I’ve barely had enough time to register that I have a son or that my beautiful, tired, wife has given birth before he’s pushed over to us in a clear box meant to be a hospital baby bed. Danika sits upright and the nurse places him in her arms. Swaddled in a blue polka dotted blanket with a knitted beanie, you almost can't tell he’s got a cone head. We were warned it might happen. Baby’s skulls are soft, the bones not fused together, so they can make it through
the birth canal. It still looks weird.
“Hey, little guy.” Danika brushes her finger tip against his cheek, openly adoring how beautiful he is. After a moment, she looks up as if she just remembered I’m in the room. “Here.”
She lifts her arms for me to take him. My heart beats against my chest. A bolt of fear sears through me. What if I drop him? What if I don’t hold him right? What if I end up being a shit parent and screw him up like my parents did me?
I shake my hand and Danika just smiles. She shifts, adjusting herself to lay him perfectly in my arms. I stare down at the little man. He has Molly’s nose, Danika’s thick lashes, and my chin. This kid, he’s going to be a heartbreaker.
“Hey, there.” My voice cracks. Happy tears threaten to spill onto my cheeks but I’m a man. We don’t cry. That’s bullshit. I cried like a baby the day Danika said I do in our small courthouse ceremony last year. It was everything she wanted, intimate with a three week long honeymoon where we traveled all of Europe. A few weeks after we got back we found out she was pregnant.
“Do you have a name?” The nurse asks. She has a clipboard in one hand and a Sharpie ready to scribe in the other.
I tear my eyes away from our little miracle just long enough to answer. “Hunter. Hunter James Harris.”
The End.
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Contents
A note from the Author:
Blurb
Epilogue from Part 1 I Hate You, I Love You
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15