Tears brim her bright blue eyes. “Isn’t that what you want?”
My chest constricts, pain burning through me. “No,” I whisper honestly. “Never.”
Her eyes close on a shaky breath, but she doesn’t utter another response, at least not for a while. I allow the silence to sink in, because it’s not up to me to accept her. I want everything.
She has to want me, too.
Finally, her eyes open, a stray tear leaking down her face. I wipe it away with my free hand before cupping her cheek. She leans into my touch with a small, gentle smile. “You promise?”
I want to sigh in relief, but a knock breaks the moment. I look over my shoulder to find someone who looks like Skye’s twin standing in the doorway. The same black hair, same blue eyes. She just looks younger, maybe by a couple of years. Standing with her is a girl with light brown hair and freckles, and between them is a cot.
“Hey,” Skye’s sister whispers, “figured you’d be awake. I stayed with her through all her checks and at the nursery. Baby girl is perfect.”
Skye chokes on a sob as the pair walk in with the rolling cot, delivering baby girl directly to Skye’s bedside. From here, I notice the pink blanket she’s wrapped in, the little beanie atop her head. She came out with no hair, but for the briefest moment, I’d caught a glimpse at her eyes.
She has Skye’s blue irises, only right now they’re darker. I don’t know if they’ll lighten like Skye’s or if they’ll stay that colour, but either way, that moment of catching her opening her eyes for the first time had taken my breath away.
Right now, baby girl sleeps bundled in the pink blanket and doesn’t stir as Skye’s sister lifts her from the cot. I release Skye’shand so she can accept the baby, tears still streaming down her face.
“Hey, baby,” she whispers, running a finger down her face. “Hi.”
Emotion thickens in my throat as I watch them. Without a doubt, I can’t deny it anymore: I love Skye. Watching her has every single protection I’ve built to keep people out crumbling. And for the first time in forever, I’m not afraid of that.
Skye finds my stare, a smile pulling at her lips. “Are you sure?”
I look from her exhausted face down to the sleeping child in her arms. Without hesitation, I murmur, “I’m sure. I haven’t been more sure of anything in my life.”
“I think that’s our cue to leave,” the brunette—her cousin, I’m guessing—announces. She grabs Skye’s sister by the forearm, and they leave the hospital room with quiet murmurs.
Skye watches me for a long moment, like she’s searching for any cracks in my resolve. But she won’t find any. All she’s going to see is my absolute certainty—and hopefully, my love for her.
“I don’t have any time to get my heart broken,” she says, holding baby girl a little tighter. “And neither does she.”
My throat tightens as I look between them, my mind flashing back to those brief moments of movement, when Skye told me to speak and baby girl moved to the sound of my voice. Those moments caused the biggest fissures in my resolve. I think I knew even then that this was something I deeply wanted.
But not with just anyone. There’s no one else in this world who could have made me change my entire worldview. Not like Skye.
“You—both of you, now—are the only things I’m absolutely certain of,” I say quietly, moving to cup her cheek again. Baby girl makes a sound, a little grunt so soft it has my heart warming. “And I love you. I don’t know how to describe it or whether iteven makes sense. But I haveneverfelt this way before, and it is because of you. Because you came in and showed me I could be better—that I could have better. And I want to change, to be the man you think I am.”
Skye blinks hard, another smile forming on her lips. “You love me?”
“Yes,” I breathe, leaning in. “More than I ever thought I was capable of.”
“I think this is the most you’ve ever spoken,” she whispers with a small laugh.
I shake my head as I capture another stray tear. “You make me want to open up more. You make me want to live, and I haven’t felt that in a long time.”
A shaky breath forged with a broken sob falls from her lips. “I love you, too.”
This time, I do sigh in relief. The burn of tears becomes too much to ignore, something I can’t escape. I feel them falling freely, though I don’t find myself caring anymore.
She lovesme. She cares. It’s been a while since I trusted those words from anyone’s lips. But I don’t even hesitate to know they’re true from hers.
“I want a life with you,” I continue, lowering my forehead to hers. “I want to raise our girl together.”
Another half-laugh, half-sob falls from her lips. “Our girl?” She pulls back enough to look at me, then down at baby girl, whose eyes are open now. “You want to be her dad?”
I swallow, throat thick with emotion. “If you’ll let me. I want to be her dad. I want to be your partner. Your husband. If you’ll have me.”
