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I shared a smile with the other two. Yep, that was our Melinda.
For a while, we all rested. I was exhausted, and I had just been a spectator to the Herculean task of giving birth. I couldn’t imagine how Melinda felt.
Then she said, “Do you want to hold her?”
All three of us jumped up at once. “Who’s first?” Andrew asked.
“It is only right that it be Pierce,” Tristan said. “It was his contract, based on his desire, that brought us to this point.”
I shook my head. “I’m in no hurry. You two can hold her first.”
Andrew gingerly took the baby from Melinda’s arms. She didn’t look like she wanted to hand her over, but she immediately slumped back into the hospital bed, eyes growing heavy. But she smiled while Andrew gently rocked the baby.
Tristan was next, and the tears were flowing the moment he touched her. I wanted to tease him, but decided the moment was too special for that. Andrew smiled at me; he must have been thinking the same thing.
Then it was my turn. As soon as I brought her to my chest, I was overwhelmed with emotion. It was like a switch had gone off in my brain, reorganizing all of my priorities. Turning me into a father.
I gazed down at my sleeping daughter. It was obviously too early to tell who the biological father was. Purple and pudgy, she could have been more closely related to an alien than any of us.
A pudgy, purple alien that I love with all my heart.
Our moment of peace soon ended when the nurses arrived. There were a battery of tests that needed to be run on the baby, and Melinda needed some special care as well. Andrew, Tristan, and I left and went out to the waiting room down the hall to get some coffee.
“There they are!” exclaimed Melinda’s father. “You three look so tired I would have thought you did the delivery.”
“We did not, and thank goodness for that,” Tristan replied. “I have seen too much of the human body today.”
“Amen to that,” Andrew added while we made our greetings.
“Men can be such wimps,” Melinda’s mother said. “It’s just childbirth. It’s natural.”
“There are lots of natural things that are unpleasant,” I said. “But still, Melinda and the baby are both healthy.”
“Congratulations are in order!” Melinda’s father said. “So, which of you three is the father?”
I was so exhausted that the comment didn’t sink in for several seconds. Tristan reacted first: “Whatever do you mean?”
“Come on,” he insisted. “I may not be a billionaire, but I’m not stupid, either. I’ve seen the way all three of you look at her—and the way she looks back at you.”
I shared a look with the other two. We had been keeping this a secret for the past nine months, and hadn’t even begun to think about how to discuss it with family.
Her father held out his palms. “Look, I don’t care. I’m just happy Mel is happy. My only concern is that this is three times as many chances for her heart to get broken.”
“I can assure you that will not happen,” Tristan said. Andrew nodded emphatically.
“We’re crazy about your daughter,” I added. “If anything, she’ll break our hearts.”
“I don’t think so,” he replied. “Mel is stubborn. Once she sets her mind to something, or someone, she rarely changes course.”
“Or three someones!” her mom said with a grin.
“I certainly hope so,” I said. “Because I don’t intend to fall out of love with her.”
Andrew stuck out his chin. “None of us do. I can promise you that.”
“All right, all right. A father had to make sure. And speaking of that, congrats to you three.”
I shook his hand. “Thanks, Mr. Norris.”
