Page 29 of Dirty Martini
Epilogue
Welcome to the World, Baby Alice
“Trace!” I screamed in the dead of night. “Trace! Wake the fuck up! It’s happening.”
I frantically shook him as he grumbled awake.
“Five more minutes,” he mumbled, rolling over.
“No more minutes,” I shouted. “Your daughter is about to be born in this damn bed if you don’t get up right this minute!”
Springing up, Trace snapped awake. “Okay, okay. We planned for this. Go start the car, and I will grab the bags.”
He leapt out of bed, darting for the closet.
“Trace?” I called to him.
His wide eyes fluttered over to me while he was pulling out our packed suitcases. “Yes, darling?”
“I need help getting up. The pain is really bad!” I cried through gritted teeth.
“Right. Okay, here we go.” He pulled me up, steadying me on my feet. “Good?”
I wobbled a little. “I think you’re going to need to walk with me.”
“I’ll do you one better.” He lifted me in his arms, grabbed his keys off of the nightstand, and rushed for the car.
After making sure I was settled, he loaded the bags and started speeding to the hospital.
“We’re about to be parents,” he sang out, gripping my hand tightly.
“Just fucking drive,” I bellowed through another contraction.
“You’re doing so great. You’re so beautiful,” he started rambling.
“Trace?” I forced the sweetest voice I could muster.
He glanced over to me. “Yes, my love?”
“Shut the fuck up!” I barked before screaming out in pain.
“Right.” His eyes stayed glued out the windshield, but his hand never stopped holding mine.
Right then, in that moment, I truly knew I had found my perfect match. I was completely and utterly in love with that silly man.
* * *
After twelve hoursof labor and more pain than I could have ever imagined in my life, we finally heard the sound we had been waiting to hear for months: our little girl’s first cries.
“She’s perfect,” I cooed as the nurse put the crying, squirming baby into my arms.
“You’re perfect.” Trace leaned down and kissed my sweaty forehead. “Thank you, babe.”
“For what?” I asked as my tired eyes focused on his scruffy face.
“For bringing our little miracle into the world,” he stated as he gushed over our daughter. “I never knew I could love someone this much.”
“Neither did I.” I stared at my baby. She was so tiny and pink and perfect.
“I meant you, sweetheart,” Trace whispered in my ear. “I mean I love her too, but I am truly, madly, deeply in love with you, Sawyer.”
It was the first time he had ever really expressed it. We had saidI love youto one another, and it only seemed natural since we were having a baby together and already living together, but I knew what he meant.
Right there in that hospital room, we became a family. We fell in love, actually in love, not out of obligation or because it was the right thing but because we were right for each other.
“I am truly, madly, deeply in love with you, too, Trace.”
