Maid To The Billionaire(44)
“Doctor! I need to push.”
He was doing something on his end and he said, “Hang on just a second Vicki, just one more second…”
“No! I have to push now!” Alex still looked distressed, but he put his hand on my forehead and brushed the hair there back and made shushing noises.
“You’re doing so good Vicki. I’m so proud of you. You can do this. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for not letting anyone pressure you to do something you didn’t believe in. I’m so very proud of you.”
“Okay Vicki,” the doctor said. “With the next pain, push as hard as you can.” I started to nod, but the pain hit and I pushed. I felt like I was crushing Alex’s hand but he didn’t seem to care.
“You can do this. You got this. I can’t wait to meet our son.” It only took about three pushes and he was out. The pain was over. I was shaking all over and my baby was crying… loudly. Alexander was grinning from ear to ear and suddenly a wiggly, wet little baby boy was laid across my belly. I looked down at him, all covered in muck and I knew that I would never see anything as beautiful again. “Look what you did,” Alex said with tears in his eyes. “He’s beautiful.”
“He’s perfect,” the doctor said. “A little small, but not too bad. Dad, do you want to cut the cord?” Alex’s eyes were a mixture of joy and terror.
Alex looked at me as if asking for permission and I said, “Go ahead.”
The baby’s cord was clamped close to his belly and the doctor handed the scissor things to Alex. His hand trembled slightly as he snipped and once the baby was loose the nurse said, “I have to clean him up and weigh him. He’ll be back in a minute or two.”
Alex was still staring at him in awe. “Hurry,” he said. He dropped down in the chair next to my bed and lay his head down against me. I could smell his musky shampoo and I couldn’t help myself… I ran my hand through his soft hair. He closed his eyes and just lay there for a few seconds and then he lifted his head up and looked at me again. I saw the same awe and wonder in his eyes that he’d looked at the baby with and it filled me up with such strong emotion that I wasn’t sure what to do with it all… so I cried again.
***
The nurse brought our beautiful boy back to us, wrapped tightly in a blanket. He was all cleaned up and his skin was pink and beautiful. He was so small that as I held him I was afraid he might break. He was wearing a little stocking cap and Alex pulled it up and peeked underneath. “Blonde fuzz,” he said with a grin. The baby had his eyes closed, so I hadn’t seen the color yet, but none of that mattered. He was gorgeous and like the doctor said, “Perfect.”
“How much does he weigh?” I asked.
“Four pounds eleven ounces,” the nurse said.
“Wow, that’s incredible,” Alex said. “It’s amazing that something that weighs less than five pounds can be such a perfect little person.”
“It is amazing. It’s also amazing that I already love him so much. My chest feels like it’s going to burst when I look at him.”
Alex reached over and let his finger trace the round line of his tiny little face and said, “Me too.” I looked up at him and I could see that he was as consumed by this child as I was. That did my heart good because no matter what ever happened with he and I… anything or nothing, the baby would have a father who would love him. “Do you know what you want to name him?” he asked me.
“No, not yet,” I said. I thought about Manny and all of his silly names. “What’s your middle name?” I asked him.
“Michael,” he said.
“Hmm, I like that. What about Michael Alexander Reigns?”
He pulled his head up to look at my face quickly like he was afraid I was kidding. “Really?”
I nodded, “Yes, I like it, don’t you?”
The tears began to flow freely down his face and he said, “I love it. I didn’t think you would give him my last name.”
“Is that okay?”
“I don’t think I could put into words how okay it is,” he said. He touched the baby’s cheek again and said, “Hi there, Michael Alex. I’m your daddy.”
We sat there silently staring at him, watching him sleep, watching him breathe and finally I asked the question that had to be asked. “What about Cassandra… and the lawyers… and the tabloids…”
He sighed and said, “Cassie will not be easy. She’s angry and I understand that she has a right to be. But most grown-ups would take that anger and try to begin their own new life. Cassie is not most grown-ups. She’ll come at me hard… and you.”