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I could almost laugh, but somehow I don’t think she’d appreciate that.

“Do I still get to be there?”

“Yep,” one of the nurses chirps. “Let’s gown you up, daddy.”

The next thing I know I’m being pushed into an operating room with a hair net on my head and a mask around my nose and mouth, and Meredith’s finally stopped screaming.

“Oh, that’s so much better,” she breathes.

“It’s a spinal block. You should be awake and alert but not feel anything but pressure.”

“It’s absolutely blissful, thank you.”

The doctor chuckles a little and then startscutting into my wife.

My knees go weak, and I have to brace myself on the operating table.

“Mr. Matthews?” The nurse’s voice sounds very far away, and I bite down hard on my tongue, drawing blood, to stay alert.

I have to keep it together. I just can’t look at them cutting Meredith, so I look down into her face, instead.

“You’re doing amazing, princess. I can’t wait to meet our baby.”

“Here she is,” the doctor says, and I look down to see a squirming, squalling, little thing who may just be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, right after her mother.

“A girl,” Meredith mumbles, but it’s almost slurred, and I watch as Dr. Klein’s face goes pale.

“Get him out of here.”

It takes two male nurses and a female one to get me out of the room.

I keep fighting to get back to Meredith, to see her face, make her open her eyes.

It takes two hours before Dr. Klein comes out of the operating room, and his apron is covered in blood.

I brace myself on the chair so I don’t drop to my knees.

Grayson and Meredith’s parents are on the way, but right now, I’m alone, and I feel it in my bones.

“What happened?” My throat is raspy dry.

“Just some bleeding we didn’t anticipate. She’s all right, now, but she lost a lot of blood. She’ll need a lot of rest, and a lot of help with the baby after such a complicated surgery.”

“She’s all right? She’s really okay?”

“She’s really okay.” He claps me on the shoulder and then I do go down, plopping down into a chair and putting my face in my hands.

Grayson walks up to me a few minutes later and when I look up at him, his face is wrecked.

“Oh, God, she?—”

“She’s okay,” I say quickly. “She’s okay and so is the baby. A little girl. Born at three a.m.”

“Oh, thank God.” Grayson plops down next to me. “Lillian had to stay home with the kids. Max has a stomach bug. You’ll see when yours is older, but kids arealwaysgetting sick.”

I laugh, wiping at my face. “It was touch and go for a minute, I thought?—”

“Don’t, Logan. It’ll drive you crazy. She’s okay, and so is the baby, and that’s all that matters.”