Page 32 of Need (Men of Inked Sinners #3)

LULU

Oliver looks shell-shocked.

“You okay?” I ask, grabbing his hand.

“We have a kid,” he whispers, staring down at our baby in my arms.

“We do.”

“We have a girl,” he adds.

“We do.” I squeeze his hand.

“We made a human.”

“I know. Isn’t it amazing?”

“I’ve never been more scared in my entire life, and that’s saying something because I’ve been through some crazy shit,” he whispers.

I chuckle as I look at the totally rattled hulk of a man. “It’ll be fine.”

“Someone’s going to hurt her someday, and I’m going to have to murder him and then spend the rest of my life in jail. You’ll be alone. She’ll be alone. I’ll miss everything.”

“Baby.” I can’t hide my smile. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Men are shitheads. It’ll happen.” He reaches for the baby, and I give her over willingly. “Hey, baby girl.”

I thought my husband was sexy before, but nothing beats seeing him holding our child. She’s a tiny thing, but she looks like a peanut in his arms.

He palms her head, laying her body down the inside of his arm. “We need to talk, kid,” he says, looking so damn serious. “I’m your daddy, and I’m the one who’s going to protect you from the world.”

“Don’t scare her already.”

“She needs to be prepared.”

“She’s an hour old.”

“No time like the present.”

I drop my head back onto the pillow and smile. “Whatever you say, sweetheart.”

“You’re learning,” he says to me before he gives his undivided attention back to our new baby.

“Now, where was I?” He sits on the edge of the bed, resting one hand on my leg while he holds our little girl.

“I want you to be a book girl. You’re going to stay home and read instead of going out with boys. ”

“Baby,” I say, shaking my head. “You can’t tell her that. It doesn’t work that way.”

“It will.” He looks so sure of himself. He is in for a world of hurt, but it is something he’ll have to find out on his own.

If our daughter is anything like me or Zoey, he is going to have a very stressful few decades.

“I’ll build you a library.”

“Stop it, Oliver. I want her to have so many friends.”

“Only girls.”

“All kids.”

“No,” he says, his gaze moving to me for a moment. “Boys are off-limits until she’s thirty.”

“Ridiculous,” I mutter. “You’re going to be a problem.”

“Daddy’s not the problem. Other boys are.”

I roll my eyes. “She’ll have to kiss a few frogs to find her prince.”

“No. No frogs for you.”

“This should be fun.”

There’s a knock on the door before my mom pops her head into the room. “You’re awake?”

“Yeah.” I motion for her to come in. She was in the delivery room with us, and so was Zoey.

I drew the line when it came to my dad, and he was okay with it.

I guess he almost fainted when Zoey was born.

The big guy couldn’t handle seeing my mother in pain, but I think it was more about the blood, although he’d never admit it.

She pushes open the door and is followed into the room by my father. “We brought you a soda. ”

I hold out my hands and wiggle my fingers. “I’m so thirsty.”

“Is that healthy?” Oliver asks, and I pin him with a glare that makes him seal his lips shut.

“It’s best not to talk,” Dad says to Oliver, having been in his shoes a very long time ago. “You won’t win.”

“Never do,” Oliver mumbles, but he hasn’t taken his eyes off our baby. The man is mesmerized.

“Do we have a name yet?” Mom asks, standing in front of Oliver and staring at her first grandbaby.

“I think so,” I tell her.

“And?” she says.

“Harlow,” I reply.

“Harlow?” She tilts her head as her eyes roam the little girl’s face. “Does she look like an Harlow?”

“She looks like an overripe prune,” Dad says.

“Harlow Rose,” Oliver says. “It’s perfect for her.”

“May I?” Mom opens her hands, wanting the baby.

The kid’s feet will probably barely touch the ground until she’s able to run a marathon. Babies are popular in this family, and I already know people will be fighting over holding her.

“Support her head,” Oliver tells my mom, like she’s new to the baby business.

“Oli, I think I know what I’m doing,” she says and laughs. “I’ve got this. Relax.”

“I’m strung so tight right now. ”

Dad slaps Oliver’s shoulder. “You’ll be that way the rest of your life. Settle into it. It’s the new you.”

“What?” Oliver asks, his eyes wide as he looks at my dad. “You’re lying.”

“It’s the truth. You’ll never know another day’s peace until you’re buried in the ground.”

Mom slaps Dad on the chest with the back of her hand. “Don’t scare him.”

“Have you ever been relaxed in thirty years, Delilah?” he asks her, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well…no.”

“See?” Dad pitches a thumb at Mom as he tilts his head. “No peace.”

“Damn it,” Oliver mutters.

“I brought cheesecake,” Zoey says, coming into the room in a mad rush. “I went to Eli’s.”

My eyes widen as they land on the bag she’s carrying from my favorite cheesecake place in the city. “You’re the best sister in the world.”

“Godmother worthy?” she asks, holding the bag out of reach and raising an eyebrow.

“You’re going to bribe me with food?”

She nods. “Is it working?”

“You got the job.”

She fist-pumps the air in triumph. “Worth every bit of traffic.”

I snatch the bag from her hands before she has a chance to hold the dessert ransom for any other reason. “I still think it’s ridiculous Grandma wouldn’t let me have this while I was pregnant. Cheesecake is safe.”

“You know how she is,” Dad says, placing his hand on my blanket-covered leg. “She is overprotective.”

“My body needs this to survive,” I say as I open the first container, salivating the moment the smell of the turtle cheesecake hits me.

“You’re always so dramatic,” Mom says.

I point at my sister with the plastic spoon. “Have you met Zoey? She’s all drama, all the time.”

“Hey.” Zoey makes a move like she’s about to steal the bag away, but even in my tired state, I’m too fast for her.

“No. It’s mine.”

“Always greedy,” she whispers.

“This is the life,” Dad says, ignoring our bickering. “I’m a grandpa.”

“I don’t feel like a granny,” Mom says.

“You don’t look like one either,” Dad says to her, his gaze traveling a little too slowly up her body.

“I’m trying to eat,” I tell him, digging into the cheesecake like I’ve never eaten before.

“You want to share that?” Oliver asks, reaching out like he’s going to take my spoon, but he thinks better of it when I glare at him. “Guess not.”

“You can have the plain one in the bag.”

“Better than nothing,” he says and pulls out the slice of plain cheesecake, which I am more than happy to sacrifice because it is my least favorite.

“Sorry we’re late. Your grandfather is a…” Grandma says as she walks into the room, but her words die as soon as her eyes land on the baby. “I forgot how little they are when they’re born.”

“You had four of us,” Dad says.

“It was a wild time in our lives, honey, and I’m old. My memory isn’t as good as it used to be.”

Grandma peeks over Mom’s shoulder. “She’s perfect.”

“She is,” Mom says.

“Do we have a name?” Grandpa asks.

“Harlow Rose,” I tell him between cheesecake bites.

“Welcome to the world, Harlow Rose,” Grandma says to our little girl. “I can’t wait to spoil you rotten.”

I watch my family, the people who raised me, knowing that I have the luckiest child in the world. She will never know loneliness with the Gallos in her life. She’d also never know peace and privacy either. That is the trade-off, but it’s totally worth it.

Oliver slides onto the bed next to me. “They’re happy.”

“There’s a baby,” I tell him. “That always makes them happy.”

“I’m happy too,” he replies.

I glance at him and smile. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been this happy before. ”

He lifts his hand and wipes the corner of my mouth with his fingertip. “How long do we have to be here?”

“I think they’ll let us go before dinner.”

“Good. I want to get home and start the rest of our life.”

I like the sound of that. Everything shifted the day I met Oliver, and I wouldn’t change a thing, not even losing my car. All of it led to this moment in time, surrounded by my family, husband, and new baby.

I am the luckiest woman in the world, and I won’t take a moment of it for granted.