"Breathe," I coach just like they taught me in the Lamaze class. "Look at me," I urge softly. "Breathe." She nods at me, and I can see her holding her breath and in fact not breathing.
"Okay, we need to get her an IV," the nurse says when the contraction finishes, and she looks at Harlow. "Let’s get you ready to meet your baby." She nods her head and has enough time to take off her top and bra before another contraction comes.
"Okay," the doctor says. "Next one, why don’t you try to push?”
"But I need drugs," Harlow announces, and the doctor laughs and then one look at Harlow, and he stops.
"It’s way too late for that," he explains, and she puts her head back and sobs.
I hold her hand and push her hair from her face, my stomach in my throat as I worry for both of them. "You can do this," I reassure her, and she just shakes her head.
"My mom," she cries. "I want my mom."
"What’s her name and number?" the nurse asks, walking around and grabbing the phone. We give her Olivia’s number, and then we hear her talking. "Hi, this is Lara. I’m a nurse for labor and delivery. We have Harlow, and she was wondering if you were close." She listens to Olivia. "We’ll send someone to get you." She puts the phone down and pages someone else, and I feel so helpless and out of sorts.
Two minutes later, Olivia comes into the room. "Mom," Harlow cries, and Olivia rushes to her bedside. "It’s going to be okay," she comforts, and then she looks at me. "Travis is here. You’re going to be fine."
"I want drugs," she says, moaning as a contraction is coming.
"Okay, I want you to push," the doctor says and starts to count. I hold her hand in mine as I count with her. She is a warrior, and four pushes later, the sound of crying fills the room. The doctor places the baby on Harlow’s chest, and all she can do is sob out. The tears run down my face and Olivia’s. "We have a boy," the doctor says, and all I can do is lean down to kiss Harlow’s head and look at our baby boy.
"It’s a boy," she says, kissing him. "He’s so beautiful."
"You’re beautiful," I say as this overwhelming feeling comes through me. It’s a feeling that fills every vein in your body. It’s a feeling that you will never forget. It’s a feeling of a love so pure that nothing could ever be compared to it. "Thank you," I say to her, kissing her lips. "For being mine."
Epilogue Two
Epilogue Two
Harlow
Six months later
"What is all this fussing about?" I walk into the room and see Leo’s feet and hands moving up and down as he cries. He stops crying for a second, and then when he sees me, he starts again. His eyes close as two big tears come out, and I have to laugh while I scoop him in my arms and kiss his chubby cheeks. "Now now," I soothe, rubbing his back as he sighs out in contentment, the tears now a thing of the past. "Did Daddy just put you down in the crib and expect for you to fall asleep on your own?" I ask while I walk over to the rocking chair. "The nerve of him," I say as I pull down my top and offer him my breast. He moves his mouth back and forth before finding my nipple and doing a huge deep sigh. "There you go."
"In my defense," Travis says, and I look up to see him leaning against the doorframe, his legs crossed at his ankles. His gray shorts hang low on his hips, and he’s even hotter now that he’s my husband. "He took a bottle not even thirty minutes ago and was sleeping when I left him." Everything about him turns me on, and I mean everything. I thought having a baby would slow down our sex drive, but it just made us crave each other more. That and the fact we have to make every second count. I can’t tell you all the times that we had to put it on pause because Leo decided that he was done napping or just being quiet.
I smile at him and look down to see that Leo’s eyes are getting heavier and heavier as he falls asleep. "Well, he needed a snack, then."
"Or you just can’t hear him cry?" He chuckles and stands as he drags his hand through his hair that is still wet from the shower I left him in not too long ago.
My nipple slips out of Leo’s mouth, and I pull my shirt back up, getting up and placing him back down in the middle of the crib. "Sleep tight, my prince." I bend and kiss him lightly on the cheek.
Turning to walk by my husband, my stomach still flutters when I’m close enough to him to smell him. I lean up and kiss his neck right where his heartbeat is. "Do you want to pick up where we left off?" I ask, wrapping my arms around his neck.
"I think I remember where we were." His hands go to my hips as he picks me up, and my legs go around his waist. "I think." He starts kissing my neck. "That you had a lot fewer clothes on."
"Yes," I agree, my whole body ready for him to touch me anywhere he wants to. "I also think that your face was a little bit more south."
"You mean down under?" he jokes with me as he throws me on the bed, and he’s about to get exactly where he was before when his phone rings from the bedside table, making us both moan.
"Next weekend," he says, rolling over and grabbing the phone. "I’m going to ask your father to babysit, and we are going to go away for twenty-four hours and have all the sex."
I get up on my elbows and laugh. "Just what my father will love to hear. Didn’t he just start liking you again?" I roll my lips when Travis glares at me, grabbing his phone that rings again.
"I’m going to say you need a break." He shakes his head. "Oh, great, a group FaceTime." He presses the green button and sits down on the bed next to me as the circle goes around and around. We join the chat at the same time as Clarabella. "What is it?" Travis grumbles out while we see two more icons starting to join.
"I’m waiting until we are all on," Shelby says, and I can see that her eyes look like she’s been crying, but her eyes sparkle. "Gosh, what has you in such a great mood?" she asks Travis, who just grumbles.
"Someone sounds like they have blue balls," Clarabella teases and laughs at her own joke when her mother joins. "Mom, Travis is mean to me because we interrupted him and Harlow when they were making sexy time."
"We were not," I quickly cut in.
"How can they make sexy time?” his mother says. "It’s six thirty."
"Can we focus on why I’m FaceTiming everyone?" Shelby asks as soon as Presley joins, and it looks like her hair is all over the place.
"Someone else was having sexy time,” Clarabella says when she points.
"I’m hanging up," Travis says.
Shelby yells, "No!
"Guys," she says and holds up her hand, shocking us all, "I’m getting married."
* * *
Dearest Love,
Another wedding season is upon us, and it looks like our very own Shelby will be walking down the aisle. Or will she?
It seems that a very suspicious e-mail is coming in right before she walks down the aisle that can change everything, especially since it’s not meant for her.
XOXO