“I’ve distracted you since the classroom days,” Liam whispers in my ear.
“This is not time for thinly veiled innuendos.” But I can’t help the laugh that comes out of my mouth.
“See, he’s doing his job already,” my doctor says.
The whir of surgical tools, the nurses and doctors communication, and the pressure I feel take over anything else I could possibly focus on. Liam lets me squeeze his hand to death as it feels like someone has taken an elephant and planted it on my ribcage.
After what feels like forever, my doctor looks over the curtain. “He’s almost here, you doing okay?”
I nod, so anxious to see my baby that I don’t even care if I’m cut open in the middle. The pressure intensifies as they seem to be wrestling him out, and just when I think I can’t take it anymore, a cry splits the air.
“Oh my gosh,” I cry out, knowing that my baby is alive in this world.
“Your baby boy is here.” One of the nurses comes around the curtain, handing him to Liam.
My husband bends our baby to my face, and the arm without my IV instinctively comes around the little bundle as I kiss his cheek.
A head full of dark hair like his daddy, little cupid’s bow lips, and green eyes blinking at my own. We match, our eyes a mirror of each other, and I start to cry as I stare at this perfect little creature Liam and I created.
“How is he so beautiful? Like the angels kissed him and only him?” Tears make my voice hoarse.
Gazing at my son has now become my new favorite activity, just in the last six seconds.
“Thank you. Thank you for giving me the most incredible gift I’ll ever receive.” Liam bends down to kiss me as he secures our son in my arms, letting me hold him even while I’m being stitched up behind the curtain.
“What’s his name?” one of the nurses asks.
“Lucas DiNicoli Ashton.” Liam beams, and I nearly start weeping as I look at our namesake, who has so many important people making up his name.
Lucas, for my grandmother Lucy. DiNicoli, to honor Liam’s nonno and that heritage. And Ashton, our shared last name and one that means so much to the land Liam loves so much.
“We love you, little buddy. So so much.” I stroke his face and cheeks, knowing there is another person on this earth I’d lay my life down for.
Even as they stitch me up, help me recuperate, and transfer us to a post-op room, the only thing I can focus on is Lucas. How sweet the sounds he makes are, how strong his little fist is when wrapped around my finger.
And how utterly perfect both he and Liam look the first time my husband takes off his shirt so they can cuddle skin to skin. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my life.
Coming back to Hope Crest had never been in the cards, and neither had any of the events that followed. But I thank my lucky stars they did because this is the life I was meant to have.
The two of us shirking the rules and living by the ones we believed in, that’s what got us here.
And I’m not giving that up for anything.
