“Gimme,” Flowers demanded. Already a protective mamma bear.
I stood up and placed our daughter carefully in her arms. Emma instantly settled against her mom’s breasts.
I kissed Flowers on the top of her head. “Thank you.”
“What for?”
“For my daughter. For you. For healing my cold dead heart. For not leaving me. For giving me the time I needed. So many, many things.”
Then I got down on one knee. On the hard linoleum floor, which really kind of hurt.
“Anna Flowers, I love you with all my heart. Will you please marry me and make me the happiest man on this planet?”
I heard a gasp behind me. The lactation consultant, no doubt.
Anna looked over my shoulder to the nurse. “Does he sound sincere to you? Because I’m having a hard time judging right now.”
“Hmm, hmmm,” the nurse replied. “You should say yes.”
“I should say yes,” Flowers repeated. Then she looked at our daughter, then me. “I do say yes, E.G.”
Of course she said yes. I knew she would and still I was…
“Are you crying?” she asked me.
“It’s just because my knee hurts on this hard floor.”
“Then I guess you better get up and kiss me.”
And that is exactly what I did.
EPILOGUE
GRANT
No. It wasn’t possible. And yet there it was.
“I brought you your hospital bag,”I announced, as I walked through Flowers’ hospital room door.
Now that the business of actually having my baby was done, I could finally, finally use some of my money for good. I had Flowers moved to a private suite within the hospital, along with a private doula for lactation consultation.
Naturally, Flowers thought it was unnecessary, but I needed to do something to feel useful.
I lifted the duffel bag I’d found in the back of our closet to prove I’d returned with the goods. I’d gone home for a few hours, ostensibly, for sleep. Didn’t sleep a wink and instead bounced around the house like an insane man wondering what I’d missed.
Ricky had shown up, his mouth still filled with cotton, desperately trying to apologize, but considering everything had worked out so successfully, I was less inclined to fire him. Ishooed him off to recover and then set about my mission to hunt and gather for my soon to be bride.
She wanted snacks, more snacks, soft fuzzy socks, a softer fuzzier blanket and all of the onesies and baby clothes she’d purchased in the weeks leading up to the main event.
Our daughter was about to be swaddled in nothing but yellow and green colors.
“Shhh. She’s bonding with me,” Flowers said. Our daughter was in her arms, while Flowers gazed down upon her with a look I, as a lowly man, simply did not understand.
I set the duffel bag at the end of her bed. It was still a twin, because apparently, that’s the only size they make hospital beds in, but at least the room was quiet and had windows that let in the bright sunlight from outside.
“Did you sleep?” I asked her as I unzipped the bag.
“No,” she said with a soft smile, sitting up in bed. “Did you?”
