Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
She looks at me in panic. “Really fucking loud,” she starts to pant.
I smile, squeezing her hand. “We’ve got a girl, baby.”
“A girl.” She strains the words out. “You have a girl again.”
Fuck. “Yeah, I do.” I dip and kiss her forehead as she builds to the next push, her hold of me getting tighter. “Ready?” I ask, feeling her nod, her breath held. I brace myself, squeezing my eyes shut, and she bellows out an angry yell, the sound echoing around the room as the midwife cheers her on and I take the brunt of her strength. Then she slumps into the bed again, exhaling.
And there’s another cry.
“A boy!”
What?
We have a boy. One of each?
Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew it. I fucking knew it.
Rosie.
I drop my head onto Ava’s shoulder, unable to stop the tears. My exhausted heart is showing no sign of letting up, and I know it probably won’t for the rest of my life. I haven’t even looked at them yet. I haven’t smelt them, felt them, or told them how much I love them. “Well done, baby,” I whisper, finding Ava’s face and smothering her with kisses. She doesn’t respond. It’s probably one of the only times in our relationship that she can’t.
“Mr. Ward?”
“Are they okay?” I ask.
“They’re perfect. Congratulations.”
I burrow back into Ava’s neck as the midwives work, and she finds the strength to hold me, sighing, gently stroking my hair and dropping small kisses on my skin every now and then. No words need to be spoken—not for a very long while. It’s Ava comforting me now. And I need it.
She eventually finds the strength to pull away, searching out my clouded eyes, and as soon as hers land on mine, reality is confirmed. My reality. “Go and meet your babies,” Ava says, smoothing her small palm down my rough cheek. “It was twenty-six years before I found you. Don’t make them wait for you a moment longer than they have to.” She pecks my lips and then looks over my shoulder, and I muster up the courage to turn and finally introduce myself to my babies, walking slowly across the room.
I gaze into the cribs, utterly astonished. The love is instant. So intense, it physically hurts. There are only two other moments in my life when I’ve felt this level of awe and hope.
Rosie.
And when their mother walked into my office for the first time.
How? How did I create these two beautiful creatures? They look so small. So fragile. Christ, they will literally fit in the palm of my hand. “They look tiny,” I say quietly. “Too small.”
“They’re both a good weight for twins,” one of the midwives says, smiling.
I can’t take my eyes off them as she wraps them up and pops little hats on their heads.
“Are you ready to hold them?”
I look at her in alarm. “What?”
“Hold them, Mr. Ward,” she says over a laugh.
“Hold them?” But they look too small. I hold up my hands, turning them over in front of me, as if to demonstrate the size of me against them.
“Skin on skin.” The midwife dips into my baby girl’s crib and lifts her out, carrying her over to Ava and holding her with one hand as she helps Ava pull her gown down, exposing her chest. She lays our little girl front down on Ava’s skin, covering her back with the blanket. I watch in awe as Ava buries her face in the top of her head on a sigh. “Mr. Ward?”
“Yeah?”
She nods at my T-shirt-covered body and, without thinking, I reach down and pull it up over my head, moving to the chair by Ava’s bed, lowering, unable to take my eyes off her. Ava smirks at my bare chest as the midwife carries my little boy to me and sets him down. Fuck. The moment he comes to rest on my skin, my heart kicks. It beats harder and faster.
More purpose.
He looks even smaller on me. I cup his micro arse with my big palm, letting the midwife fix the blanket around us, and I stare down in wonder as my baby boy’s little cheek rests on my flesh, his eyes closed.
“Do we have names?” the midwife asks.
I look back at Ava. She looks so sleepy. She nods, and I bite at my lip to stop it trembling. Fuck.
You’re going to have a girl, Daddy.
“Maddie,” I say quietly, my voice tight, as I watch Ava stroke her head. She smiles softly at me, nodding to my boy in my arms. I look down at his head, stroking over the fine hairs. Dark blond hair.
You better name the boy after me.
I breathe in, my chest expanding, my boy rising with it. “And this is Jacob.” I rest my lips on his head and breathe him into me. “After my brother.”