One Moment Please (Wait With Me #3) - Amy Daws Page 0,115

job, and they quickly swaddle my baby girl in a blue and pink blanket, placing a pink hat on her dark brown matted head. They lift her to me so I’m holding her, wincing at her battle cries.

Dr. Lizzy smiles from between my legs. “Talk to her, Lynsey. She’ll recognize your voice.”

I take a deep breath and swallow before saying the first thing that comes to mind, “The man fisted the woman’s large—”

“Baby,” Josh interjects with a look of shock. “You’re not quoting smut to our child right now, are you?”

“Um…no!” I exclaim, horrified that I almost did that. “I was just telling her a story about you fisting my big cankles the other night.”

Josh smiles and kisses my sweaty hair, reaching his finger out so our little peanut can grab him. She doesn’t look so creatury at all anymore. She looks like…a baby. Like…our baby.

My chin trembles when I see features of Lennon and Claire and Josh and me in her little face. She’s a miraculous mix of all the people I love the most. I stroke her downy-soft cheeks, smiling at her, blinking through my millions of tears.

I sniff and look up at my fiancé. “What do you think about calling her Julianna?”

Josh turns his loving gaze from our daughter to me. “Really?”

I nod and smile. “I think it’s beautiful and perfect.”

His eyes redden with tears. “I love you.” He kisses me chastely on the lips, and then looks down at our little girl. “And I love you,” he adds, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Julianna.”

“I love her more.” I clutch her to my cheek and want to commit every last detail of this moment to memory. “I love her so much that I want to turn to cannibalism because I want to eat this precious baby for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

I pull her fingers to my lips and murmur, “I wanna eat her wittle fingers and wittle toes and—” I look up at Josh and see that he’s blinking rapidly at me in alarm. I press my lips together and croak, “That sounded better in my head.”

He laughs and crawls onto the bed next to me so we can stare at our baby for a long while. Then he’s shaking beside me, tears running down his face. “Thank you, Jones.”

My chin trembles, and I can’t fight the enormous smile on my face. “Don’t mention it, Dr. Dick.”

And just like that…we’re a family.

A Few Months Later

I stride into the hospital cafeteria, and my eyes instantly find Lynsey sitting at her favorite table. My face splits into a giant smile at her open laptop, her papers and books spread out all over, and a diaper bag, purse, and stroller parked beside her. Plus, two slices of pie sitting off to the side.

Some things never change.

I glance around for my daughter, but Lynsey is wearing a breastfeeding cover over the top of her clothing, so the odds are, Julianna is feasting. I make my way to the table, and Lynsey’s eyes lift at my approach.

“Hello, my wife.” I lower my head and drop a kiss to her lips. We’ve been married a solid month, and I still love calling her that whenever possible.

Originally, we were going to wait and do a big, traditional wedding next summer, but one baby-free night and a few too many tiki bar beverages ended up with Lynsey and me on a plane to Vegas. The wedding was impulsive, and the twenty-four-hour trip was full of nonstop sex because Lynsey had just been cleared by Dr. Lizzy. You’d have thought we’d never had sex before the way we were going at it all night. God, it was a good night. It was our first night away from Julianna, and we stayed up the entire time fucking and talking about our future together.

When we came home, I thought our elopement would send our parents into a tailspin, but my mother was bubbling over with happiness. Lynsey’s parents came around when we agreed to baptize Julianna at their church. It all worked out pretty perfectly.

“Hello, my husband,” Lynsey volleys with a dopey smile that I never want to disappear.

I peek under the cover where Julianna’s eating. “Hello, my daughter.”

Her head instantly pulls away from Lynsey’s breast, and milk shoots into her face as she looks toward my voice. She cries out at the onslaught of liquid, and Lynsey quickly reconnects her to the breast.

“Don’t distract a girl when she’s eating,” Lynsey exclaims, nudging me so I move