Chapter 12
SADIE
“Now, have you thought of names?”
It was an hour later, and Noah was long gone – as far as I knew.
Only the absolute, total joy that I felt at the birth of my babies kept the horror at bay knowing what he now knew.
He’d seen the tattoo, and the look on his face as he locked eyes with me left no doubt that he understood what it meant.
My stomach was gripped by an icy fist of anxiety.
He knew. And that meant my parents would know, that Cammy would know, that everyone in our lives would know.
“Sade?”
Mom’s voice was soft and sweet. She and Dad were seated on the far and of the room, a twin in each of their arms. They’d be taken off to the NICU before too long. In the meantime, we had a little bit of peace and quiet.
Noah’s reaction was burned into my mind. As soon as he’d seen the tattoo, his face went stone-still and stoic. I’d seen that face before. It was the same expression he wore when Cammy and I would get into trouble as girls.
Noah had never been the “fly off the handle” sort of man – he was too thoughtful, too in control of his emotions for that kind of behavior.
No – when he was mad, he wentquiet. He’d put his emotions on lockdown in order to take some time to think about the proper reaction. Then he’d calmly, quietly come to Cammy and me and tell us that he wanted to talk. That meant it was time for the punishment to be dished out.
“Yo! Earth to Sade!” Dad’s voice brought me back to the moment.
I was in major trouble. The way Noah had calmly and quietly left the delivery room after making one-hundred percent sure that the babies were OK left no doubt that he’d be back for the discussion that’d been almost a year in the making.
For now, though, things were good. I was with my parents and with my babies. There was nothing but love in this room.
“Sorry, Dad,” I said, a smile forming on my face at the sight of him with my baby boy. “Got lost in my own thoughts.”
“Figured as much,” he said with a warm tone of voice and a knowing grin. “You’ve been doing that since you were a little girl.”
Mom beamed, leaning forward. “Names! You’ve got to have some names picked out.”
I did. It was funny – I’d had a long list of names in my head, girl, and boy ones, that I hadn’t finished narrowing down to just two before the babies arrived. I thought I had a few more weeks for that, after all. But the moment I’d looked into their little faces, two names appeared in my mind.
“She’s Emily,” I said, nodding to the girl. “And he’s Andrew.”
Mom and Dad regarded each other with an expression of overjoyed love.
“Andy and Emmy!” Mom said. She leaned in covering Emmy with kisses. “That’s so precious.”
“Andy!” Dad said, holding up my boy. “My man!” He gave him a close squeeze, and there was no doubt that the names were already a hit. “You got some middle names in mind, too? I’m partial to ‘Jack’.” He followed up his words with a playful wink, one that got a laugh out of me despite the anxiety gnawing away in my belly.
“No middle names picked out yet. But Jack is at the top of the list.”
A soft knock sounded at the open door to the room. I looked up to see that it was a trim, middle-aged woman with glasses and a friendly smile wearing a white coat. Relief washed over me as I realized that it was not the one person I’d been worried about speaking to.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Lana, one of the pediatricians on staff. Do you mind if I come in?”
“Of course not,” I said.
She stepped into the room, bringing a warm, soothing presence with her. It was the same sort of bedside manner I’d noticed with Noah.
Dr. Lana stepped over to mom and dad, looking down at the babies with a pleased smile on her face.