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PART ONE
BABY: DAY 1
LEVI
The world was full of liars. I was sure of it. It had to be. I was sure of it. Throughout my life, I’ve had to endure many people shoving their kids in my face, saying how they were so cute. How there was no other kid on the planet as beautiful as their child. I’d awkwardly just agree, smile, give the kid a little nod, and move on. But now as I held my child—my son—cute wasn’t good enough; beautiful was just the bare minimum, barely cutting it. Ulric was pulchritudinous. Yes, pulchritudinous, a 15-letter, 5-syllable word that meant a person of such breathtaking and heartbreaking beauty effort needed to be used in order to say it. Closing my eyes and opening them again, I smiled wider seeing him sleeping soundly in my arms. He was actually the cutest baby in the world, and as such, everyone else was a bunch of liars.
“Shh…” I whispered softly as he started to twist and turn in my arms. His light face bunched up as he prepared to demand his next feeding. I didn’t want to wake her, but—
“Someone’s hungry,” she said softly, her head tilted at us in the chair beside her. She smiled and opened her arms for him. Standing up with him, I moved to the side of her bed, gently snuggling him into her beautiful brown arms. He was already a genius; the moment he was with her, he knew food was coming, calmed down, and turned toward her breast, leaning over I helped open her gown enough.
“Ahh…”
“Does it hurt?” I asked, watching her carefully.
She giggled and shook her head smiling down at him. “No, it just kind of feels like a tiny vacuum getting attached to me.”
“Do you need anything?” I asked, stroking the side of her dark hair. She shook her head no, unable to look away from him. I understood the feeling.
That’s how pulchritudinous he was. He could steal the attention of the love of my life, and I’d gladly accept it because … because my heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest.
Feeling my phone vibrate, I pulled it out to see the stream of texts pouring in from both of our families.
“Are they really trying to get here at this hour?” Thea asked, finally looking up at me.
“As they should be,” I nodded, texting my mother back. “What is a New Year’s celebration compared to him?”
“Can’t believe you held out for the new year,” she said to him.
“I can’t believe you did either,” I teased, grinning, remembering how much she’d jiggled, wiggled, and begged for him to come out.
“Shut up.”
“Shh…” I reached over, putting my fingers over his tiny ears. “Don’t teach him bad words yet. You know I’m going to fu—screw up with that later.”
She rolled her brown eyes at me. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m happy,” I told her, kissing her forehead. “thank you…thank you for all the ways you’ve blessed my life.”
She swallowed, nodding, fighting the tears in her eyes. I was too.
Was it possible to explode from too much happiness? If so, I was sure I was ready to simultaneously combust. The only thing stopping me was my fear that I wouldn’t get to stare at them more.
God…these really were the best years of my life. Even on the worst days, it was the best.
THEA
He wasn’t playing fair.
But, then again, he never played fair. He just said whatever he wanted, without hesitation, smothering me with all of it, and it hurt in the best kind of way. Even now as I was struggling to concentrate, both of us completely exhausted, his dark hair a mess on his head, his green eyes fighting off sleep, he made it hard for me not to stare at him. If he was this happy, what did that make me?
I never figured this would be my life and yet here I was. Here we all were. Sitting in a hospital bed on New Year’s Day, now, fireworks and cheering still lingering on outside even though it had been hours since midnight. It was like it was all one big celebration for him. Our son. I was a mother. I was someone’s love, fiancée, and I’d soon be a wife. I was blissful. But the truth was we’d both been over the moon since I told him.
Looking back, even on the days we’d been annoyed with each other, we were content.
“We did good, Levi,” I nodded to him as he gently poked Ulric’s cheek. He looked like a kid himself, so in awe, and curious.
“Damn right we did.” He smirked, and then frowned at himself. “His first word is going to be a swear word, isn’t it?”
I laughed, and Ulric lifted his hand up like he was trying to reach for me, to touch my voice. Or maybe that was just my mommy brain, he could have been telling us to keep it down he was eating here.
“I’m glad it’s just us for now.” He bent down and kissed our son’s head.
“So am I.” We wouldn’t have minded if all of our family was here, we were sure they’d be here soon, but having these couple of moments to ourselves with him was everything we could have wanted.
“I love you.” It was only a fraction of what I wanted to say.
“Love me enough to stop making me go out at two a.m. for Korean food?”
“Let’s not get crazy here.” I grinned, and he sighed, allowing Ulric to grab his finger.
“At least she can’t blame you anymore,” he said to our son.
I’d put him through the wringer while I was pregnant. I knew that. So did he. But looking back, at least we had some funny memories. My mind replayed them all like a movie reel, and I couldn’t wait for Denise, Levi’s mother, to get here because I finally understood what she meant.
“My dad told me it would be like this.” Levi brushed his hand over Ulric’s head again. “He has never been more right.”
I wanted to ask him to elaborate, but I felt like it was personal. Kind of like the talks I’d had with his mother.
“Welcome to the world, Ulric Black,” I said down to him when he was done. “We’ve been waiting for you since we found out you were coming.”
“I’ve wanted him since I met you,” Levi said, looking up at me with those stunning green eyes of his, which tonight looked evening more striking due to the shine in them. “Since that first week, I’ve wanted you to be the mother of my children, and I’ve wanted him. I love you, Thea. And I love him.”
There he was, being unfair again.
PREGNANCY: MONTH 1
THEA
“Twelve hours? You were in labor for twelve hours?”
“Bethan was fifteen.”
