Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“She’s hungry,” I said, looking up at my wife, who was staring at me with so much love in her eyes that I suddenly found it hard to breathe.
“She just ate,” my wife corrected. “That’s a reflex. It’s to help the baby know what to do when she’s born. She does it automatically when her cheek is stimulated.”
I grinned.
“Good to know, Nurse,” I told her playfully.
She beamed at me.
“I can’t believe the timing.” She shook her head. “I walked out of that test, and my water broke on the front lawn.”
She shook her head worriedly.
“None of your teachers had anything to say about it,” I told her. “And they gave me your grades, no hassle.”
She widened her eyes at me.
“Did you show them a picture of the baby?” she questioned.
I nodded. “I did. They thought she was beautiful.”
“Now all I have to do is pass the boards, and we’re golden,” she was so excited.
“I have my first police academy day next Monday. Do you think they’ll care if I bring my baby with me?” I teased. “Because I’m pretty sure this little thing isn’t leaving my sight.”
She snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure we can find you some tactical baby holder that you can slip on during your hand-to-hand training.”
Her hair was everywhere, some of it still plastered to her neck from where she’d sweated during the whole fun part of pushing our little girl out, but I’d never seen her look more beautiful than I did right then.
She rolled her eyes, and I wanted to kiss her.
“Do you like her outfit?” I asked. “It was the first outfit on top that looked like it matched.”
She stared down at it, then a grin teased up the corners of her lips.
“I love it,” she said. “I got it from one of the girls in nursing school and didn’t think that I’d ever get a chance to put it on her because it was a preemie.”
“Who knew babies came this small and were still healthy?” I questioned my wife.
“A lot more than you’d think,” she admitted. “Though, ours was a little smaller than most healthy babies. She was four pounds, fifteen ounces. They also expect her to lose some of that over the next week while we establish a nursing routine.”
I laid my hand over our baby’s chest, felt the rise and fall of her breaths and wondered if life had ever been any more perfect.
The hot pink flowers on the blue sleeper were adorable against my girl’s lightly tanned skin.
She had a head full of hair as thick as her mother’s, well, mine too but I prefer to think about her looking like my beautiful wife. There wasn’t a single thing about her that I would change.
“I love you, Sienna.”
That was when my woman started to cry.
I didn’t move from where I was sitting with Sienna in my lap, but I offered her my hand, and we stayed like that for a while, studying our baby’s perfect features.
Not once did I think that one day, I wouldn’t have this anymore.
Because if I had, I would’ve cherished it just a little bit more.
***
“You okay, man?”
I turned to find Jessie staring at me with worry clouding his eyes.
“My daughter had that same outfit,” I cleared my throat, trying to get the catch in my voice to go the fuck away.
Jessie looked at his daughter, and his eyes softened. “We got it at the Goodwill,” he murmured. “We couldn’t find any clothes to fit her at any of our department stores.”
I looked away and changed the subject.
“Anyway, I need to borrow Ellen,” I repeated my earlier problem. “How much do you know about my old life, Jessie?”
Jessie shrugged. “Not much, to be honest. I know what you told everyone the night Naomi was hurt. That you had a wife and a kid, but they think you’re dead.”
I nodded.
“Here’s the rest of the story.”
I gave it to him in clinical terms, explaining my life over the last years since my death, not leaving out a single detail. Why? Because this man was going to give me his wife, and I wanted him to know exactly what he was getting into if he agreed to Ellen helping me.
And, unsurprisingly, Jessie nodded his agreement.
“What made her say yes to him?” he asked. “That doesn’t sound like something someone like her would do.”
I gritted my teeth.
“He threatened to have Sienna taken away from her due to negligence on her part,” I said.
“How do you know?” Ellen asked.
“Camera feed,” I answered. “We have her house under surveillance. Everything he says or does when he’s over there will be recorded. Not to mention that, when we go to the game today, and I sit close to her, I’ll hear their entire conversation because of the wire I’ll be wearing.”
Jessie nodded as if he understood.