Chapter 31-3

"I don't know." I blew out a sigh. "Maybe you having the kid in the kitchen at the coffee house because we couldn't get you to a hospital in enough time?" "That's just gross, Archer. We cook in there." "I know, I know. I just sort of..." Hadley reached across the console and gripped my hand tightly, squeezing. She was looking at me like I had put the moon and stars in the sky, and I had never been more thankful to be right where I was that second, even if I was currently scared shitless. "You with me?" "And then some," I promised. In the end, it was nothing like I would have expected. I remembered hearing once that time seemed to stop when you saw your child for the very first time, and maybe in some sense that was true, but at the same time, it was like everything was thrown in to fast forward. I barely heard the doctor announce that the baby was a boy. I could barely take my eyes off of him as the nurse let Hadley see him for a moment. He was so tiny, and he already had a mess of dark hair on his head, and I couldn't be exactly sure, but I swore he looked like Hadley already. He was crying for all his lungs were worth, and Hadley was crying, and I was sort of just standing there in this daze, hardly able to believe that this moment was actually here. After months of waiting and agonizing over the future, everything that could happen and everything that could possibly go wrong, our kid was finally here. Somehow I managed to tear my gaze away from the baby to look to Hadley, and she was positively glowing. I leaned down on an impulse to kiss her, smiling when she gave a delighted laugh. "You were amazing," I told her. "Really. He is amazing." "A boy," she said with that grin I'd fallen in love with years ago. "I guess I should have realized you were going to be right." "Yeah, well, for the first and only time," I said. "I was so sure it was going to be a girl, though!" "Um. Are you...upset that we had a boy?" I said awkwardly, thinking. "Because - " "No, of course not!" Hadley said quickly, looking alarmed. "I was just led to believe differently, that's all." There was something about the way she spoke that made me think to ask her more about it later, because at that moment a nurse approached us with our son in her arms and said, "Excuse me. Would you like to hold your son?" The baby boy latched onto Hadley's finger the second he was placed in her arms, blinking up at her with unfocused eyes. "He's beautiful," she said, stroking a finger across his cheek. "I can't believe he's actually here." "Yeah, me neither," I agreed, just as baffled. "Do you have a name for him?" the nurse asked, watching us with a smile. "Shit," Hadley and I gasped in unison, staring at each other in horror. "That is the one thing we never agreed on. A name." The nurse laughed, reaching over to squeeze my shoulder. "Oh, I'm sure you'll come up with one soon enough." She wandered off, leavig Hadley and I alone with the baby. "Archer, here." I didn't have any time to protest before Hadley leaned up to carefully place the baby in my arms. I'd held plenty of babies - inevitable, when you had so many cousins - but this was entirely different. There was nothing else like it. I couldn't explain it. The baby was squirming in my arms like all newborns did, and when he held on to my finger, I knew I was done for. I was completely and utterly had. I looked up in shock when Hadley suddenly burst out laughing. "What?" I was a little concerned for her wellbeing that she was laughing so loudly like that. "Why are you laughing at me like that?" "You're loving this already, aren't you?" she said with a very smug look on her face. There was no point dancing around the truth. Not anymore. What good did that do anyways? "Absolutely, I am." It took a bit of convincing on Hadley's part to actually get me to leave her and the baby alone for a few minutes so I could inform the rest of the family of the momentous occasion. We couldn't avoid it forever. Besides, I wouldn't put it past either of my aunts to kick down the door if enough time passed without getting an update. Best we avoid any confrontation. I made for the waiting room with a little skip in my step, and the second I rounded the corner, I was being bombarded by a whole slew of people. I was shocked by the alarming amount of my family members that actually had made the three hour drive down here. You could always count on family, I supposed. "Well, did she have the baby?" "Is it a boy or a girl?" "How is Hadley doing?" "Are you - " "Everybody, calm down!" Carlo said loudly. "One at a time!" "Well?" My aunt Sophia gripped my shoulders tightly, an overly eager expression on her face. "Did she have the baby?" The asshole part of myself wanted to let the anticipation sink in a little further, because it was funny seeing Carlo and my uncles looking so anxious, but I didn't want to sustain any bodily injuries. I took a deep breath and everybody seemed to inch a little closer at that, and I was unable to keep from smiling when I broke the news. "She had the baby. A boy." Total chaos ensued. All of the girls crowed around to throw their arms around me and kiss my cheeks while my uncles clapped me on the back and told me that my life was going to be hell from here on out. I refrained from telling them that they had no idea how close I had come to that being my actual reality. "Well, what's his name?" Mia said excitedly once things had quieted down a bit. "Milo," I said proudly. "Six pounds, thirteen ounces. Twenty inches long. Spitting image of Hadley already, I swear." There would be plenty of time for questions later, for the family to meet him so they could coo over him and kiss his cheek and forehead and tell him all of the wonderful things he was going to do with his life. But for right then, just being there was enough.