Only once did she have a painful pang, and she let out a whimper.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he said, turning her chin, with one finger, to face him. “Look in my eyes. Just focus on them. Take a breath.”
And she did. Long, hungry looks, deep inside those rings of mossy green, past the lakes of emerald, into the spirals of jade, down to the small pupil that darted back and forth across her face, ensuring that she needed nothing else. She could’ve answered his eyes’ question: she needed nothing else.
She knew happiness, and it was in his arms.
They pulled up to the emergency entrance of the hospital faster than Heidi had thought possible; she suspected the driver was making up new rules of engagement for maneuvering on the road, and was grateful they hadn’t been stopped by the police. She and Bradley didn’t need any more crazy paparazzi stories in their relationship. Wait, is that what they’d just become, wordlessly?
Heidi didn’t have time to think about it—she had a baby to bring into the world.
Hospital staff in the lobby saw Heidi stumble out of the car, holding her stomach, and immediately rushed out a wheelchair into which they bundled her.
Bradley raced out behind her, grabbed one of the nurses by the shoulder, and said something into his ear. The man looked skeptical, then stared into Bradley’s face with sudden, dawning recognition, and nodded.
“All right,” he said to Bradley. “Push her chair and follow us.”
They chugged through the hospital, turning through one corridor after another.
“Bradley,” Heidi groaned. “Are we gonna make it in time? This hallway seems infinite.”
“Yes, I’m sorry, we’ll make it.”
“Where are we going?”
He swallowed a little, and flushed.
“I, uh, got you a private suite. I hope that’s okay.”
She raised her eyebrows, astonished.
“It’s okay,” she said nonchalantly, and then broke into a grin, unable to contain her delight.
Bradley saw the smile sweep across her face, and returned it with one of his own.
After an elevator ride and one more long hallway, the little posse arrived at a door that was the only one in sight for a few hundred feet.
“I just asked them for the biggest one they had. It’s possible I overdid it,” Bradley mumbled in her ear.
She didn’t care; frankly, she was equally as excited to have his lips that close to her ear once more.
The nurse unlocked the door and escorted them inside. Bradley had, in fact, overdone it. The suite was massive, easily the size of two luxury master bedrooms packed into one. Actually…
“It’s almost as big as our Edenix suite,” Heidi murmured, unthinkingly.
Bradley, catching the words, glanced over at her, anxiety clouding his eyes.
“That’s a good thing,” she added, and saw that his shoulders relaxed. It was clear that he cherished the memories, too.
More nurses arrived and ushered Heidi onto the bed, and she rested back on the pile of pillows, staring out the large windows that overlooked a park. She knew she’d been doing those pregnancy exercises very diligently, but she still hadn’t anticipated things going quite so smoothly.
The door opened, and a doctor entered. She waltzed in, confident, clipboard in hand.
“Mrs. Fox?” she asked, surveying the papers.
“Oh, uh, no. He’s just…”
Heidi stopped mid-explanation. How could she possibly explain the last few months to this stranger?
Suddenly, she was transported back to the Bahamas, where everyone had assumed she and Bradley were married, and kept giving them couple’s massages.
She giggled at the memory, and met Bradley’s eye, scrutinizing his face to see if he’d gotten the joke. Possibly, but what she could mostly see there was joy. There was worry there, too, but mostly joy.
“Call me Heidi,” she finished finally.
“Okay, Heidi.” The doctor nodded. “Are you ready to do this?”
“Yes, Doc. I feel good.”
The doctor raised her eyebrows, skeptical. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you,” the doctor said with surprise, “are one of the toughest women who’s ever been in this room.”
She, Heidi and Bradley laughed together at that, Heidi and Bradley perhaps a bit more so. The doctor couldn’t possibly know the extent of Heidi’s strength. These past few months had shown it.
Getting pregnant by a man she was forbidden from contacting, losing her job, going broke, and moving back in with her parents, all while facing multiple lawsuits? Yeah, Heidi was tough all right. Giving birth? Please. Only yesterday, she’d wondered if the child she was about to deliver would ever know his father. And now, here they were, together—a team, comfortably waiting for said child to arrive.
There was some teeth-gritting, more than a few sharp yelps of pain, but mostly, Heidi’s labor was as smooth and easy as giving birth can be. The nurses marveled at her chutzpah, but she shrugged it off with a blush. It was just luck, and long overdue luck at that. After only a few hours of labor, she gave one last groan of effort, and felt an exodus from her body.
The doctor and nurses lifted up a small bundle from between Heidi’s legs that she couldn’t see, and carried it gently across the room.
“We’re just cleaning him up,” the doctor called over her shoulder. “You’ll have this little champ back in a moment.”
Heidi breathlessly turned to Bradley, and realization dawned: he’d been by her side through the entire time. The discovery filled her with warmth and love. His hand was still firmly in hers, squeezing carefully. She suspected he didn’t want to squeeze as tightly as he could.
Bradley grabbed a towel from a nearby table and began to tenderly dab at the sweat that glistened on her forehead.
“How do you feel?” he asked uncertainly.
Heidi paused and took full stock of her body, from the tips of her toes to the top of her head.
“Actually,” she replied, laying her hand over his, “I feel wonderful.”
He grinned. “You were a superstar. I heard the doctor whisper that you oughta be studied as a modern medical marvel.”
Heidi giggled and shooed away the compliment. Just then, from across the room, she heard a squeal, a shriek, a cry. Leaning on Bradley’s hand, she propped herself up on the pillows, anxious at hearing her baby wail.
“Doctor,” she asked loudly, “is he okay?”
The doctor and nurses swiveled around from their spot in the corner, and began to make their way back to Heidi and Bradley.
“You have a perfectly healthy baby boy,” the doctor said warmly.
She came to a stop in front of Heidi’s bed, and very gently shifted his weight from one arm to the other as she prepared to hand him off.
“Careful. He’s pretty, uh, enormous for his age. 22 inches, 10 pounds, actually.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Heidi saw Bradley beam with pride. Healthy and huge? Yep, this kid would be an athlete.
The doctor at last passed the baby over to Heidi, whose entire world slowed down and came to revolve around the child in her arms. He settled onto her chest, which was still a little slippery with sweat. She ran a single finger over his head, which was covered in soft black hair, and then shifted so that she could see his face.
Her heart stopped dead. He was perfect, a tiny replica of his father. Bright green eyes, pink little lips.
“You’re my favorite person,” she said to him, and meant it.
Nothing mattered anymore, nothing besides this boy and his happiness. She’d kill for him or die for him. It was revelatory, to feel her heart expand to envelop another person so wholly; it was unexpectedly divine.
Their son gurgled back at her, lips spreading into the tiniest grin she’d ever seen. Was that really a smile, so soon?
“He’s got his father’s smirk,” Heidi said to Bradley, laughing.
Bradley had stood, astonish
ed, looking at the little creation, afraid almost to touch the perfect, tiny being.
“May…may I hold him?” he asked tentatively.
“Of course. He’s as much yours as he is mine.”
Heidi scooted over in her wide bed, careful not to jostle the baby. She patted the newly vacated area next to her, gesturing for Bradley to sit. He sat on the side of the bed and swung his legs over. They sat stilly, side by side, staring at their child.
“You’re gonna want to hold him by the butt, and support his neck. Cradle him close to your chest,” Heidi instructed.
“I actually helped look after a lot of kids in my town when I was younger,” Bradley replied with a little puff of his chest. “I’m pretty good with babies.”
Heidi smiled internally at this reveal, thinking that he seemed equally proud of his time as a caretaker as his Super Bowl win.
The man’s definitely complex, she thought as she passed over their child, shifting him from mother to father.
Bradley took him, and held him tight to his chest, instinctively protective. How did such big arms hold something so small with such gentleness? It was like seeing a lion hold its cub by the scruff of its neck and tenderly carry it through plains and valleys. Heidi was witnessing something primal, something deeply loving, and she appreciated it boundlessly.
“Bradley,” she said softly, “we need to give him a name.”
“Oh. Right. Of course.” Bradley’s brows furrowed, and a stressed look briefly crossed his face. “Are you asking—”
“I want you to help name him. I want him to go by something that we decided on, together.”
Bradley looked up from his light cooing over the baby, and into Heidi’s eyes. He didn’t ask her what that meant, but she hoped he understood the implication all the same.
“Well,” he said thoughtfully, “maybe something from your family?”
“My family has kind of, um, traditional names. Like Tom.”
“Speaking of which, where are your parents?” Bradley asked with sudden urgency, realizing he had forgotten all about them.
“Oh, they’re in the hallway,” she said. “I think I’ll ask one of the nurses to put him in a crib and take him to see them.”
“You don’t wanna, um, introduce him to them?”
She sighed. “Later, I will. But first, we need to decide on a name. Then, I think we’d better, y’know, talk.”
Bradley nodded. There was a lot they needed to talk about.
“I think,” she said, switching subjects, “the name Isaac would fit. It’s strong, sturdy, classic. A name that works no matter who he becomes.”
“It’s perfect,” Bradley agreed. “Would you mind if I gave him a middle name?”
“I’d love that,” she said honestly.
“In Hawaii, Kanē is the name of the god of creation. It’s a big, powerful name, but I think he’s going to be a big and powerful man.”
Heidi felt water on her cheek, and realized she had let slip a tear at the beauty of Bradley’s suggestion, and what a strong legacy her child would carry.
“Yes,” she whispered to him, “Isaac Kanē.”
Bradley moved the baby between the two of them, so that each parent could see his big green eyes, staring up at them in amazement. Silence filled the room as the little family reveled in their joy.
At last, Bradley broke the quiet, whispering in awe, “Isaac Kanē.”
They could’ve stayed in this blissful position for months, but after some time, Heidi remembered how anxious her parents must be. She couldn’t leave them sitting out there waiting. She clicked the nurse’s button by the side of her bed, and moments later one of the nurses stepped into the room.
Another perk of a private suite, she thought happily.
To the nurse, she said, “Could you please put him a crib, and wheel him out to my parents, his grandparents? They’ll be wanting to meet him.”
The nurse nodded. “Oh yes,” she said. “They’ve been pacing the halls for hours, and your mother’s been asking for updates every five minutes.”
“Yeah, that sounds like them, all right.”
The nurse took Isaac from Bradley’s arms, and his face fell as he watched his son get placed in a crib and carted off.
“Will he be okay, do you think?” Bradley questioned nervously.
“Well, he’s got to leave our sides sometime. Unfortunately, we can’t just watch him for the rest of his life.”
“Oh, just you wait—I’m gonna have cameras installed in every damn inch of our house. I’ll get a monitoring app so we can check on him at all times, and…”
Bradley pulled up short, realizing the implication: that they would all live together.
“I love the sound of that,” Heidi said with a chuckle, “But first, catch me up on the past few months of your life. What have you been doing since…”
She broke off, unable to say the words, to recall the full extent of their mutual pain. Bradley sat up in bed and rubbed a hand over his forehead; the memories clearly hurt him, too.
“Well,” he began shakily, “you heard a lot of this in court. Stop me if I’m repeating myself.”
“I don’t care if you do.”
“Okay…so you know the part where my lawyers tried to shut down communication. They handed down strict orders—don’t contact you, or else. At first, I was happy to follow orders. Honestly, I didn’t want to talk to you at all anyway.” His face pulled into a grimace.
“That’s okay,” she comforted. “I understand.”
“I just—and this is my fault—but I thought what they were saying was true. That you’d set me up to turn a profit, had faked what we had…I can’t believe I ever doubted you.”
“Hey, the guys you’d listened to your entire adult life were saying I was bad people. I get why you listened to them. I mean, I was basically a stranger.”
“Thank you for saying that,” he replied. “I appreciate the sentiment. But you weren’t a stranger. Not to be presumptuous…I just felt like I knew you better than I knew myself. We only had those relatively few weeks in the Bahamas, sure, but…”
Heidi interrupted him, anxious to save him the embarrassment of thinking he was alone in this.
“I understand,” she said eagerly. “I felt the same way. Like you fit me.”
He brushed some strands of hair back from her face and let his hand linger on her cheek.
“Yes, that’s it,” he said hoarsely. “You fit me.”
She pressed her cheek into his rough palm, loving the feeling of the two textures clashing.
“You were telling me about the lawyers,” she reminded him.
“Right. So, eventually, a few months in, I started wondering, just what it would be like to reach you. To hear your side of things, uninterrupted. I went on a wild fucking goose chase; every number or scrap of contact info was a dead end. I thought maybe I was going insane, or that I had dreamed you up.”
“It’d be pretty hard for you to sue an imaginary person,” she laughed, then regretted the joke as she saw his face crumble. “No, no, I’m kidding, Bradley. I’m not taking the lawsuits personally. I get that you were manipulated.”
He nodded, and then bowed his head, ashamed.
“I should’ve done better,” he mumbled. “I don’t deserve to be in our child’s life. I don’t—”
“Don’t say that,” she interrupted softly. “You belong in his life…if you want to be in it.”
“Oh, Heidi, I do. I’ve never wanted something so badly,” he said lowly, his voice deep with emotion. “But only if you can forgive me for the way I acted these past months.”
“There’s nothing to forgive.”
“Please,” he asked simply.
Heidi took a breath, and said those magic words: “I forgive you.”
Bradley smiled, a weight lifting off his shoulders. The lines in his forehead ironed out, and those eyes no longer looked like stormy seas, but instead placid waters.
“Heidi, I’m
so grateful. To be in his life, to get a chance at fatherhood. But…” He faltered. “I have something else to ask you. And if the answer’s no, please understand that I’ll get it, and it doesn’t change my desire to be a father. Okay? I just couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try.”
Heidi, perplexed, replied, “What is it? You’re scaring me a little.”
“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant to—I’m sorry.” He stopped and focused. “What I want to know…is…could I be in your life not just as Isaac’s father, but as your boyfriend? Could we give what we had a real shot?”
Heidi’s eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open.
“And,” he added hurriedly, “if all the lawsuits, and all my fuckups, have made that impossible, I was serious. I understand.”
Bradley searched her face, trying to deduce what emotions lay beneath.
He continued nervously, “But if, by some remarkable chance, you feel the same way, I want to give us a shot.”
“Yes,” Heidi said intensely. “Yes, Bradley. Yes to trying a life together.”
As if they were two magnets pulled together, Heidi and Bradley found themselves locked in an embrace, the hospital sheets twirled around their legs. Lips found lips, hands found hair, necks curled and dove, swan-like.
She kissed him to make up for the time they’d been robbed of, kissed him to drink in that scent, and kissed him to embark upon their future. She kissed him more soulfully than he had ever been kissed before.
“Heidi Morris,” he said, lips running over her ear and down her neck, “I love you.”
She gasped at the sensation of his mouth, which she’d missed more than she’d even suspected.
“Bradley Fox,” she replied, tugging him closer, “I love you, too.”
“What do you say to spending the rest of our lives together?”
“Let’s,” she said simply, and brought his mouth back up to meet hers.
They fell back onto the pillows of the bed, two souls in heaven.
Chapter 21
Bradley
Seven Months Later
Bradley stood back and looked at his work with satisfaction.
Baby Surprises 7 Book Box Set Page 120