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"It's nearly midnight."
"Mmhmm." She wished she could stretch out in her bed for the next twelve hours straight, but that was not in the cards. She blinked slowly when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"Why don't you head home? Come back when the baby gets here?"
"But…we're family. She's my sister. No, I'll stay in case anyone needs anything." She stifled another yawn and snuggled her hip against his. "Maybe I'll just close my eyes though."
"Here." He placed a hand on her head and gently drew it down to his shoulder. "Rest. I'll wake you when there's news."
"You sure?"
She desperately tried to keep her eyes open, but they had been given permission to close and were acting of their own accord.
His deep voice rumbled beneath her ear. "I've got you" was the last thing she heard as she drifted off.
* * *
Frankie woketo someone shaking her shoulder. She sniffed in sharply and sat up, taking a healthy noseful of Jake's cologne with her. How did he still smell good after a full day on site and an evening sitting up in a hospital? She blinked rapidly and checked her watch. Scratch that, it had been a full night. She couldn't believe she'd slept through.
"Frankie!"
"Wha? Huh?" Still disoriented, Frankie swiveled her head until her eyes focused on her mom, who was still shaking her shoulder.
"He's here."
"Who's here?" Frankie turned to look at Jake, who still had an arm draped over her shoulder and a small wet spot on his shoulder where her head had been. Oh Lord, she'd drooled on the man.
"The baby!"
Her mother's excitement broke through her muddled thoughts and pulled her back to the reason she'd slept in a chair all night. The baby. The baby! "It's a boy?"
Jo nodded with tears in her eyes.
"Enzo and Natalie are on their way. Mrs. Félice is going to take Daisy to school. You'll all get to go in together to meet him."
Dom joined them and wrapped Jo up in a big hug.Please let this be a new beginning for them, Frankie prayed.
"He's so beautiful. So perfect. And he cried so strongly." At this point the tears were flowing down Jo's cheeks with abandon.
Graciela, Adrian's mother, tentatively walked through the doors, leaning on her daughter Mahalia.
"Oh, Abuela Cici! He's here! Come and meet him!" Jo wrapped her daughter's mother-in-law in a big hug and hustled her back. Frankie rose to follow them, but her mother stopped her. "No, let us go alone. The rest of you wait for Enzo and Nat."
By the time her brother and his wife arrived, Frankie was dying. Sure, it had only been ten minutes but there was a baby to meet! "Finally! What took you so long?"
Enzo glanced at Natalie's prominent belly but wisely kept his mouth shut.
"We made it. That's all that matters. Can we go see them?" Natalie said.
"Yes, let's go!" Frankie shooed Enzo and Natalie ahead of her. Jake stayed seated in his chair, gift bag settled between his feet. "Are you coming?"
"I figured I should wait, let the family go first."
"That's ridiculous. Come on. We're all going together, room limits be damned."
A pleased smile crossed his face, and he took the hand she offered and followed her down the hallway to the room where her sister had just become a mother.
Frankie peeked her head in the room, to make sure everyone was decent, before leading in her band of merry rabble. Sofia sat up in bed, holding a little blue and pink swaddled bundle, while Graciela smoothed the sweaty hair back from her forehead. Both held identical expressions of awestruck love on their face. Adrian stood behind Jo, his arms wrapped around her shoulders in a hug as they both grinned like idiots at the tableau. Dom rested a hand on his son-in-law's shoulder.
