48
Denise - The One I Needed All Along
Iwake up in our comfy king-sized bed to the sounds of Ryder’s voice. When I open my eyes, I see that he’s standing in front of the window, looking out at the lake, and rocking Cole in his arms while singing her a lullaby. We’ve been home for two days after one night in the hospital and I can already tell he’s going to be an amazing dad.
“Morning, babe,” he says without turning around. “How’d you sleep?”
I sit up and stretch while he walks over to me with Cole. Her black hair has a slight curl to it, which makes it stick up in a fuzzy little halo.
“I slept pretty well, actually.” Ryder slides Cole into my arms and then sneaks in behind me on the bed so I can lean against him while I feed her. He’s been my chair during every feeding, either just holding me, or massaging my shoulders, or running his fingers through my hair. “In between all the feedings, that is. Thanks for getting up with her this morning and letting me catch a little extra sleep. I feel like I’ve been awake for a month.”
“I’d feed her for you if I could, but sadly, my boobs are just not equipped for that. Damn these useless man nipples.” He laughs. “They’re just for show.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you’ve decorated them so nicely then, I suppose. I can’t say I’m sad about how you look with those nipple rings.”
“Hold up, lady. Don’t objectify me. At least not yet. The doctor said your lady bits are out of commission for a while. You can’t get me all excited and then leave me hanging.” He’s joking, of course. He loves it when I objectify him.
“I just figured you’ve been lacking in character lately. Thought I could help you out by giving you a case of blue balls, for old times’ sake.”
Ryder laughs and kisses me on the neck. He scoots me back against him a little more so I can lean back, then he wraps his arms around me and helps me hold Cole. She doesn’t eat a lot at a time just yet, so she pops off my breast in just a few minutes. As I’m getting my shirt fixed up, there’s a knock on our bedroom door.
“Hello?” Ryder calls out.
“We couldn’t wait any longer. Please, can we come in and see Denise and the baby?” It’s Alex. She’s been impatiently waiting for me to go into labour since the day she found out I was pregnant.
“Come in, Alex.” I say.
The door opens and the first thing I see is a baby bump. Alex’s baby bump, to be exact. She’s only around six months along, but she’s having twins, so her belly is huge. She waddles over to the bed and sits beside me, pushing Ryder’s foot out of the way.
“Move it, Dad. Auntie Alex needs some baby time,” she says, while wiggling her arms toward me and the baby.
With some effort, Ryder gets his foot loose and gets himself off the bed to greet the rest of our visitors. Everyone is here.
“Oh my god,” Alex says, the tears already welling up into her eyes. “She’s so beautiful. And that hair! No wonder you guys picked Cole. I’ve never seen hair that black before. Well, except maybe yours, Denise.”
Without her even needing to ask, I slide Cole over into her arms. Alex has been dying to hold my baby, and I don’t want to know what would happen if I made her wait longer. I know firsthand how crazy those baby hormones make a person.
“So you ‘caught’ the baby?” Devon asks Ryder. “What does that mean?”
I lift myself off the bed to give Alex some time with her niece and walk over to where Devon, Ryder, Aiden, Connor, Travis, and Johnny are standing. All my guys in one spot. Five uncles and one daddy, all for Cole. My heart swells.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fuck with them a little.
“It means that I pushed a human out of my vagina, and Ryder stood by and grabbed her as she came out. Then he snuggled her while I got situated so that I could hold her.”
“But, didn’t your clothes get all, you know, gross and covered in baby goo?” Devon’s face shows exactly how he feels about baby goo getting on him. He’s most definitely not a fan.
“Uh, actually,” Ryder says, rubbing his hand through his hair. “We’d just gotten out of the shower, and it all happened so fast I couldn’t even get dressed before she was born.”
“So you were naked?” Connor asks with a snort of laughter. “So your naked body got covered in baby goo?”
“It’s not like it shoots out of a cannon or something, guys. Plus, it was worth it to be the first person to hold her. Not even a doctor held Cole before I did.” Ryder grins, and I can almost see the hearts in his eyes. That man is so in love with his daughter. There’s no way she won’t be a daddy’s girl with how much he’s going to spoil her. He’s already wrapped around her finger. She can’t even whimper without him running over to pick her up.
“It was worth it for me too,” Gladys says, coming over to join us. “I finally got to see Ryder’s dick. It’s pretty OK, I guess. Not nearly as big as I was expecting from all the rumours I’d heard.”
Ryder chokes on air and the rest of the guys laugh. “I didn’t even think of that. Is that why you stepped up like you did? Just to see my dick?”
Gladys is the one who talked us through the entire birth. Without her, Gran, and Lana, I don’t know what we would have done. Hopefully called 911 and had them try to talk us through it. But it sure was nice having someone beside me who seemed to know what they were doing.
