here, Liam, but Karin doesn’t want you taking pictures of her lady bits.”
“I would never do that,” he answered fervently. “Just...maybe of the baby and then maybe of Karin with the baby and then maybe I could hold him, too—I mean, after he gets here, of course?”
On the far side of Karin, Prim was stifling a giggle.
Naomi grabbed him in a hug. “Isn’t he adorable?” she asked Karin and Prim as she let him go.
He was trying to decide whether or not his manly dignity had just been impugned when Karin said, “Of course you can take a few pictures with your son.” She met his eyes directly and he knew she was remembering that night in February, when he’d snapped a shot of her in his bed and she’d assumed he’d gotten more than just her face.
“Terrific,” he replied, suddenly just crazy happy, right there in the delivery room, crazy happy and sure that everything was going to work out fine, though exactly what “fine” entailed he had no clear idea.
Things got messy soon after that. There were fluids and a little blood and Karin’s groans started to sound more like screams and angry shouts.
But then the baby’s head was crowning and everything sped up. As soon as the little guy’s shoulders emerged, it was all over. The rest of him slipped out quick and easy. He was so tiny and wrinkled and red, covered with sticky whitish goo, wailing as the doctor caught him and laid him in Karin’s waiting arms. Naomi grabbed Liam and pulled him around to stand in front of her, right next to Karin and the naked infant on her chest.
On Karin’s other side, Prim stepped back so the nurse could wipe some of the goo off the baby and the doctor could deal with the umbilical cord. All Liam could do was stand there and stare.
He’d never realized how much he wanted children.
Not until this moment, when he actually had one—yeah, he’d had vague yearnings in the past year, to get more serious about his life, to get married, start a family.
But only in a generalized sort of way.
Until today.
Today, he knew exactly what he wanted—to be a father to this perfect little miracle he and Karin had made.
“Take a picture, Liam,” Karin teased softly as she stroked the baby’s shoulder, her hand gliding down the fat little arm to the tiny fist. Instantly, the baby wrapped his itty-bitty fingers around her thumb and held on.
Liam got out his phone and snapped a few shots.
The nurse gave him a towel to put on his shoulder. She let him hold his son for the first time. That was amazing, though it didn’t last long.
He passed Naomi his phone and she got a few pictures of him with the baby. Too soon, the nurse took the little guy back and gave him to Karin again and she nursed him for the first time. Liam thought maybe he should turn away, give her some privacy. But she didn’t seem concerned and nobody else cared. He watched as his son latched right on and went to work, the fingers of his right hand resting on the upper slope of Karin’s breast, opening and closing as he sucked.
Liam watched not only his newborn son, but his son’s mother, too. He stared and marveled and thought how, from that first night they’d had together last Christmas, she’d been constantly keeping him at arm’s distance, giving in to the attraction between them, yeah. But then, once the hot times were over, pushing him away.
And what about the last few days since he’d found out about the baby? She’d continually reminded him to take his time, think it over, figure out just how involved he wanted to be.
As though a man could choose his level of involvement when he became a father.
There was no choosing with something like this. When it came to fatherhood, a man needed to be all in.
And he was. In this. Going for it. All the way.
Okay, he got it. He knew he had no idea, really, what the hell he was doing. But he could learn. And he would learn. One way or another, he was making it work with Karin. He damn well would create a family with the mother of his child.
Last Friday, that first day he found out she was pregnant, he’d stuttered out a half-assed proposal of marriage. She’d said no before he even really got the words out.
No wasn’t going to cut it.
She glanced up from the baby and into his eyes. “Liam?” She seemed alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
“Not a thing.” He felt so calm, so absolutely determined. He held her gaze, steady on. “Marry me, Karin,” he said.
Karin was wasted, completely exhausted.
She’d done this twice before, yes. But experience didn’t make having a baby feel any less like pushing out a watermelon. She just wanted to lie there and nurse her newborn and be grateful that labor was over, thank you very much.
But no.
Liam had to go to the marriage place. Hadn’t they already agreed that marriage was no solution to anything?
And did he have to be so sweet about it? Sweet and determined and handsome and even-tempered and so damn helpful.
Liam Bravo was a dream.
Someday, he would make some lucky woman very happy.
But that day was not today and that woman was not her. No way was she going to be the one that Liam Bravo married because he felt he had to.
After the ongoing disaster with poor Bud, she’d had this fantasy that someday, maybe, she would actually get it right. In that lovely, impossible illusion, she’d imagined finding a man who would love her just for her, and then fall in love with Ben and Coco, too. That man would marry her for love and love alone. Duty and obligation and doing the right thing wouldn’t even enter into it.
Later, they would have a baby or two, maybe. Like normal people do.
As of now, she was reasonably certain her fantasy was never actually going to come true. But that didn’t mean she would settle for less.
Liam was still standing right beside the bed, staring down at her and the baby as though he could will her to agree to his well-meaning but totally unacceptable proposal.
The doctor had left the room and the nurse and Naomi and Prim had fallen dead silent the moment Liam said the M word.
“Would you all give Liam and me a moment alone?” Karin asked her suddenly speechless friends and the too-quiet nurse.
“Of course.” The nurse gave her shoulder a pat.
And the three women filed out the door so fast you’d think there was a fire. Or maybe a gas leak.
“Liam...” Karin kissed her baby’s head and shifted a fraction so he was settled more firmly at her breast.
The man beside
