Page 37 of Crazy In Love
Exactly like I did ten years ago in a hospital in New York.
I’m careful, climbing up and lying on my side while she shifts and does the same, then I use my hand as a pillow and stare into her bright, blue eyes. “You did so good, beautiful girl. I’m so proud of you.”
“Thank you.” She suckles on her bottom lip andblinks, blinks, blinksfresh tears until they fall into her lashes. “I have stitches,” she snickers, “Like, alotof them. And I’m coming to the realization that Ollie—who was my high school friend—knows what the inside of my vagina looks like now.”
I snort. “I’m sure it’s pretty, as far as vaginas go.”
“Part of me wants to freak out. But the other part doesn’t care. I’m glad he was here.” She swallows and studies my eyes. “He kept Tommy sane when things were getting kinda dicey.”
“Eh.” I bring my free hand up and gently tap the tip of her nose. “That guy probably wanted to see you all along, so he pursued a medical degree and did years of residency, all on the off chance you’d have a baby someday, and he could get a peek.”
“It was a long game,” she happily sighs. While the Watkins men ga-ga over sweet baby Hazel, and Franky gifts her his little bear, Alana scans my face, long sweeps of her pretty eyes and a flattening of her lips thatalwaysprecedes a lecture. “You took his fork?”
I choke out a cackling giggle that startles us all, then swallow it back down again until I’m bouncing and bursting. “He survived! He’s fine.”
“Your job was to help!”
“He needs to loosen up. He adapted, and we even became friends…sort of. He still ate his dinner, and he didn’t stab me with a steak knife, so really, it all worked out exactly how it was supposed to.” My cheeks ache fromsmiling, and inside, my heart skitters with happiness. “Hazel is safe, momma is safe, and the boys have arrived in one piece. I did my job.”
“You could’ve just given him a relaxing, non-dramatic evening in front of the TV like you did with Franky.”
“Bold assumption to make,” I tease. “I messed with the little one, too. Turns out you’re not allowed to move the queenanywherein a game of chess. There arerules,” I drawl. “Andguidelines. Honestly, I feel he was less anxious when I still had daily access.”
“He was stressed,” she growls. “He’sallowedto follow the rules that make his life more comfortable.”
“Are you talking about Franky? Or Christian?”
She narrows her eyes, so I wrinkle my nose in response. “They’re fine. Let’s talk about your vagina some more.”
“Let’s talk about your hoodie,” she counters quietly. “Looks good on you.”
“Oh, yeah.” I look down at the fabric swimming on my body. The slate gray material and the perfectly measured strings that hang from the hood. “I hope it’s not weird. I left all my luggage at the apartment. Chris figured I’d get cold on the drive.”
“So he offered you his hoodie? And you accepted?”
“No, he…” I peek at the too-long sleeve cuff. “Tommy’s hoodie.”
She makes a sound in the back of her throat, anuh-uhthat sends my pulse skittering. And like she knows it, her lips curl higher with every thunderous beat of my heart.
“Chris’s.” She smirks.
ROUND TWELVE
CHRIS
Ten little fingers, and ten little toes. I count every single one of them ten times over in the hours after we arrive at the hospital, and when I’m done with those, I move on to her chubby cheeks, the dark tint to the wispy curls stuck to the top of her head, bow-lips straight from the Page family tree, and a pert little nose.
She’s perfect.
“She hasn’t woken up yet.” I don’t bother looking at the clock on the wall, and I haven’t taken my phone out of my pocket since we arrived. I merely slide my thumb into Hazel’s little fist and take a guess, factoring in the sun high in the sky outside the hospital windows. “It’s been hours. Is that normal?”
Fox crosses to my chair and drops into a crouch, resting her arms on the armrest and her chin on her hands. Smiling—fuck, she’s kinda pretty today—she studies us with dancing eyes. “I admit, my baby knowledge extends only as far as that one, itty bitty baby that came screaming into the world ten years ago, but Franky slept for, like…” Questioning, she peeks over her shoulder at the duo perched on her bed, crisscrossed legs and a mini magnetized chessboard set up between them. “It was almost twenty hours, right, Alana?”
She shifts and grits her teeth, hiding her pain from the other two who’ve made a habit of jumping anytime she so much as breathes funny. Glancing across, she considers and nods. “I was getting pretty worried bythe end. Babies are supposed to cry and eat and stuff. But Franky was totally chill for almost the entire first day.”
Smug, Fox brings her eyes back around. “He was fine. Hazel’s only half a day old, so she might be out for a little while yet.”
“You wanna hold her yet?” I don’t want to give her up. Fuckkkk, I don’t want to hand her off and risk not getting her back. But this woman, this person I wasconvincedwould take over, has been insanely patient all morning. More patient than I could ever be. “You could have my seat and hold her for a bit.”
