my panic. “Promise?”
“I promise, baby.” He kissed me again before rubbing his hand lovingly over my stomach and straightening. To the male nurse, he growled, “I’ll push my wife. Just show us the way.”
It took less than twenty minutes to get me into a room, examined, and for the doctor on call to have the team of nurses prep me for the C-section. By then, Mav’s mom and my parents had arrived.
“What’s taking so long?” Dad grumbled as he paced the width of my private room. He kept combing his fingers through his hair, disheveling it more and more, giving him an almost deranged look with his face so pale. “She’s in labor. They should be doing something.”
“They are,” Mom hissed at him. “We’re just waiting for them to come get her. You need to relax, because you’re freaking our little girl out right now.”
He blanched then walked over to my hospital bed where I was already hooked up to monitors and an IV. “Sorry, sweetheart. I’m just…”
“I’m sorry we won’t be able to have our date tomorrow night,” I told him in hopes of distracting us both. “I was really looking forward to dinner together.”
“Me too, sweetheart.”
I reached for his hand, and he readily took mine, holding on to it tightly. His was sweaty with nerves, and my heart melted. In the past three years, our relationship had come a long way. It had been slow to start, just a father-daughter date every couple weeks to begin with because I’d still been so angry with him. But he’d worked hard to earn back my trust and heal the broken pieces of my heart.
“I’m disappointed because I won’t be able to tell you that Mav and I decided on Rocco’s middle name.” I looked up at my husband, who winked down at me. “We thought Rocco Colton-James Masterson sounded too good together not to give it to our son.”
Dad sucked in a sharp breath at the same time Uncle Spider did too.
“You…” Dad paused to clear his throat. “You’re naming him after both of us?”
“Well, he already acts like both of you,” I said with a small laugh. “I figured it was only fitting to give him both of his grandpas’ names.”
“River, I don’t know what to say,” he said in a choked voice. “I—”
The door opened, and the doctor came in with two nurses. “Are we ready to have a baby?” he asked as the nurses started unhooking the machines I was plugged into that monitored Rocco.
“Definitely,” Maverick told the man. “The sooner, the better.”
My panic began to take over again. Seeing it, Dad bent and kissed the top of my head. “You’re going to be fine, little girl. Maverick won’t let anything happen to you. Be brave,” he whispered. “We’ll all see you soon. Okay?”
I nodded, fighting tears.
“Love you, River.”
“I love you too, Daddy.”
Hours later, after everyone had gone home for the night, I sat up in bed with Maverick beside me helping me hold our son for the first time. I was in some major pain, but the medication made me not care. Maverick was helping me hold Rocco because I was all kinds of loopy, and I didn’t want to risk dropping my precious baby boy.
“He’s beautiful,” Mav whispered. That was how he’d been talking since Rocco had been placed in his arms earlier. As if he were afraid to raise his voice any louder for fear of scaring our son.
But he didn’t need to worry. Rocco was already fearless. Other than crying when he was first pulled from my tummy, he’d been calm and wide-eyed. Mom had joked that he was taking the world in and finding it all rather boring, but I thought she was pretty spot-on.
“He looks just like you,” I told him as I traced my finger down Rocco’s cheek. The baby made a humming sound deep in his throat, and I couldn’t help falling a little more in love with my son.
“Nah, I see a little of you in him too, babe. See this nose?” He was still whispering. “That’s your nose. And those eyes? I think they’re going to be green and not gray like mine. And this chin? I would know this chin anywhere.”
“Yeah?” I asked hopefully.
He touched his lips to the tip of my nose. “Yeah, baby.”
I rested my head on his shoulder and turned my gaze back on our little miracle. We sat there quietly, taking in Rocco’s perfection for the longest time. When something wet dripped