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I smile up at him, my previous anger already forgotten.
“Can you believe they’re here? It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for them to arrive.”
“I know. I especially can’t believe they waited for your father’s wake to try to make their big appearance,” Carter says. We both chuckle as we stare down at them.
“Get Izzy.”
“Don’t you want us to clean them up?” a nurse asks. When I glare at her she looks away. Carter leaves to get Izzy and I stare down at the babies in my arms. My heart has never felt as full as it does at this moment. My life is truly perfect.
Carter and Izzy come back through the door. Izzy’s face lights up when she sees me holding the babies.
“Cute!” She walks around the doctors and leans in to look at the babies. “Why are they slimy?”
“They just came out of me, dork. Did you think they pop out wrapped in blankets?”
“Someone’s cranky,” Izzy mutters, looking up at Carter. He shrugs and they both direct their attention back at the twins. “Which one is which?”
“She,” I raise the baby in my right arm. “Is Mary Elise. And this little guy over here is Edward Thomas. Two perfect babies named after two of the most amazing people we’ve ever had in our lives.”
Carter squeezes my shoulder. We spent a lot of time agonizing over names and trying to figure out what to call the twins. It was important to us for their middle names to honor both Carter’s late wife and my dad, but even more important for the twins to have their own first names so they can grow into their own identities.
“I can’t wait to take them home,” I whisper.
“I can’t wait to raise them with you,” Carter whispers back. He leans his head on mine and looks at the twins in wonder.
I know I’ve said this a lot, but this time I mean it.
This is the happiest moment of my life.