“For Julia?” she asked, her eyes on his face as they paused for a moment in the hallway.
He shook his head, smiling and squeezing her hand back. “A little,” he admitted with a chuckle. “But I’m mostly excited for her and Cooper. I know they’ve been looking forward to this day even more than the rest of us have been.”
They turned around a corner and found themselves in the labor and delivery waiting room. The rest of the Owens familywas there, sitting in chairs or pacing back and forth in front of the windows.
“Hey!” Hazel scampered over to hug them both the moment she saw them. As Dean’s twin, Hazel had always shared a special bond with him. Like Noelle, she was quick to sense his emotions and offer him support. She seemed to realize that being in the hospital made him jittery, and she squeezed his arm reassuringly.
Alexis gave them warm one-armed hugs, since Cash was nestled in her other arm, wiggling and looking as excited as if he knew exactly what was going on. Grayson, her distinguished-looking husband, hugged them as well.
“The family’s growing all the time,” he said, smiling.
Jacob looked up from where he was playing chess on a mini travel set with Samantha. “We’ve been voting on the gender,” he said. “I know we’ve been talking about it for months, but this is your final chance to place your bet. Winners get free milkshakes afterward.”
“Who’s buying?” Samantha asked dubiously.
“You are,” Jacob replied with a grin, and she shook her head at him as if she was much older than he was.
Faith, their cousin who had recently moved to Rosewood Beach and reunited with their family, laughed. Her eyes were sparkling, and it was clear that she couldn’t wait for the baby to be born. Although she and her partner Ryan McCormick were usually attached at the hip, he wasn’t there, and Dean guessed that had hadn’t been able to get away from work for the occasion.
Dean chuckled to himself, thinking that never in a million years would he have expected to feel disappointed that a McCormick wasn’t with them in the waiting room while a new member of their family was being born. Ryan’s father, Judd McCormick, had wasted a lot of energy in the past, trying totear down The Lighthouse Grill, which he apparently viewed as competition to his brewery. His attempts had never been successful, due to how beloved the pub was in Rosewood Beach.
Things had been better with the McCormicks since Faith and Ryan had started dating. Judd had backed off and was no longer scheming up ways to undermine The Lighthouse Grill. Ryan wasn’t competitive and self-absorbed the way the other members of his family were, and the Owens had welcomed him into their inner circle with open arms, especially after they saw how well he treated Faith.
“Where is the baby?” Macey asked, looking up from where she was playing with a couple of dolls. Based on the way they kept flying through the air at each other and then knocking heads, Dean would have guessed that they were supposed to be superheroes in the middle of a terrific battle, but he couldn’t be sure.
“The baby is coming soon, honey,” Vivian said, kissing the top of Macey’s head. “What do you think the gender is going to be? A boy or a girl?”
“It’s a girl,” Macey said, with absolute certainty. “My baby sister.”
Every woman in the room said, “Aww!” at the same time, and Dean laughed.
“Maybe Macey is right,” he said. “I think I’m going to put my vote in for girl.”
They discussed the topic animatedly while they waited, munching on chips and cookies from the vending machines. Vivian, Macey, Dean, Grayson, Noelle, and Samantha all said that the baby would be a girl. Hazel, Jacob, Alexis, Terrence, and Faith voted that the baby would be a boy. Cash didn’t vote in a clear fashion, but when Alexis asked him “Boy?” he gurgled more loudly than he had when she’d said “Girl?”
They continued to play games and pace, everyone exuding a mixture of nervousness and excitement. All of them couldn’t wait for the baby to be born, so that they could find out the gender and welcome the newest member of their family into their lives. For now, however, all they could do was wait.
The waiting was pleasant, however, with them all there together. It almost felt like some sort of party—one that was about to get more exciting any second. Dean sat back in one of the chairs and smiled when he realized that he’d been having a wonderful time inside a hospital after all.
Julia stared down at the perfect pink bundle of joy in her arms, feeling dazed and exhausted and happier than she had ever felt before in her life. She felt like superwoman—as though she had just accomplished something superhuman—and the reward that she’d received for her labors was perfect beyond her wildest dreams. A new wealth of love had awoken inside of her, and she could hardly believe that a whole new person had entered their lives, born of the love between her and Cooper.
“She’s a girl,” she whispered, looking up at her husband with shining eyes that were a little misty with tears of joy.
He laughed, bending down to kiss her forehead. “You’ve said that half a dozen times already.”
“I know.” She laughed too. “I’m just trying to process it all. Now that she’s here it all feels more real and more surreal at the same time. I feel like I’m dreaming.”
“That’s because you’re all drugged up,” he teased.
She shook her head, grinning at him. “You feel like you’re dreaming too,” she told him. “I can see it in your eyes.”
He smiled, touching his forehead to hers and keeping it there for a few moments. “It’s the best dream. I can’t wait to take her home. Macey is going to be beside herself.”
Julia chuckled when she thought of their toddler’s reaction to learning about her new sister. “She kept saying it would be a girl, like she knew. Maybe she still speaks baby and this little one communicated with her through my stomach.”
Cooper laughed. “A very possible theory. Speaking of our new little one, what do you want to name her? Does looking at her help you decide between our two names?”
They had chosen a few boys names they liked, and a couple of girls names. Now that they knew their baby was a girl, they simply had to decide between those two names, which were Quinn and Alice.
