“You’re welcome, sweetie.”

Lucy and Piper gave me careful hugs on the way out.

Fred came over and peeked down at Emma, who was passed out in my arms. “You done good, kid. She’s pretty cute.” He slapped a kiss on top of my head, shook Brody’s hand, and was out the door.

“Here, let me take her.” Brody lifted Emma out of my arms and sat down with her on his pull-out bed. “Close your eyes for a bit.”

“I will. I’m just enjoying the quiet right now.” I blinked slowly, taking in the sight of him snuggling with our daughter.

The evening news was on the TV and Brody stared up at it, a sneaky smirk appearing on his face. His smile was contagious, and I couldn’t help but grin right along with him.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I had to know.

He nodded toward the TV. “They were just talking about the weather for the weekend. They’re calling for rain. I was wondering what size Emma would be.”

“For what?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “They’re calling for rain. Gonna be a lot of puddles out there. She needs pink rain boots like her big sisters.”

“She’s got a while before she’ll be ready to jump in puddles.” I giggled, picturing tiny rain boots in my head. “What are you doing?”

He’d set Emma down on the couch and pulled his shirt off, exposing his cut chest. Wiggling Emma’s blanket loose from her chest area, he laid her on top of him, skin to skin.

“I read that book, that What to Expect book, and it said it’s really good for babies to be skin to skin with their parents, especially dads since we don’t nurse.”

“You read that book?” I asked, surprised by the revelation. I hadn’t even read that book.

“Hell yeah. I wanted to be prepared.” He was talking to me, but taking selfies of him and Emma. “Kacie, you should lie down and rest.”

“I will. One more question.” I shifted myself up in my bed. “I started to ask, but then Little Murphy decided she’d had enough of my uterus. How did you get here so fast? I thought Fred wasn’t able to reach you.”

“We never did talk, but he left me a voicemail telling me your water broke in the kitchen. Then my phone died.”

Thinking back to Fred’s face as he stared at the puddle on the floor made me snicker. “He was so freaked out.”

“I could tell in his message. He’s usually very calm, but he was all kinds of flustered. Anyway, it was like a messed-up version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, minus the trains. I could not get a flight out of Chicago that would get me home before tomorrow and they had no available private planes, so I took a cab up to the Milwaukee airport and chartered a private plane from there.”

A tiny lump parked itself in the middle of my throat. “You did?”

His eyes shifted from Emma to me. “Of course. And let me tell you, it was the longest five hours of my life.” He swallowed hard, looking back down at Emma. “Once I charged my phone, I kept trying to call Fred and your mom and you, but I couldn’t get through to anyone. I didn’t know if I missed it or what, but I prayed the whole way that I hadn’t.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the hormones or the overwhelming sense of love and gratitude I was feeling, but my eyes filled with tears. “I can’t believe you did all that for her. For us.”

“Watching her come into this world was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I’m so glad I was able to get here in time.”

“Me too.” I sniffled.

“And I gotta be honest, I thought it was gonna be gross, but I was wrong. It was so cool. I can’t wait to see it again.”

“See it again? I’m gonna need a break for a while after that one.”

The corner of his lip pulled up in an adorable smirk. “I told you I read that book. You got six weeks, tops.”