“I’m serious,” she said.
“Hi, Serious. I’m Finn.”
Laughing, he ducked to avoid the hand that swatted at him.
“Don’t you ever stop joking around?”
“I assume that’s a rhetorical question. We’ve been married for five years, so I think you know the answer.”
Suddenly, her eyes flew open wide. “We have to tell everyone the party’s canceled. They’re all going to be waiting for us.”
“It’s already done.” Lifting her hand, he pressed a kiss on her fingers. “Branson took care of it, hours ago. They’re still having the party—they just moved it to the waiting room.”
“Everyone’s here?”
“Everybody. My folks and your folks. Bran and Stephanie. Cole and Jarrett. My sisters. Jerome and Charisse even came with their baby.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“You were kind of busy having labor pains when they got here.”
This was evidently the wrong thing to say. Tears welled in her eyes. “Thirty-six weeks—it’s too early.”
“The doc isn’t worried at all.”
“I wanted to do it naturally. I didn’t want to have a C-section. I didn’t even want to have an epidural.”
“Yes, but we aren’t in control here. God is. You didn’t plan to have pre-eclampsia. You can’t help that your blood pressure shot through the roof. But we’re blessed with an amazing doctor. She said the scar won’t even be that big.”
“I don’t care about the scar,” she muttered, her lower lip trembling.
“In that case, I’ll tell her to cut a great big half-circle so your belly will look like a one-eyed smiley-face.”
Her lips twitched up at the corners.
“I did it!” he said, pumping his fist in the air. “I made you smile.”
“Finn, you’re incorrigible.”
“Why, thank you. That’s the nicest thing anyone ever said to me.”
Her smile stayed in place, though it was understandably weak. She’d been laboring for six hours. Though she’d hoped to have a natural birth, he was secretly relieved when the doctor announced they needed to do a C-section and gave h
er an epidural. Watching someone he loved in so much pain was the worst experience of his life. At least now her pain was only the emotional kind. That much he could handle… maybe. But if he’d known how hard this part would be, he never would’ve agreed to do the invitro fertilization.
Her gasp made him jump.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurting again?”
“What about Larkin?” she asked in a worried tone, as if he would’ve forgotten about her.
He tried to sound patient. “Marianne’s taking care of her. She’ll stay the night.”
For over a year, Marianne had been a devoted nanny to their eighteen-month-old adopted daughter. Larkin was a bundle of joy who hadn’t let blindness stop her from conquering her world on a daily basis.
Laurie’s hand gripped his wrist. “You didn’t tell them, did you?
He knew what she was asking. “They all begged me to say if it was a boy or a girl. But I didn’t budge. I figure, if they’ve waited this long, they can wait a few more minutes.”