Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 142728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
My gaze lands on a jumbo-sized healing balm stick that claims to be good for chapped skin and safe for baby. Perfect. Serena’s always preaching about the importance of moisturizing. This sounds like something she’d use. I grab that and a tiny blue gift bag and head to the register.
I make my way through the maze of long hallways to the birthing center at Empire Med. A nurse in pink scrubs narrows her eyes at me. I flash a quick smile. I’m not here to kidnap any babies, promise!
Ignoring her, I hitch my purse higher on my shoulder and keep walking.
Finally, 219. I slap the lever on the dispenser of hand sanitizer outside the door and slather it all over my hands.
A curtain’s drawn, separating the two beds. “Serena?”
“Over here!” she calls out.
Gray steps out from behind the curtain and pushes it aside. “Hey, Emily.” He smiles warmly at me and motions for me to come closer.
“Congratulations.” I reach up and hug him.
For a second, he freezes. Then he returns the hug. “Thanks for coming. She’s been looking forward to seeing you,” he says against my ear.
Now I wish I’d left work earlier.
He releases me, and my gaze lands on Serena. She offers a weak smile and pushes herself upright. Somehow the hospital bed makes her seem smaller than I remember, like all the white sheets could swallow her whole.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, stepping closer.
“Exhausted,” she says. A weak smile curves her lips. “Hopefully, they let me go home soon.”
“You’ll stay as long as they tell you to,” Gray says, pulling a chair next to the bed and gesturing for me to sit next to Serena.
“He’s right,” I say, dropping into the chair and draping the strap of my purse over the back.
“Don’t start,” she says. Her gaze falls on the little blue bag I’m still holding.
I hold it out to her. “I wanted to bring you…something. I saw this and thought it looked neat.”
She accepts the bag and pulls out the fat little stick. “Oh! This is perfect. Thank you. My skin feels like a paper bag in here.” She scowls at the hospital room, then rips into the thin protective plastic around the balm. “Ahhh,” she sighs as she smears it on her lips and cheeks. “Much better. Thank you.”
Gray watches her with concern. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t know I needed it until I saw it.” Serena shrugs. “I could use some ice water, though.”
“You got it.” Gray glances at me and lifts an eyebrow.
“I’m good.”
Serena watches him leave with hearts in her eyes. “He must be exhausted,” she says. “He won’t even go up to the clubhouse to sleep for a few hours.”
Honestly, I’m relieved to hear it.
“So where’s the baby?” I ask.
“The nurses have him for a bit.” She shifts again. “Rock was here with Gray for a while. And he’s been itching to have some of the other brothers here, but I wanted you to meet Lincoln first.”
“Really?” I ask.
“Duh, of course.”
“What do you think, Serena?” the nurse in the pink scrubs I’d encountered earlier asks as she walks into the room carrying a little blue bundle. “Ready for him?”
Serena beams and holds out her arms. “Yes.”
The nurse gently transfers the baby to Serena, watches them for a few minutes, checks machines I hadn’t even noticed, then briskly walks out.
Gray steps in a second later, carrying a mauve pitcher and several plastic cups wrapped in plastic. He sets them on the rolling table next to Serena’s bed and watches her with the baby.
“Everything okay?” he asks, with the gruff tone of a man who might burn down the hospital if Serena and Lincoln aren’t perfectly content.
“We’re good,” Serena coos, staring at the baby. She looks at me. “Do you want to hold him?”
I lift my hands in the air. “I bathed in sanitizer before coming in the room.”
She chuckles and tilts her head, motioning for me to come closer.
Little Lincoln is rosy-skinned and kinda wrinkly, but so freakin’ cute as I take him in my arms. He blinks his eyes open and stares up at me with a serene expression. “Hi, baby,” I whisper.
He closes his eyes and smacks his lips.
I hold him for a few more seconds, then hand him to Grayson.
“He’s really precious,” I say.
“So.” Serena curls her hand around mine, tugging me so close, soon I’ll have to crawl into the bed with her. “Grayson and I have something we want to ask you.”
“What’s that?” My gaze shifts between Serena’s eager, hopeful expression, and Grayson’s determined one.
“Will you be Lincoln’s godmother?” she whispers.
I blink and process the question.
Joy bubbles up inside me. “Me? Are you sure?”
“I can’t think of anyone I’d trust more, Emily,” Serena says.
Grayson nods. “We’d be honored.”
“Oh, wow.” I step back, pressing my hand to my chest. Maybe to some people it’s nothing more than an honorary title to toss around, but it means something to me. I’m deeply touched. “Yes, of course I will.”