Truth be told, he was probably far more worried than she was. He couldn’t feel what she felt, so he had no idea exactly what was going on with her. He couldn’t bear the thought that anything bad might happen to her or the baby. Part of him knew he was worrying for no reason, that everything happening right now was natural and normal. Things were going about as smoothly as could be expected under the circumstances. But he couldn’t make his heart understand, not when she was so obviously in pain.
Before long, Adam finally saw his child for the first time. He held his breath until he heard the baby cry. Then he heaved a deep sigh of relief. Kyra collapsed while he handled the cleanup.. He wanted her to feel at ease, so he did everything he thought they might have done for her in the hospital.
He wrapped the baby in a clean blanket. “It’s a girl,” he said to Kyra as soon as he knew.
“Really?” she said, sounding like she was about to pass out. Adam helped her sit up on the couch and handed the baby to her. As soon as she glanced down at the baby in her arms, she said, “She’s beautiful,” and her face lit up. “Don’t you think she’s beautiful?”
“She is.” He nodded and sat down across the room, watching the two of them from a distance. They looked so perfect together, but it was a picture he’d never felt he could be part of. At the same time, he’d been there when it mattered, hadn’t he? She’d needed him, and he was there.
From his chair across the room, from this perfect vantage point, Adam considered how his father might have reacted to such a situation. As soon as the question hit him, the answer did, too. There was no doubt in his mind. His father would have run. He would have either forced her into a car and driven her to the hospital, leaving her to deliver a baby alone in the back seat of the car she didn’t want to be in, or he would have sent for someone else and left. Calm would have been the worst way to describe him.
Out of pure instinct, Adam had done the opposite of what his father would have done. He hadn’t even needed to think about it. His body had naturally done what needed to be done to support the woman he loved and his new baby.
He was exhausted from the stress, but he refused to close his eyes. He didn’t want to look away from the two people in front of him, the two people he now loved more than anyone else on the planet. The words wife and daughter echoed in his thoughts and made him feel warm and complete. For years, he’d had no direction. The ranch had given him something to focus on, but it still felt like he was waiting for something. Only now did he realize what, or rather who, he was waiting for.
Kyra’s eyes finally fluttered open again. Adam didn’t know how long he’d been watching her sleep with her baby on her chest, but it didn’t matter in the end. He would have stayed another five hours if he could have. He’d never felt more peaceful or more sure of anything in his life.
“Hi,” Kyra whispered when she saw him staring at her.
“Hi,” he responded with a smile.
“Do you want to hold her for a little bit?” she asked.
He nodded and walked over to the couch. So carefully it felt like slow motion, he curled his arms around his baby, and hugged her to his chest. She made little sounds at his touch, and he touched her face with the tip of one finger. She was so fragile, so small. He loved her immediately. “Have you chosen a name for her?” he asked.
“I have a list of potentials,” she said. “But I couldn’t decide on one.”
“Can I help?” he asked.
She blinked at him, unsure what to say. “Sure, but I thought… I thought you didn’t want to be part of it.”
“Can I change my mind?”
She tried to sit up but groaned and lay back again. “You… wouldn’t tease me about that, would you?”
Adam sat down next to her, still holding his baby in his arms. “No, I wouldn’t. I just realized something is all. I don’t want to be like my father. He would have run away from anything that scared him, and that’s almost what I did to you. Fatherhood scares me, but maybe that’s normal. Maybe everyone is worried about what kind of father they’ll be.”
Kyra’s eyes lit up, but there was a wariness in her look, too, like she couldn’t quite believe it. “I think I’d be more concerned if you weren’t worried about being a good father. The fact that you care makes me trust you more.”
He leaned over and kissed her forehead once. “Thank you. The truth is, I wanted to tell you a lot of things on the phone, and then I chickened out. I was going to tell you when you got here, and then I chickened out again.”
She laughed under her breath. “Me, too. But if you mean what you’re saying right now, I don’t think any of the stuff I wanted to say to you is relevant anymore.”
The baby shifted and made another sound, and Adam fell in love with her all over again. “Do you think she’ll look like me?”
“Of course,” Kyra said with a chuckle. “You’re the pretty one in this relationship.”
“I beg to differ.”
“You can beg, but I won’t give in.”
Adam smiled and held her hand with the arm that wasn’t cradling his daughter. “The day you first walked into my life, all chaotic sunshine and crazy ideas, I fell madly in love with you. I hope you know that. From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I knew it was going to be you or no one.” He squeezed her hand. “The choice, in the end, is all yours. If you’ll have me, I’m yours.”
“You mean it?” Again, she was struggling to believe it. “I’m not having a weird post-delivery hallucination, am I?”
He laughed. “I don’t think that’s a thing, but I promise this is real. Stay with me, and I’ll make you the happiest woman in Alder Creek.”
Kyra could barely contain her joy. He saw it on her face as clear as day. The fact that he could make her this happy was all he needed to know to be certain this decision was the only right one. He was going to be a father. No, he alreadywasa father,and he was going to be the best one he knew how to be. He was not going to repeat the mistakes of his own father, but he would learn from them.
