Babies make sounds, you idiots,” Ivy said.

As if to prove the point, she did it again.

Romeo and I both reacted again.

Rimmel laughed and pushed between us. “My turn.”

She scooped her up and cuddled her with both arms.

“Now that’s a sight I like,” Romeo said, gruff.

“I’m your auntie, and I’m going to spoil you rotten,” Rimmel whispered. Then she carried her over and handed her to Ivy.

“What’s her name?” Rimmel asked.

I started to say it, and Ivy looked at me. “No.”

“Aww, baby. Critter is the best I got,” I told her.

“It’s a solid choice.” Romeo agreed. “It would look good on the back of a jersey.”

Ivy and Rimmel both looked horrified. I chuckled and went over to sit on the side of the bed and put my arm around Ivy and my daughter.

“I have a name,” Ivy said, soft.

“Hit me with it,” I said.

“Nova,” she answered. “It means
new star
.”

“The stars have always been good to us, Blondie,” I said. “I think they’ll be good to this one, too.” I brushed a hand over her downy hair.

“Nova is a beautiful name,” Rimmel said and sat down in Romeo’s lap. “Fits her perfectly.”

Ivy smiled. “I think so. My grandmother’s name was Rose. So I was thinking Nova Rose.”

“Nova Rose Walker,” I said, trying it out. “I guess it is better than Critter.”

Ivy rolled her eyes, and Rimmel laughed.

“Do you like it?” Ivy turned her eyes up to me.

My chest constricted with emotion, and I pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “I love it. Nova is perfect.”

The nurse came in and busted up our happy time.

She was really getting on my nerves.

But she was learning. Before she reached for the baby, she asked if it was okay. Ivy didn’t want to give her up. I could tell by the set of her jaw and the sheen in her eyes.

“Go with her, ‘kay?” she asked.

I nodded. “Rome can come, too. Ain’t nothing going to bother my little angel with two football players escorting her.”

The nurse sighed and accepted her fate without comment.

“Make sure my brother sees her!” Ivy called out as we went from the room, the nurse gently pushing the rolling cart with Nova inside. “And hurry up!”

“Get some rest, princess,” Romeo told her. “We got this.”

I winked at her as the door closed behind us.

Out in the hallway, Rome clapped me on the back, the sound loud because of all the pads I was still wearing.

“Congratulations, man. She’s awesome.”

“Thanks,” I said and stared down at her where she lay. “We’re gonna need to move up the timeline for the family compound,” I said, thinking of the place we’d all been planning since we got married.

One big piece of land, several houses, and one stone wall with a gate around the entire thing.

“My thoughts exactly,” Rome said, also staring at Nova. Then he put his arm across my shoulders, and we walked down the hallway, our bromance on full display.

“Family just got bigger,” I told him.

“There’s always room for family,” he replied.

“Always.”