AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Olive,” I test the name out on my tongue, and immediately decide that I love it. She looks just like an Olive.
“Olive Elizabeth,” Maddison adds. Her eyes are glued to Olive, and mine are too. I want to just watch her sleep. “Do you want to hold her?”
“I do,” I say hoarsely, my throat clogged with emotion.
A tidal wave that has me drowning.
Maddison lifts her and slides Olive into my arms.
“Am I doing it right?”
She nods. “Yes, just support her head. Just like that.”
Barely seven pounds and she’s the most important thing I’ve ever held. I know at this moment there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. She could ask me for the moon and somehow, I’d find a way to get it for her. Her nose looks just like mine, except hers is so fucking cute it brings tears to my eyes. Round, and like the tiniest little button. Her lashes long and dark, much like Maddison’s, fan out on her rosy, pink cheeks. She looks like a literal baby doll as she sleeps soundly in my arms.
As I watch her, the heart shape of her mouth puckers while her eyelids flutter. I wish I knew what was happening behind those tiny little lids. What she was dreaming.
I just know that no matter what it takes, I’ll make all of her dreams come true.
“I can’t believe I’m holding my daughter…” I trail off, my eyes rising to meet Maddison’s that are filled with unshed tears.
This moment is so powerful that my chest is tight with so many different emotions. Happiness. Pride. Remorse that I wasn’t there until now.
“I’m glad that you are. I... I don’t know what will happen from here, but I am glad that Olive has the opportunity to have her dad in her life.”
The words settle inside me. My mind flits to Conrad, and the shitstorm that will come after this, but I refuse to let him take this moment from me.
Or anyone.
“She’s so tiny, I can’t believe she’s so small,” I whisper. She stirs slightly in my arms, her little eyes fluttering open. “Hi, my little angel. I’m your daddy.”
Maddison clears her throat, and when I look up, I can see those unshed tears now wetting her cheeks. Shit, I’m probably already fucking this up.
“She’s probably getting hungry. See the way she’s suckling at her fist?”
I nod, watching the motion in amazement. I carefully lift Olive back into her mother’s arms.
“I’m going to go in the hall and make a call while you... uh, feed her?”
“Thank you. You’re welcome here as long as you want to be, Briggs. My grams will be by shortly and so will my best friends, Ty and Kyle.”
“That sounds great. Would it be okay if the guys from the team come to see her? I don’t really speak to my family so...”
Maddison looks panicked for a moment, or maybe it’s just my eyes seeing things that aren’t there, but she nods. “Of course.”
I leave her and Olive in the room and step out into the hallway. I keep walking, until I see the double doors to the courtyard, and push them open. Once I’m outside and have privacy, I pull my phone out of my pocket.
The first call I make isn’t to the guys, but to the person who almost robbed me of my future.
Conrad answers after a few rings. “What’s up, man?”
“Need to talk. You free?”
There’s shuffling in the background, a mixture of voices then he speaks, “Sure, everything good? I have a meeting in about ten minutes.”
“Cancel it.”
My voice sounds foreign even to me, low and full of raw rage.
