Page 148 of Promised to the Cowboy

Our daughter gives a small, indignant sound.

I look down, and her eyes open, too new to tell whose they will become. She stares somewhere near my chin.

“That’s your daddy,” Evie whispers.

Daddy.

The best word in the world.

I touch one finger to our daughter’s hand, and her tiny fingers close around it. “Hi, baby girl. I’m your dad.”

She doesn’t appear impressed.

Evie smiles. “Tell her the important part.”

I know exactly what she means.

I lean closer, her tiny fingers still curled around mine. “I wanted you. Every second. Before I saw you moving on that screen. Before I felt you kick. You were wanted before you took your first breath. You’ll be wanted every day after.”

Fear rises immediately when the nurse asks if I want to hold her.

“Here,” she says gently. “Let me show you.”

I sit, and she transfers our daughter into my arms.

She weighs almost nothing—and everything.

Her head fits into the crook of my elbow. One tiny fist rests beneath her chin. Her mouth opens, then closes, as though she has something to say but hasn’t decided whether I’m ready to hear it.

I stare at her.

There’s no guilt in this room. No price paid for her life. Only Evie breathing beside me, our daughter warm against my chest, and my heart beating steadily beneath the device.

One of the nurses draws the curtain farther around the bed. “We’re going to get Mom cleaned up and comfortable. Why don’t you take your daughter for a little walk?”

I look at Evie, whose eyes are already drifting closed.

“Go,” she murmurs. “Introduce her.”

“You sure?”

“I’ll still be here when you get back.”

I bend and kiss her forehead.

“Gabriel?” she calls as I reach the door.

I turn. “Yeah?”

She smiles. “Tell them her name.”

I nod, then carry our daughter into the hallway.

Dad is sitting in one of the plastic chairs with his elbows on his knees. Maggie is beside him, holding two untouched cups of coffee and watching the delivery-room door as though she can force it open through concentration alone.

They both stand when they see me.

Maggie’s hand flies to her mouth. “Oh,” she whispers.