“She’s so beautiful,” she sighed. “Look what we made. She’s an angel.” She gave a strained smile to our daughter. She was supposed to be having a break before she birthed our second child, but I could see she wasn’t getting one. Her stomach was tight. Annabelle hadn’t taken her eyes of our daughter since I brought her over. “Her name should be Angelica. Angel for short.”
I nodded, willing to agree to any name to make Annabelle happy now. She was beyond amazing to give birth to my babies. I stared down at my baby girl, studying her tiny features. Annabelle was right, our daughter was stunning. Shit! I was going to end up in jail. I would kill any boy who went near my baby. She did look like a beautiful angel. “Angel it is.”
Annabelle moaned and gazed up at me. “I love you.” She then looked at Angelica. “Love you, Angel.”
Both my girls were stunning, mother and daughter. I was so screwed. I prayed. I prayed like I’d never in my life. “Please, please, dear God. Just one girl. My other children have to be boys. Please. I’ll donate more money to charity and be more involved with my family. Please.”
“Fucking hell Carl, you better not be Goddamn praying that you only have one friggin’ girl, while I’m about to give birth to another of your babies!” she panted.
I didn’t even answer her, because I didn’t think she’d appreciate me saying, “Hell yes.” So instead I rested the baby across her naked chest. Leaning down, I kissed Annabelle’s forehead. “You’re doing so well. I’m proud of you.”
She groaned. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t honey.”
“Argghhh, yes, yes I do,” she screamed. I took my little angel off her chest as she heaved and yelled, “You! You did this!” She sat up and bore down. She’d been nasty like this when she delivered Angelica only ten minutes ago. There was less swearing this time.
“You’re doing great Annabelle,” Dr. Bay, who’d been quiet said as she settled herself between Annabelle’s spread legs. “You’re going to start pushing again. When I say start, bear down.”
Hugging my daughter close to me, I watched as my wife breathed in and out at a quick pace.
“Okay, I need you to bear down, in three, two, and one.” I inched closer and watched as Dr. Bay helps Annabelle bring my other baby into the world. A penis. Thank the lord, I see a penis.
“A boy!” I cheer before the nurses or the doctor can say what the baby is. The nurse places my boy straight on Annabelle’s chest. He was all his mother’s looks, with the light hair, big blue eyes, and creamy white skin.
“My boy,” Annabelle whispered. “My baby boy.”
“Perfect honey. You did amazing. Thank you. I love you.”
Tears ran down Annabelle’s cheek as she beamed down at our son. “Hi, mummy’s boy. Oh Carl, look what we made, they’re both so perfect.”
I nodded, speechless. I had two wonderful, perfect children. The nurse took my boy from Annabelle and he cried loudly at how unhappy that made him. I walked over and watched as they cleaned, weighted and wrapped him before bring him back to Annabelle. He screamed the whole time until they placed him back against Annabelle’s chest again. Well, if that wasn’t a statement of things to come, I didn’t know what was.
“Jake. He looks like a Jake.” Annabelle smiled at me.
Leaning down, I rested Angelica’s head on Annabelle and gazed at my son. Jake. I liked it. Short, but strong. “Angelica and Jake. I like it honey. I love you. Thank you for these two.”
“I love you too, Carl.”
Fraternal twins, one a girl and one boy. What a lucky man I was.
My family all sat in the waiting room. I came out excited to show them babies. “I have a boy…” I waited until they all stood and added. “And I have a girl.” Everyone, but Jade and Bailey froze.
Andrew was the one who broke the silence. “Well fuck. Do you think the curse is broken?”
“I bet the girl thing is because you’re old.” Oakley’s eyes widened. “Holy crap, does that mean if we don’t find our mates until we’re old like you we’ll have daughters too?” My nephews turned a sickly shade of white. They realized what a girl meant. What a daughter meant.
The look of horror on not just Oakley’s face but most of my other nephews would have been funny if I didn’t wonder myself if what Oakley said was true. Did I have a girl child because I didn’t find my soulmate until I was in my mid-forties?
“I hate to say it, but Oakley might be right. Maybe an effect of finding my mate so late in life is that I get a daughter.”