Cradling my face in his palms, he looked into my eyes. “Because when you have a shitty front nine, the back nine can only get better. You’re warmed up and have some practice shots in you. You’re ready for the more important half.”
His lips came to my forehead, and I wanted to kiss the fuck out of him, except this wasn’t the time or place.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Come on.” He tugged me next to him, wrapping his arm around me, and walked us to our destination. “Here we are, room 221.”
We stood outside the closed door, staring at the numbers in front of us. Behind the two, two, and the one, our back half really began. Ford didn’t knock. He walked right in on Laura sitting up in bed smiling.
“It’s go time,” she said. Her very round belly protruded out under the blanket, a machine monitoring the baby’s heartbeat and contractions next to her.
When we decided to see how my good ole eggs were doing, Ford and I had already agreed on using a surrogate for our baby. The doctor recommended it as the best way to mitigate the most risk. Of course, Ford had invested in all the latest testing for the embryo before the fertilized egg was implanted, assuring us the best outcome, along with fast-tracking the whole process, cutting red tape and allowing us to start our family ASAP.
We’d met Laura through an old friend of mine at the hospital. She’d been a surrogate before and loved bringing happiness to others’ lives. Despite my moving to Los Angeles, I’d traveled back and forth for all of Laura’s appointments and spent the last three weeks here. Billy had come with me for most of the appointments, but decided to skip labor and delivery, leaving the honors to Ford who arrived a few days ago.
“How are you so relaxed?” I asked Laura, walking over to the side of the bed.
“One word.Epidural. Doctor said we are close though. Maybe another hour.”
I looked at my watch and noted it was ten after eleven at night.
“Can I get you anything?” Ford asked, looking a bit green.
“Maybe you should sit down?” Laura suggested what I had been thinking.
“Maybe I will. It’s not every day my daughter is being born.”
We knew we were having a girl from the extensive testing. At first, we debated finding out. And then one night, over a shared tub of ice cream—Ford indulged my pregnancy cravings even though I wasn’t physically pregnant—we ripped open the envelope Laura had given us. Our daughter had a beautiful lilac nursery waiting for her back home in California after we’d be given the all clear to fly back privately.
Except I was getting ahead of myself. All the nerves were wreaking havoc on me. Every night, I tossed and turned for hours, worried my baby girl wouldn’t bond with me. How I wouldn’t be able to nurse her, and she’d likely reject me. And while she’d heard my voice when I visited during the pregnancy, it was Laura’s she heard most often. Would she like me? Would she be searching for Laura? These were the questions that plagued me day and night.
“How are we doing, everyone?” Dr. Callum Rand entered the room, taking us all in with one gaze. “Good to see Mom and Dad are here. No Aunt Willa?”
His second question, of course, was inquiring after Billy. My surrogate’s very sexy high-risk obstetrician seemed to be feeling a certain way for my sister-in-law during our office visits. Maybe feeling more than a little way. Everyone, including his office staff, knew the feeling was mutual between the unlikely pair, except Billy herself.
“She’s sitting this part out,” Ford growled, the overprotective husband coming out. “We asked her to. This is for James, Laura, and me.”
“Well, she’ll be here as soon as the baby is born. That I know,” Doc declared somewhat wishfully.
I was sure he was right; Billy was obsessed with the baby Laura was carrying.
After he checked on Laura, Dr. Rand said it would be less than an hour before she was ready to push. I paced the hardwood floor while Ford sat in the chair, wringing his hands, until quarter after twelve in the morning when something started dinging and the staff rushed to Laura.
In an instant, the room morphed into a birthing-type spaceship, nurses assuring me everything was okay, and the beeping was normal. I held Laura’s hand with Ford at my side, and at one o’clock in the morning, a few days before Christmas, Laurel Ford Conway came screaming into the world with a head full of fiery red hair. With my mom’s name and Laura’s being so close, Laurel was an easy one to choose. Ford wasn’t certain about giving his baby girl his own family name which had been handed down through the decades, but one day our girl might sit on the Supreme Court as a woman with the same name as her male predecessors. Or do whatever she wanted. I knew the minute she was placed on my chest, skin to skin as I sat in the rocker next to the bed, my Laurel Ford Conway was bound for greatness.
“We did good, James.” Ford bent down next to me, kissing Laurel’s forehead before thanking Laura.
“How do you feel?” I looked at Laura. “Can Ford get you anything?”
She shook her head, eyes misty. “I’m so happy for you two. I can’t wait to see how this little one grows up.”
We’d agreed Laura should know the baby. Legal documents had been drawn up specifying boundaries, but we weren’t worried. Laura saw this as her contribution to other women, and a beautiful one it was.
Later, I settled in my own room in the Conway Wing. Laurel rested in a bassinet next to my bed, flowers and balloons taking over every inch of free space, while Billy pranced around the room, oohing and aahing over “our little miracle.”
Of course, when your family donated the wing, you got to stay in the hospital when there was really no reason to do so—Billy, on the other hand, was going to have to be escorted out. She was utterly smitten with Laurel.
“You froze your eggs. You could be next,” I whispered.
