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“Perfectly normal and healthy,” Reese informed me. “I’m sure Hannah is elated.”

Elated? Hell, I was certain she was exhausted and glad all the pain was over, too.

Honestly, Tanner looked ecstatic himself and so incredibly proud of the little girl he and Hannah had created.

As I looked at the joy on my brother’s face, it suddenly hit me that I really did want this for myself someday.

I just didn’t want the whole delivery part of the occasion.

Thathad looked brutal.

Kaleb and I both got our chance to slap Tanner on the back and congratulate him on his firstborn child.

My mother and Joy got a very brief opportunity to hold Winter.

“I have to get her back to Hannah,” Tanner said as he lovingly took his daughter back from his mother.

We all hugged each other before we started to exit the hospital.

“Relieved?” Reese asked as we wandered toward my truck in the parking lot.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I was afraid Tanner was going to have a heart attack before all of this was over.”

Reese chuckled. “They usually forget all about the anxiety once the baby is born. Tanner will be fine. He has Winter and Hannah to fuss over now that the delivery is over.”

“Do you really want to go through all that?” I asked her seriously.

She leaned against the truck for a moment as she said, “I thought you wanted to have a child.”

“I did,” I blurted out. “I do. I just hate the thought of you going through all that pain and misery.”

She laughed. “It’s really not that bad, Devon. There are pain relief options, and most women feel fine during their pregnancy if there are no complications.”

“Morning sickness?”

She wrapped her arms around my neck. “There are vitamins and medications for that if it’s severe. I’m starting to think me being pregnant would be harder for you than it is for me. I know that Tanner was a lot more worried about this delivery than Hannah.”

I put a hand on her flat abdomen. “I really want that for us someday, but it looks scary as fuck. You’re my whole damn life now, Reese.”

She reached out a hand and ran it lovingly over my jaw. “Nothing bad is going to happen to me if we have a child, Devon. All the pregnancy stuff we’ll get through together. We’re partners now, right? And by that time, I’ll be your wife. You’re just a little wary because you just watched your brother go through the whole experience. We aren’t looking at a baby right away. Relax.”

I calmed down a little.

She was right.

If we wanted a child someday, I was going to have to be there for her and not get caught up with every bad thing that could happen.

“I’m always going to worry about you,” I warned her. “And I’ll be a majorly possessive, obsessive pain in your ass as a husband.”

She smiled. “Expected. You’re already that way as a fiancé. I know who you are, Devon, and I’m still madly in love with you. Feeling better?”

I wrapped my arms tightly around her waist. “Yeah. I guess this entire day has been a little unnerving.”

“But it had a very happy ending,” she said with a sigh. “You have a beautiful new niece.”

“She’s your niece, too,” I reminded her.

Maybe she wasn’tofficiallyan aunt, but she would be soon.