Page 32 of You Had Me At No
There’s a brief pause before he starts running down the hall. “What?”
“She’s coming, Liam.”
“Are you sure?” He looks like he saw a ghost.
“Yeah. Pretty sure.” I motion down to the liquid on the floor and my soaked leggings.
His eyes widen. “Oh fuck.” He puts his hands over his mouth, then drops them as quickly as he put them there. “Okay. Okay. Um. Let me grab the bags, get you a towel and some clean pants.” He sprints back down the hall to our room.
I start to strip out of my pants as he bolts back toward me with his hands full. He drops the stuff on the table and quickly gets on his knees in front of me, wiping my legs and floor up as fast as he can. He looks up at me. “This is really happening?”
I nod. “Yes, it is.” I smile.
Ten minutes later, we are on the road, heading towardMUSCHospital downtown.
I start to get my first contraction. “Oh shit. Fuck.” I bend a little in my seat.
Liam looks over at me and starts panicking. “Oh my God. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. It’s just a contraction. Keep your eyes on the road and try not to wreck us,” I say through my teeth.
“Okay, okay. We’ll be there shortly. Not much longer.” He speeds up.
We make it to the hospital in twenty minutes and get settled in our room. The contractions start getting closer and closer together.
The nurse checks me about forty minutes later. “Okay, sweetie. You are ten centimeters. It’s time to push.”
I look over at Liam and he looks like he’s about to puke. “Babe, do you need to sit down?”
He shakes his head. “No, I’ll be fine.” He grabs my hand while a nurse holds the other. And I push.
I open my eyes and search the room. I find Liam asleep in the hospital recliner with Cora on his chest. The sight makes my heart swell.
It only took thirty minutes of pushing before our sweet girl came into this world at seven pounds, five ounces.
Liam was such a champ. At one point, I thought he was going to pass out, but he did so well. I looked up at him when it was over and he had tears streaming down his face. I can’t wait to get home and see him in full dad mode. He’s already amazing.
Cora starts to move and fuss, waking Liam up. He immediately starts to soothe her and looks up at me. “Hey, beautiful, I thinkshe’s hungry.” He gets up and brings her to me so I can feed her, leans over, and kisses me on my head. “I love my girls so much.”
I cup his face with my free hand. “We love you so much, Daddy.”
He wiggles his brows. “I kinda like you calling me that. You should do that in the bedroom later.”
I laugh and swat at his chest. “You’re crazy.”
“Crazy about you, baby.” He winks.
The universe was really on my side when it sent Liam my way.
Liam
Two years later
My wife is spinning around with our daughter on her hip, and life is wonderful. We’re at the beach, celebrating Cora’s second birthday. We brought the speaker and what parents would we be if we didn’t have eighties rock playing. Raising our daughter right.
It took Quinn a year ofno'sto finally agree to be my wife, and we got married in a small wedding just six months later. She wanted to wait until Cora was older so she could be more involved in her own special way. We both agreed we’d rather put the extra money aside and do something as a family later on.
Seeing them together makes me want to put another one in her, and although we’ve talked about it, it hasn’t happened yet. When it does, it does. We’re just enjoying the act of practicing for now.
