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And I start crying all over again as Lenox, always reluctant to take center stage, cuts the cord. I go and wash up in the bathroom, taking a breath and laughing incredulously at my reflection. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. I just did that. I just fucking did that.
There’s a tap on the door, and I call out, “Come in.”
Lenox opens the door and enters, standing behind me and staring at my reflection in the mirror, his blue eyes bright. His arms swing around me, and he pulls me back into his chest, kissing my temple. “Fucking amazing.”
“That’s how this feels.”
“That’s what you are,” he murmurs against me. “I’m so proud of you. That was…”
“Yeah.” I’m grinning like a mad woman, high in a way I’ve never been before. “It was.”
We leave the bathroom and find Max, Brooklynn, and the baby curled up on the sofa, all snuggled in together.
“He’s perfect,” I tell them. “You did such an incredible job, Mom. What’s his name?”
She peers up at Max and then back at me. “George isn’t my favorite name for a guy.”
I bark out a laugh. “Not unless he’s an English king.”
“How about Gabriel, using the G for Georgia, and we’ll call him Gabe?”
I wipe at my face, getting choked up all over again. “I think that’s beautiful. I’m honored. Truly.”
“We could never repay this,” she continues, glancing down at her son and then back up at me.
“You just did,” I tell her. “But how about you pierce my nipples when I’m ready and we’ll call it even.”
Everyone breaks out into much-needed laughter just as there’s a knock on the door. The ambulance has finally arrived.
After the ambulance comes and takes Brooklynn, baby Gabriel, and Max off to the hospital, Lenox and I drive home in near silence. It’s still snowing. A no-joke snow at that. The sort of snow that makes visibility nearly impossible and your headlights only flash against the white flakes that fall directly in front of them.
Lenox goes slow, both of us hungry and tired and frankly in need of a shower. I sag back against the seat, my body flayed and my mind exhausted.
“Do you know what you did tonight?”
“Hmmm?” I question, unable to lift my head to glance in his direction as he plows us home.
“You delivered a baby.”
I grin. “I did. My three hundredth and thirty-second. Including graduate school and assists as an OB nurse while I was in grad school.”
“Brooklynn has been working for me for four years. She doesn’t press. She doesn’t push. She runs my business as if it were hers while always protecting me and my need for privacy.”
I twist my head on the seat and take in his profile, unsure what to say to that.
“It’s rare,” he continues, “to meet people in this world who have your back and unconditionally support you without it benefiting them.”
“I got the biggest earful on Monday about how you’re the saint of Lavender Lake. The Bruce Wayne of the town. You don’t see it, but you’re amazing, Lenox. You are. Whatever your reasons for all that you’ve done, you’ve done a lot of people so much good. But Brooklynn knows you without knowing everything and respects you for who you are without question. That’s why she’s so amazing.”
He reaches over and takes my hand, lacing our fingers together. “It’s taken me a long time to feel worthy of anything, but with you, I feel more than worthy, I finally feel deserving.”
My heart flutters like a drunk butterfly in my chest, and I squeeze his hand, getting choked up again. “You need to stop with this. All night you’ve been making my ovaries explode, and me subsequently want to jump you.”
He chuckles, but I’m straight-up not kidding.
“Lenox Moore, you are more than deserving. You are everything. You made me fall in love with you again, and you continue to do so over and over.”
He gives me a soft smile that almost seems impossible coming from such a serious, broody man. He brings our joined hands up to his lips and kisses my knuckles before releasing me so he can steer with two hands. “Seeing them tonight, watching them do that… I kept thinking that I wanted that to be us someday. I want to see you pregnant with our children because you’ll be so fucking stunning like that, and I want to be there, helping to coach you through as you bring them into the world.” He pauses and takes a breath. “I never… I never imagined I ever would. Children are… fantastical and emotionally needy and I’d… I’d never want to fuck them up. I’d want to be perfect for them.”
