Seth

 

Months later

 

The barbeque sizzles under my spatula as I turn the steak onto its uncooked side. The sun is high, the air is warm, and no clouds litter the sky.

 

“How are those steaks looking?” Darryl asks, looming over the barbeque. He sets his beer down on the side and stands next to Jackson.

 

“The same as they did five minutes ago,” I tell him with a laugh.

 

At any barbeque, Darryl needs to be in control of cooking the meat. Normally, I let him do it, but since this is the first barbeque in our new house, I want to do it. I’m going to be a dad any day now—hell, Olivia’s belly is so round I’m sure I’m going to be a dad any minute now.

 

“I think Olivia needs help bringing down the cooler. Considering it’s filled with soft drinks, it’s quite heavy.”

 

I hand Darryl my tongs and spring towards the steps. I brush past Mom and Maddi and bound up the stairs quicker than I ever have and burst into the kitchen. Olivia’s mom, Sandra, jumps, clutching her chest as I accidently kick over the bin and stumble into the counter.

 

“For heaven’s sake, Seth!” her mom snaps. “Do you have to make a scene before you enter every room?”

 

“Don’t carry the cooler by yourself,” I tell Olivia. “It’s too heavy. Let me do it.”

 

Olivia shifts her weight against the counter and places her hand on her hips. There’s a smile on her lips, one of utter amusement. “Who’s manning the barbeque?”

 

“Darryl.”

 

Behind me, Sandra grumbles as she picks up the bin and the contents I spilled.

 

Olivia giggles. “Oh honey,” she pouts, extending her arms to me.

 

With a frown, I slide closer to her. “What?”

 

She circles me with her arms and I’m not going to lie, cuddling is really hard now that she has a belly the size of a basketball—it feels like one, too.

 

“Darryl took the cooler down earlier. The whole time he bitched about you being on the barbeque.”

 

That motherfuc—

 

“But if you want to help, Mom and I have three extra dishes that need to be taken down. She points to the three large plates on the counter. By the looks of it, they’re plates of pasta salad, potato salad, and a weird chicken salad that Olivia saw on the internet last night and demanded she make. Sandra washes her hands and grabs a dish. I grab one too, and so does Olivia, but I take it from her, balancing a plate on each hand.

 

“Easy now, Momma.” I laugh at her. “You’re going to pop any day now and I’d hate for you to slip and ruin such a delicious looking salad.

 

“Oh, ha, ha,” she deadpans. “Very funny.” Olivia runs her hands over her belly. “I don’t think he or she is ever going to come out.”

 

“He,” I clarify, “will come out when he is ready. Just relax and enjoy lunch for now.”

 

Olivia and I decided to keep the sex a secret… okay, that’s a lie. She decided for us to keep the sex a secret. She thinks it’s exciting, but I think it’s fucking torture. Once I tried bribing the radiologist to tell me what it was when Olivia wasn’t looking. I’ve never seen a woman so offended. You’d think I asked her to slip me her nipple while my wife wasn’t watching. It’s funny now, but at the time it was terrifying.

 

The nursery is right across the hall from our bedroom and it’s filled to the roof with all of the stuff a baby needs, but Olivia claims ours doesn’t. I bought a bottle cleaner even though Olivia plans on breastfeeding, but I told her once he chomps down on one of her nipples, she’s going to change her mind real quick.

 

We march down the stairs and I look at Darryl, who smiles smugly at me while he sips his beer. Jackson chuckles away beside him. I lay the dishes down on the table and Selena claps her hands together.

 

“I’m so fucking hungry,” she exclaims, excitement wrapped round her words.

 

“That’s how you speak around a dinner table?” Sandra chastises her.

 

Selena’s shoulders slump and she pulls her blonde curls around her shoulders. “Sorry.”

 

When Sandra turns around and heads over to the barbeque, my mom flicks her hair out of her face and leans across to Selena. “It’s okay to swear on occasion,” she tells her. “And I think being hungry and seeing a dish as good as that is a good fucking reason.”

 

I choke. “Mom!”

 

Olivia, Maddi, and Selena laugh, covering their mouths like little school girls.

 

“What?” She grabs her wine glass and draws it to her lips. To fit in, she’s poured orange juice into a wine glass. She’s been sober since she was released from rehab and doesn’t miss alcohol at all. I’m happy for her. I knew she’d come back to us eventually… even if I had to force it.

 

“You do know Jackson has to sit at the table to eat,” Maddi tells Selena.

 

Right. Jackson and Selena stopped talking after Vegas. From what Jackson tells me, they still have sex, but she kicks him out straight afterwards. A vicious cycle.

 

“I know, that’s why I’m downing this vodka like it’s water.”

 

“Lie,” Olivia chimes in. “You don’t drink water.”

 

Once again they all laugh and Mom joins in, too. It’s been a wonderful day and I’ve never been happier. We’ve swum in the pool, drank good alcohol, enjoyed good company, and cooked good food. I can’t wait to down it all and go to bed.

 

Since leaving the MMAC, I can’t say my routine has changed much. I still wake up early and I go to the gym. I work out with Jackson and Darryl and then we open up the gym to customers. The gym is buzzing. We’ve had so many sign ups we’ve had to buy the cycle store next door and extend it just to fit our members. We run daily classes and have a total of twenty-six employees and one trainee. Rick would be proud of Olivia and I for all that we’ve accomplished together. I just know he would.

 

I pull out my chair and sit down, waiting for Darryl to bring over the steaks. That’s the only thing that’s going to stop my stomach from cramping its hunger cramp. I glance sideways at Olivia, who’s still standing by her chair. She’s staring at me, wide eyed.

 

“Come,” I tap her seat. “Take a load off your feet.”

 

She shakes her head. “No… I can’t sit.”

 

I frown up at her and she glances down at her legs. Sure enough, her light blue shorts turn a darker blue right between the thighs. She starts to cry, a worried kind of cry, and I push up out of my seat and rush to her. She holds on to me tightly, like she’s afraid she’ll float away if I let go.

 

“Uh, Mom!” I shout. “Something’s happening.”

 

Dammit! I stayed up late reading pregnancy books for months, but now that it’s actually happening, I have no idea what I’m doing. Mom screeches, making both Olivia and I cringe.

 

“We’re having a baby!” she shouts.

 

One minute it’s just me holding Olivia and the next we’re surrounded by everyone. Words, orders, and information is being forced into my skull and I can barely think straight.

 

“Are you feeling any pain?” Sandra asks her and Olivia nods.

 

“It’s tightening,” she winces. “But nothing too bad.”

 

“We need to time the contractions,” Darryl says.

 

From his back pocket he pulls out his stopwatch—the stopwatch that he used my entire fighting career. I quirk an eyebrow. “You just carry that thing around?”

 

He shrugs. “You never know.”

 

I lower Olivia into her seat and Darryl hands me his stopwatch. Once Olivia is sitting, I’m timing her contractions and our moms are brushing Olivia’s hair out of her face. Everyone else goes back to normal. They dish out their meals and fill their cups. They make toasts and stuff their faces all while we’re trying to have a baby. They’re all drunk anyway, it’s not like they could come to the hospital, so I leave them be. They’re happy with their lives and they’re happy for us. A new Marc is about to enter the world. I was able to commit to one girl and create another life. Let’s be honest, that in itself is a miracle.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

With one last painful groan and hard push, my baby slides into my world silently.

 

“It’s a girl,” the doctor tells me and tears well in my eyes. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. I’m so in love and I don’t care if she’s not a boy. I rush to the head of the bed and plant kisses all over Olivia’s face. She smiles tiredly up at me.

 

“How’d I do?” she murmurs, her eyes half closing.

 

I kiss her again and again. “Perfect. She’s perfect.”

 

Olivia’s eyes widen and her smile widens as tears roll out of her eyes. “She?”

 

I nod. It took Olivia and I months and months to decide on a name for a boy and a name for a girl. The arguments were endless, all ending the same way until we found the one that rolled off of our tongues.

 

“Chloe Marc,” she whispers and I nod again.

 

The doctors place our baby on Olivia’s chest. Quietly, the baby watches, her eyes not really focusing on anything. Her hands press against her cheeks as her face begins to screw up. Her eyes have no color yet, but her hair is jet black and sticks awkwardly to her scalp.

 

“I want more,” I tell Olivia, tapping Chloe’s little pink nose. I can feel Olivia’s stare on the side of my face and then I look at her and take in her skin, as white as a ghost.

 

“One child is good, too. Selena and Jackson are both only childr—” She pauses and thinks about her words. “Or two. Two’s a good number.”

 

Or three or four, I think silently. Instead of voicing it, I kiss Olivia on the forehead again, and finally baby Chloe begins to cry. I smile as Olivia lowers the baby to her breast, using all of her natural motherly instincts. As I watch them bond, I feel my heart tear in two—two pieces that belong solely between my wife and my daughter. I know then that every decision I’ve ever made in my life has lead me to this. This is why I’m here. This is my purpose in life.

 

Chloe cries again, pulling me from my thoughts. I smile and touch her hand with my pinkie finger. She grips it and squeezes it with all her might

 

And just like that, Chloe, my sweet, innocent baby girl, becomes the second girl to ever render me speechless and completely steal my heart.

 

 

 

The End