“They’re still at least ten minutes out.”
“Fuck.” My voice is low. “Okay, baby, I need to have a look. I don’t know if they’ll make it in time. But we’ve got this, okay?”
She shakes her head. “I can’t … have the baby … here. What if something goes wrong?”
“Look at me, Olivia—” Her icy blue pools lift to mine as I position myself between her raised knees. “It’s you and me, yeah?”
She nods as I place a folded towel beneath her and anotherone next to us. Then I smile at her, my breath catching in my throat, thick with emotion, as I look down between her thighs.
“I can see the baby’s head, Liv.” The bridge of my nose stings and I swallow down the adrenaline brimming inside me.
“We can’t do this—” she cries on a whisper. Her eyes squeeze tightly shut, and tears continue to track down her cheeks before disappearing into her matted copper hair.
“Listen to me, Liv; youcando this. You’re doing so good. We’re going to deliver our baby right here, you and me. On the next contraction, I want you to push. Can you do that?”
She shakes her head no, but seconds later the next contraction is on her, and while I’m kneeling before her, she bears down on instinct.
“There you go, baby.” I watch as she pushes. A little sliver of red hair grows, and I feel like I’ve been sucker punched. Our baby has red hair.
Another contraction begins and Olivia bears down again. Her legs shake and I move to brace them for her. “That’s it. Good girl, Liv. You’re doing so good.”
“No, I’m not … I can’t … I can’t, Asher, just get him out, please …” she cries. “Please get him out.”
“You’re both doing great, deep breath,” Katrina adds from the phone.
“One more! Come on, baby, you can do it.”
A hoarse howl rips from Olivia’s lips, and then I can see a head, eyes open, a tiny little crinkled-up heart-shaped face, and I’m fucking sobbing. Olivia pushes once more before I’m catching our squirming, tiny baby in the towel. I swipe my finger into the baby’s mouth to clear the airways, then look down to see I was right all along.
“She’s a girl!”
I give the baby’s back a little pat and the longest heartbeat of my life passes before a gusty wail erupts from her mouth. Olivia sobs out a laugh as I wrap her tightly in the towel,cleaning her up a little before passing her to the most amazing woman I’ll ever know. I set her on her mother’s chest, skin to skin.
“Fuck, baby. You did it. You did so fucking good. I love you so much, Livi girl,” I praise quietly, tears choking in the back of my throat. “Don’t pull her too much.”
I realize she hasn’t birthed the placenta yet as I lean over to brush the hair away from her face.
“Oh God, that feels so much better.”
Olivia is flushed and sweaty, and tears continue to fall down her cheeks, though her eyes are luminous as she stares up at me. I’m lost in those eyes. Lost … and completely helpless to pull my way out of them.
“You’re such a fuckin’ champ, baby.” I kiss her. Then I peer down at the most precious little thing I’ve ever seen.
“I fucking knew you were a girl, little bear.” I graze my thumb across the top of my sweet baby daughter’s head. She’s cradled in the towel, ten perfect little fingers and ten little toes, so small she seems unreal.
“Daddy wins,” Olivia says, the sobs breaking on a laugh.
“Yeah, he fuckin’ does,” I murmur as I kiss her again.
In every fucking way.
As I watch Olivia whisper to our daughter, I know that every part of my soul now lives within the girls I’m holding close. I will be thoroughly wrapped around the finger of both of them, just like Wade said, until the day I die.
Actually, fuck that. Even death couldn’t stop me from loving them. I’ll be wrapped around their fingers foreternity.
CALLISTA MADELYN REED
Our sweet little bear was born tonight at home at 11:04 P.M.
