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“You can open your presents if you want with Mildred.”

“No, I’ll wait for you guys.”

“Baby, I won’t be home for a couple of days.”

“I’ll wait for you,” he insists and leans in to hug me. “I’m not a baby. Santa’s stuff will still be under the tree.”

My eyes fill, and I kiss his sweet head. He doesn’t smell like a baby anymore, and it always makes my heart catch.

“I love you so much.”

“To the moon.”

“And back. Go back to sleep, and after the baby comes, Mildred and Clyde and the other guards will bring you to see us, okay?”

“Okay. Keep me posted.”

I grin at him. Sometimes, my almost-eight-year-old sounds like he’s thirty.

“Yes, sir.” I tap his nose and then stand to leave and see Carson leaning on the doorjamb, watching us. “Let’s go.”

He nods and lifts me off my feet, making Charlie bust out cackling behind me.

“I can walk, you know.”

“No way, you’re having my baby.”

“Yes, and walking helps.”

He kisses my temple. “Let me do this. I didn’t get to before.”

I sigh and loop my arms around his neck, holding on tight.

“If either of them is hurt, I’ll⁠—”

“Okay.” I take Carson’s hand in mine and give it a squeeze. “You have to bring the scary down a notch, babe. You can’t threaten my midwife.”

My husband narrows his eyes. “Watch me.”

“I’m okay.” I take a deep breath and feel another strong-as-fuck contraction kick in. “Here we go.”

“Push, Rina,” my midwife says as she helps me through another round of trying to get this little one out of my damn body so I can meet her.

And twenty minutes later, a slimy, crying baby is on my chest, but this time, her daddy is hovering over both of us, his eyes full of tears that I’ve never seen there before, and he kisses me so damn softly, it fills me with love.

“You’re so goddamn incredible,” he says with a shaky voice.

“Look at what we did,” I say as I look down at the baby. Her eyes are open, and she looks shell-shocked.

“Baby, you did that,” Carson says. “I had an orgasm, and you did the hard lifting.”

I smirk at him. “Okay, I’ll take all the credit. She looks just like Charlie did.”

“What are we naming her?” Carson asks.

We’ve thrown names around, but nothing has stuck.

“I guess we can’t just call her Baby.”