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Now, it feels as though I need nothing else. Nothing but my wife and our daughter.

Winnie chokes on a happy sound as our girl is laid on her chest. “Oh, wow. She’s so small. I felt like a damn jack-o-lantern towards the end there, I thought maybe she was going to be as big as you.”

I huff a small laugh as I shake my head. “She’s beautiful.”

“She is,” Winnie says softly on a sigh. Our girl pops her tiny mouth open and curls her small hand into a fist, eyes fluttering but staying closed. “Now that she’s here, I don’t know what to do.”

“Me neither,” I admit, chest tightening with fear. “She needs a name. That’s about all I know.”

“I need to check her birth chart, but I can do that later,” Winnie whispers, smirking when I roll my eyes. She turns her smile down to our girl, and brushes a gentle finger down her cheek. “So much for that list you bullied me into making.”

“I didn’t bully you into anything.” Although, listening to her rattle off Princess names and not take it seriously had given me a pretty decent idea of how this is going to go.

She’s not going to give me any serious peace.

“Hmm…” Winnie traces our baby girl’s lips softly, eyes locked on her, while mine are locked on the love of my life. “I want her to have something classic. Something she can grow into. I was joking about calling her Princess.”

I sigh dramatically. “Thank god.”

The smirk returns and is directed at me. “Anyway, I still want her to have a cute nickname. Something for us—her family. Kinda like me.”

I think on it for a moment before blowing out a breath. “Something like Teddy for Theodora. Or Ollie.”

Winnie directs her next smile to me. “Yeah.” Then she looks down at our girl again. “Ollie. Ophelia. A classic and something just for us.”

My heart flutters and the tears return with a vengeance. I draw in a deep breath through my nose as I press a kiss to Winnie’s forehead. “I love it.”

“I love you,” she whispers, meeting my lips with a gentle kiss.

“I love you more,” I reply, closing my eyes. “Both of you.”

“Max, Winnie, and Ollie. What a cute little family y’all are shaping up to be,” an older nurse says. “You want a photo?”

I pull my cell out of my back pocket. It hadn’t even occurred to me to ask. But if there’s one thing Winnie has been doing in the bungalow back in Maple Lane Falls, it’s decorated the place with whatever pieces of her family she has. Photos make up a giant gallery wall in the family room, and she took an old dusty hutch and is now filling it with our memories. Our framed marriage certificate. Ultrasounds, items from our first date, all the things she could possibly collect that remind her of us.

I’ve added to it over the last couple of months, too, when I can. But she’s always the first to decide when something needs to be added to the collection.

The nurse snaps a few pictures for us and hands back the cell. “Have a very merry holidays, you three,” she says, winking at Winnie. “Good luck.”

She waves her fingers as she leaves, and I can’t help but shake my head. “Old friend?”

“She delivered my sister’s kids,” Winnie explains. “Pretty sure she might have also delivered me.”

I shake my head. “She is not that old.”

Winnie shoots me another scathing look. “Are you calling me old? When you’re almost forty?”

I grind my teeth together. “Okay. I apologise.”

“Good.” She smirks as she turns her attention back to Ollie, who now has her eyes open. She stares up at her mother in wonder, eyes a deep grey just like Winnie’s. It makes my heart skip a beat taking her in. “Oh.”

I gently rest my cheek on Winnie’s head. “She has your eyes.”

“Yeah,” Winnie whispers. “But I think I already see parts of her that belong to you.”

I can’t take my eyes off either of them as I snort. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“Her hair.” Winnie runs her fingers over the small amount of hair Ollie was born with, gentle as she runs her fingers through the small curls. “Your colour and curls through and through.”