“Dad!”
I turn around at the sound of my daughter shouting.
“Reina’s water broke!”
There was no mistaking those three words, and I took off as quickly as my feet would carry my ass down the hill to the curb where Lacey’s car was parked. Pulling open the passenger door, my eyes roam over Reina, watching as tears stream down her cheeks and she clutches her belly.
“I’m sorry,” she cries.
“Woman, what’re you sorry for?” I question, taking her hands in mine.
“The car, it’s a mess!”
I glance down at the stains setting in Lacey’s mats and let out a low chuckle as I turn my attention back to my wife.
“Damn, Sunshine,” I shake my head, taking her face in my hands and touch my forehead to hers. “Who gives a fuck about the mats? We’re about to have a baby,” I rasp as I smile at her, my thumbs work at drying her tears. “You ready to meet this kid of ours?”
“I’m more than ready,” she whispers. Leaning in to kiss me, she pauses and her eyes go wide. “Oh God,” she groans as she clutches her belly.
“What? What is it?”
“I think I’m having a contraction,” she says, through clenched teeth.
“Is it true? Oh dear, it’s true!” Grace says, coming up behind me. I turn to her, relieved to see someone who probably knows what the hell is going on.
“She thinks she’s having a contraction,” I explain.
“She most definitely is. Give me your watch,” Grace orders, pulling open the back door and climbing into the car. I hand her my watch and run around the front of the car and switch places with Lacey. Grace has one hand planted on Reina’s shoulder, caressing her arm as she tells her to breathe and eyes the watch in her hand.
“We’ll follow you,” Lacey says, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “Good luck!”
“Love you,” I call out the window and start the car. “Hang in there, Sunshine, we’ll be at the hospital in no time,” I tell her, steering the car with one hand and placing the other on her knee.
“It’s still early,” Reina cries.
“It’s okay,” Grace assures her. “This baby will be just fine, Reina.”
My eyes meet hers in the rearview mirror, they’re red and blotchy from the tears she shed over her husband but still they shine back at me as she smiles.
“Drive, Parrish, or we’re going to deliver this baby ourselves.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I accelerated on the gas, maneuvered in and out of traffic with a brigade of Harley’s following me.
“Is it supposed to hurt this much?” Reina wails in pain.
“We’re almost there,” I tell her.
“Shut up! You’re never touching me again, Jack Parrish. Never,” she shrieks, squeezing my hand and crushing my fingers with all her might.
My lips quirk at the threat and she squeezes my hand harder.
“I’m serious,” she says through her clenched jaw.
“Sure you are, Sunshine.”
From the moment I pull up in front of the hospital everything seems to happen in a blink of an eye. We’re ushered into a labor and delivery unit where I trade my leathers for a pair of scrubs. Reina’s doctor informs us she’s progressing fast, too fast for an epidural, and for a moment I believe Sunshine truly may never let me touch her again.
I try to process everything, ingrain it to my memory, for this time I don’t want to forget a single moment of this child’s birth. I stare at Reina, brush her blonde hair away from her face and continuously kiss the top of her head as she clutches my hand and grips down.
Her screams are muffled but I feel them down in my soul as our baby makes its descent into this world.
“You’re doing great, Sunshine,” I soothe as the doctor and his staff work diligently to prepare for our baby’s entrance into the world.
The incubator is turned on.
With a clean blanket draped over her arm the nurse moves next to doctor.
The doctor lifts his eyes to Reina, holds up one finger, then another and finally a third and commands her to push.
I swallow the lump in my throat, knowing the next noise that’ll fill this room is the voice of my child’s first cry. I pray to whatever God hears me I can hear it loud and clear.
I’m not one for prayers but while I’m at it I pray for the child that is about to be born.
I pray he or she is healthy.
Please be born free of a troubled mind.
I pray he or she lives a long beautiful life.
Please go on to live way passed me.
I pray he or she never knows the ugliness of the world.
Please don’t follow in your Daddy’s footsteps.
Live.
Love.
And always find your sunshine.
I’m just about to turn my attention to Reina and thank her for the gift she’s about to give me when the doctor lifts the tiny miracle Sunshine and I created together into the air.
A strong pair of lungs lets out a shrill cry that echoes through the room.
“It’s a boy!” The doctor announces.
I hear him.