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As she did, her hands went around her stomach, and she released a mixture of a scream and a groan that echoed off the walls and nearly burst my eardrums. “Fuuuuck!” she sobbed, making the sound again. “Daddy, help. The baby, it’s…coming!”
I barely had time to drop to my knees before she pulled up her gown, and I saw a head. Just sticking out from between her spread legs. There was no time for embarrassment, no time to think about the fact that I was seeing a part of my daughter I was never meant to see now that she was an adult. Fuck, I’d changed her diaper a million times when she was a baby. All I could think was that I had to help her, that my grandbaby was going to fall if I didn’t catch them.
“Someone get in here!” I bellowed while Mia made that horrible noise again. The baby’s shoulders pushed free, making the baby fall right into my waiting arms.
We were both breathing hard as I looked down at the goo-covered little angel in my arms. She was red, coated in blood and other things I didn’t want to think about. But there was a little patch of matted hair that, even though she was smeared in gunk, I could tell had an auburn tint to it. She was the tiniest thing I’d ever seen, even smaller than Jesse’s twins when they were born—or so it seemed to my befuddled brain. Her arms and legs kicked, her fingers balling into fists as she angrily screeched at her sudden entrance into the world.
Behind me, the doors flew open, and all the nurses, a midwife, and a doctor came running. The baby was taken from me, the nurses helped Mia sit on the edge of the bed, and the midwife assisted her to deliver the afterbirth. Meanwhile, the doctor took the baby, cut the cord, and then took her over to the station that had been set up not long after our arrival in preparation for this very moment.
My gaze was everywhere. On Mia, who was still panting and groaning as the afterbirth was pushed free. On the baby, who was now crying even louder and getting cleaned up. On the blood and whatever else that was on my hands, arms, and shirt.
“Daddy, are you okay?” Mia asked when she could finally catch her breath.
A half-hysterical laugh escaped me. “I should be asking you that, baby girl.”
On jelly-filled legs, I got to my feet and stumbled over to her. Dropping a kiss on top of her head, I took stock of my child. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”
“Exhausted, but good now that the baby is out.” She leaned back against the pillows, her gaze going to where the doctor handed a swaddled baby back to a nurse, who then brought her over to us.
“What an exciting entrance your little girl made,” the nurse said with a laugh, placing the baby in Mia’s arms.
“Girl?” Mia echoed, looking down at the still-crying bundle, continuing to struggle to catch her breath. Her body had gone through a lot in a very short amount of time, and I couldn’t be sure she wasn’t in shock, which was why her breathing was still labored.
“Surprise.” The nurse winked. “Is there a name?”
“Emerson,” Mia panted, and the midwife instructed another nurse to put oxygen in Mia’s nose. Instantly, she was able to breathe easier, and she relaxed against the pillows. “After my mom and grandfather. Emerson Nikole.” She looked up at me. “If the baby was a boy, it would have been Emerson Nikolas.”
The tears that had already been close to the surface spilled over. “Beautiful name, Mia. Just like this little one.” I leaned down, getting a better look at my granddaughter. Seeing her was like turning back the hands on a clock and setting eyes on Mia for the first time.
Another replica of Emmie.
The best gift anyone could have ever given me.
My heart turned to mush, and I fell head over heels for another redheaded little beauty for the third time in my life.
Emerson kept squealing, and I leaned in closer. “Hey there, Little Em,” I greeted, stroking my finger—that had surprisingly stopped shaking—down her soft cheek. “Welcome to the world, baby girl.” Her cries began to quiet at my voice, and I kissed the baby’s brow. “Hi, sweetheart. I’m your Papa.”
What sounded like a huff was pushed from the baby, making her mother and me laugh. “Already like your MiMi,” I said with a shake of my head. “Fuck, but I love you, little one.”
Mia laid her head back on the pillow. “Did that really just happen?” she asked in a drowsy voice. “Did you really catch the baby as she fell out of me?”
“Something like that,” I said softly, taking the baby from her arms. I could see the exhaustion was taking hold of her as the adrenaline from everything began to fade, and I didn’t want her to drop the baby. “Sleep now, baby girl. Daddy’s here. You and our Little Em are safe.”
“I knew we would be,” she said, closing her eyes with a weak smile. “I have the best dad in the world.”
Barrick
“Get out of the fucking way!” I roared, slamming my hand down on the horn as a car cut us off.
Beside me, Emmie was furiously typing away, her green eyes bigger than I’d ever seen them in all the years I’d known her as she tried to get information on Mia. “No one knows anything, and Nik isn’t answering my texts. Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Pushing her hair out of her face, she slapped her hand on the dash to steady herself when I made a hairpin turn to pass the asshole who’d cut in front of me. “Godsdamn it! This is all my fault. I should have just sent Annabelle to deal with the New York issue.”
“Annabelle could have handled it, but not as easily as you would have,” I tried to excuse. “I should have sent Braxton with you instead of going. Then at least one of us would have been here.”
“No, I needed you with me,” she argued. “If I was there, then you had to be too. The baby wasn’t supposed to be here for another three weeks. We had time. There should have been enough time.”
Eyes still on the road in front of me, I reached over and squeezed her arm. Her hand covered mine, and she held on for a few moments, the two of us giving and accepting comfort. She was right. The baby wasn’t supposed to be here yet. Neither of us had known this would happen when we’d gotten on that plane.
Knowing that didn’t stop the guilt from choking me. And then there was the fear. Fucking hell, I’d never been so afraid in my life. I didn’t have my eyes on my pregnant wife who had gone into early labor, and it was causing sweat to pour down my face and soak through my shirt.
