Nice Until Proven Naughty
“I love you, Sam.” He kisses my forehead and lets me lean on him while I catch my breath.
“I love you too.”
“Maybe I should leave?” Dani says.
I blink up at Dani and shake my head. “No, I want you here. I would never shut you out of something so important the way you did me.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re not going to let me live this down, are you?”
“Not for at least another fifty years.”
“Would it make you feel better if I said we’re going to have a small ceremony here for family. Nothing big.”
“A little.”
“Please don’t be mad at me,” she says, sitting on the side of my bed.
“I’m not.” I shake my head against the pillow. “Just sad I wasn’t with you on your big day. Oh God, not again.”
“Do you want me to call the nurse? Would you like an epidural?” Lucas asks.
“No.” I cry and shake my head and prepare myself for the worst pain I’ve ever felt, all the while reminding myself of what my prize will be at the end. “No, I just want these babies out.”
Lucas stays on my left and Dani on my right as I labor my way to ten centimeters, and when the doctor walks in and asks me if I’m ready to push, I burst into another round of tears and shake my head.
“I can’t. I can’t do this. It hurts too bad.”
“You can.”
I look up at Lucas looking confident and proud—proud of me and the babies we’re about to bring into this world. He presses a kiss to my cheek. “You can do this.”
I nod, pull my legs up, and push and push and push again, and finally the doctor announces. “Baby number one is coming. Come on, Samantha, you can do this. Bear down for me. Good girl, just like that.”
A rush of pressure falls from my body, and a loud wail fills the room.
“It’s a boy.” Lucas is crying as he turns from looking at our son to looking at me. “We have a son.”
The wrinkly baby is laid on my chest, and all I can do is stare down at him in wonder. “He’s so beautiful. He looks just like you.”
Lucas takes him from my arms and hands him off. “You’re not done, sweetheart. I need you to find a little more strength and bring our other baby into the world.”
With a load roar, I grit my teeth and push.
Baby number two slides out, and I watch Lucas reach out and touch the dark patch of hair.
When he turns to me with our second crying baby, he l
eans in close. “It’s a girl.”
“A girl? We have a son and a daughter?”
Lucas nods. “Twenty fingers, twenty toes, and two beautiful babies. You did great, Sam. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I lay back and watch the babies get bathed and weighed as the doctors clean me up, and when our son is swaddled and ready to be held, Lucas walks him to me.
“Did we decide on a name?” he asks, placing our son in my arms.