room then, holding her legs, and she pushed and pushed until she couldn’t anymore, and then she felt pressure like she’d never felt before and everyone was telling her to push harder, and then she heard a wail, and looked down and saw her baby, and Coco was crying and laughing as she looked at her.
She was so beautiful. She looked like Coco’s mother, and Coco suddenly felt as though her mother was in the room with her. She glanced at the window and the sun was coming up. It was six in the morning, and someone said that it had taken only fourteen hours, which was great and really fast for a first baby. Coco groaned. The baby was at her breast by then, looking up at her mother. They said she was small, only six pounds, but it hadn’t felt like she was small. It felt like an elephant was pushing through her. She wondered how something so little could hurt so much. But as she lay there holding Bethanie, it all seemed worth it. That little precious face looking up at her, and tiny toes and fingers. She wanted to call Sam and show the baby to him, but she was shaking too hard to call him, as they put a warm blanket on her, and took the baby to the nursery to clean her up. It was over. She had done it. She had finally arrived, and as Leslie had said, she was a mother now. It all seemed so miraculous and mysterious. They gave her a shot for the pain so she could sleep, and as she drifted off, she knew that when she woke up, she and Bethanie would start their journey together.
* * *
—
Leslie came to see her and the baby that afternoon, and she could see on Coco’s face how hard it had been. But she could also see how happy she was, and the baby was beautiful and looked just like her.
She had called Sam by then, and showed him the sleeping baby with the tiny rosebud face.
“How was it?” he asked, relieved that they were both okay.
“Hard. It felt like it took forever. But it’s worth it. She looks so sweet.” It touched him seeing the baby, and seeing Coco, even with dark circles under her eyes. She was so proud of her daughter, and he was proud of her.
“I can’t wait to meet her,” Sam said. Leslie had arrived then, and Coco promised to call Sam back.
They went home the next day, and Coco had everything ready in the nursery, and a basket for her set up in her room. She had no one to help her and didn’t want help. She wanted to live every moment of the experience. A nurse came to check on them at home the next day, and said they were doing fine.
Coco stayed home with the baby for two weeks, and then brought Bethanie to visit in the office. She had arranged for someone to come to the house and stay with the baby as soon as she went back to work.
Leslie startled her with a proposition then. She needed some funding to help the business grow and to hire more assistants, and she loved working with Coco. She asked if she wanted to become a partner and invest in the business and Coco loved the idea. They talked about it again on the phone that night, when the baby was sleeping. She loved the prospect of being part owner of the business, and she and Leslie worked well together.
When Coco went to sleep that night, she had a new business, and a new daughter. It seemed like a lot. She felt blessed alone in her big house. She looked down at Bethanie sound asleep in her basket, checked on her one last time, and knew that all was well in her world. She hadn’t thought of Nigel the whole time she had given birth to her. He didn’t exist for her anymore, and never would for Bethanie. Coco knew that would be enough for both of them. She smiled as she looked at Bethanie in her basket, and for the first time, realized how much her parents had loved her. As much as the heavens had stars. It was the one gift Nigel had given her that mattered, and for an instant she was grateful to him and then resolutely put him out of her mind forever. He had served