We step into the room, but Zach immediately stands and points toward the sanitizer dispenser mounted by the door.
“Hands first.”
I almost smile. “Zach.”
“I’m not kidding.” He points again. “Hands. Both of you. Thoroughly.”
Skyler rolls her eyes. “He made Mom sanitize twice.”
“She touched the elevator button,” Zach says like that explains everything.
“It’s okay,” Aria says, already pressing the dispenser. “I respect it.”
Zach nods like she passed some kind of test. “Good.”
I hold out my hands, and he watches me rub the sanitizer in like I’m one of his recruits and not a grown man who works in a hospital.
“Again,” he says.
I stare at him. “You’re kidding.”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
Skyler sighs from the bed. “Zach, he’s a doctor.”
Zach’s forehead creases. “And doctors are around germs all day.”
Aria laughs softly and hits the dispenser again. “Come on, Penn. If you want uncle privileges, you gotta follow the dad’s orders.”
I do it again because I want to hold my niece and because arguing with Zach right now would be pointless.
When he’s finally satisfied, he steps aside but still watches us like we might do something wrong.
Skyler looks down at the baby, and her face softens completely. “This is Grace.”
Aria presses one hand to her chest. “She’s beautiful.”
I look at my little sister. “She looks just like you.”
Zach’s head snaps toward me. “She has my chin.”
Skyler smiles. “She has your attitude.”
“She’s perfect,” he says, looking back at the baby like the whole world begins and ends right there.
Skyler looks at me. “Do you want to hold her?”
Before I can answer, Zach steps closer. “Sit down first.”
I glance at him. “You know I’ve held babies before.”
He shrugs, not even fazed. “Not mine.”
Aria covers her mouth, and I hear the small laugh she tries to hide.
I sit in the chair beside the bed. “Better?”
Zach studies me for a second. “Support her head.”
