“Legs up, I’m checking.” I lie back and get into position.
“Wait for me!” I can hear Nix coming down the hallway. A second later, she’s bursting into the room. “I made it! You can have her now,” she tells me. Bonte comes in behind her, rolling her eyes, while Mac is just shaking her head.
“Anyone else that wants to join us?” the doctor jokes as she puts her gloves on.
“The girls are all here,” Paxton tells her. My mom comes to stand on the other side of me.
“We were joking,” the doctor says. “You can push on the next one.”
“Oh, I am.” I barely get the words out as the contraction hits me. I grip Paxton’s hand, and his eyes stay locked on me as I push with everything I’ve got.
“Oh, she’s here,” my mom whispers before a scream rings out through the room.
“Sunshine.” Paxton is still focused on me and making sure I’m okay. I nod, unable to speak because of the emotions squeezing my throat tight. A second later I’m handed our baby girl wrapped in a blanket.
“She’s so tiny.” Her little finger wraps around mine. A love that I never knew was possible fills me in this moment. I feel a tear slip free as I look at our daughter.
“God knows that won’t hold her back,” Paxton says, sounding proud.
Soon the room is filled with family. Everyone is here, from aunts and uncles to cousins with nieces and nephews. I don’t know how we all fit in one room, but we figure it out. We always do.
“Did you decide on a name?” Bonte asks.
“Yes, Paxton picked it. Sunniva,” I tell them. A gift from the sun.
Paxton presses his forehead to mine, our baby girl tucked between us. “Thank you,” I tell him.
“Don’t be thanking me. It was all you.”
He’s wrong, and he’d fight me on that, but the truth is it was all of us.
The Marinos.
