quietly. “I’m your dad.”
The baby stared up at him and waved her hand.
Curt was used to being stared at. But he had always been stared at because of his fame, because people recognized him from a role he’d played in a movie. It had never been for something like this.
But this is the biggest role I’ll ever have in my life. Whenever she looks at me, all she’ll see is her father.
It was the role of a lifetime, and Curt couldn’t imagine anything better.
The doctor came in. “How’s everyone doing?” he asked quietly.
Curt nodded. “Good,” he said. “Annalise has been asleep for about an hour.”
“Perfect,” the doctor said. “Let her sleep as much as she can. Whenever the babies don’t need her, she should be sleeping, and you should be on.”
Curt nodded seriously. “I can do that.”
“You’re doing well,” the doctor said, favoring him with a smile. “I know it’s tough to be a new father, but you’re handling it right. These are some lucky kids.”
“Thanks,” Curt said.
“Page the nurse if you need anything tonight,” the doctor said. “But I think you five will be able to go home tomorrow morning. This was a very uncomplicated birth, given the circumstances.”
“The circumstances?” Did he mean Annalise’s endometriosis or the fact that Curt was a famous actor?
“Triplets,” the doctor clarified.
“Oh, right.”
That complication. Somehow, in the face of everything else they had dealt with up to this point, the fact that they had just had three babies instead of one didn’t feel like a challenge at all.
Curt could only see it as a blessing.
The doctor bid him good night and left. As the door hissed closed, Annalise’s eyes blinked open.
“Hey,” she murmured.
“Oh, you’re awake,” Curt couldn’t help sounding disappointed.
“Is that bad?” Annalise asked, her lips curving upward slightly.
“I just wanted to let you get a little more rest,” Curt said.
“I’m okay,” Annalise said. “How are the babies?”
As if cued by the sound of his mother’s voice, their son began to cry softly.
Curt returned his daughter to her bassinet and picked up the boy. He ferried him over to Annalise, who sat up carefully and took him in her arms.
“Seems like someone’s hungry,” he said, helping Annalise free her breast from her shirt.
“Seems like someone needs a name,” Annalise said.
“I haven’t even begun thinking about that,” Curt admitted. “It’s such a big job, naming people.”
Annalise grinned. “That’s okay,” she said. “We can take a few days to file the birth certificates. I’m sure the perfect names will come to us.”
“We’ve been pretty lucky so far,” Curt allowed.
He perched on the edge of the bed beside her and wrapped one arm around her shoulders and the other beneath their son. Annalise leaned into him, and Curt marveled at how wonderful it was to be sitting here and holding his family in his arms.
I’ll never let them go, he promised himself. Now that I’ve been lucky enough to get them, I’ll never let them go.
Chapter 19
Annalise could tell that Curt was nervous the next morning as they buckled the triplets into the car seats they’d purchased for the occasion.
“You don’t think these straps are too tight, do you?” he asked, fitting a finger carefully between the car seat strap and their son’s shoulder. “But we don’t want to loosen them either, I guess, or else they won’t be secure.”
The nurse who had followed them out of the hospital laughed gently and clapped Curt on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Dad,” she said. “You’re doing just fine, I promise.”
Annalise was surprised by how calm she herself was feeling. She would have expected more anxiety on her first day out of the hospital with her new babies. But the truth was, she was feeling well provided for. With James behind the wheel, Curt and Annalise would be able to sit in the back with their children and make sure everything was all right all the way home. She couldn’t overlook how lucky she was.
In every possible way, I’m luckier than I ever thought I would be.
They’d purchased a minivan for the occasion, knowing they would need it as their family grew older. Now Annalise and Curt climbed into the two captain’s chairs in the middle, both of them pivoting slightly so that they could see what was going on behind them. James pulled slowly out of the hospital drive.
“Don’t worry, boss,” he called back. “We’ll go nice and slow all the way home.”
Curt looked over at Annalise. “Do you think I’m being ridiculous?” he asked.
“Oh, definitely not,” she assured