A playful look crossed his face before he smiled like he was going to say something I wouldn’t like. “So is calling me sir. Now, let’s see about getting the baby.”
I put out my hand to stop him because this question couldn’t wait. “One thing, does she have a name?”
He stopped again and shook his head and I could only nod. I guess he didn’t want to know what the mother was going to name her and hadn’t come up with anything on his own.
“I’m working on it I guess. I didn’t think I was going to get the chance to be a part of that process and I wasn’t sure I wanted to, you feel me?”
I nodded because I knew the situation was going to be a sensitive one and I wasn’t about to add to it with my questions about his past. I was sure he didn’t realize it, but he was about to have to think fast.
I couldn’t warn him before he walked through the door of the NICU. Since they had seen us waiting outside and knew we were going, they were waiting for us as soon as he stepped in the door.
“Sir, we’ve got to have you fill out the paperwork for her before we can release her to your care.” This nurse was one I wasn’t sure had been here before. I didn’t have a car and hadn’t stopped by to see her. Instead, I focused on making her space at home as nice as I could. It was just the basics right now, but it was more than equipped with what she needed. My communication had been with the head of the NICU once Aldrich cleared me to have her medical information shared.
“I filled out the paperwork for her care to be added to my insurance. I’m not sure what else I needed to do.” He looked confused at to what she meant. I was hoping he wouldn’t slip back into that odd headspace he would get in.
“Um, we don’t have the information for her birth certificate.” The nurse looked nervous about getting him to do this and I knew they’d been trying to figure out who was going to bring this to him. Being a nurse they’d probably talked about the sensitivity of the situation and figured out how to approach him. This poor girl had apparently drawn the short straw.
“Like what?” The apprehension on his face had me wanting to put hands on him to calm him down but I wasn’t sure if physical touch was going to be something he welcomed. Especially not right now.
“Her name, Mr. Dinero. We don’t know what you want to name her.”
He looked completely caught off guard at the idea of having to name his own child before she had to leave the hospital and I hated that he’d been put on the spot.
“Have you decided between Amira and Amisha?” I pulled two names out of my head that I knew he would probably like only because they were both A names like his. Her face perked up and his eyes slid to me slowly and the gratitude bloomed as he realized what I was doing.
“No, I hadn’t.”
“Those are pretty names. What do they mean?” Why she was being nosy was beyond me but I was okay with it because he needed to know the definitions if he picked one of the names I’d thrown out.
“Amira means princess and Amisha means beautiful but guileless.”
“Amisha. There are plenty of princesses in the world, but Amisha seems more like her personality.” Something in the way he said that made me feel like it was more to why he chose that name but I wasn’t going to question it in person.
“Aww, how sweet! Amisha Dinero. Do we have a middle name?” She looked between us and was sure she was wondering who the hell I was but I wasn’t going to say a word.
“Yes, Sterling.”
My eyes shot over to his, and I had to wonder what the hell he was doing. He wouldn’t look at me but the smile on his face said he knew exactly what it was he was doing. I wasn’t sure what he was doing but it felt purposeful and somehow dangerous.
“Perfect. Get it all written up and double-check the information. We’ll get it filed for you.” The nurse turned and walked back to a desk in the corner where the computer stood.
“What are you doing?” I looked at him and spoke through clenched teeth because even though I was pissed I was still going to be respectful. This entire process so far had beenunprofessional and now that my charge was here I was going to have to get it back together.
“Filling out my baby’s paperwork, what you mean?” He grinned again and if he thought those damn dimples were going to get him out of explaining himself, he was wrong.
“You just tossed my name in at the last second for what?”
“You want me to tell you that I was just doing something for shits and giggles don’t you?” When Aldrich turned to me his eyes were serious despite the smile on his face. I shivered because the intensity in his gaze had me second-guessing why I was questioning this man. And it wasn’t because he was my boss. That look felt…dominant.
I shifted back, and his eyes tracked the motion before raising up to bore back into mine. “Didn’t you?”
“No. Because no matter what the person who used their womb to grow her wanted to name her, she won’t be around to help her become a good person. You will. Even if you decide to leave, the mark you are going to leave on her life in her formative months and hopefully years is something that no one will take from you. So yeah, I’m going to name her, even partially, after the woman who is giving so much of herself to guide the two of us into this thing called parenting. Besides, Amisha Sterling Dinero sounds nice as fuck. You don’t like it?”
He was back grinning again. Aldrich’s eyes danced with a joy that I hadn’t seen since I’d met him a week ago. I felt like shit trying to dissuade him from this since it brought him so much happiness but I felt like I was crossing a line. I wouldn’t lie that his confidence in me, his words of praise and gratitude, touched me. “I’m not saying that but I could be terrible at my job, Aldrich. You don’t even know me like that to add my name to hers.”
He shrugged as he signed the paperwork the nurse had brought over for him to review like he would an autographbefore looking up at me like the conversation was boring him. “I got a good feeling about you. More than your coming highly recommended, you seem like a good person. If I’m wrong, I got the bread to have her name changed but I doubt it will come to that.”
I rolled my eyes now back to being annoyed so I could crush those warm fuzzy feelings that were creeping up. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
