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Epilogue
“I’m sure it will be soon,” Nate said, but Colby shrugged his arm off her shoulders, feeling the need to pace.
“Sorry, but I just can’t sit,” she said. As she walked in front of the darkened windows of the waiting room, she watched her reflection. People always talked about the freshman fifteen, which she had missed. But no one talked to her about the first few years of marriage ten. Maybe because it didn’t have the same ring to it. Newlywed nine?
“What are you thinking about?” Nate asked from his chair nearby. “You’ve got the most adorable look on your face.”
“Shut up,” Colby said.
“Can’t I compliment my wife?”
“Ugh. Yes. Please, compliment me. Just not right now. I can’t take it!” Colby spun on her heels. “You! Help me calm down. Can you give me some of your exercises or something? Please?”
Nate grinned. “Oh, now you need my help?”
Colby stood in front of his chair, taking his hands in hers, speaking softly. “I always need you, baby.”
“How about we find a supply closet and you show me how much you need me?” He wiggled his eyebrows and Colby couldn’t help but laugh.
“Nate! You are the worst. How can you think about—wait! I see what you did! You distracted me by making me laugh. Well done.”
“I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. But I am serious about that supply closet.” Colby smacked his arm. “Fine. Another trick is telling yourself that you’re not nervous, you’re excited.”
Colby sat down in a chair across from Nate, listening intently. She felt too keyed up for physical touch right now, and Nate couldn’t seem to keep his hands off of her since they started dating after—or, at—the Tech Start Conference two and a half years ago. Whether it was hugging or hand-holding or curling his toes into hers in bed or kissing or more, Nate seemed to be making up for all the years they had missed by staying physically connected to her as often as he could. Normally she didn’t mind. They’d been reading a book called The Five Love Languages and both of them leaned towards physical touch as the primary way they gave and received love. For Colby, words of affirmation was a close second, while Nate’s second was quality time.
“So, it’s like a Jedi mind trick or something?” Colby asked. “I just say it and then…feel it?”
Nate smiled and leaned forward like he was going to reach for her. But he sensed her mood and just stayed close without touching.
“A little more than that. Your body’s physical and even chemical responses are similar if not identical when you’re nervous or excited. When you’re feeling nervous and talk to yourself about being excited instead, it can help you basically feel the same exact thing differently.”
“You’re so smart,” Colby said.
“That’s why you married me.”
“That and your money.” She made a face. “That was actually a funnier joke before you actually had money. Now it seems tacky.”
Nate laughed. “Yeah, it was funnier then. Now I’m a little worried you actually are after me for my money. I mean, you are pretty shallow.”
He was ready when she smacked him and he pulled her into his lap. She squirmed at first. “Nate…”
He pressed his lips to her ear and she stilled at the feel of his breath. “Sweetheart, I love you. Let me hold you. I’ll squeeze all the worry right out of you.”
Colby giggled a little, then more when she saw an elderly woman giving them the side-eye. “Is that a scientific thing?”
Squeezing her so tightly she could hardly breathe, Nate kissed her ear lightly, sending a whole new kind of sensation through her body. “Nate,” she whispered. “Remember where we are.”
“How could I forget? I’m with the love of my life, waiting for our first baby. We want to bring the baby up in a house filled with love, right?”
His words so close to her ear had Colby now thinking about abandoned supply closets. She got up, fighting off his arms. “A house filled with love, not a waiting room filled with PDA.” She started pacing in front of the windows again. “Do you think they’ll let us—”
“Mr. and Mrs. Billings?”
Nate practically jumped out of his seat, grabbing their duffle bag. He found Colby’s hand and the two of them made their way across the room to the double doors, where a doctor stood in a gown. Their case worker from the adoption agency stood beside him, smiling.
“We ended up having to do a C-section, but the baby is doing really well, as is the mom.”
Their case worker addressed them. “The mom has said her goodbyes and is ready to relinquish the baby to you. Are you ready to meet your daughter?”
