Page 13 of The Nicolaides Baby

The nursing station was fairly rigorous in their determination only family and those authorized by the them would be allowed back. So after relationships were verified and proof of identification copied for their records, he and Rowan were issued laminated badges they were to use any time they visited.

One of the nurses led them down the hallway where they were told to wash their hands with antibacterial soap before being shown into a room where several clear incubators housed some of the smallest babies Leo had ever seen. Each had one or two people sitting or standing beside them, some with their hands through the specialized holes where they could touch the babies.

Another nurse came up to them, speaking in hushed but heavily accented English over the beeps and whirs filling the room and murmurs of those talking to the babies being cared for. “I just need to see your badges.” She smiled at them and verified who they were before writing notes on a chart. “This way, please.”

She led them to the last incubator and checked the monitors while he and Rowan stood motionlessly and watched.

Lukas.

Leo’s eyes stung, but he held back the unexpected tears as he counted the wires attached to his mostly naked little body and the tube inserted in his nose. Andreas and Sierra’s baby seemed lost in the plastic box. Beside him, Rowan grabbed his hand and squeezed.

“Can we touch him?” Rowan asked the nurse, her gaze darting from her back to Lukas.

“Yes,” the nurse answered. “The babies need to be touched.” She glanced down at his nephew. “It helps them in the bonding process and offers them comfort. Just use these open areas and be gentle.”

Rowan nodded and looked up at him with an expression of sadness mixed with joy. Leo understood completely. This little life was a part of them but also a part of parents who had waited with such anticipation for his birth. Parents he would never know.

It was a bittersweet moment.

She let go of his hand and moved around to the opposite side of the incubator. He waited while she tentatively reached through an opening before he did the same.

He was almost afraid to touch him. What if he hurt him? He ran one finger down Lukas’s arm and the baby jerked. Leo quickly pulled his hand back and looked up at the nurse who was watching.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s an involuntary response to the stimuli of your touch.” He nodded and reached back in, this time barely touching his five perfect little fingers.

“Your momma loved you, sweet baby…” He looked through the clear walls of the incubator where Rowan had crouched at one of the openings and whispered to Lukas while stroking his cheek. “I love you too and promise I’ll always be here for you.”

Leo’s pulse raced at Rowan’s words to this new little life, and then it raced even more when a tiny hand wrapped around his finger, wrapping up his heart at the same time.

He crouched down too and met Rowan’s glistening gaze across Lukas’s slightly moving chest before she looked away and continued stroking over his face, A firm resolve settled in his soul. This child would never know anything but love and security, and he would know how much he had been loved by his birth parents. He looked at the hand clinging tightly to his finger and then let his gaze go to Rowan who was speaking in low whispers to their nephew.

And whatever else, hewouldhave two parents to raise him.

5

Rowan guessed it was true.Grief did come in waves—and a lot of them. She’d nearly been pulled under a time or two—or three—with them crashing over her the past five days. She shivered in the cold marble-walled family mausoleum on the Nicolaides’ property while the priest began the internment service and then bowed her head with everyone else.

How could it have been less than a week ago she’d been laughing with Sierra about Andreas’s surprise practice runs to the hospital? He’d even woken Sierra up in the middle of the night forthe sake of realisma couple of times. Her sister had vowed to make him pay for those. A small smile touched her lips. With Sierra, Andreas would have been in for something devious and unexpected.

Rowan’s eyes and nose stung with the onset of fresh tears, but she blinked them back. This shouldn’t be happening. Her sister should be sitting by the pool at hers and Andreas’ villa with her swollen feet up while enjoying the mid-morning sun and eating a pint of strawberry ice cream. Andreas should be sitting beside her, telling her how beautiful she was—cankles and all. He’d actually made the unfortunatecanklescomment the weekend before the accident, but it hadn’t bothered Sierra since he’d shown her how truly beautiful he’d found her swollen ankles—and the rest of her body—all night long afterward.

Her twin always had been one to overshare.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before making herself look at the brass urn holding Sierra’s and Andreas’s ashes while the priest placed it in the vault. The couple had had the foresight to set up a will when they’d discovered Sierra was pregnant, and this had been one of their explicit instructions. Upon each of their deaths, they were to be cremated, with their ashes mixed together after the second of them passed away. They wanted to know they would one day be a part of each other again.

Little had they known it would be so soon, or at the same time.

Not surprising, they’d also specified Leo would take custody of any of their minor children should anything happen to both of them—something Sierra had discussed with Rowan beforehand, and which she’d totally understood. However, there had been one caveat. Rowan would be consulted regarding any major decisions. Rowan and Leo had shared a smile at the personal note Sierra had added for him, telling him not to bully Rowan about wanting his own way and warning him her twin was just as stubborn as he was. It had been one of the few smiles she’d seen from him since landing at the airport.

But then again, neither one of them had had very many reasons to smile in days.

Except for when it came to Lukas. Leo’s harsh expression softened each time they visited their nephew. In fact, the stark look of love he gave the little boy pierced her heart with guilt each time over keeping Mara a secret from him, making her second-guess every decision she’d ever made after finding out she was pregnant. If anything happened to her, Leo would know about Mara—she’d made sure of that—but that didn’t change the fact she’d already allowed almost four years to pass without saying anything. To anyone. She glanced over at Leo’s stoic expression. Even if she could whip up the courage to tell him at this late date, now wasn’t the right time to add drama on top of his grief. And drama might be putting it mildly.

Leo would be furious.

Thinking of Lukas had her worried no one had been able to make their scheduled trip to the hospital. She was aware he had no understanding of the time they spent with or away from him. Butsheknew. And today of all days, Rowan needed to see him—to be close to that one living part of Sierra she could touch and talk to. The nurses had said she might even get to hold him sometime within the next couple of days—something her arms had been longing to do since first laying eyes on him.

Rowan had fallen into a daily routine with Leo’s family of spending time with the smallest Nicolaides in shifts. Leo’s parents and sister visited in the mornings while it had become habit for Rowan and Leo to meet in the afternoons and spend a couple of hours with him—sometimes more. Thankfully Libby had been willing to stay with Mara at Rowan’s hotel in Athens while she was at the hospital and would go home with Leo afterward. Mara enjoyed her time spent with the twenty-year-old.

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