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The scream that left me as first the head and then the shoulders of my child were pushed into the world echoed throughout the entire hospital, if not the island itself. But as soon as I felt the baby slip free and Ciana placed him on my chest, already wiping him down, it was as if I hadn’t just spent the past six hours in agony.
Blinking back tears, I looked down at my son’s angry, squalling face. “Hey there, precious,” I murmured, out of breath from the long delivery. “Look at how handsome you are.”
“He looks just like Nolan,” Miranda said, sniffling as she looked down at her grandson while her son cut the umbilical cord.
I stroked a finger over his cheek. “Yes, he does,” I agreed and looked up at Nolan. “We have a son, ballplayer.”
His throat worked several times as he tried to swallow the emotion choking him. “He’s perfect,” he rasped.
“Come meet him,” I urged.
He shifted around to his mom’s side so he could see our son’s face. The baby was already snuffling around my bare chest, searching for his first meal. Nolan lifted one of his huge hands and tenderly cupped the back of the baby’s head. There was so much thick, dark hair, but Ciana had told me there would be, considering all the heartburn I’d been afflicted with throughout most of my pregnancy.
Seeing how gentle my huge husband was with our considerably smaller son brought even more tears to my eyes.
At the lower half of my body, the doctor had taken over, stitching me up. My son wasn’t small, and I’d felt something ripping as his shoulders came free, but I didn’t feel any of that now. My focus was on my husband and son, my very own little family. The last of my dreams to come true.
Nolan dropped a kiss on my sweaty brow then my lips. “Love you, Red,” he choked out. “Thank you for this little miracle.”
“Not so little,” Ciana snickered from where she was getting everything ready to clean the baby up. “He’s even bigger than Lewis was. That’s a mean scar you’re going to have, Z.”
“Is there a name?” another nurse asked, already filling out the paperwork. “Not that we need one right away. We don’t deliver that many babies, so it’s not like he’s going to get mixed up, but—”
“Cutter,” I told her, feeling sleepy. “Cutter Nolan Krenshaw.”
Ciana came over and carefully lifted Cutter into her arms. “Hello, baby Cutter,” she cooed down at her nephew. “I’m your auntie Ciana, and I’m going to get you cleaned up and your Apgar done.”
He was too busy screaming at the top of his lungs to hear her, but the more he cried, the happier I was. It told me he was breathing, and that was all I needed to know right then as my eyes drifted closed.
“Grandmas, I think Mommy here needs a little rest before she does her first feeding,” the doctor announced to my mom and mother-in-law. “Why don’t you two let the rest of the family know that mother and baby are thriving while we take care of them, yeah?”
My mom bent to kiss my brow. “You did amazing, sweetheart. I’m going to go tell your dad and brothers that you are all right. But I’ll be back a little later with Miranda, okay?”
I nodded, watching her and Nolan’s mother through heavy lids as they said their goodbyes, hugged my husband, and then left the delivery room.
Nolan stroked my damp hair back from my face. “This was the last check on your dream list,” he said quietly, kissing my cheek and then the tip of my nose. “We need to start adding to it so I can keep making them come true.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to be greedy,” I said, fighting a yawn. “I have everything I ever wanted. As long as you’re loving me and we have Cutter, I don’t need anything else.”
“I’ll always love you, Red,” he breathed close to my ear. “Please don’t ever doubt that.”
“Never,” I promised.
