Seventeen
“Why black and gold?” Alexis was saying to Ethan, as she peeled her shoes off and flopped on the pink suede couch Corbin and Brittany had picked out when they had bought their new house.
Their decorating tastes had collided so that their living room was Bombay meets the Cotswolds, with a splash of Vegas glitz thrown in. Atrocious by some standards, but perfect for them.
“Why not purple and gold?” Alexis continued.
“Because New Orleans already uses that for Mardi Gras,” Ethan told his wife dryly.
“But what about purple and black? Green and black? Yellow and chartreuse? Black is so morbid. Even for a vampire inaugural ball.”
From the chair on the other side of the coffee table, Corbin listened to the discussion with only half an ear. He was too busy staring at his daughter, who was astonishingly perfect, from the tip of her soft, distended head, to her wrinkled red and peeling toes.
“It’s black and gold and that is just the way it is,” Ethan told her, leaning over Corbin’s shoulder to tickle Ava’s tiny fingers. “Hello, gorgeous. Did you stay awake to see your Uncle Ethan in his triumph? Everyone else has to call me Mr. President or President Carrick, but you get to call me Uncle Ethan, what do you think of that?”
“She’s awake because Corbin won’t lay her down,” Brittany said, giving a yawn. “She’s four days old and she has him wrapped completely around her finger.”
“She’s not sleepy,” Corbin protested, holding Ava on his knees. “Her eyes are wide open, staring at me. Her beautiful big brown eyes just like her mama’s. Isn’t that right, precious?” He looked down at his daughter and she blinked back at him, her little button nose wrinkling a little. His heart had that unmistakable sensation of skipping a beat, as it had with regularity since the minute he had first laid eyes on his baby in the labor and delivery room. Ava Coco Renee Atelier had come into the world screaming, red-faced and angry, her lusty cries echoing in the room, and he knew in that moment that she could spit up on him, throw tantrums, wreck her car at sixteen, and he would never do anything but adore her.
It was awe-inspiring and frightening and glorious.
“If you would like to sleep, Brittany, go ahead, ma chйrie . I will stay up with her.”
His wife yawned again. “Maybe I should. The little beast will want to eat again in two hours anyway. Better sleep while I can.”
“She is not a little beast, are you, darling?” he asked Ava, her barely there eyelashes brushing up and down as she blinked. “You’re just hungry, aren’t you, and Mama is tired. We’ll let Mama sleep and you and I will entertain your aunt and uncle, yes we will.” He ran his thumb over the softness of her cheek. “You are perfect, you know that, don’t you?”
“Oh, my God,” Alexis said, grinning. “Listen to you. She does have you wrapped around her finger. And what on earth is she wearing? Her shirt says, Daddy drinks because I cry . Okay, that’s funny in a warped sort of way, though I cannot imagine that either one of you bought this.”
Corbin winced at the white T-shirt his daughter had on.
Brittany gave a laugh. “Hardly. The onesie is a gift from Corbin’s friend Travis. The Baby Boot Camp graduates stopped by with their congrats earlier.”
“Brittany thought it would be a nice gesture to have Ava in the outfit Travis sent to the hospital.” Personally, Corbin wanted to burn it.
“Nice,” Ethan said.
“Okay, I’m off to bed,” Brittany yawned. “Night. Bye, baby.” She ran her hand over Ava’s downy hair, then waved to all of them. “Congrats again, Ethan. I knew you’d win the election.”
When the bedroom door closed behind her, Alexis lifted her eyebrows. “Geez, Corbin, Brit looks drunk. She’s swaying on her feet.”
“We’ve hardly slept at all in four days. Maybe a few hours each. You know how hard her delivery was.” During which he had felt like a helpless idiot. But mortal. Wonderfully, vulnerably, weakly mortal. It was amazing.
When his daughter had left the hospital, he had walked beside the wheelchair carrying his wife and baby, right out into the spring sunshine. It was the finest moment of his long life.
“If you ever need us to babysit her at night, we’d be good at that,” Alexis said with a grin. “Since we’re up anyway. It would give you both a chance to get a good night’s sleep.”
“Thank you. Maybe in a day or two.” Right then he figured he would stay awake looking at Ava until he absolutely could not keep his eyes open another second. But he supposed eventually he was going to have to sleep.
“How was the ball?” he asked Alexis. “Was there a good attendance?”
“It was a madhouse. It seemed like every vampire in the western hemisphere was there offering congrats. Everyone except Gregor, who of course, despite his adeptness at hiding it from the Nation, is not really a vampire anymore anyway. He gave his concession speech after the election and has been lying low at the Bellagio. Man, I don’t know what we would have done if he had won.”
“He wouldn’t have won,” Carrick said confidently.
“And Donatelli?” Corbin asked.
Ethan rolled his eyes. “I despise him. Bloody bastard gets on my nerves.” Then he frowned. “Beg pardon, Ava. I’ll have to watch the language now that she’s around. But anyway, Donatelli was there, reveling in the glory of our win. Damn irritating. Shit. Darn irritating.”
“You’re just annoyed because he danced with Gwenna.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. She had no business waltzing around the room in his arms.”
“Will you relax? She only did it because he cornered her and she didn’t want to make a scene. Hey, maybe we should set Gwenna up with one of your friends.”
“I don’t think so!”
“Why not? She could use a boyfriend.”
“No.”
“Yes, I think it’s a great idea.”
Corbin interrupted their good-natured bickering to say, “I am grateful to Gwenna for befriending Brittany and reassuring her about Ava’s future. They’ve become good friends.”
“It’s good for Gwenna, too. I think it’s helped her pain heal,” Ethan said. “And she needs friends like Brittany more than she needs a bloody boyfriend.”
Alexis snorted. “Stop being such a big brother.”
Corbin let them resume their circular argument as he watched Ava stretch her plump arms out to the side. Eight pounds six ounces at birth. A ten on the Apgar score. Latched on first try. Yes, she was definitely perfect.
And this was happiness, past and present and future, fleeting yet permanent, a drop in the bucket of time, yet eternal. Immortal.
The bedroom door opened and Brittany came back out.
“What es ze matter?” he asked. She looked sleepy, her eyes squinting against the lamplight.
With a shrug, she just gave a smile. “I just forgot to do this.” Bending over, she kissed him on the lips. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Aren’t they cute?” Alexis asked Ethan.
“We’re cuter, babe,” he told her, and dipped her back to a rousing kiss.
“I’m covering your eyes, Ava,” Corbin told his daughter, even as Brittany draped herself across his back. “Your aunt and uncle are being inappropriate.”
“Hey,” Alexis protested, pulling her mouth from Ethan’s. “If it wasn’t for our lust, she wouldn’t even exist. You would have never met Brittany if I hadn’t been living in the Ava.”
“Wrong. I met Brittany first, so Corbin met her because of me, not you or your lust for me,” Ethan told her. He frowned at Corbin and Brittany as Alexis whacked him on the arm. “And I still can’t believe you named our niece after a casino.”
“It’s your casino,” Brittany said. “Doesn’t that make it better?”
Corbin smiled back at her. “Should we tell them why we named her Ava?”
“If you’re going to tell me she was conceived in my casino, I could do without that information.”
“It’s not that scandalous. We named her Ava because we couldn’t agree on anything else, because it’s pretty, and because we did meet at the Ava. And actually, just as an FYI, she was conceived in that chair you’re sitting in,” Brittany told him.
“Christ!” Ethan leaped out of the chair.
Corbin laughed. “She is joking, Carrick.”
Though we have done creative things on that chair , Brittany said.
“Not that we need to share that, ma chйrie ,” Corbin said, a little surprised.
“Share what?” she asked him.
“What you just said,” he replied.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Did not.” Give it a rest.
“Pardon? Give it a rest? That’s a bit harsh.”
Brittany sat up straight. “I didn’t say that out loud.”
Are you sure?
Positive.
Corbin looked at her in astonishment. “I can read your thoughts again.”
“I can hear yours, too.”
Brittany had tears in her eyes and she sniffled. “Everything is right, isn’t it?”
Corbin held his daughter, kissed his wife. “Yes, it es. Everything es just right.”