Page 85 of Do It Yourself
Finally, the doctor promises me that one more big push and I’ll be done. “This little guy’s ready, can you gimme one more, Mama?” I huff out a breath and nod, I can’t waste the energy to answer her with words. “Alright, let’s do this. Ten, nine, eight…”
Time stops, everything fades away except for the bloody bundle in the doctor’s arms, the only sound is the beautiful cry that proves my baby boy has a powerful set of lungs. My vision blurs as they set my baby in against my chest.
“Oh my god, Jude, he’s here!” I sob out, looking over at my fiance. Tears are streaming down his eyes and he wraps his arms around the pair of us in a gentle hug. “You did amazing, Mama. He’s perfect.” He presses a kiss against my table before kissing his wet hair. “Look at his hair. He has so much hair.” I’mbabbling, going over all of the perfect little details of our baby. “Warren Orion Daniels, you are so loved. Your parents love you so much, such a perfect baby.”
After I’ve been all cleaned and stitched up, a warmth runs down my stomach. At first, I assumed it was just contentment settling but the warmth trickles down my side and after a beat it’s cold. “Oh my god, Jude! You’re son just peed on me!” I can’t stop the laugh that explodes out of me.
“Your uncles are never going to let you live this down, kid.” Jude chuckles, grabbing a wash cloth to wipe up the mess. “Forget his uncles, I’m bringing this up at his wedding!” Our little guy sleeps through our sleep deprived giggles.
A sense of contentment settles over me as the nurse wraps baby Warren up in a cozy blanket before putting him back in my arms, prepping us to move out of the delivery room.
We settle in our new room before Jude pulls out his phone and snaps a picture of our baby burrito in his bassinet. He shoots a text off to the family group chat announcing the newest arrival of our family, chuckling.
“I can’t believe you got away with giving birth without any of the family finding out.”
I shrug, “I just wanted it to be you and me. It was perfect.” Jude hums his agreement before he presses a soft kiss against my mouth, his phone starts to blow up with notifications.
THE END
Bonus Epilogue
LOLA
“Ireally appreciate your help with this Lola.” I can hear the exhaustion in Patrick’s voice, quickly followed by the sound of my poor older sister gagging in the background. Elle came down with a bug yesterday and it sounds like Patrick was going to be the virus’ next victim.
“No problems at all.” I try my best to sound reassuring and nothing like extremely overworked and overstressed that I was actually feeling.
The phone call doesn’t last much longer, it’s pretty evident Patrick’s stomach was fighting him. After holding Mabel’s hair back at the beginning of her pregnancy, I had my fill of listening to others vomit.
I turn off my truck after finally getting Patrick off the phone and hop down, looking at the elementary school I’ve parked at. Patrick had originally booked a meeting at the school to discuss possibly starting some field trip tours and, unfortunately, it couldn’t be rescheduled. I’d done my fair share of networking but it had been awhile and I’d never done it with a broken heart before.
Well, not really a broken heart. More of a ‘tired of the male population and resigned to the fact that my twin brother and my sister’s significant others were the only good guys left in the world so I better get used to being alone’ kind of heart.
I give myself a shake, pushing personal gripes down and fortifying myself with my boss-face.
Thankfully, the visitor parking is close to the front entrance to the school. Stepping up to the doors, I press the button to request entrance.
The doors swing open, allowing my entrance. There’s a tall woman waiting for me outside of the front office. “You don’t look like a Patrick.” There’s obvious trepidation in her voice as she looks me up and down. My hackles rise slightly as I feel her gaze stutter as it lands on my round stomach and thick thighs. “I mean, it is Utah, we are known for our unique names.” I say, a sad attempt at a joke.
It does not land.
I cough, doing what I can to break the awkward silence, before pulling a business card out of the back pocket of my jeans. “Uh, yeah, no. My name’s Lola. Patrick’s sick so I’m filling in for him.” The woman hums, studying my card like it might be a counterfeit hundred dollar bill or something. “Yes, well. Mr. Hale is waiting.” She turns without another word and leads me into the office of the principal.
Mr. Hale is an older man with a sunny disposition that’s the complete opposite of his snooty receptionist. The meeting goes well and I’m ready to make my exit but Mr. Hale gets thewonderfulidea to introduce me to the teachers of the grades that he thinks would most benefit from our tours. I do my best to decline but he won’t hear it and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize this possible contract so, I do my best to channel the enthusiasm of my brother-in-law, “Lead the way. I’m excited to meet them.” My smile may be fake but Mr. Hale is just so excitedto take me out and introduce me to his teaching staff, I doubt he notices.
Of course, Mr. Hale has no idea where his staff happen to be, the classrooms he takes me to are both empty.
“Oh my word. I completely forgot! We have visitors today. Come along, dear.” Mr. Hale lets out another jolly chuckle, that’s honestly starting to get on my nerves, and leads me outside to the back of the school.
To say I’m surprised to see a firetruck with its lights flashing would be a gross understatement.
Groups of kids are rotating through different groups of firefighters giving different presentations. A small bit of the tension in my shoulders releases as I remember a similar experience as a kid in school.
“Mr. Parks!” Mr. Hale’s voice pulls me out of my brief blast to the past as I spot what I assume to be Mr. Parks turns his head and offers a small wave, albeit a slightly confused one. Mr. Hale waves him over, “I want to introduce you, can you spare a moment?”
His boisterous voice catches the attention of almost every adult out of the field, thankfully most of the children are too engrossed in the firefighters to look my way but that doesn’t stop the grown men and women leading the demonstrations from searching out the loud voice.
I wonder if that’s part of the job, always ready to jump to an emergency.
