Maggie moved to the front of the huddle, her engagement ring twinkling on her finger as she patted my chest. “We got it. You’re a big, bad tough guy and she’s your wife. But I’m going to need you to put away your loin cloth and let us give her a hug before we go.”
I had proposed to Clare about two months after Noir died. I would have done it sooner, and it had killed me to watch her stomach swelling without my ring on her finger, but I hadn’t wanted her to associate that happy moment in our life together with the memories of that day at his house. So I’d performed the damn near heroic feat of waiting.
One day, after she had come home from a day of shopping with Elisabeth, Tessa and I surprised her with a homemade version of Wheel of Fortune—complete with me in an ugly brown Pat Sajak suit and Tessa dressed in a gown, acting as my Vanna White. On a poster board covered with sticky notes were the words Will You Marry Me. Per the game rules, I’d given her R, S, T, L, N, and E, so it wasn’t exactly hard to figure out. However, as she cried, staring at me through bright-blue eyes, she guessed every single letter that we both knew was not on that board. After she’d gone through most of the alphabet and finally guessed an X, I laughed and dropped to a knee, muttering, “Jesus, you are terrible at this.”
She said, “yes.”
And, one month later, in a small ceremony at the botanical garden, we both said, “I do.”
And, then a few months after that, a doctor announced the magical words that changed my life all over again: “It’s a girl.”
Shelby Grace Light was born via C-section, looking just like her mother. While she hadn’t exactly been planned, in a lot of ways, she healed us all. She was beautiful, and the way Tessa’s face lit up when she held her baby sister made me believe in divine intervention.
They shared not a strand of the same DNA, but those were my girls. Through and through.
I tore my gaze from my sisters and looked over my shoulder to Clare. An infectious smile split her face, and her eyes danced with a heart-stopping combination of happiness and love. It was everything I’d ever wanted for her. And, because she was my wife, I got it all too. I clenched my jaw to suppress my grin and stepped out of the way for my sisters to pass.
After hugs, jokes at my expense, and then more hugs, they finally left.
But, no sooner had my shoulders sagged in relief than the door swung open again.
“We’re here!” Elisabeth called, rushing into the room, her heels clicking on the hospital floor.
“Oh, thank God,” Clare sighed. “I didn’t want them to start without you. I literally had to fight off the doctor a minute ago.”
“Aunt Elisabeth!” Tessa exclaimed, jumping off the edge of the bed. “Can you take me to the barn? Pleeeeeease! There’s a baby goat that’s about to have a baby. My horseback riding trainer said she’d let me watch!”
I groaned. “For the seven billionth time, you aren’t going to the barn today, sweet girl.”
“Dad!” She stomped her foot. “That’s not fair!”
“Sweet Jesus.” I stared up at the ceiling. “Deliver me from the estrogen.”
Roman sauntered into the room. “I can take her.”
“Yes!” she shrieked.
“She’s not going to the barn,” I declared. “Your mother is having a baby, Tessi. I’m not really concerned with goats today.”
“Heath, honey,” Clare called, her voice filled with humor.
But Tessa was too busy complaining like only an eight-year-old girl knew how for me to pay her mother any attention.
“I’ve never seen a baby goat before. And Mom’s baby is going to look just like Shelby,” she argued. “And I’ve seen her, like, every day for four years.” She walked over and hugged my hips. “Please, Daddy.”
I’d been “Dad” to Tessa for several years, but the “Daddy” was relatively new. It was my kryptonite, and she knew it.
When Shelby had been around two, Tessa had started randomly calling me Dad. She’d slip it in occasionally, always peeking up at me or her mom to see if we were going to correct her. I had to struggle to breathe every time I heard her say it. One night, after a long talk with Clare, I’d sat Tessa down before bedtime and asked her if she wanted to start calling me dad all the time.
Her emerald eyes had filled with tears as she’d peered up at me and asked, “Does it mean you’ll really be my dad?”
I’d nearly passed out from the lack of oxygen in that neon-pink room. I nodded at least seven thousand times but couldn’t choke out a single word.
The very next day, I’d hired an attorney and legally filed for adoption.
Tessa Noir would forever be Tessa Light.
Well, until she turned forty and got married. Or I convinced her to become a nun and marry Jesus. Whichever came first.
“Give it up, kid,” Roman said, fluffing Tessa’s hair as he went straight to Shelby and scooped her into his arms. “You ready to be a big sister?” he asked, tossing her in the air.
She squealed with delight.
Roman and Elisabeth were fixtures in our life. We all went to Tessa’s horse shows each weekend and spent nearly every holiday together. Our kids played—and fought—like siblings, Tessa acting as the bossy big sister to them all.
While Roman and I were tight, Clare and Elisabeth were inseparable. If they weren’t together, they were texting or talking on the phone. She’d been the only one Clare trusted to keep the kids when it was finally time for her scheduled, repeat C-section.
“So, are we finally ready in here?” a nurse said as she came through the door.
A unanimous, “Yes!” came from the entire room, except for Tessa, who cried into my stomach, “But it’s a baby goat!”
“All right! I’ll call down and let the OR know,” the nurse said, backing out of the packed room.
“Okay. We’ll be in the waiting room.” Elisabeth leaned over the bed to give Clare a hug. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you for doing this. I know Alissa is still so little. But I really wanted the girls to be here as soon as she’s born,” Clare said, releasing her.
“He,” I corrected. “When he’s born.”
Roman shot me a who-are-you-kidding glare.
We’d decided not to find out the gender at the ultrasound, but I was holding on to hope for a boy.
“Don’t you dare apologize,” Elisabeth said. “Cathy has been praying you’d go into labor early so she could get her hands on that baby. I’m surprised she hasn’t been delivering you dinners laced with castor oil.”
Clare laughed.
Shelby froze, her big, blue eyes flashing wide. “Is Grandma Cathy coming?”
“Nah. She’s at home with Parker and Baby Lis. She’ll come see you tomorrow though, I’m sure,” Roman said, setting her back on her feet.
“Girls, go give your mom a kiss,” I ordered.
Tessa might have still been upset about missing the coveted goat birth, but she did love her mama and quickly went to her side for a long hug and a kiss. Shelby fell into line behind her.
“Come on, girls,” Elisabeth said, taking both of their hands. “Let’s go raid the vending machines.”
I kissed both the girls on the top of their heads before they left.
Roman squeezed my shoulder. “Good luck. We’ll be in the waiting room. Keep us updated.”
“Thanks, man.”
Once we were finally alone, I made my way over to Clare’s bed. She scooted over so I could sit beside her.
“You okay?” I asked.
She smiled and began picking invisible lint off the blanket. “Nervous, I guess. But I’m okay.”
“I love you. You know that, right?”
Her eyes lit. “I definitely know that.”
“Any chance you gonna return that love by giving me a boy?”
She reached for my hand and rested it on her stomach. “I’ll do my best.”
We both fell silent, but Clare continued to fidget.
After s
everal minutes, I whispered, “Lean on me, babe. You don’t have to be brave right now.”
Her gaze shot to mine, and her chin started to quiver. “I’m scared.”
But, even at her weakest, Clare had always been brave. I wasn’t completely sure she knew how to be anything else.
I shifted toward her and tucked her hair behind her ear. “We’ll wait until you’re ready.”
She smiled weakly and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Maybe just a minute?”
“Whatever you need, Clare.”
A minute turned into twenty.
However, with Clare in my arms, I would have waited a lifetime.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to.
An hour later, at exactly 11:11 a.m., Noah Heath Light was born.
I didn’t even have to use a wish.
Transfer
The Retrieval Duet
THE END
Follow Leo James and his team of bodyguards to Guardian Protection Agency.
Singe (Guardian Protection Book One)
Singe
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Other Books by Aly Martinez
The Retrieval Duet
Retrieval
Transfer
Guardian Protection Agency
Singe
Thrive
The Fall Up Series
The Fall Up
The Spiral Down
The Darkest Sunrise Duet
The Darkest Sunrise
The Brightest Sunset
Across the Horizon
The Truth Duet
The Truth About Lies
The Truth About Us
The Wrecked and Ruined Series
Changing Course
Stolen Course
Among the Echoes
Broken Course
On the Ropes
Fighting Silence
Fighting Shadows
Fighting Solitude
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her husband and four young children.
Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys cheap wine, mystery leggings, and baked feta. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person.
She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a super-sized tumbler of wine by her side.
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