AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Third?” I stare at him like he is a circus freak.
“Yeah, we’re crazy.” He shrugs and walks over to the urinal. “But it’s fun. The fact that you’re nervous means you’ll be fine. Only bad parents aren’t nervous about being parents.”
I thank him and leave as he starts to pee. When I step into the hallway, there is a woman and a baby being wheeled into a recovery room. The baby is still kind of purple from the months it spent in the womb, and the dad is following behind the nurse, peering over her shoulder to see the baby. He looks so happy.
I’m not cut out for this. The feeling washes over me all at once. I can’t be a dad. It has taken me this long to become a halfway decent husband, and kids are far less forgiving. What if I screw her up? What if I mess everything up and Eve leaves me and takes our daughter with her, and I die old and bitter and alone?
The doors at the end of the hall open, and I am half-tempted to sprint towards them and leave the hospital altogether. Really, I might be doing Eve a favor. But then, I hear her scream.
Okay, not scream. But it is a loud groan, and I know it is Eve because it is followed by my name.
“Luka! Where are you? Get in here! Where did he go?”
The nurses are trying to calm her down when I walk in the room. As soon as she sees me, she starts to cry, shaking her head.
“I can’t do this, Luka. I’m progressing too quickly, and they can’t give me an epidural. I’m going to be a bad mom. I told you I was ready for this, but I’m not. I’m not at all and—”
I wrap a hand around the back of her neck, tip her head back, and press my lips to hers, quieting her. She is tense for another second before she goes soft and fluid in my arms. When I pull away, her eyes are glassy.
“You are going to be amazing,” I say, pressing another kiss to her forehead. “The fact that you’re nervous means you’ll be fine. Only bad parents aren’t nervous about being parents.”
I’m not sure if she believes me, but she nods and squeezes my hand, and within the hour, she delivers a beautiful baby girl into the world. The nurses clean her off, wrap her up, and bring her back to Eve, placing her delicately in her arms.
I’ve never seen anything so precious.
“She is so sweet,” Eve says for the hundredth time, running a finger down the little girl’s nose. “The sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Hey, Eve?” I tease, elbowing her in the arm. “Is our daughter sweet?”
She laughs. “I’m sorry. I just can’t think of anything else. She is so sweet.”
“Maybe that’s what we should call her,” I say, squeezing her tiny socked foot.
“What, Sweet?” Eve asks, nose wrinkled. “That’s terrible.”
I shake my head. “Milaya. Russian for ‘sweet’.”
“I knew that,” she says, rolling her eyes, and then twisting her lips to one side in thought. “Milaya,” she repeats, moving her lips slowly around the name. She says it a few more times and then smiles. When she looks up at me, her eyes are glittering with tears. “I love it.”
“Me too.”
Eve presses a kiss to Milaya’s tiny nose and smiles. “My sweet Milaya.”
I kiss Milaya’s mitten-covered hand and then kiss Eve’s temple. I smooth down her sweaty hair with my hand and brush the flyaways behind her ears. “My sweet wife.”
She grabs my hand, and we stay there for a long time, doing our best to soak in the sweetness of our new baby girl, and our wonderful life.
30
Luka
Eight months later
The new kid is green. As green as any recruit I’ve ever seen.
But he has heart.
“Hold up your trigger hand.” I raise my right in example and the recruit lifts his, as well. His fingers tremble, but I do him the courtesy of not pointing it out.
