Page 39 of This Memory (Moose Village #3)
A male nurse glanced down at me. He smiled reassuringly as he said, “I’ll make sure they’re updated. Don’t you worry, Momma. Everything will be okay.”
I nodded and looked straight ahead—and for the briefest moment, I swore I saw Evelyn and Denny.
It felt like it took forever…but at the same time, it was only moments. Before I knew it, I was looking down at the baby girl lying across my chest, crying before she found her thumb. Gavin was crying and smiling as he leaned down to kiss Lily.
“She’s beautiful,” he said, wiping the tears away .
“She is,” I whispered as I kissed her head. “Welcome to the world, sweet pea.”
I looked up and met Gavin’s gaze. He smiled and said softly, “Here we go.”
“Here we go!”
“How are my two favorite girls doing today?” Gavin asked as he walked up and kissed me, then kissed Lily on the head. “Hi, my little bean.”
We were sitting on the back patio enjoying the beautiful day.
“We’re wonderful. She loves to be outside. I think she likes the sounds of the birds and that wind chime your dad gave us.”
He removed his belt and laid it on the table in the middle of the back patio. “The other day when I had her out here, I swear those chimes put her to sleep.”
I smiled at our precious baby girl. It was hard to believe she was nearly a month old. “How do you think she’ll do with the fireworks?”
“Bet she sleeps right through it with her noise machine.”
Lily loved her noise machine, and I guessed that was because I had a thunderstorm going on mine every night when I was pregnant, and she got used to it. We put one in her room on her first day home, and as of yet, we haven’t had any issues with her sleeping.
“Let me go change and shower quickly, then I’ll take over.”
I rocked gently as Lily nursed. “No rush, Daddy. We’re just enjoying our dinner and fresh air. ”
He kissed me once more and went back into the house.
I started to hum a song as Lily drank. Her little gray-blue eyes looked up at me, and a sweet smile appeared. “You like that? Your mom used to sing that song all the time. It’s Kelsea Ballerini, and the song is called ‘This Time Last Year.’ It was one of her favorites. Should we play it?”
I grabbed my phone, opened Spotify, and selected the song. As it played, I stood and danced slowly with Lily. She stopped nursing and stared at me with the cutest face.
“You like that, sweet pea? Should we play more Kelsea?”
Gavin walked up and buried his face in my neck. “You look beautiful with her in your arms like that.”
I laughed. “It’s all her.”
Turning, I handed Lily to him. He promptly put her over his shoulder and lightly patted her back. When she let out a loud burp, we both laughed.
“I didn’t really think I could ever be this happy,” Gavin said as he swayed to the song. “Today was hard.”
Gavin had been off work for the last month with me and Lily, and today was his first day back.
“It was hard not having you here.”
He sighed. “Did you stop by the store today?”
I nodded and turned down my phone. “I did. Upstairs looks amazing. The nursery is adorable, thanks to Harper and Aurora.”
“I got the background checks done.”
Rolling my eyes, I sat on the outdoor sofa. “Gavin, you cannot be running background checks on everyone.”
“The hell I can’t. They’re going to be watching our daughter. You bet your ass I’m checking them out. They’re both clean, by the way. ”
I laughed. “Are you leaning toward one or the other? I kind of like Loren.”
He smiled and ran his finger down Lily’s cheek. “Yeah, she was nice. Good references as well.”
“What about Pam?”
He frowned. “I didn’t get a warm-fuzzy with her. She seems like she’d be strict.”
“Strict? Lily will only be four months old, so how strict could she possibly be?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought Loren’s references were better, and she’s used to working with babies. Pam’s last few jobs have been with older kids.”
“That’s true. The good thing is, they’ll just be upstairs. And Loren would live there, so that’s extra easy and convenient for her.”
Nodding, he said, “Another good point.”
I smiled as I looked at Lily, peacefully sleeping in Gavin’s arms.
“Do you think Evelyn and Denny are watching over her?” I asked.
Without even thinking, Gavin replied, “I sure do. Do you ever notice Lily sometimes looks off in the distance and gets excited? My mother says it’s just gas, but I don’t think so. I think she sees them.”
I grinned. “I thought the same thing!”
“Right? I mean, come on. The way she focuses so hard on the distance. She sees her two angels.”
“A hundred percent.”
Gavin focused back on Lily. “When do you want to do this again?”
“Do what?” I asked.
He looked up and winked. “Get knocked up? But this time I’ll be there for the event.”
I grinned. “I think I’m going to like your way much better.”
Tossing his head back, he laughed. Lily didn’t even budge, just continued sleeping safely in her father’s arms.
After a few more minutes, Gavin said, “I wonder who she’ll look like?”
“She looks like Evelyn to me.”
“Really?” he asked, tilting his head one way, then the other. “I can see that. But she has Denny’s little butt chin.”
I giggled. “And Eve’s nose.”
“For sure, she has her nose. Thank God.”
Reaching over, I gently tapped his arm. “Stop that.”
Gavin let out a sigh. “I still feel guilty for being so happy. For being blessed to raise the child they wanted so badly.”
I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my chin on my knees. “I do too. But they would have wanted us to love this little girl with everything we have.”
“That isn’t a probably at all.”
“To answer your question about our next one…I’d like to wait a bit. We never really had a chance to be in this relationship, just the two of us. So I’d like to focus on just the three of us—and you and me, once she’s old enough—before we think about another child.”
He smiled. “I think that’s a great idea.”
“Yeah?”
Nodding, he reached for my hand. “Yeah. I love you, Brystol Quinn.”
“I love you more, Gavin Quinn.”
Lily made a little sound, and we both laughed .
Gavin kissed her forehead and whispered, “Don’t worry, Lily Rae Quinn. We love you the most.”