An Act of Persuasion - By Stephanie Doyle Page 0,103
and again she thought it was completely inappropriate to be smiling when their baby was missing. “Not it anymore. She. She is sleeping upstairs. She has already gained five ounces in two days. Apparently she has your appetite.”
She. Her baby girl. “Want her.”
“Yeah. I’ll make that happen. You rest and I’ll get the doctor. Then I’ll introduce you to your daughter. After that we’re going to name her. Finally. Baby girl just isn’t cutting it anymore.”
Weariness was pulling against her, but she fought it. She wouldn’t sleep until she saw her baby.
The delay was agonizing. First, the doctors came and flashed lights in her eyes. They pestered her with questions, which, fortunately, she seemed to have all the right answers to.
The words C-section and abruption and coma penetrated her brain, but she didn’t want to think about what they meant for her. She only wanted to see her baby. They told her she’d been asleep for two days. Two days! What kind of mother was she that she left her daughter alone for two days?
But she hadn’t been alone. She had Ben. Ben wouldn’t leave her or their daughter. Anna got that now. There was nothing to be afraid of anymore.
An hour later she was actually sitting up in bed, although her stitches burned across her middle. When she asked to pee the nurse helped her out of bed and told her to walk bent over until she felt more comfortable. The way Anna felt right now, that would be for life.
Slowly, cautiously, she made it back into the bed. After a few bites of gelatin and some sips of orange juice, she felt nearly human. Certainly ready to see her baby.
The door to the room swung open and the sight of the tiny bundle in Ben’s strong arms had her weeping immediately.
“Don’t be alarmed, baby girl. But you should know in advance your mother is a crier.”
Anna could only cry harder. Then Ben was placing her daughter in her arms and the world condensed to only Ben and her baby. “She’s so tiny.”
“A bit early on arrival, but making up ground. It means she’s scrappy.”
Anna pulled the blanket back and counted fingers and toes and touched lips and ears, taking in every inch of her little girl as she slept peacefully, only twitching her lips every so often as if she was dreaming about eating.
“So what’s it going to be? We need a name. Don’t tell me Gertrude because, even knowing what you went through, I still won’t cave on that.”
A name floated through her mind. Like coming from a dream she’d once had.
“Kelly. I think we should name her Kelly.”
“Kelly Summers-Tyler. I like it.”
“No,” Anna said, even as she brushed a finger against her delicate cheek. “Just Kelly Tyler.”
His silence spoke volumes. Anna tore her eyes away from her daughter and saw his deep blue eyes looking at her, wondering.
“Don’t ask me today. I’m not ready. I have to do something first. But I promise you, Ben, I’ll let you know when I am.”
“Okay.”
“But I was thinking...it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if you moved in with us. I mean, I can already see you like her. You’ll probably be hanging around all the time anyway. As long as you agree to put your beige man couch in the basement.”
“My own man cave with my own man couch. Who could ask for anything more?”
Ben sat on the bed with her, careful not to jostle her or the baby. He put his lips to her shoulder and for a time they simply stared at the miracle they had made together.
Just like any family would.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“ISN’T SHE CUTE?” Mark showed his daughter a picture of the recently named Kelly Tyler. Ben had sent him an updated picture. His fifth in, like, three days. The man was clearly baby crazy. At five pounds, two ounces and growing daily, it was decided she could be released from the hospital. Ben and Anna were taking her home today.
Mark had the inspiration that maybe he could break through Sophie’s freeze-out with a cute little baby girl. It had worked to an extent. He could see she’d loved picking out pink little dresses and Onesies and all kinds of different baby rattles at the baby store he’d taken her to.
Not that she was actually talking to him, but she wasn’t scowling or swearing at him, either, and he figured that was progress. Even now he could see her trying to suppress the