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“I feel like I just ran a marathon,” she goes on. “But I mean, it’s like I could run a second one since I have all this adrenaline going. I wonder if that’s the shock. Maybe it hasn’t worn off yet.”
“Your body just did something incredible. Whatever you’re feeling, tired or wired, I’m sure it’s just coming down from all the pain and exertion.” I can say that I’m very glad I’m not a woman. I couldn’t imagine having to go through labor. Being the partner coaching the woman you love through it all, through all the agony and pain beyond their imagination, is no fun ride either, but I know my part was very, very small in all this. I can make it up to Ayana now, now that our daughter is here.
I did everything I could for her while she was pregnant, but now I can really take an active role. I can hold my daughter in my arms. Holy cheese, that’s such an incredible realization. I can hold my daughter in my arms.
“If I run out to get you a doughnut, should I start the long train of visitors? I don’t know…visiting hours might be over right now. They might have to come back another time….”
Ayana laughs. She brushes her hand over the sweet curl of our daughter’s cheek, and we both melt when she lets out the softest baby sigh. “How could we have made something so perfect?”
“Ummm, that’s easy. She has you for a mother.”
Ayana rolls her eyes. “Thank you. That’s sweet. But she also has you for a father.”
I’m pretty sure I’m turning scarlet now. I can’t tell you what it means that Ayana has always looked at me as someone more than my scars. More than the life I used to live and the one job I did with my brothers. She’s always seen far and well beyond that. It’s not like I don’t have a big zig-zag, jagged, and sharpened spork scar across my face. Ayana sees it. But she loves me, and the scar is just that little bit extra. Like seasoning on a perfectly cooked steak. It just enhances the flavor. That’s a terrible comparison since I’m not a piece of meat. Not to her. But I’m exhausted. I mean, we just had a baby. Cut me some slack here.
“I was actually going to say that you think something as trivial as visiting hours is going to stop your Granny, your brothers, Azalea, and Cass? Nope. No way.”
“Speaking of Cass…”
“Oh god. I really don’t want to discuss that. She made me promise not to say a word about anything we talked about, so all I can say is that she might not hate the fact that Lennox is back. That’s as far as I’m going.”
“But does she really still think he was the reason her luck turned around? I’m sorry, but I have to ask. She’s been going around calling him her lucky charm. I just don’t want her to cut off a finger or something and make a keychain out of it.”
“Oh my lord. I think you’ve had too much labor and delivery. Anyway, doughnuts? Soon? Now? I’m so hungry that I could eat the metal bed rail.”
“I love you. Both of you. My princesses.”
“Only if we’re bad cheese biker princesses.”
“Always.”
I split my hours between tattooing at my shop and bartending casually for Ayana’s dad at the same club. It turns out that Hobart Timewell isn’t so scary. He’s just a regular guy who loves bikes, is really good at fixing them, has a good sense of business, dresses in a lot of leather, and loves his family.
Including me.
That’s right! Even. Me.
“Wait? Ransom?”
I straighten from where I’ve bent to reach into the backpack I brought to get my phone, wallet, and car keys out. “Anything, my love. Anything.”
Ayana isn’t one for the mushy talk, but she humors me whenever I need to use it, which is often. It’s not really an inside joke between us, and I don’t do it to annoy her. I don’t think she hates it. She just likes to roll her eyes and then kiss me until I’m breathless and tell me less mushy things right back. The past nine months weren’t simple or smooth by any means, but throwing in a brand new relationship, a big life change, and a pregnancy into the mix isn’t supposed to make for an easy road. I think we handled it the best we could, hand in hand, or foot in hand, because that was Ayana’s favorite thing—foot massages—after her seventh month.
We bought a house together a month ago, and since Ayana was so pregnant and I was working two jobs, the brothers all pitched in to help fix it up. I will forever owe them a huge debt of gratitude for the work they’ve put into our place. We have a nice bungalow, though nothing that would ever draw attention to us, which is what we both want. Hobart himself painted the nursery a soft pink and put together all the furniture in there after we found out Ayana was right all along and we were having a girl.
