“It hurts!” Belle shouted, and I desperately wanted to look up at her face, but I had to keep my concentration on the baby. The head came out completely and then…stopped. Her body sagged, and it gave me time to look up at her. Her hair was a matted mess on her face, sweat beading on her forehead, and her face was bright red. But she looked beautiful. More beautiful than any other time I’d looked at her.
“You’re doing great, Baby Belle,” I encouraged, and a second later, she called out and started to push again. “That’s it, keep pushing.”
The shoulders seemed to slip right out, and then the rest of the body did. And I held the tiny baby in the palms of my hands, goo covering all of his body. “It’s a boy!” I shouted, and just as I did, footsteps pounded behind me.
“It is?” Belle asked, her body spent. I stared into her blue eyes and grinned. I’d never been happier in my entire life, and it was all because of her.
Lola gripped my shoulders, and I turned to see two nurses and Doctor Lee. One of the nurses stretched over me, clamped the umbilical cord and cut it. “Wrap the baby in this,” she told me, passing me several blankets. I did as she said and then cradled him to my chest as his cries rang out. “Come with me while the doctor gets Belle inside.”
I hesitated, not wanting to leave her, but as soon as her gaze met mine, she nodded. “Go make sure he’s okay. I’ll be fine.”
I turned around and followed the nurse inside and into the main part of the hospital. My hand ran over the baby’s back, covering it almost entirely, and before I knew it, we were in the maternity section, and the nurse was holding her hands out for the baby.
“I’m just going to check the baby over and weigh him. All the usual things.”
I swallowed and slowly placed him in her arms, but I followed her to a station which had a light above a small cutout section covered with towels, and I watched her every move. She rubbed his body with the towels, getting the goo off him, and then placed a hat on his tiny head, covering up the brown hair, and finally, she weighed him and placed a small hospital bracelet around his ankle and his wrist.
“Let’s get you to Mom,” she told him, smiling down and placing him in a small, see-through cube on wheels. She tilted her head for me to follow her, and I did so without a second thought. We walked down one hallway and turned left. Outside the first door was Belle’s name written on a small board.
She was sitting up in bed, her skin pale and hair now off her face completely, and as soon as she saw us, the small smile on her face turned into a full-blown grin.
The nurse wheeled the baby over to her and then handed him to Belle. “He needs some chest-to-chest time,” she told Belle, and Belle nodded as if she knew what she meant right away. She pulled down her T-shirt, and although I knew I should have looked away, I couldn’t. I was fascinated by the way she held our baby boy and cooed at him, and in turn, he settled right against her chest and moved his tiny fingers, content in her hold.
She lifted her head, her gaze meeting mine, and whispered, “I want to name him Leo.” Her eyes filled with tears, and I could feel the lump building in my throat. The name meant so much to her. “Leo Montgomery Ford.”
“I think it’s perfect,” I croaked out, moving to her side and taking her hand. “Perfect, just like him.”
I couldn’t resist leaning down and placing a kiss against her lips. I wasn’t sure what it meant, and I was sure she didn’t know what it meant either, but at that moment, it felt right. It had always felt right when it came to Belle.
“Leo Montgomery?” Lola asked from the other side of the bed. “Why Leo and Montgomery?”
“Leo after Leopold,” Belle murmured, grinning up at me. “And Montgomery after his dad.”
“What? I—” Lola gasped, her eyes widening as she stared at me. “Oh my god. Your name is Montgomery?”
I heaved out a breath and closed my eyes. “Yeah, Lola. That’s my name.”
“But I thought it was Ford… Wait, that’s your last name?”
She looked genuinely confused, and Belle’s tinkle of laughter rang out around the room. “That’s what I said when I found out.” She paused and gripped my hand in hers. “Thank you.”
“For what?” I asked.
“For being there. For always being there for me, even when I thought you weren’t.”
I pressed my forehead against hers, wishing I could promise her the world. “I’ll always be there, Baby Belle. Always.”
BELLE
I’d been stuck inside this hospital for three days, and although I was fed up of staring at the white walls and sick and tired of the food here, I was still nervous about going home. At least here there were nurses who could show me how to bathe Leo, or how to get him to latch on when he didn’t want to.
But now I’d be alone. At least, that was how it felt. In reality, I knew I had my mom and dad, and Ford had become an almost permanent fixture at the hospital unless it was nighttime when the nurses kicked him out. Literally.
So as I waited on the bed with Leo in his hospital bassinet all bundled up in his coming-home clothes, my stomach dipped. Ford was bringing the car around and coming back with the car seat, but I was scared to go home. What if something happened and I didn’t know how to fix it? What if he was crying and woke everyone up in the house? Because the baby had a pair of lungs on him, and he wasn’t afraid to use them to let us all know how he felt.
“Belle?”
I gasped, my hand flying to my chest. “You scared me,” I croaked out, turning my head to face Ford. I’d been so wrapped up in my own thoughts, I hadn’t heard him come into the room.
He frowned and placed the car seat in front of me on the bed. “You okay?”
I opened my mouth, about to tell him I was fine, but it would be a lie. Something had changed between us over the last couple of days. We’d sat and talked about how we wanted to raise Leo, and even though we hadn’t spoken about where we stood, I didn’t feel the need to clarify. Life had a way of giving you what you needed, and I knew at some stage, we’d have to either draw a line in what we were or decide what we would do for the future. But right then, I was content just being around Ford and Leo, and I wanted to start as I meant to go on, so I told him, “I’m just nervous about going home.”
“I get that.” The bed dipped as he sat down, and his attention was solely on Leo. “But I’ll be there to help.”
“You will?” I raised my brows. “Do Mom and Dad know that?”
His lips curved into a grin, and he slowly turned to face me. “Not yet.” He chuckled. “They’ll find out when I don’t leave tonight.” I snorted because he was so sure Dad wouldn’t kick him out, but I couldn’t help but be grateful that he intended to stay the night. “Shall we get out of this place?”
I looked around the room, and out of the window, the darkening sky starting to make way for the night ahead. “I’m ready,” I told him. I stood slowly and winced at the soreness between my legs, and it was only then I realized Ford had seen Leo come out of me. Actually watched him come out. My eyes widened at the thought.
“What? What’s the matter?”
“I…” My cheeks burned. “Nothing.” I cleared my throat and lifted Leo out of the bassinet. His body curled in on himself, making him look even smaller than he was. He was six pounds and six ounces when they’d weighed him.
“No.” Ford stepped closer as I placed Leo in the car seat and tried to figure out how all of the straps went around him. After fiddling with them all for a minute, I finally figured it out. “What was that about?”
I shrugged and ran the tip of my finger down Leo’s cheek. “I have no idea what you mean.”
I was careful not to look at him, and apparently, he could sense I was avoiding him. I should have known better than to try and hide something from Ford. Nothing ever got past him. His thumb and finger grasped my chin, and he turned me to face him. “Tell me,” he demanded, his hazel eyes swirling with something I couldn’t make out.
�
�It’s honestly noth—”
“Don’t lie to me, Baby Belle.” He raised a brow in warning. “Tell me.”
I closed my eyes, not believing I was going to say it out loud. “I just…” My nostrils flared, and I made a noise in the back of my throat. “I just realized you saw Leo…” I opened my eyes back up and saw him waiting patiently for me to answer him. “You know…come out.”
He tilted his head to the side, and slowly, so slowly, his lips spread into a grin. “I did.”
“Don’t look at me like that,” I ground out, but there was no bite to my words. “It’s not funny.”
“It kind of is.” He let go of my chin, his fingers stretching out and cupping my cheek. “You’re not embarrassed, are you?” I didn’t answer him because I was embarrassed. The last time he’d seen…down there…had been—
“I cherish the moment.”
“What?” I spluttered. “You cherish the moment you watched a baby come out of my vagina?”
He chuckled, the sound deep and alluring. “No, Baby Belle. I cherish the moment because it was just you and me.” He stepped closer to me, his body only centimeters from mine. “We made it through. We fought against the odds, and I was there, ready to catch my son. How many men can say they did that?”
“So, it’s a competition to you?” I asked, placing my hand on my hip.
He shook his head. “It was never a competition with you, Baby Belle.” His hand curved around my back, and he pulled me to him. “Because you were the only competitor.” His words had something swirling inside me, and as I stared up at his eyes, I knew then that we could never be just friends. There would always be something between us.
“That was the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” a new voice said, and we both pulled apart at lightning speed. “Don’t mind me,” the nurse said, her lips almost splitting her face at how big she was smiling. “I just came to say goodbye to baby Leo.” She stepped into the room and winked at Ford, then sidled up next to me. “That one is a keeper,” she whispered.
I pursed my lips to keep from smiling and stared over at Ford as he plucked the car seat up and held it like it weighed nothing. She was right. He was a keeper. I just wasn’t sure whether he was mine to keep.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
FORD
It had been five days since I slept in my own bed, but I didn’t care one bit because it meant I was here whenever Belle needed me, which wasn’t often because she was handling Leo like a pro. Every night, as soon as he made a noise, she was awake and tending to him. The problem was she was trying to do it all herself, which meant it was starting to take its toll on her. We were all aware of the dark circles under her eyes, but she was trying to power through on her own. She didn’t get the concept that I was here to help.
So as soon as I heard him on the fifth night, I shot up off the sofa in Lola and Brody’s living room and darted up the stairs as quietly as I could. It was still pitch-black darkness outside even though it was nearing 5 a.m. I tiptoed down the hallway toward Belle’s room and slowly pushed the handle down. A small light on her bedside table illuminated the room, and next to her bed was the bassinet with a crying Leo inside it.
His body wriggled, his eyes squeezed shut as he made as much noise as he could. “Hey there, little man,” I greeted, moving closer to him. Belle rolled over in bed and groaned, but didn’t open her eyes. I paused, waiting to see if she’d wake up, and when she didn’t, I reached inside and picked Leo up. He blinked, and his mouth opened and closed as if he was trying to find his milk. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know he was hungry.
I wrapped him up in his blanket and cradled him against my chest and tiptoed out of Belle’s bedroom. Leo cooed as I walked down the hallway, but by the time I got into the kitchen, he was full-on crying again. I had no idea how I was meant to warm up the breast milk Belle had pumped earlier and hold Leo at the same time. I was an expert in shooting a gun and hitting my target every single time. I could read someone’s body language in seconds. But trying to balance precious cargo as he was screaming the house down felt like a mission I wouldn’t be able to complete.
“Need some help?” a new voice asked, and I turned around with Leo in one hand and the small bottle of breastmilk in the other. Lola stood in the doorway to the kitchen as she tied her robe around her waist.
“Sorry,” I murmured, closing the refrigerator with my leg. “Did we wake you?”
Lola shook her head and stepped forward. “I was already awake.” She turned on the bottle warmer on the counter and took the bottle out of my hand. “I was about to go in to Leo, but you beat me to it.” She smiled as she turned to face me, and when the light flashed green on the bottle warmer, she placed the bottle inside it.
“Yeah,” I murmured, pacing the length of the kitchen with Leo in my arms. It was soothing him a little, but I knew it would only be a matter of seconds until he was screaming again. “She hasn’t been letting me help her at night.”
Lola nodded like she knew, and plucked the bottle out of the warmer, shook it, then tested it on her wrist. “Hold your arm out.” I did as she said and she sprayed some milk onto my wrist. “That’s the temperature it needs to be.”
“Got it.” I hadn’t even thought about how much I needed to warm the milk up, and I was starting to realize how out of my depth I was. I’d tried reading all the baby books I could at the hospital, but nothing compared to the real thing.
“Sit,” Lola demanded, pointing at the dining table.
I backed up and placed Leo in the crook of my arm, then took the bottle off Lola. He accepted it greedily. His little eyes closed, and his body relaxed in my arms as he finally got what he wanted so much.
“She thinks she’s alone,” Lola said as she pulled the chair out opposite to me. “She’s forgetting she has people to help.”
I nodded because I agreed, but I understood why she was acting the way she was. “She’s trying to adjust.” I let out a breath. “She was on her own for most of the pregnancy and was preparing to be alone and then…” I met her gaze. “She came home, and we were all here ready to help her in any way she needed. It’s gonna take some time.”
Lola made a noise in the back of her throat. “Speaking of time.” She paused and waited for me to look back at her. “How much time are you going to waste, Ford?”
“What?” I frowned, having no idea what she was talking about. “What do you mean?”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “Listen, I’m not saying I’m fully on board with the idea of you and my daughter being together. You’re twice her age, but…I can’t judge either of you.” She leaned back in her seat, her gaze flicking from me to Leo and back again. “I followed my heart with Brody. And I couldn’t for one second imagine my life without him in it.”
“I—”
“So, I guess what I’m trying to say is”—she pulled in a breath and let it back out slowly—“you have my blessing.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Your blessing?”
“Yeah, Ford. My blessing.” She stood and walked around the table to me as Leo spat his empty bottle out. Lola reached for him, and I handed him over willingly, staring up at her as she placed him on her shoulder and started to burp him. “I can see you love my daughter, Ford. And more than that, she loves you back.” Leo let out a burp and then followed it with a smaller one. “So stop wasting time.” She handed Leo back to me, and as soon as he was cradled in my arms, his eyes closed and he fell back to sleep. “Tell her how you feel. Date again. Feel each other out.”
Lola backed away, and I stared at her, frowning. “We never dated,” I blurted out. Because we hadn’t. I hadn’t taken her for dinner or to the movies. We’d jumped in headfirst with everything, and we hadn’t slowed down at all.
“What did you do—” Lola swiped her hand in the air, her face screwing up. “Never mind. I don’t want to know what you did.” S
he pointed at Leo. “I think it’s pretty obvious.” I chuckled because she was right. He was proof of what we’d done, but there was so much more to it than that. She smiled at me. “Ask her out on a date, then. Start over. It’s as good a time as any.”
She spun around and left me with her parting words and a sleeping Leo. And I didn’t move from the spot I was in until the sun came up and everyone else started to come downstairs. And when Belle finally appeared, all it took was one look at her to know I couldn’t let her go again.
This was my opportunity to do things right. We may have done it backward, but it didn’t matter because I’d prove to her how much she meant to me, even if it took me my entire lifetime. She was it for me.
She just didn’t know it yet.
BELLE
I rolled over and stretched my arms over my head, causing my cast to clank against my headboard. Today was the day I was getting this thing off, and I couldn’t wait. I’d never been so frustrated in my entire life when I needed to scratch an itch and couldn’t get to it because of the stupid cast. But I’d soon have relief, and the thought of it brought a smile to my face.
The sun shone through my window, and I slowly turned to check what time it was and darted up in bed. It was already eight in the morning, and Leo hadn’t woken me—wait, where was Leo? His bassinet was empty, and for a second, I panicked. I jumped out of bed, not bothering to put anything on underneath the oversized T-shirt I was wearing. It covered everything important, so it was a tiny thing I didn’t have time to rectify.
My feet slammed against each step as I ran down the stairs and into the living room. My heart raced in my chest, my hands shaking. Did someone take him? Did—I halted as I entered the kitchen where everyone was sitting around the table, and lying there snuggled in his dad’s arms was a sleeping Leo.
Bonded Duet: Ford & Belle: Torn Bond & Tied Bond (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 3) Page 34