The Proposal (33 page)

The nurse smiled. “Yes, she’s just dilated to ten,
and we’re going to start pushing.”

“Aidan, come here,” Emma said, her voice a little
hoarse.

He stumbled forward to reach her side. He cupped her
face in his hands before kissing her on the lips. He then kissed both her
cheeks and her forehead. “I’m sorry, Em. I’m so, so sorry I wasn’t here for
you.”

“It’s all right. You couldn’t help it.”

“I know but—”

Emma gave him a weak smile. “I’ll let you make it up
to me some other time, okay?”

He gave a playful groan. “Ah, so this will be the
ammunition you use against me for years to come, huh?”

“Maybe.”

He brushed the sweat slick strands of silky auburn
hair out of her face. “Has it been bad?”

“The pain?” When he nodded, she made a face. “It was
pretty horrible until the epidural kicked in.”

“The bruises on my arms will vouch for that one,”
Connor quipped.

“So you’re not hurting now?”

“Nope. In fact, they have to tell me I’m having a
contraction.”

Aidan glanced over his shoulder at Casey. “Guess you
guys got to have all the fun without me, huh?”

Casey grinned. “From the brief glimpse you got on
the phone with me, I’m not sure how you can categorize it as fun.” She shook
her head. “When Em’s in pain, she’s scarier than Reagan in
The Exorcist.
”

Aidan laughed while Emma blushed. “Was I really that
bad?”

“Yeah, but I still love you,” Casey replied. She
leaned over and kissed Emma’s cheek.

The kind, middle aged nurse thrust her hand out to
Aidan. “I’m Annie. I assume you’re the proud father-to-be?”

Aidan bobbed his head. “Yes, I am.”

“I’m so glad you made it in time to see your son
come in to the world.”

“So am I.” His gaze went to Emma’s. “I never thought
I would say this, but thank God for Pesh.”

She smiled. “We do owe him a lot.”

Aidan held up his hand. “Let’s not get carried away
now.”

The door pushed open, and a female doctor not much
older than Emma entered the room. She looked familiar, and Aidan remembered
that he had met her once before when they were doing a Round Robin with all the
OB doctors in the practice. The name on her white coat read Dr. Karen
Middleton.

She smiled at them. “So Baby Noah has decided to
make his entrance into the world?”

Annie nodded her head. “Yes, he has.”

Slipping on a pair of rubber gloves, she glanced
between Aidan and Emma. “Then let’s get the show on the road. Shall we?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Emma drew in a deep breath. This was it. When it
came down to pushing, it was the real deal.

“Okay, Emma, if you’re ready,” Annie said.

She nodded, and using her hands, she pushed herself
up in the bed.

“If you don’t object, we’re going to put up a
mirror, so you can watch Noah be born. Is that okay?” Annie asked.

“Sure. I want to see him.”

“Um, where can I stand to ensure I won’t be seeing
Em’s vagina?” Connor asked. Emma shot him a look, and he held up his hands. “I
love you, darlin’, but I’ve made it eighteen years without seeing your
vajayjay, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

Annie chuckled. “Stand there behind the bed, and you
won’t catch a glimpse or a reflection,” she instructed.

“Thank you so much!”

Annie then motioned at Aidan. “If you’ll take one of
her legs and,” she paused to look between Casey and Connor. Immediately Connor
shook his head. “Like I said, I’ll be back here in the corner.”

Casey laughed. “I would love to help.”

Aidan took Emma’s left leg while Casey took her
right. “Okay, Emma, breathe normally, grab the backs of your legs, and push
down while we count,” Dr. Middleton instructed.

Emma sucked in a deep breath and then started pushing
as hard as she could. She barely heard Dr. Middleton and Annie counting to ten.
“Good. Stop.” Emma had just caught her breath when Dr. Middleton said, “Okay,
again.”

Pinching her eyes shut in concentration, she went
through three more exhausting rounds when Annie exclaimed, “Open your eyes,
honey. He’s crowned.”

Emma’s eyelids flew open, and her expectant gaze
honed in on the mirror, peering in wonder at Noah’s tiny head. “Aw, Em, it
looks like he’s got strawberry blonde hair!” Casey commented.

Aidan grinned. “Nah, I think it’s redder, and he’s
more of a Ginger.”

She gritted her teeth at him. “Don’t you dare call
our son a Ginger!”

Connor and Casey laughed while Aidan leaned in and
kissed her cheek. “I’m only teasing you, babe. I just hope it will darken up
and be as beautiful as yours.”

Emma opened her mouth to thank him, but Dr.
Middleton interrupted her by saying, “Okay, now another big push.” When Annie
got to ten and Emma started to relax, Dr. Middleton shook her head. “Keep
going, keep going.” Just when Emma thought she couldn’t go anymore, Dr.
Middleton said, “Okay, stop.”

Emma’s head fell back against the pillow from the
exertion. She didn’t know if she had any strength left within her to push
again. Closing her eyes, she drew in a few deep breaths to try to dispel the
exhaustion.

“Just one more big push, Emma,” Dr. Middleton said.

Gripping her hands tight into the backs of her
thighs, she put everything she had left and then some into the push. Dr.
Middleton’s voice echoed over the loud groan emitting from Emma’s lips.

“And here he is!” she exclaimed, holding a wailing
and bloody Noah up for both Emma and Aidan to see.

The world around Emma shuddered to a stop, and all
she could focus on was Noah’s strong cries. It was as if every molecule, every
cell, and every fiber of her being hummed and buzzed with the new life in front
of her. Noah—flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone—was the most beautiful
thing she had ever seen or heard for that matter. Tears stung her wide eyes.

“My, my, he’s still a big boy for being three weeks
early,” Dr. Middleton remarked with a smile.

Unable to speak, Emma reached out her arms for Noah,
desperate to hold him. He wouldn’t feel real until she could put her hands on
him. “Hang on, Mama. Let’s get him cleaned up a bit,” Annie said.

A towel was placed on Emma’s belly, and then Noah
was laid in it. He continued to scream as Annie toweled him off. Once he was
cleaner, she wrapped him in a blanket. An eternity seemed to pass before she
handed Noah into Emma’s waiting arms.

After kissing the crown of his head, Emma gathered
him against her chest. His wailing immediately ceased. His eyes, once pinched
shut in anger, popped open, and he stared up at her. The moment their eyes met,
Emma’s heart stilled and then restarted. Her emotions spiraled out of control,
and she wasn’t sure if she could keep them in check. “Hey my little angel. I’ve
been waiting for you for so, so long,” she murmured.

When Aidan leaned over the side of the bed to rub
his thumb over Noah’s cheek, Noah kept his gaze on Emma. “Looks like he only
has eyes for you,” Aidan mused.

She didn’t bother wiping the tears streaming down
her cheeks. Glancing up at Aidan, she asked, “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?”

Aidan smiled. “He’s the most amazing and beautiful
thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” he replied, his voice choking off with
emotion.

“Daddy, are you ready to cut the cord?” Dr.
Middleton asked passing Aidan a pair of surgical scissors.

Emma watched with amusement as Aidan’s shaky hands
took them from her. “Um…where should I…?”

Annie motioned to an area, and Aidan hesitantly cut
Noah from Emma. “Good job.”

“Okay, Mama, I hate to take him away, but we need to
weigh him and get his PKU done. Then you can have him back for awhile.”

After kissing each of his cheeks and his tiny button
nose, Emma reluctantly handed Noah over to Annie. Craning her neck, she watched
as they set him down on the scales. “He’s seven pounds, seven and a half
ounces.”

“Imagine if he would have stayed in cooking for
another three weeks or longer,” Aidan said.

Emma shuddered. “Don’t even joke about how big he
could have been. He was plenty big enough!”

With a chuckle, he kissed her. “Speaking of amazing
and beautiful, can I just say how proud I am of you?”

She grinned up at him. “Really?”

He bobbed his head. “I just saw life come out of
you. It’s…well, it’s fucking intense!”

“You know, some men have a hard time ever looking at
their wives or girlfriends the same way again after experiencing birth,” Dr.
Middleton said, finishing up with Emma’s post delivery care.

“I can see why,” Connor murmured from his corner
perch.

Aidan shook his head. “She might be a mother now,
but she’ll always be my Em,” Aidan replied.

“Damn, Big Papa, that was sweet,” Casey remarked,
swiping the tears from her eyes. She leaned over to brush the hair out of
Emma’s face. “That was both exhilarating and terrifying. But I wouldn’t have
missed it for the world.”

Emma kissed Casey’s cheek. “I’m so glad you were
here with me.” Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled at Connor. “And you too.”

“I’m just glad I got to see it all without having to
really see
it
all…if you know what I mean,” Connor replied, with a wink.

Emma and Aidan laughed while Casey shook her head.
“I can’t believe you’re so scared of a vagina.”

“I’m intimate enough with Emma without having to get
up close and personal with her vagina!” Connor countered.

Emma turned her attention away from Casey and
Connor’s bickering and back to Noah. She watched as he had his footprints
taken, screamed as he was stuck for the PKU, and then finally was swaddled into
a blanket and a cap placed on his head. “Ready to hold him, Daddy?” Annie asked
with a smile.

Emma’s heart melted a little when Aidan glanced back
at her for her approval. She grinned and bobbed her head at him.

“You don’t want him back first?”

Although she wanted nothing more than to have Noah
in her arms again, she wanted Aidan to have his first moment as a father. “No
go ahead. It’s time you held your son.”

“Okay,” he said.

As Annie passed Noah into Aidan’s waiting arms,
tears welled in Emma’s eyes at the look of absolute and total wonder that came
over Aidan’s face. He stared down at Noah, unblinking and unmoving. Finally, he
shook his head. “He kinda looks like a glowworm all bundled up like this.”

“Keeping him swaddled makes him feel like he’s back
in the womb,” Emma replied.

Aidan continued staring down at Noah. One tiny fist
escaped his tight bindings, and he thrust it up at Aidan almost defiantly. It
caused Aidan to smile broadly. “Ah, there’s that Fighting Fitzgerald spirit
coming through. No one ties you down, right Noah?”

Emma shook her head. “You’ll be changing your tune
about that defiant spirit when he gets to be a teenager.”

“Nah, I like him tough and feisty.” Noah’s response
was to stick his tongue out, which made Aidan chuckle. “Yep, see, already a
cocky little thing like his Old Man.”

Casey took a hesitant step towards Aidan. “So we
know he’s got his daddy’s douchenozzle personality—”

Aidan arched his brows. “Hey now.”

Casey grinned and patted his back. “Just teasing
you, Big Papa. My question is who does he look like?”

“He looks just like you, Em,” Aidan noted as he took
in Noah’s tiny features.

“Hmm, let me see,” Casey said, peering over Aidan’s
shoulder. She squealed and clapped her hand to her chest. “Oh my God, that
face! He’s so handsome and adorable!”

Emma beamed from ear to ear at Casey’s compliment.
Connor walked over to them. “Between Aidan and Emma it was a given he’d be
good-looking. But is he really Emma’s mini-me?” Connor questioned.

Casey cocked her head. “No, he’s got a lot of Big
Papa in him, too.”

Aidan threw a glance over his shoulder at Casey.
“Really?”

She nodded. “He’s definitely got Em’s hair and
mouth, but he’s got your nose and eyes.

Aidan grinned at Emma. “He got some mighty fine genes
that’s for sure.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Uh-oh,” Aidan
murmured as Noah’s face clouded over, and he appeared ready to cut loose with a
giant scream.

“Looks like right now might be a good time to see if
he wants to latch on,” Annie suggested.

“He’s already hungry?” Aidan asked incredulously.

“Some come out of the womb ready to eat, others it
takes hours,” Annie replied.

“If he’s hungry, I want to try,” Emma said, holding
her arms out for Noah.