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Gracie pushed people out of the way and sat next to me. “It’ll be okay, honey. Look how many babysitters you have on hand.”

“And I’m a doctor,” Sam added, leaning against his husband.

Before I could concentrate on all the support we had, I heard someone clear their throat. When I glanced up, a doctor in scrubs stood there with an amused expression.

“Mr. and Mr. Blake?”

I shot up to my feet, catching my husband as he flailed backwards from my sudden movement since he was still kneeling in front of me. I took his arm and jerked him up to his feet and turned us toward the doctor.

“Yes?” Connor asked after I tried to croak out an answer.

Linus chuckled beside me, and I elbowed him in the stomach.

“You two have a baby girl. She was born at one ten this morning. She weighs seven pounds, eight ounces. Would you like to see her?”

“Yes, please,” I whispered.

With a nod, he led the way toward the well-baby nursery and Connor linked his fingers through mine.

I leaned in and asked, “Are you shaking or is it me?”

He huffed out a laugh and said, “Pretty sure it’s both of us.”

Once the doctor ushered us into the room, my gaze zeroed in on the baby in the nurse’s arms being rocked back and forth as she cried. There wasn’t any hesitation on my part, so when Istepped up to the nurse, she gave me a smile and slid the tiny human into my arms.

“Shhhh, little one. We’re here now. You are safe and loved.”

When the baby stopped crying at my voice, my heart seized at the curious look on her face and the fact I was holding our baby for the first time. This time, I blinked tears from my eyes as I glanced up at Connor.

“I’m so glad your mom taught us how to hold a baby with that sack of flour before she came into the world.”

Connor smiled as the doctor and nurse both laughed.

Glancing down at our newborn daughter, I said, “Hi, little one. We’re your daddies…”

With the words out of my mouth, my head shot up, and I whisper-shouted at my husband, “We can’t call ourselves that!”

With an ease and calmness I had yet to experience, he wrapped an arm around my back as he cocooned our daughter between us.

“Ah,cariño mío, it’ll be okay. How about… you be dad and me, papa?”

I blinked up at him. “I’m… I would love to hear her call you papa.”

In the next few minutes, we filled out the information for the birth certificate, listing both of us as parents to our daughter. They verified the legal paperwork where the mother had relinquished custody. The doctor performed a series of screenings along with a physical examination, declaring the baby healthy.

As I carried our little one toward the waiting room to meet her family, I glanced at my husband and asked, “Are you happy?”

“For the next step in our life? Yeah, I couldn’t have predicted how much I wanted to add to our family, but watching you holdour daughter fills me with so much joy, I don’t know how I’m containing it.”

“You’ll be a brilliant father. Because you have so much love to give.”

My husband beamed at me. “I do, but that’s because of you.”

He paused us before we opened the door to the waiting room. “I love you so much.”

I leaned my forehead against his, taking a deep breath. “Connor, you are the love of my life who gave me a loving family, friends, and now, our baby girl. I not only know it, but feel it, every day. And I love you just as much.”

With my hands full, I couldn’t reach up and wipe the happy tears away. But I pressed my lips to his and said, “Let’s start our next adventure.”

Connor nodded and pushed open the door. The hushed talking stopped.

“Who do you have you there?” Thomas asked.

With a smirk at me, Connor said, “Meet our daughter, Freya Valentina Amelie Natalie Blake.”

THE END