I smiled at him, my heart melting instantly at his words. “I love you, too.”
Despite our current, shitty situation, I still had Cole and our kid. As long as I had those two, I could deal with almost anything; I was sure of it.
EPILOGUE
Iclenched Cole’s hand in mine. “I fucking hate you,” I spat at him, sweat dripping down my face.
He wiped a cool rag across my face, wiping away some of the sweat. “You’re going to be okay, baby. Besides, you should be okay with labor by now since you put yourself in labor so many fucking times,” he smarted off, pissing me off even more.
I glared at him. I swear, if I could kill him with my eyes, he would be dead. “Yeah, but I wasn’t at almost ten fucking centimeters!” I shouted at him.
He grinned down at me. “Save all of the energy for when you need to push,” he told me, struggling to hold back his laughter.
I reached up and yanked his face down to mine by the collar of his shirt. His eyes widened in shock. “If you don’t get rid of that amused look on your face right fucking now, I’ll shoot you with your own fucking gun after I have this baby,” I promised.
Yes, we still didn’t know what I was having. I didn’t want to know. The little kid seemed pretty strong anyway considering everything it had been through.
Cole burst out laughing. I wanted to punch him. He shouldn’t have been finding the situation so amusing. I was in a fuck ton of pain, and I was irritable.
The midwife came into the room before I could reach up and strangle him. “I see you two are having fun,” she remarked, smiling at us.
“I’m going to strangle him,” I snapped at her. “I’m not joking either. If I wasn’t in so much pain, you would be sending me to jail for murder and putting him in a fucking body bag.”
She smiled, already used to my attitude by then. “Okay, honey. I’m going to check you to see if you’re ready to start pushing. Do you feel any urges to push?” she asked.
“Yes, for about five minutes now, I think,” I told her between clenched teeth as I got another painful contraction.
I clenched Cole’s hand tightly. He whispered soothing words in my ear until it passed. “Okay, sweetheart; you’re ready to start pushing.” She looked at Cole. “I need you to help her push. I assure you, she will get tired very quickly.”
Cole gave her a curt nod, his amusement gone, and the seriousness of the situation taking its place. He gave me the sweetest smile ever that had my heart melting. “You can do this, baby. Just think about being able to hold our kid after it’s finally out.”
I nodded, taking a deep breath. I put my feet in the stirrups, and Cole put a hand under my upper back. “Alright. You need to put your chin against your chest and push every time I tell you, okay? I’m going to count, and you need to push for that amount of time.”
I nodded. “Okay. One. Two. Push,” she ordered.
Cole helped me push, and I clenched the rails of the hospital bed in my hands tightly. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Good. Relax. Get ready to do the same thing with the next contraction,” she instructed.
I was already breathing heavily, and I was in ten times more fucking pain than I had been before. Cole stood beside me, encouraging me with every push, and even pushed me when I started getting too tired.
This went on for about an hour, and then, the intense, painful pressure I had been feeling before was gone. I heard a cry a moment later, and Cole grinned the biggest smile I had ever seen on his face as they placed her on my chest to clean her. She was screaming her little head off, but the noise didn’t bother me. I was so entranced by my beautiful, little girl that nothing could have bothered me at that moment.
Cole cut the umbilical cord, and they took her over to get weighed and to finish cleaning her up. Cole leaned down and kissed me deeply. “We have a baby girl,” he told me, grinning widely, excitement clear in his voice.
I nodded, joyful tears spilling down my cheeks. He continued kissing me. He couldn’t contain his grin, and honestly, neither could I.
* * *
I woke up,yawning instantly. My entire body hurt from giving birth, but I could honestly say that it was the best experience I had ever been through.
I looked over to see Cole sitting on a chair beside my bed, holding our daughter in his arms and feeding her. I sat up slowly, and Cole looked up at me. “Morning, baby,” he murmured quietly.
He looked tired but the happiest I had ever seen him. “Have you been dealing with her all night?” I asked him, rubbing my eyes.
He nodded. “It’s really not that bad. I just wake her up every two hours and feed her an ounce or two of formula. She sleeps through it all—diaper changes and everything,” he told me. “You needed the sleep.”
I held my arms out as she let go of the bottle, and he got up, gently placing her into my arms. I smiled down at her. She was gorgeous. She had a little bit of dark hair on her tiny head. She was so light in my arms—so fragile.
Cole laid down on the bed beside me and rubbed her cheek with his thumb, smiling softly. “What do we want to name her?” he asked me.