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I smile. “I’m equally excited and terrified.”
“Why terrified?”
“I feel like as long as we’re in the hospital, I’m under adult supervision. But I’ll be on my own at home. What if I drop the baby, or if he gets sick?”
John mock-pouts. “Ah, if only you lived with a doctor.”
“Yeah, but you’ll be at work most of the day.”
“Will not. I took two weeks off, extendable until you’re adjusted.”
“They just gave you the time off?”
“Let’s not forget you could’ve sued this clinic into the ground. They’re having a white-gloves approach with us.”
Blake pouts. “And how much time did you take off work?” she asks Gabriel.
“It’s my company, babe. I can be off for as long as you need me.”
“Aaawww.” The exaggerated admiration comes from a different nurse walking into the room. “That one’s a keeper.” She points a finger at Gabriel. “How are our mamas doing? Need any help with breastfeeding? You want to show me how the babies are latching?”
Blake and I both stare at our sleeping infants, neither of us interested in waking them to demonstrate their sucking skills.
We politely decline.
“Well, if you need anything—nipple cream, nipple shields—I’m just down the hall.”
She leaves just as yet another nurse pops in. “Good afternoon ladies, I’m here to check your uteruses are shrinking down properly. It’ll take only a minute.”
John inches his head toward the door, saying to Gabriel, “We should probably leave for this; how about I offer you some dreadful coffee from the cafeteria?”
“Oh, no, Dr. Raikes,” the nurse says. “You can stay.”
“But I couldn’t,” Gabriel interjects. “Not now that I’ve been promised a cup of dreadful cafeteria coffee.”
John drops a kiss on my forehead. “Oh, babe, Sierra picked up Nora at my parents’ and wanted to bring her over in a couple of hours to meet her brother if that’s okay with you?”
“Yeah, sure.” I nod, feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness at the prospect of my step-daughter meeting her new sibling. I sure hope Sierra doesn’t plan to tag along for the visit. We have reached an understanding where we tolerate each other, but I sure don’t want my fiancé’s gorgeous, world-famous ex-wife to see me in my present tousled, un-showered, vulnerable state after a night spent in labor.
John seems to read my mind because of course he does. He’s always there one step ahead of me, anticipating my every need. “I’ll bring Nora up to see you while Sierra waits downstairs.”
He winks at me then the men leave together and the nurse, maneuvering around the babies so as not to wake them, gives our retreating bellies a quick examination. Then she leaves as well, and the room is quiet again.
“Have you noticed,” Blake says, “how we get a sudden influx of nurses whenever the daddies are present and then, as soon as they’re gone, puff, no nurses?”
I chuckle. “Can you blame them when the daddies are so hot and so sweet? We’ve won the lottery of baby daddies.”
“We sure did, especially you.”
“Why?”
“Because it was a freak accident.”
“And yours wasn’t?”
“I bet a broken condom is far more common than mixed-up genetic materials.”
“Fair enough.”
