“Oh my god.”
He shrugs. “She’s round. She’s dramatic. She makes strange noises. Seems fitting.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Could go with Puck,” he offers. “A little hockey tribute.”
“Hard pass.”
“Gollum?”
“Stop.”
“Beelzebaby.”
I choke on a laugh, trying not to jostle the tiny human currently asleep on my chest. “Okay, no more night-shift nickname roulette. You’re done.”
“Spoilsport.”
He grins, lazy and smitten, then quiets again, watching us.
And I feel it—that shift again. That weight in my chest rising to my throat, full of something sacred and breaking and huge.
I smooth a hand over the silky head of our daughter, and my voice wobbles when I speak.
“I was thinking…” I pause, my throat tightening. “Ivy.”
Reid blinks, startled.
“For the garden,” I murmur. “Adele’s favorite.”
His breath catches.
“And Harriet,” I whisper, a tear rolling down my cheek.
His mouth opens. Closes. Emotion surges up too fast for words, because he knows exactly who that one is for.
“And Hope,” I whisper. “For my dad, and second chances, and… for us.”
Reid doesn’t say anything because he can’t. His face crumples, and he folds in half like someone cut the strings.
Ivy stays sleeping on my chest as he turns away, shoulders shaking, a hand pressed over his eyes.
“Reid,” I say gently.
He doesn’t move, so I shift, careful not to jostle her, and tug him in. He comes without resistance, curling around both of us, pressing his face to the crook of my neck. I stroke his hair with one hand and cradle our daughter with the other.
“Ivy Harriet Hope,” he chokes out. “You gave her a name that means everything. You gave her everything.”
“We did.”
He exhales a shudder, and his hand finds Ivy’s again, pinky brushing her palm. And when her fingers curl around it, he looks at me with something fierce and awed in his eyes.
“I am going to be insufferable,” he whispers. “She’s got me completely. I’m gonna be that dad.”
I snort and glance at him. He’s dead serious. “You already are that dad.”
“She’s going to be so loved,” he says, voice thick. “Fiercely, unconditionally, irrationally loved. No one is going to get near her without going through me first. Or Jake. Or Logan. Or Chase or Eli.EspeciallyHeidi and Zoe. Hell, even Viktor. She’s got an entire NHL team of uncles, and so many badass aunts, and not one of them is emotionally stable.”
