“Come on,” Brett tried to coax me into moving closer, but I just released his hand with a smile and waved him on.
“You go ahead. I’ll see him. I’m just going to wait until y’all are done.”
“Beauty.” His brow furrowed as he stepped closer to me. “You know you’re a part of this family, right? You’re just as important to us as everyone else is.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came. He truly meant that. These people who had life-long bonds had accepted me as a part of their family without so much as blinking.
Just as I took a step toward Brett, Emmy called out, “Kenzie! Oh, thank God.”
I rushed over to the side of the bed and looked down at her anxious face. “What’s the matter, sweetie?”
“I don’t…” she sniffed. “I don’t know what I’m doing!” Then the waterworks began. “I don’t know the first thing about being a mom. What if I mess up? What if I do something wrong? What if I break him?!”
I rubbed a hand over her hair. “Aw, honey, it’s all gonna be okay.”
“I need you. You’re the only one of us who’s done this before.” Her eyes were so full of panic as she looked up at me that I felt a tug at my heart. I understood that panic all too well. I’d felt the exact same thing when the twins were born. Fortunately for Emmy, she had something I never did. She had a solid foundation of people who loved her, Luke, and this new baby. Where I was alone, she had people who would do the best they could, even if they weren’t sure what it was they were supposed to do.
“I’m here, Em. I’m only ever a phone call away. Don’t ever hesitate to call me if you have any questions. I’ll always be there to help.”
Her chest rose and fell with a deep breath of relief and I couldn’t put into words how good that made me feel. I had been able to calm her. I was the one to offer her assurance.
“You want to meet little Matthew?” she asked me, her face splitting into the brightest, most beautiful grin as her gray eyes danced with happiness.
“I’d love to.” I reached down and took the snuggly little bundle from Emmy’s hands, holding him tightly to my chest as I leaned down to press my lips to his downy head. I wanted this again. I knew I’d been toying with the idea of having more children with Brett, but in that very moment, holding Matthew Allen in my arms, I knew without a doubt I wanted this very thing again. And I wanted it with the man who was staring at me from across the hospital room like I was his whole world.
“Seriously, woman,” Lizzy declared as I finished up my last appointment of the day. She was still going on about the same thing we’d been discussing all day. “You didn’t see his face. You were too busy sniffing on baby Matthew to notice—”
“Hey, in my defense,” I interrupted, “babies smell awesome! It’s like a new car smell but a thousand times better. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“All right, I’ll give you that. But I’m telling you, the man looked like he wanted to push to you the ground and impregnate you right there in front of everybody.”
My head fell back in a laugh at her description of how Brett was looking at me in Emmy’s hospital room as I held the baby, gently rocking him to sleep.
“Oh, he did not!”
“Yuh huh! Swear to God. Brett’s got some serious plans in that head of his. I could see the wheels turning. He wants to make a billion little Brenzies with you.”
I looked up from where I was cleaning my station and arched a brow at her. “Brenzies?”
“Yeah, like Brett plus Mackenzie. It was the best I could come up with. Y’alls names suck combined together.”
“Whatever,” I giggled. “There will be no Brenzies being made any time soon.”
Lizzy gave me a knowing grin as she stated, “But you’re not ruling it out.”
“No,” I admitted. “I’m not ruling it out. We’ve actually talked about it.”
The squeal she emitted was almost enough to shatter glass. “You’ve talked about makin’ babies?”
She plopped down in the chair opposite me at my little table and I leaned in to tell her, “Yeah, we’ve talked about all that stuff. Honestly, Liz, I really feel like he’s the one, you know? He’s just so friggin’ wonderful. He loves Cameron and Callie so damn much…”
“He loves you too, sweetie.”
“I know,” I replied with a happy sigh. “Did I tell you Cameron called him Daddy the other day? You should have seen his face. He looked like he was about to explode; he was so damn happy.”