Page 392 of Wicked Brutal

“Does she have a name?” the nurse asks softly.

Ryan looks at me. We picked two — one for either answer. But looking down at the tiny girl screaming against my chest, there is only one name in the world.

“Piper.” Ryan’s face crumples. “Piper Jane.”

Mom. I close my eyes for just a second, then kiss my daughter’s head. “Piper Jane Harrington.”

Cassandra sobs. Darla is crying. Katya covers her mouth. Walter bows his head. Ryan kisses my forehead, then Piper’s, then mine again.

“She’s here.”

Tobias comes in first. Nobody has to discuss it. Cassandra goes to get him once Piper and I are settled, and Ryan sits beside me on the bed with his arm around my shoulders while Piper sleeps against my chest. She’s been weighed, measured, checked. Seven pounds, eight ounces. A head full of soft hair. Ten fingers, ten toes — Ryan checked those himself, more than once.

The door opens. Tobias steps inside and stops. His eyes don’t go to Piper. They go to me. “Ally? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, buddy.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

His shoulders drop. Then he looks at Ryan. “Are you okay?”

Ryan smiles. “Yeah, dude.”

“You cried.”

Ryan laughs softly. “Yeah.”

“A lot?”

“A lot.”

Tobias nods, like that’s what he expected. Then he looks at Piper, and his whole face changes. “That’s the baby?”

“That’s the baby.”

“What is it?”

“A girl.”

His eyes get huge. He comes closer, to the side of the bed, slowly, carefully, all the wild energy that usually lives inside him disappearing. “What is her name?”

“Piper Jane.”

He stops. “Jane?”

I nod. “Like Mommy.”

His eyes move back to the baby. “Piper Jane. She’s really little.”

“She is.”

“Is she okay?”

Ryan’s voice gets rough. “She’s perfect.”

Tobias looks at me. “Can she hear me?”