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I felt bad for getting distracted by Will and forgetting that Beau was outside. Actually, I felt a little bad for leaving him sitting out there in the first place. But he’d had me so rattled I couldn’t think straight.
Between the electric shock he’d given me when he’d touched a finger to my heart and the way he’d asked aboutmy typebefore calling me out on the romance-hero thing, I’d been a bit of a mess. And then when Layla called my name, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
It was fine, though, because now Will would get to tell his friend about his baby boy, and one of them would probably bust out some blue cigars and they’d stand around acting manly for a while.
Wait, could you even smoke cigars near a hospital these days? Did these guys evenlikecigars?
Personally, I found them to be a little repugnant. But that was what they’d be doing out there if this were a romance novel—a thought that only served to remind me ofBeau, now, thanks to his probing questions.
Hey, maybe they’ll have cute blue bubblegum cigars in the gift shop if not. I should check.
Shaking my head to clear the tangent, I led my chattering friends to Aria’s door, knocking quietly.
“Come in,” I heard her say in a low tone.
When we stepped inside, tears blurred my vision. Aria sat upright in the bed with extra pillows surrounding her. She wore a floral robe, and her hair and makeup were nearly as perfect as they had been when I’d brought her here from the wedding.
“Oh, of course,” Shelby said in a jovial whisper. “I knew I’d walk in here and find you looking impossibly perfect right after giving birth.”
Aria chuckled. “Hush.”
“Seriously, you look gorgeous,” Layla agreed, moving to our friend’s side and hugging her gently. “How do you feel? Congratulations, mama.”
“Thank you. I feel okay.” She hugged Shelby and me before we stepped back and framed her bed in a triangle of support, then she looked down at her hands. “I hope they don’t take too long with the baby in the NICU. They said since he’s a little over thirty-five weeks he won’t have to stay in the NICU if he passes some tests. Little guy just barely made the cutoff for their policies for releasing preemies, but it’s all these other scores that matter more than his gestational age right now.”
“Well,” I said, my voice thick with emotion, “you’ve always been great at tests. So, if he’s anything like you, I’m sure he’ll pass with flying colors.”
Aria choked out a giggle and shook her head. “Yeah, well, he looksexactlylike Will, so we’ll see how much of me he actually has in him.”
“Do you have any photos? I’m so excited to see him.” Shelby put her hands in front of her chest like she was praying. When Aria nodded and reached for her phone, she let out a little squeal and grabbed for it with greedy hands. “Ah, he’s so beautiful.”
I stepped closer and looked over Shelby’s shoulder at the image on the screen. Will must have taken it shortly after he’d been born. Aria looked tired, but still so pretty, her tiny—oh my goodness,sotiny—baby boy nestled in her arms.
The three of us stared at the photos in awed silence as Shelby scrolled through them, and as I studied the little baby who’d just victoriously made his early debut, I felt like my heart was about to break into a million pieces.
Well,that, and my hands itched to reach through the phone and grab him out of Aria’s arms so I could squeeze the heck out of him.
I blinked up at Aria. “Did you know there’s a thing called cute aggression?”
A laugh stuttered out of her. “What?”
“Cute aggression. It’s when you see something so cute it makes you want to squeeze it.” I punctuated my statement by lifting my hands in front of my face and squeezing the air between them, making them pulse slightly. “It’s a thing. It’s like an animal instinct or something.” My friends laughed, but my sister widened her eyes at me like I’d lost my mind. “What?” I asked with a laugh, dropping my hands. “I saw it on TikTok.”
Again, more laughter, but then Aria took the phone Shelby held out to her and cuddled it against her chest. “Okay, weirdo. But don’t squeeze my baby. He’s too delicate.”
“Howishe doing, other than the tests and stuff?” Shelby asked, sitting on the edge of Aria’s bed. “Did the doctors say anything else?”
“It all happened so fast, but they’re really happy with how developed he is for a preemie. We got to hold him for a while before they took him. I think they might let him stay in here with me until I’m discharged, and then hopefully we can go home together in a few days. Fingers crossed, anyway.”
“Hold up,” Layla said, waving her hands, “what’s his name? You still haven’t told us.”
“Oh. Um, well… that’s because we haven’t named him yet,” she admitted.
We all stared at her with wide eyes, then Layla shook her head. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope. You guys, I was 99.9 percent sure he was a girl.” Aria looked at us as if that explained everything, but when she was only met with more staring, she let her head fall back against the pillows. “Will kept wanting to talk about boy names just in case, but I insisted we wouldn’t need one.”
Silence stretched over us like a heavy blanket, and then all at once, the four of us started laughing hysterically. Aria’s laughter turned a little weepy at the end though, and since I already felt like I was at the end of my own emotional control, I was desperate to keep it light.
