When it’s over, she leans back against the bed. “I bet you thought the first time you saw me naked would be a little better than this.”
“Does it get better than this?” I ask. I laugh. So does she.
An hour later, Katie has screamed at me, cursed me, and declared her undying hatred toward all mankind, and then she brings forth the most beautiful baby boy I’ve ever seen.
The doctor lays him on Katie’s stomach, and she stares down at him. “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to love him as much as I love the rest of them, you know?” she tells me, as tears pour down her cheeks.
“I know.” I try to sympathize. With what she’s been through, her feelings are justified.
“But I do. I love him just the same.” She turns her face into my cheek and sobs. “I love him just as much. Look at him, Jake. He’s perfect.”
I blink hard, but I can’t keep the tear from falling down my own cheek. “Perfect, Katie. He’s absolutely perfect.” And at the same time, really gross with stuff all over him, which makes the way I’m feeling even more absurd.
Gabby reaches over and wipes my cheek with a tissue. “You two are a mess,” she says. “Just wait until I tell Pop you were in here sobbing.” She pulls her gloves off and goes out the door to the waiting area, supposedly to make the announcement–a healthy eight pound two ounce little boy with his mother’s dark hair and blue eyes.
“He has your fingers,” I tell Katie as I let the little guy wrap his hand around my forefinger. And just like that, he wraps himself around my heart, too.
“Do you want to cut the cord, Dad?” the nurse asks.
I hesitate. “Um…”
“Cut the cord, Jake,” Katie says.
“Okay.” So I do. I cut his bond with his mother, and in my heart, it solidly binds him to me. I look up at his mom. “Katie Stone,” I say, remembering to use her married last name, “do you remember when you jumped into the lake with me that first night we met?”
She smiles. “Vividly.”
“Well, this is me jumping in with you.” I put my face right next to hers and wait for her to turn and kiss me. And when she does turn to face me, she pulls back a little with a questioning look on her face. “Kiss me, Katie,” I say.
When her lips touch mine, I know this is where I’m supposed to be.
“Are you jumping in with me because you’re afraid I’ll drown, Jake?” Her voice shakes.
I look into her eyes. “Nope. Just because I want to be with you.”
34
Jake
I have learned three very important things in the past six weeks:
1. Little boys pee on the toilet seat. Little girls do too. Katie says it’s all about drippage when it comes to girls, but I still don’t understand it. Perhaps I never will.
2. Pop is going to make a hell of a grandpa some day. What he lacks in patience, he makes up for in assholery, which can be endearing at times.
3. Katie isn’t nearly as into me as I’m into her.
Pop smacks me on the back of my head. “She has a six-week-old infant, dumbass,” he says. “She never sleeps. I’m sure of that, because I hear that thing crying all night long. A woman who’s not getting any sleep isn’t going to have any interest in romance.”
Katie and her family came to stay with me and Pop after she and the baby were discharged from the hospital. I didn’t want them to have to go back into hiding, and to tell the truth, I wanted to keep her and her family safe. It’s not a matter of if Cole is going to come back. It’s a matter of when.
We discussed it with Adam and Dan and with the local police, and we all decided that it was safer for Katie to stay with me and Pop at the big house than for them to move again. Adam and Dan took Cabin 114 for the summer, and they’ve been aroun
d when Katie needs them. We have an increased police presence in the complex, and the place is now open for the season, which means it’s crawling with people.
Our house is also brimming with people, which seems more than strange since I haven’t spent a summer here in years. Usually when I visit, it’s the off-season and it has always been just me and Pop. We have three guest rooms, which are perfect for the Stone family. Katie and the baby took one, Trixie and Alex took the bunk beds in another, and Gabby took the third. That left me in a cold, lonely bed. But I am okay with that, since I know Katie is snug as a bug in a rug right down the hall from me. She is safe and warm and within my reach. Now I just need to reach out and grab her.
The cabins on the lake are all rented out, and people started arriving about five weeks ago. There has been a never-ending chorus of “I need this” and “I want that” and “Can you fix this” from the people who occupy the cabins. Honestly, I don’t know how Pop kept up with it all for as long as he did, particularly since he has been alone since I got out of the police academy.