Page 81 of Catching Sparkles

On the way to the hospital, neither of us could stop yammering about the baby, making guesses about the sex or who it would look like or what name they’d picked out. I could tell Rhys was still bothered by Benji’s blunt attitude toward him. I wanted to make it better, but I wasn’t exactly sure how.

“I feel like I fucked this whole uncle thing up already,” he told me as I pulled into the closest parking spot we could find at the hospital.

“You didn’t,” I promised him seriously, turning to face him once the car was off. “The baby’s not even a day old yet, Rhys. And you didn’t do anything wrong. Besides, Josie didn’t want either of us around when she was in labor,” I tacked on. “And she needed to rest after, anyway. It’s not a big deal that we weren’t here first thing in the morning.”

Maybe I was being overprotective, but his obvious sadness about the whole thing was starting to really get under my skin. Not that I was going to confront Benji about it or anything, especially not today. Today was all about the baby and Josie. But I didn’t know why he was being so weird about the whole thing, specifically toward Rhys. He didn’t seem annoyed with me, and our situations were basically identical. But then, he’d always had kind of a sore spot when it came to Rhys and I’d never exactly been sure why.

We made our way through the lobby and elevator to the room number Benji had texted me. The door was half-open but I rapped my knuckles on it anyway before slowly pushing it open.

The sterile white of the room was broken up beautifully by bunches of bright balloons and bouquets of vibrant flowers, but my eyes zeroed in on the bundle in Josie’s arms. A tiny, wrinkled up face surrounded in a pink blanket.

“A girl,” I said, my voice coming out all watery even though I hadn’t meant it to. “Oh my god.”

Dashing up to her bedside, I was shocked at the overwhelming rush of emotions. I’d been excited the whole time since they’d announced the pregnancy, but it was so real now. It was finally sinking in. My best friend, the person who I’d spent so many hours with, laughing and crying and sharing secrets, was a father. He’d made a little person with half his DNA, and half the DNA of the woman he really, really loved.

“She’s like a little princess,” I whispered, my heart exploding in my chest like a glitter bomb.

“Do you want to hold her?” Josie asked, and I nodded, carefully pulling the chair next to her bed closer. Benji hurried over and helped transfer the precious cargo from Josie’s arms to mine, probably so she wouldn’t have to move around too much.

I gasped softly at the warmth of her impossibly tiny body in my arms, my eyes racing over her features. “Benji, she looks just like you.”

“Yeah,” he answered quietly, the slight rasp in his voice betraying his emotions too. “Everybody’s been saying that.”

Josie sniffled a little, but laughed softly. “Imagine carrying an entire human around in your uterus for 40 weeks just for her to come out looking like a copy paste of her dad.”

“Hey, I helped,” he piped up and she scoffed.

“You helped,” she repeated wryly. “I’d hardly call your contribution work.”

He chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “Well, no. That part was pretty fun. But I, you know, carried bags around and went out and picked up stuff when you were craving it.”

I laughed, shaking my head as I gently stroked a fingertip over her perfectly smooth cheek. Her eyes were blue, like someone had taken the color right from the prettiest, clearest sky. Kind of like Rhys’ eyes. “Love that you guys are already talking about raw-dogging in front of the baby. I mean, one day is plenty old enough, right?”

At my side from where he was staring down at us, Rhys snorted. “Hey, we grew up in a household where sex was talked about openly and we both turned out okay. Mostly.”

“Mostly,” Benji agreed.

“So what’s her name?” Rhys asked, and I realized I’d been so enthralled by her that my brain hadn’t even worked up to that point yet.

“She’s Astrid Willow Kensington,” Josie said. It was literally the perfect name for a princess.

After cooing and fawning over her for a few more minutes, Josie asked Rhys if he wanted to hold her. I watched his eyes widen a bit as he cleared his throat.

“Ah, I don’t know… She looks pretty breakable.”

“Oh, don’t worry so much,” she teased, waving a hand dismissively. “You’ll be fine. Your uncle instincts are going to kick in right away.”

I could practically hear his nervous gulp as Benji gently lifted the snoozing bundle from my arms and I let Rhys take my place in the seat. Once he did, I planted my butt on the corner of Josie’s bed. I watched as Benji leaned down to place her in Rhys’ arms. Once he had, I expected him to stand back up straight but he lingered, hovering close for a few odd moments.

“What?” Rhys asked incredulously, and I felt a strange bloom of confusing tension in the air as Benji silently stared at him for a few more seconds before finally standing up.

“Nothing,” he said briskly.

“What’s wrong, Benji?” I asked. When I glanced over at Josie, she looked as confused as I felt. She obviously didn’t know what was up with him either.

Benji’s eyes slid over to me, but I couldn’t decode anything in them. “It’s nothing. I just remembered something,” he tacked on carelessly, like it really was nothing. “Make sure you support her head,” he said, directing his attention to Rhys again.

“Oh! Uh, yeah,” he stammered out, shifting a bit to make sure Astrid was perfectly protected in the basket of his muscular arms. “Like this?”