“Jesus, get ahold of yourself,” Patrick says, snapping pictures of me and the baby. “You’re like a leaky faucet.”
I lean back, making sure the baby is safe against my chest. Prying one hand away, I flip him off and quickly bring it to her back once more. It’s fucking crazy that she was just born, but they said they’ll probably let us go home tomorrow or the next day.
That seems ridiculously fast.
Who is going to teach us to take care of her? All the research I’ve done feels inadequate.
At the same time, I can’t wait for Lukas to meet her. He’s going to be sad for a second. He really had his heart set on a little brother, but I know the lad will adapt quickly.
“You’re doing great. Just relax.” Charlotte smiles at me from where she’s stretched out on her hospital bed.
Cormac is at her side, and he has a baby name book in his hand. “Are you confident you want to stick with something that starts with L?”
“We don’t have to.” Charlotte shrugs. “I just thought it might be cute.”
“If we go with a second L name, we’ll have to continue it,” Patrick says and freezes. “I mean,ifyou change your mind and want more kids. I just think it wouldn’t be a good idea to have two Ls and then a J or something. You get what I mean.”
Our wife smiles, and my damn heart races. Her hair is a mess, her face is swollen and a little blotchy from all the pushing, and she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
“Yeah, that is something to think about,” she says, rubbing the side of her breast. “Damn, that’s such a weird feeling.”
“How about Lydia?” Cormac suggests, flipping the page.
The baby grunts, passes gas, and lets out a mighty fuss practically all at once.
My chest bounces as I chuckle.
Her nose scrunches, and she gets wild about tossing her head around.
It blows my mind that just a few hours ago, she was floating around in Charlotte’s stomach.
“I like Lilah or Laney,” I chime in, studying her light brown hair. Her eyes have mostly been closed, but Charlotte warned us that a baby’s eyes often start out blue and change in the months after birth.
There really is no telling which one of us hit the DNA jackpot.
It doesn’t matter, anyway.
She’s ours.
I’d give my life or kill to keep her safe.
Waiting until she was born to find out her gender was torture, but it made it extra memorable.
“We could go with Lennon or Lennox,” Patrick suggests.
Charlotte’s shoulders bounce, and some emotion that I can’t quite place spills through the bond. “I’m actually a big fan of Livy. What do you guys think?”
“Would we make it short for something?” Cormac asks.
“We could,” Charlotte hedges.
It’s at this very moment that I realize she already had her heart set on a name before the baby was even born.
I nod, meeting her eyes. “Livy is perfect.”
“I like it,” Patrick says.
Cormac nods. “It’s a very fitting name.”
