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This is the good part. This…after all the hard labor and delivery is done. This…the part where we get our own room, and we can be by ourselves as a family for the first time.
Ayana should be exhausted, but the second we’re on our own, she turns to me—our precious baby girl sleeping in her arms with an adorable little pink cap on her head, all swaddled up to keep her comfortable—and asks me for a favor.
“I don’t want to send you out, but I’m starving. Just. Starved. I really, totally, legitly need one of those long doughnuts with the chocolate icing and colored sprinkles. And if it has some kind of pudding stuffed in the middle, that would be a huge bonus. It would earn you two extra kisses, a thousand bonus fiancé points, and a hundred dad points.”
“Points, hmm?” I lean in against the rail of the hospital bed and stare at the red scrunchy face of my daughter. She has raven hair like her mom. The rest of her features are surprisingly like mine, and I have to say, I thought that would be a frightening thing for a little girl, but it seems I’ve given her the best parts of myself.
“All the points. You get all the points. And extra bonus points if you also bring some chocolate milk.”
“For you, I’ll bring you anything. Anything in the universe, including the stars, the milky way, and the moon.”
“Oh. You can do that? Because the moon seems like a really fun place to visit. Do you think we should change our elopement plans from Switzerland and go there instead? Your granny and brothers might be horribly disappointed.”
“My granny and brothers are all lined up in the hallway, waiting to see our angel. I just didn’t want to overwhelm you.”
She smiles at me, not a tired smile on her face in the least. She’s a woman in love and a new mom, and that look on her is by far my favorite. The starry-eyed—I’m more in love than I ever thought possible, and totally in awe—look when she glances at our sleeping daughter is enough to make my heart nearly burst like an overripe banana, all mushy and squishy between the seams of my peels.
“Overwhelm me? Just because I told my dad and all the brothers that they had to wait until I’m out of the hospital so we don’t flood the mother and baby ward and everyone can meet her at once doesn’t mean I won’t allow anyone in. Cass promised me she’d be here as soon as I texted her that I was decent and good to go. She said she was extremely afraid of seeing my vag destroyed beyond all reason, so she wanted to wait until the after part, where she just got to hold an adorable baby and give me her condolences for my poor lady bits.”
“Christ.” I shake my head, laughing even though I try not to. “That sounds like Cass. And by the way, your lady bits are always going to be perfect to me.”
“Only a few stitches. I actually feel okay. Probably because that freezing packed one cheese of a punch. I’m scared for when it wears off and when I have to pee, though. They gave me this little spray bottle. What if I’m too scared to use it?”
“I can help you. I’ll always help you. There is no bit of you that I don’t love. I know this has to be extremely uncomfortable for you, and the labor and birth…it was rough. You’re a champion and the biggest hero in my world. I’m so incredibly proud of you.”
Ayana goes red, straight to the raven roots of her hair, but she nods and reaches for my hand. She curls her small palm into it and squeezes as our daughter hiccups in her sleep, her face pressed into her mom’s chest above her hospital gown, her tiny lips working.
She’s literally the epitome of all my dreams being realized at once. Every hope and dream coming true. All those years, I had my brothers and Granny, and I thought that was all I’d ever need in a family, but I was wrong. Now I have them, and I have my soon-to-be wife and my little girl, and they are beyond words. They are just…everything and then some.
“So, about that doughnut….”
I bend and brush a kiss over Ayana’s knuckles. No wonder she’s starving. Ice chips hardly cut it. I’m glad she’s already recovered enough to have a craving for something. I don’t care that it’s three in the morning. I’d move heaven and earth to get her whatever she wanted. Lucky for me, I think there are quite a few all-night doughnut shops that will do me a solid, so no celestial moving will be needed.
