Page 75 of Need Me
“Nosweat.”
He hung up and leaned his head against Precious’ neck in frustration. The mare whickered low in her chest as though trying to comfort him. Straightening, he gave her a quick brushing and put her in her stall. As he jogged to the house to get his keys, Robert wished that he was going anywhere but to thehospital.
* * *
Gowned up,Robert stood at the door of the NICU, cold sweat trickling down his spine.Come on, you coward. Anna needs you.His sense of friendship overrode his anxiety and he stepped into the unit. The cries of babies and the sounds of various machines and heart monitors immediately hithim.
Looking around, Robert found himself surrounded by tiny babies. Many of them were attached to breathing and feeding tubes. He flashed back to the first time he’d seen Liam. Kelly hadn’t told him about the birth until after the fact, so he hadn’t been there to help bring his son into theworld.
When the nurse had brought Liam over to the nursery window for him, Robert’s need to hold him had been a living, breathing thing. His life changed irrevocably the moment the pediatric nurse had laid Liam in hisarms.
“Robert!”
Anna’s soft call broke into his reverie and he started for her. She sat in a rocking chair along one wall. Three incubators were lined up near her chair. Relief shone in her luminous green eyes. “Thank you so much forcoming.”
“Sure. No problem,” he said, masking his unease with a smile. “What do you need me todo?”
She pointed to one of the incubators. “They took Andy off his feeding tube today since he’s able to bottle feed now. I breastfed him earlier, but he’s hungry again. I pumped some milk for him. Alyssa can breastfeed a little, too. Can you feed Andy while I feedher?”
“Uh,sure.”
Anna pointed to the nearest incubator. “That’shis.”
Swallowing hard, Robert stepped over to the incubator and looked down at little Andy. Although he’d grown over the past month, he was still small compared to other babies. He was over five pounds now, and Chase had told Robert that if the baby kept doing well, that Andy would probably be discharged at the end of theweek.
Andy opened his eyes wide for a couple of seconds and then blinked them while he waved his tiny hands. In his mind, Robert saw another baby and grief threatened to bring him to hisknees.
“It’s okay to pick him up, Robert. He’s tougher than you think,” Annasaid.
Holding his breath, Robert reached into the incubator and slid his hands under Andy. With infinite care, he lifted Andy and cradled him against his chest. Moving over to the rocking chair, he sat down and settled Andy more comfortably in the crook of hisarm.
Andy’s face scrunched up and he let out a hugecry.
Robert’s response was automatic, his previous experience in caring for an infant coming to the fore. “Hey, little man. Hang on.” He took the bottle that Anna gave him and offered the nipple to Andy. Robert laughed when Andy latched on and ate with lusty pulls on thenipple.
“Wow. Look at him go,” Robertsaid.
Anna chuckled as she covered her and Alyssa with a light blanket and began feeding her. “I think he’s trying to catch up toTJ.”
Studying Andy, Robert said, “I see that his hair has some red in it. He has your nose,too.”
Pride laced Anna’s voice. “Chase and I think so, too. I know that he’d have been perfectly happy with three girls, but I’m so happy that we had a boy. Now he has a son to play football with in a fewyears.”
“Knowing Chase, he’ll get the girls to play,too.”
“Most likely,” Annaagreed.
They were quiet, but the sucking sounds and little grunts of the feeding babies filled the silence. Every so often, Andy opened his eyes and his little brow furrowed as though trying to focus. Robert remembered that lookwell.
Thinking about Chase’s fertility issues, Robert thought how different it had been for him. Chase and Anna had beaten the odds whereas it had only take one time of unprotected sex for Robert to get Kelly pregnant. At only nineteen, he’d been terrified when she’d first told him that he was going to be a father. He’d thought that all his plans for the future had come to anend.
As Kelly’s belly had grown, so had Robert’s excitement about the baby and he’d begun planning for Liam’s birth. By the time Kelly had delivered her devastating news about not wanting either Liam or Robert, he’d had a class and work schedule figured out. Once Kelly had split, Robert assumed full responsibility for Liam and had excelled at fatherhood despite being soyoung.
The saying about riding a bicycle applied to Robert right then. It was second nature for him to prop an ankle on his opposite knee and rest Andy in the triangle his legs made. This gave him a free hand, which allowed him to play with Andy’s thatch of thick hair. He started singingTheItsy Bitsy Spider, which had been Liam’s favoritesong.
He wasn’t an awesome singer like Chase, but he got by. A few nearby babies that had been fussing fell quiet upon hearing the song and Andy paused his for a moment. Then he resumed his meal. The bottle was nearly empty by the time Andy got hisfill.
Spreading a cloth over his shoulder, Robert laid Andy on it and started rubbing his back in gentle circular motions interspersed with light pats. It wasn’t long before Andy let out a noisyburp.
