Page 68 of Finding Basil
Basil was a mess, running his hands over his jeans so fast, Herb knew he’d get friction burns if he didn’t stop, and he was sobbing hard. “I can’t do this, Herb! I’m no father! A father? Me? I’m barely a grownup! How, and how will we run the business, and there will be no time for us, we can’t do this. We can’t!”
“Honey, it’s a little late now. I promise you, if anyone in the world will be a great dad, it’s you.”
“Please! I am no father! How did my dad do it? He’s got too damn many kids, and how the hell did he think he could do it? Why can’t I be like him, and just…know?”
“You are. You are the one who has dreamed of being a dad for a very long time. You’re going to be the best dad who ever lived.”
Basil was still crying, but his tears slowed at least. “Really?”
“Really.”
They’d decided to do the babies one at a time, knowing how overwhelmed Sabrina had been when she’d had the girls. The first baby was from Basil’s sperm, but he’d be the child of them both. In fact, Herb knew he’d love the baby more for being a little piece of Basil, the love of his life.
Not that he’d love his own less. In fact, Tilda already had them marked down for her next surrogacy. A year after this baby was born, they’d do the IVF again, only with Herb’s sperm.
“Tell me we will be okay.”
“We’ll be more than okay. We’re going to have a baby, and our love is going to be so big, so much, that we’ll swim in it.”
Basil laughed for the first time, and his tears dried like magic. “We will be happy. I know it.”
“We will, baby. We’ll be so happy.”
They parked and ran into the hospital, rushing around corners and down halls, being told to slow down by not one nurse but two.
At the maternity ward, they asked where Tilda was and was directed to her room, seeing her in full labor. The nurses got gowns and masks on and they hurried to her side right after they were as sterile as they could be.
“You two! Where have you been?”
Herb was shocked that she screamed at them, but Basil didn’t flinch. The meltdown Basil from the car was gone, replaced by this calm guy with a voice as smooth as melted butter. “We came as fast as we could, honey. We can’t miss the big entrance.”
“Big! It’s gonna be big, so damn big, how am I ever going to get a man now?”
Herb’s jaw dropped, and Basil glared at him until he righted it.
“Honey, you are going to get the best man in the world, well, third best.”
She squeezed Herb’s hand so hard, he thought his bones would snap as a contraction came on her. “This fucking hurts! Why the hell am I doing this?”
“To have the money to live while you work on your art, and it’s working. You have a show next month!”
“Fuck off! Fuck you, and fuck you, and fuck you all!”
Herb was shocked to his core. Tilda had never cussed. She said she didn’t want the baby to hear that language, but she didn’t seem to mind any longer.
Basil helped her with her breathing, and she calmed some, then he kissed her forehead and whispered, “You’re doing great. You’re doing so great.”
Nice of him to talk when he wasn’t the one getting his hand crushed.
Tilda screamed and laughed and went through seventy different emotions while the baby moved down the birth canal, on his way to greeting the world.
It was two long hours of that, and he was glad he’d taken his hand from hers after that first bruising squeeze. Basil was a rock, getting her through her Lamaze, having Herb fetch the ice chips, and when the baby’s head crowned, Basil held his uninjured hand tenderly, watching with a serenity that seemed to flow over the room.
Herb’s awe as he watched his son being born was heavier than anything he’d ever felt. This tiny little human, coming into the world wet, squirmy, and so beautiful, took Herb’s breath away.
The two of them held the scissors together to cut the cord, and then a blanket was thrown into Basil’s arms and the baby placed there, screaming with lungs that could break glass.
He looked just like his beloved Basil. Dark hair, tiny nose, full, cherub lips. Oh, he was beautiful, and Herb fell madly in love with his son the instant he looked at the baby.
