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Tucking my phone back into my bag, I wonder if Mollie is right.
Maybe she’s not so far off base to suggest Abel would be down to hook up.
My brother, teary-eyed and smiling, enters the waiting room at two o’clock that afternoon in teal scrubs that are a size too small. “Y’all ready to meet your new grandbaby?” He looks at me. “Oh. And niece or nephew?”
Dad is here, and so are Maren’s parents. We all leap to our feet. Tuck texted an hour or so ago that the baby had arrived and everyone was doing well. We’ve been waiting on pins and needles ever since.
Tuck leads us down the hallway, stopping to knock softly on a door. “Maren, it’s us.”
“Y’all come on in!” she replies.
Walking into the recovery room, the first thing I see is Maren in bed, a sleepy smile on her face. Her torso is bare, and there’s a sweet little bundle tucked against her breast.
That bundle is wearing a white hat with a big bow on it.
“A girl!” I squeal, glancing at my brother. “Holy shit, Tuck, you had another girl!”
Tuck laughs. “Y’all, meet Reese Julia Monroe.”
Dad claps his hands. “She’s beautiful. Looks like you, Tuck.”
“Doesn’t she?” Maren says. “That’s the first thing I said when I saw her—she is her daddy.”
“I see her mama in there too,” I reply. “The nose. And those lips! Goodness, she’s delicious.”
Maren grins, wiping a tear off her cheek. “I think she’s scrumptious. I had a feeling she’d be big. I was huge at the end!”
“You were beautiful,” Tuck says. “Youarebeautiful.”
I wait patiently for my turn to hold the baby. When she’splaced in my arms, I feel an enormous rush of joy. “How are you feeling, Maren?” I ask, wiping my eyes.
“I feel pretty good, actually, but the pain meds are still at work, so we’ll see what happens when those wear off. Surgery was surprisingly all right. But I was shaking like a leaf when they admitted me to the OR. I just had no idea what to expect, you know?”
Tuck scoffs. “That’s some scary shit, going into surgery.”
“I’ve never had surgery before, so yeah, it was scary. But once they got the meds going, I was fine. I was so excited to meet that little one.” She tips her head at Reese. “I’ll never forget Dr. Yelich saying, ‘Wow, that isnota small kid!’ as she pulled her out of my stomach.”
Tuck smirks. “To be fair, her daddy is not a small guy.”
I roll my eyes. “Are youreallybeing a pervert on your daughter’s birthday? I see the fifteen-year-old in you is alive and well.”
Laughing, Dad takes the baby from me. “Some things never change.”
Resting my head on Dad’s shoulder, I see tears leaking out of his eyes. Together we watch baby Reese do a big yawn, Dad laughing when she makes the tiniest, most delicious cooing sound.
“You forget how little newborns are,” he says. “How beautiful.”
“She looks like you,” I say.
“You think so?”
“Oh, definitely. It’s the eyes.”
“I see it too,” Maren says.
Tuck smiles. “Congrats, Papa Joe.”
Oh, God, now I’m really crying, and Dad is smiling and telling Reese that our family has been anxiously waiting for her arrival, that he can’t wait to take her fishing onThe Jolly Roger.
