Page 123 of Something Borrowed, Something You

TEN MONTHS AFTER THE WEDDING

“Did you figure out a name yet?” Izzy ran the side of her knuckle along Baby Girl Delucia’s cheek.

“Well it certainly isn’t going to be Sebastian,” I said. After months of fighting over our soon-to-be son’s name, Nat and I had finally settled on Sebastian Jayce. I think we were both still a little shell-shocked from when the doctor lifted the baby last night and announced, “It’s a Girl!” We’d had two sonograms, and both times the technician seemed pretty confident the baby was a boy. Apparently, the umbilical cord sometimes becomes positioned in a way that made it appear to be a penis.

“What about Elizabeth?” Izzy said. “Then we can call her Lizzy for short and be Izzy and Lizzy?”

I chuckled. “I’m not even going to attempt to come up with names. Whenever I pick anything, Nat wrinkles her nose. But a month later, when she comes up with the same damn name, it’s a great idea.”

Izzy looked up at me, her eyes filled with mischief. “Can we take her socks off again?”

“What is with you and your sister’s toes?”

“I have no idea. But I really want to play with those little sausages some more.”

I smiled. “Go for it.”

The bathroom door opened, and Nat walked out shuffling her feet in her slippers.

“Any luck?” I asked.

Her shoulders slumped. “No.”

“How about if I go out and find a nurse and ask if she can give you something now that this little guy… I mean girl… is on the outside? Just a little something to help you go.”

The last few months of pregnancy had been tough on Nat. She’d had constant sciatic pain shooting down her leg, couldn’t seem to stay asleep more than an hour at a time, and had terrible hormone-induced constipation. The latter could’ve been helped with over-the-counter medication, but my wife wouldn’t even take an aspirin during her pregnancy.

Nat nodded. “Yeah, that would be great. Thanks.”

While I was out at the nurse’s station, the Rossi girl gang arrived. They had balloons, flowers, and more gift bags than they could carry. Then I got a load of Bella, Nat’s mom.

I pointed to the large pot in her hand. “Is that what I think it is?”

She smiled. “I made you meatballs and sauce. You can’t eat the disgusting hospital food.”

Alegra smirked. “You made who meatballs, Ma? I thought those were for Nat.”

Bella’s eyes narrowed at her daughter. “Stop being fresh.”

We all laughed. It had been a running family joke that Momma Bella had a secret crush on me. I didn’t know if it was true, but when she liked you, she cooked your favorites. So I might’ve played into it occasionally.

I took the pot out of my mother-in-law’s hands and leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thank you for making these. Go on in. I’m just waiting for the nurse to get something for Nat.”

It couldn’t have taken more than five minutes for the nurse to come back with medicine for Nat. But when I walked into the room, I thought I was in the wrong one for a second.

“Did someone vomit pink in here?”

Everywhere I looked was washed in pastel pink. Pink balloons, pink flowers, even pink streamers were draped across the room. Just minutes ago, my daughter had been wearing a baby-blue onesie with matching baby-blue pants. Now she was clad head-to-toe in pink—pink headband, pink shirt, pink shoes, pink swaddling blanket. These nutjobs had even changed the tiny sheet in her bassinet to pink.

Nat’s sister Francesca jumped down from a chair after finishing tacking up the last of the pink streamers. She smacked her hands together. “The princess needed a few things.”

“Yeah, some sane relatives.”

It was a good thing we lucked out and Nat was the only person in this two-person room, because the Rossi ladies took it over during their visit. Bella whipped out plates and silverware and started to fix everyone heaping plates of food. Nicola played “Brilla Brilla La Stellina”—the Italian version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”—from her phone while all five Rossi ladies sang along at the tops of their lungs. Apparently their grandmother had taught them all the nursery rhyme as soon as they were old enough to talk. Alegra even made herself comfortable on the empty hospital bed next to her sister. It was a little bit of insanity whenever they were all together, but a whole lot of love.

The Rossi ladies stayed for the better part of an hour, until the nurse came in and told them Nat needed her rest. She’d delivered our girl at two in the morning. It was hard to believe that was only sixteen hours ago. A few minutes after the room was emptied of everyone except Izzy, me, and the baby, Nat drifted off to sleep.

“I should go, too,” Izzy said. “I have an exam tomorrow afternoon.”

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