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Poppy yelled when she felt the need to push, and I stood at her shoulder, holding her hand and just generally trying not to make anything worse.
But just watching her, God, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
She looked up at the ceiling as she struggled through her breathing exercises, and when it ebbed, she gave me a teary-eyed look. “Is it okay if my mom comes in? I need her.”
“Of course,” I told her.
The look of relief on her face was obvious, and I gave her a quick kiss before heading to the door. When I poked my head out, everyone’s gaze snapped up, but I motioned to Sheila. “She wants you in there.”
Sheila hustled in behind me, and just before I shut the door, I noticed Parker standing with his brothers, strippeddown to a white T-shirt and still wearing his game pants and cleats. I gave him a quick nod.
“Tell her the whole team is taking bets on whether they’ll be able to hear her scream in the locker room.” He grinned. “And that if she wants me to win some money, she’ll get really loud.”
Every sibling around him turned to give him an incredulous look.
“What?” he asked.
Greer smacked him on the back of the head, and I blew out a slow breath before retreating back into the room.
The moment Sheila took a position on the other side of Poppy, my girl started bawling, the relief at seeing her mom had tears coursing down her cheeks.
“I don’t know how to do this, Mom,” she sobbed.
Sheila made a soft, shushing noise, running her hand over her daughter’s cheek. “Sure you do, sweetheart. Your body knows exactly what to do. You just get to go along for the ride.” They touched foreheads, and that was when I noticed Sheila was crying too. “And at the end of the ride, you get to hold that perfect baby.”
Poppy sobbed again, blindly reaching for my hand on the other side. “I want to meet her so bad.”
“Her?” I asked, voice suspiciously thick.
Poppy nodded, smiling wide. “I think it’s a girl.”
Another push stopped the conversation. Then another.
For twenty more minutes, Poppy was a fucking warrior, and it was the most incredible, terrifying, awesome thing I’d ever witnessed in my entire life.
Untilshecame out—screaming at the top of her lungs and with a shock of dark hair—and my whole world came to a screeching, heart-bursting stop.
“It’s a girl,” Dr. Beal said with a huge grin over her face. “You did great, Mama.”
“It’s a girl?” Poppy sobbed, holding my hand tightly while I kissed her full on the mouth.
Dr. Beal motioned for me, holding out a pair of scissors, and somehow I cut the umbilical cord without passing the fuck out. She wrapped the squirming, gooey bundle of skin and hair and tears and laid her on Poppy’s chest, and I wrapped my arm around them both, kissing Poppy’s temple while we both wept.
The tiny cries from that impossibly tiny body had my heart living somewhere outside of my chest, and I gently laid my hand over her back.
“She’s so small,” I said, awe choking my voice into something unrecognizable. “How is she so small?”
“She’s perfect,” Poppy said through her tears. Then she turned to me—sweaty and exhausted, mascara running down her cheeks—and I’d never seen anything better in my life. “I love you so much.”
I laid a hard kiss on her mouth, rolling my forehead over hers.
Dr. Beal gently picked up the baby and brought her over to the EMTs, who examined her on another table.
Sheila wiped tears from her face and gave Poppy a hug while I wandered over to the table to watch what they were doing.
“Congratulations, Dad,” the older male said. He had kind eyes, and with deft movements, he used some washcloths to wipe all the fluid off her tiny, pink little body. “Ten fingers, ten toes, and a strong set of lungs.”
Dr. Beal patted me on the back. “You did great. I appreciate you not fainting because I would’ve had to leave you there while I tended to Momma.”
