Chapter Thirteen
Charlee
One Year Later….
“That’s it, Charlee! Just one more big push.”
I want to scream at the doctor that I’ve been pushing for hours but I know this isn’t her fault.
It’s his.
I glare at Grayson as he holds my hand and says encouraging words. He must feel my stare trying to burn through his head and he turns to look at me. When he sees the look on my face, he beams at me, squeezing my hand tighter.
“I hate you.” I grit out between clenched teeth.
“That’s not true, baby. I know you love me.”
I clench his fingers tighter in mine until he winces before the doctor tells me to bear down and push one last time. I scream as I do what the doctor says and push. After a minute, I collapse back onto the hospital bed as we hear our son’s first cry. The doctor and nurses clean him up as I try to catch my breath. Grayson and I grip each other’s hands as they carefully bring him over to us and we get our first look at our son.
“He’s perfect.” Grayson whispers and I can see tears form in his eyes as he holds our son for the first time.
I look over his shoulder into our son’s tiny face as the doctors clean me up. Grayson passes him to me after a minute and I pull down my hospital gown as his little face starts to nuzzle against me. Grayson helps me get him to latch on and soon he’s nursing while we slowly stroke his head.
“Have you two picked out a name?” The nurse asks us.
I look up at Grayson and he smiles tenderly down at me. Nodding for me to tell her.
“Nicholas Lionel Thorne” I say as I smile down at my baby.
Grayson leans over, giving me a sweet kiss. “I love you, Mrs. Thorne.”
“I love you too, baby.” I tease him back.
He smiles down adoringly at me as our son eats. The room starts to clear out and I turn to Grayson telling him we should go get his mom so she can come meet her grandson when the door bangs open.
The nurse smiles at us as Grayson’s mom bursts into the room. We had asked her to wait in the waiting room but I knew she wouldn’t be able to stay out there as soon as she knew that he was here. I laugh as she rushes across the room to see her grandson. I’ve gotten so close to her in the last year and I think that she was just as excited as us when we told her that we were expecting. She had gone out and immediately started buying baby stuff as soon as she knew. She still comes over for brunch every Sunday and we usually have lunch or dinner with her one other day of the week.
She helped me plan our wedding and we were married a month after he proposed. It was a small affair; I didn’t have any family or friends to invite but it was still perfect. Grayson had taken me to Bora Bora for our honeymoon and I spent two weeks in a little bungalow over the water. It was heaven and I never wanted to come back.
While we were gone, my old crew was arrested. It was all over the news and as soon as I read it, a weight was lifted from my shoulders. I guess I was still worried about them getting to us even though Grayson had promised that he would keep us safe.
They had ended up doing the art museum job that I had a bad feeling about. They had found someone else to take my spot and when that guy got caught, he had flipped on them. He knew where the warehouse was and all of their names and they were picked up and arrested a week later. They’re still awaiting trial and sentencing but I know that they’ll be locked up for a while.
I look over at my husband as he stands behind his mother, staring down at our newborn baby. I never pictured my life would turn out like this but I’m so glad that it did. I have a mom who loves me, a husband who worships and adores me, and now we’ve started a family of our own. Life couldn’t get better.