Page 107 of Tripped By Love
I smiled at her.
“Maybe. But you were the one who shined a light into my dark and guided me out.”
Her fingers ran along the stubble on my cheek. I was more unkempt these days. Not only because she liked the stubble, but because I didn’t seem to have time in the mornings to shave. I usually stayed lost in her until the very last minute. Until Chevelle knocked on the door, or Jonas called, or Brady demanded my presence.
Her face turned from smile to shock.
“What?” My heartbeat picked up pace.
She looked down at her stomach. “Um. I thought they were just Braxton-Hicks, but…I think maybe we should head to the hospital.”
My heart raced even further. I picked her up and headed for the opening in the field.
“I can walk, Marco.”
I ignored her as I called out to Chevelle and the rest of the team, “Uncle Brady is in charge!”
Brady looked up from his spot at the bench where he’d been helping one of the little girls on the team slide on her helmet. There was panic in his eyes as they met mine. “What?”
“We’re heading to the hospital. Can’t stick around. The team is all yours.”
A groan went up through the dugout and the parents on the bleachers. Brady may have been the town’s biggest celebrity, but he knew squat about playing baseball.
“We’ll meet you at the hospital when the game is done,” Arlene called from the bleachers.
Cassidy and I exchanged a smile. It was a miracle that her mom wasn’t galloping down the steps to accompany us. Arlene’s hovering was lessening with each year that flew by. She seemed happy these days to turn care of Cassidy over to me.
I put Cassidy down in the passenger seat of our SUV and leaned down to kiss her. It brought back a memory of the time in the rain outside Marsha’s Muffins when we’d devoured each other in a parking lot. When she’d demanded I take her back to the hotel and make love to her, and I’d given in?to everything. I kissed her so long and so fiercely that I felt the next contraction run through her body as I swallowed her moans.
I ran my hand through her hair, pushing the curl back from her face, assessing her pain. When the contraction eased, she gave me a small smile. Heartfelt, but a little panicky in a way I rarely saw her.
“You okay, Angel?” I asked.
She nodded. “But I think we should hold the kisses for later.”
I took off for the driver’s side, determined to get her and the baby to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible.
???
I stared down into my daughter’s eyes and was lost in love all over again. I hadn’t thought my heart could grow any bigger than it already was from the love I felt for Cassidy, Chevelle, and my family. But this little being had proven otherwise. She’d taken my heart and swelled it until it felt like it was going to escape my body.
I lay propped up on the pillows in our bed with the baby snuggled against my chest and Cassidy tucked up against me with her head on my shoulder. The delivery had been quick and easy, according to the doctor, but then he was male, and I wondered if he had any clue what really happened to the female body in order to give birth.
Two days later, Cassidy was still finding her feet again. It allowed me to spoil her in a way she still rarely let me—or anyone—do.
Chevelle knocked on the door and then came bounding in with a piece of paper in his hand. He threw himself at our laps, and I had to hold out my arm to make sure he didn’t knee Cassidy in the stomach.
“Easy, Snickerdoodle. Mama is still healing.”
He nodded and squeezed himself in the space between Cassidy and me, which had been pretty much nonexistent. “I need to know her name so I can put it on my drawing,” he said, shoving the crayon-and-marker-covered page at us.
We had dozens of images of us on the refrigerator because Chevelle loved to draw almost more than he loved animals or his blocks. The first time he’d included me in one with “Daddy” written above my head, I’d cried. Silent tears of thanks and joy. Sadness that my own parents weren’t there to see it, but also grateful that I had this family.
The baby moved, a tiny finger wrapping around me, seizing my heart all over again. She was just Baby Girl for now. Cassidy had insisted she needed to get to know her daughter before coming up with something so permanent as a name, and who was I to argue with the woman who’d just handed me this precious little girl?
I glanced up and caught the image of the four of us in the mirror over the dresser. A range of tans and golds and shimmery whites that the rays streaming through the window set on fire. So different than the dark look that had been my family or the golden one that was Cassidy’s, but still beautifully blended. Still beautifully whole.
I turned my head, catching Cassidy’s eyes. Hers were shiny as if her emotions were also about to burst free.
