She was?—
“She’s beautiful,” Emil said.
I glanced up at him, seeing the tears of joy in his eyes as he stared at us both. Leaning down to kiss me, he kept his hand over mine as I held her to my chest. Just like he did when she was still in the womb, his hand a protective force to shield her from the world.
“She’s perfect,” I said, still wiping the tears from my eyes.
“Congratulations,” Luka said warmly, smiling down at us.
As we marveled in the wonder of this precious girl who decided to make her arrival earlier than expected, we gushed over her. Emil held her while I was helped through the afterbirth, but when the nurses winced and mentioned that Emil was getting blood on the blanket and contaminating the room, Luka took over to hold his first granddaughter while Emil’s hand was bandaged up.
I watched as Luka gave Emil our daughter, but they embraced too.
“Thank you, Father,” Emil told him.
Luka hugged him tightly.
“All right. Time for the next one,” the doctor said. She approached, slipping her phone back into her pocket. “That was my colleague, Dr. Ha?—”
“Oh, fuck.” Luka opened his eyes wide and released Emil. “Gabriella! Is she?—”
“Better hurry home,” the doctor said. “Looks like you’re going to be a grandpa and a dad on the same day!”
37
EMIL
Now that our daughter was born and the worries about the stress of childbirth had passed, Sadie was more relaxed and no longer treated like a patient with concerns. Nurses came in and checked on her vitals constantly. Doctors stopped in to make sure she was beginning her recovery well too.
Even though there were causes for concern to get her into the hospital, everything settled down after my daughter was born. The worries about Sadie’s blood pressure hinted at pre-eclampsia, but with the induction the doctors put her on, delivering the baby solved it.
I wasn’t letting her leave until we had triple checks that she was okay. I couldn’t bear the idea of Sadie being hurt or suffering. And when we would head home, we’d have Dr. Hannan and nurses on site to fully check on her.
The peace and love that filled me at seeing my daughter wasn’t going to wear off soon. Because Sadie was in a private suite, we had plenty of room to relax and meet our precious child.
A chair was pulled over toward the bed for me to sit on. Sadie insisted on having someone check me over and clean me up while she napped, and hey, who was I to argue with a short and stubborn badass like my little agent when she wanted to rest?
My injuries were minimal, mostly superficial. It didn’t take long for a couple of nurses to stitch me up. Alexsei stopped in to bring me clothes.
He damn near cried in happiness at seeing my daughter. While I showered, he held her and cooed to her, warning her that no man was ever going to be good enough for her.
“You got that right,” I joked after I came out of the shower, clean and bandaged up.
“How is she doing?” Alexsei asked of Sadie, nodding at her while he held our sleeping daughter.
“Tired. As expected.” I smiled as Sadie stirred, proving that she was still a light sleeper.
She sat up and smiled at Alexsei, but he didn’t stay long, excusing himself when Sadie tried to feed our daughter.
“What should we name her?” I asked as I sat next to her on the bed.
She sighed. “I like Carina.”
I had been wondering about Katerina. It was close. I kissed her and stroked my finger over our daughter’s cheek. “Welcome to the world, sweet Carina.”
“It fits.”
“And it’s also a name I know Gabriella wasn’t considering.” As if on cue, my phone rang.
