Cherished (Wanted #4)(76)
Author: Kelly Elliott

“Honey, I’m going to step outside now that Scott is here,” my mother said.

Jessie reached for her. “No! Mom, please stay with us. Please,” she said as her voice cracked.

My mother smiled and pushed Jessie’s sweat-dampened hair away from her eyes. I saw tears building in my mother’s eyes as she nodded her head.

“Of course I will stay with y’all, baby girl,” my mother said.

My heart felt like it was going to burst. I was so happy.

My mother looked at me. “You have one very strong and brave young woman here. She is doing this with no drugs.”

I instantly felt like shit, remembering how I had just begged the ER doctor to give me something strong to take away the pain. Some cowboy I am.

“Looks like you made it right on time, Scott. I think a few more pushes, Jessie, and we will get to meet this baby of yours,” Pete said.

The next few minutes felt like a lifetime, yet it all happened so fast. Jessie pushed about five more times, and she never once complained about the pain. She cried out in pain each time, but I could tell she was trying to be so strong. I leaned down after each push and told her how proud of her I was and how much I loved her.

Then, it happened. Jessie let out a long and loud scream with the last push.

Pete looked up at us and smiled. “You have a beautiful and healthy baby girl.”

I busted out in tears and looked at our baby girl as Pete held her up.

“Oh my god! She’s the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen,” Jessie said.

Pete handed the baby to the nurse, who moved our girl to a table. I watched the nurse do all kinds of weird-ass shit to the poor little thing. She was crying away, and my heart had never felt like this before. I thought loving Jessie was amazing, but this…this was beyond amazing, just like Josh had said.

I glanced down at Jessie as she cried and tried to see what the nurse was doing to the baby.

I leaned down, placed my finger under her chin, and moved her face over to look at me. “I love you more than anything. I never in my life thought that I could feel so much love in my heart, and you just proved me wrong…again. You amaze me. I’m in awe of you right now, and you…you’ve made me the happiest man on Earth. Thank you for loving me.”

I gently kissed her, and she moved her hand to the back of my neck, pulling me in for a deeper kiss.

When we parted our lips, she smiled and looked me in the eyes as she said, “I love you to the moon and back.”

She began crying again, and I wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“And I just want you to know…I’m never doing that again,” she said.

My mother busted out laughing. I smiled and nodded my head as I looked up at my mother, who winked at me.

“Are you ready to meet baby girl Reynolds?” the nurse asked.

She walked up to me and gently put my daughter in my arms. The moment I held her, she immediately stopped crying.

“Hey…look at that. Already a Daddy’s girl,” Pete said.

He walked over to the sink and did a few things with the nurses, and then they slowly sat Jessie back up.

Looking down at this beautiful miracle in my arms, I couldn’t help but smile. When she yawned, my knees about gave out.

“I promise to always love and protect you and your mommy. You two are my whole life now, baby girl.”

I turned to see Jessie watching me. The smile on her face was like nothing I’d ever seen before in my life. I carefully took our baby and placed her into the arms of the woman I’d loved since before I could remember.

I would lay my life down for this woman and for our daughter.

I watched as Jessie brought our baby girl up to her lips, and she began kissing our daughter all over her little face. One peek at my mother, and I saw she was crying like mad. I smiled and wiped a tear away.

“I’m so, so happy to finally meet you. I’ve waited so long to hold you, and I thought for sure with how much you kicked and punched me, baby girl, that you were going to be a boy!”

We all laughed.

My mother lightly brushed her hand across the baby’s head. “Do we have a name?” she asked as she looked at Jessie and then at me.

I looked down, and we both nodded.

“Lauren Ashley. Her name is Lauren Ashley Reynolds,” Jessie said with a smile.

“It’s perfect. She’s perfect. Let me give y’all a few minutes. Before I go, Scott, would you like to go tell your friends it’s a girl?”

I quickly looked up at my mother. “Oh yeah! Let me go real quick, Mom…on my crutches and all.”

I made my way out of the room and down the hall. Everyone stood up at once. I knew the moment I opened my mouth, I was going to start crying again, and Jeff would probably call me a pussy. I looked at each of them standing there with smiles on their faces. These were my six friends who had stood by me through everything. I knew there wasn’t a damn thing we wouldn’t do for each other. My life would be empty without them in it. I knew this wouldn’t be the last time we were all going to be waiting to hear the news of another new baby. Our lives were just starting. So many more happy memories were waiting for all of us.

“Well?” Ari said. “Are you going to tell us, dickwad? Or make us all stand here and guess?”

I let out a laugh. Only Ari could make me laugh when all I wanted to do was cry.

“It’s a girl—Lauren Ashley,” I barely said.

They all made their way over to me. With every handshake and hug, my heart grew bigger and bigger, and my love for my friends grew tenfold.

“Congratulations, dude,” Gunner said as he took me in for a hug.

Each of the girls took turns giving me a kiss and wiping away my tears.

Josh smiled as he gave me a hug. “I told you, didn’t I?”

I nodded my head. “Yeah. You weren’t kidding either.”

When Jeff walked up to me, I braced myself for what I was sure was going to be an onslaught of snarky comments.

“Welcome to fatherhood, dude. It’s one of the coolest things ever. I’m glad you had a girl because if you had a boy, I would have to worry about him going after my Grace. If your son were anything like you…”

I started laughing and shook my head. “Thanks, Jeff.”

He smiled, and to my surprise, he brought me in for a quick hug and slap on the back. “I’m really happy for you and Jessie.”

As everyone stepped back, I saw my father walking down the hall with Starbucks coffees, and Bryce was following behind him with more coffees.