Joy (Hell's Handlers MC 7)

“Think I can handle that.”

The doctor nodded. “Okay, push.”

Izzy sucked in a breath and began to push.

“Ten, nine, eight…”

She shifted her gaze to Jig to find him staring at her with an intense expression of awe and adoration she’d never seen on his face before. It bolstered her, chasing away some of her unease.

When they got to one, the doctor glanced up at Izzy. “Okay, take a few breaths, then we go again.”

Five…five times, they went through that routine before the baby was finally born in a whoosh of pressure relief. A sharp cat-like cry split the air. “Oh, my God,” Izzy said as she flopped back on the pillows. “So much for TV where the baby slides out with one little push.”

The physician laughed and then might as well have disappeared because nothing registered except the tiny slippery baby resting against Izzy’s bare chest. On instinct, her hands came up to cradle the tiny body. Immediately the crying stopped, and two dark eyes gazed up at her.

“It’s a girl,” someone in the background said.

A girl.

A girl.

“Jig,” Izzy whispered. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the tuft of black hair plastered to the cutest head she’d ever seen. “Jig,” she said again.

“I see her, baby,” he whispered before placing a kiss on Izzy’s head. “I see our daughter. Just as beautiful as her momma.”

“Our daughter…I—” Izzy swallowed around a softball sized lump in her throat. All around her, people worked in the room cleaning the supplies they’d laid out, but none of it registered. “She has your nose.”

“Mmm,” he said, the sound full of wonder. “And we already know she has your stubborn personality. Why else would she have stayed in there so long?”

The tip of Izzy’s nose began to tingle. Her chest felt tight, but not in a bad way, in a way that meant it was full of warmth and love. Something she’d only experienced since meeting Jigsaw. “Oh!” she said, watching every move her daughter made.

Her daughter.

“What’s she doing?”

A nurse peered over the top of the baby’s head. “She’s rooting. Your little girl is hungry. Feel free to feed her. You’re planning to nurse, right?”

Blinking, Izzy glanced up. “Um, yes, but…now? She’s all messy.”

“That’s all right. We can certainly clean her if you’d like, but we like to leave parents alone for a while to bond with the baby. And by the looks of it, this one would love to eat.”

“Okay.” She could do this. She’d read the books, even watched a few YouTube videos on nursing. No problem.

Suddenly, it was as though everything she’d read and studied fell out of her head. She couldn’t recall a single thing such as how to position the baby, how long to feed her for, how to get her to latch. With fake-it-till-you-make-it in mind, Izzy shifted the baby’s puckered mouth toward her breast.

Within seconds a strong suction sensation occurred, and the baby was happily drinking away. “Holy shit,” Izzy whispered. “She did it. Jig, she did it!”

“Pretty and smart. Definitely like her momma.”

Without tearing her gaze away from her hungry baby, Izzy snorted. “Pretty sure we both know you’re the brains in this relationship.”

The bed shifted, finally causing her to look up from the baby. Jig had lowered the railing on the bed and settled himself down at her side. His dark head lowered as he kissed their daughter for the first time. In that instant, Izzy knew she’d never experience a more perfect moment.

A soft click had her scanning the room. At some point, all the hospital staff had cleared out, leaving their little family in the room alone.

As though it’d been hours instead of seconds since she’d peeked at their daughter, Izzy brought her attention back to the baby, still sucking away. Together, they watched her eat until she drifted off to sleep, her soft weight against Izzy’s chest the best thing she’d ever felt.

“So beautiful,” Jig whispered in her ear before pressing a kiss to her temple. He once again kissed the top of their daughter’s head.

“I didn’t believe them. I heard them all say it, but I didn’t believe it.” Izzy said so low, it was barely even a whisper.

“Didn’t believe what?” Jig placed his large hand on the baby’s back, and she let out the most adorable sigh to ever have been breathed. The sound brought a gorgeous smile to Jig’s face.

“That it’d be this way for me. That I’d feel it.”

“Oh, Iz, I knew you’d feel it.”

“How?”

“Because you’re you. You love as fiercely as you fight. There was no way you’d have a baby and not feel the instant connection. The immediate bond and love.”

She gazed into the dark eyes of the man she loved. “Thank you for having such faith in me.”

“Always.”

He kissed her until the baby made another one of those sleepy noises. “It’s a girl.”