A Very Dirty Wedding(112)

"Princess," Caulter says. "If they tell you it's pee, this is going to be a hilarious story."





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Caulter



"Everything's okay?" I ask. Adrenaline pumps through my body, my hands in fists at my side. I've never been so fucking nervous about anything in my life. If anything happened to Kate or the baby…I can't even think about it. "Kate is okay? The baby is okay?"

"Everything looks fine." The obstetrician looks at the monitor beside the bed. "She's in the right position, and –"

"She?" Kate and I ask, at the same time.

"It's a girl," the doctor says. "Did I reveal the secret? Well, you'd have known in the next thirty minutes, anyway."

"It's a girl!" Kate says, smiling at me, her eyes teary.

"A girl!" I feel a lump forming in my throat.

"Are you ready to push?" the doctor asks.

"Now?" Kate squeals. "Like, now now?"

"Why do you think I'm here?" the doctor asks. "She's not going to stay inside. Since you've had an epidural, you're not going to feel much, so I need you to concentrate on pushing when I tell you to push."

Kate grabs my hand and motions me close to her. “Caulter, I –“

I squeeze her hand. “I know,” I say. “I love you too.”

“No, I mean—yeah, sure, I love you too,” she says. “But I was going to say something else.”

“What?” I ask. I’m waiting for her to say something poignant. Instead, she gives me a stern look, and as serious as I’ve ever heard her, says:

“Do not look below my waist.”

“Shit, Kate,” I say, laughing.

“I mean it, Caulter," she says. "There's no going back, once you've seen it down there. Promise me."

"Fine," I say, sighing. "I won't be squatting down south of your waist."

I'm nervous and excited all at once. Shit, I've never been so nervous. I hold Kate's hand through the delivery, silently praying nothing goes wrong.

When the doctor speaks – "Congratulations! It's a girl!" -- I breathe a sigh of relief.

Then I see her. Our baby. And everything is a blur -- cutting the umbilical cord, Kate sobbing as she holds our child -- and hell, I'm not ashamed to admit there are tears in my eyes.

Our baby.

"I want to call her Anne. After my mom," Kate says, and I choke up again.

"That's good, Kate. Really, really good."

The doctor says Kate and Anne look healthy. Even though Anne was born five weeks early, technically premature, she's over six pounds and breathing just fine. Everything is good.

Scratch that.

Everything is fucking great. When I hold Anne in my arms, my heart feels full to the point of bursting. She's so little and the cutest thing I've ever seen.

I love Kate, but this is a whole different kind of love. It's instantaneous and powerful.

And I'm responsible for her. We're responsible for her.

Holy shit.

Thirty minutes later, Anne is asleep on Kate's chest, content and warm, when our hospital room becomes total chaos as the Senator, Ella, Rose, Bailey, and Libby arrive, a giant collection of "oohs" and "ahhs" and hushed warnings to each other "be quiet or you're going to wake up the baby, damn it!"

I look around, back and forth from Kate and Anne to everyone gathered around the hospital bed, laughing and talking. Kate is radiant as she holds our child. Outside the window, snow continues to fall heavily, and I think there’s no place on earth that’s filled with so much love as this place right now.

“Caulter,” Kate says, through the commotion. “I still want to get married.”

“Oh honey, the minister went home,” Rose tells her.

“We can still do it,” I say.

“You don’t want to just redo the ceremony?” Ella asks. “We could do it again.”

Kate laughs. “I’m happy right here,” she says. “It was a lovely wedding, though, Ella.”

“It was,” the Senator says, and Ella smiles as Libby and Bailey burst into giggles.

“It wasn’t,” Ella admits, laughing. “It was ridiculous. It was a total catastrophe.”

Then everyone is laughing and Kate is shaking as she giggles, trying not to wake the baby. “It was exactly what should have happened,” Kate says.

“We’ll have a great story to tell Anne about her birthday,” I say.

“This is her birthday story,” Kate says. “And it’s perfect.”

“Hang on,” I tell her. “I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?” Kate yells.

“To find a minister!” I call.

And, as luck would have it, I find one almost immediately. In fact, I run into him in the hallway.