Page 141 of Worth Every Moment

Aries smiles at us, but her eyes only leave the baby long enough to murmur, “Hey.”

Nico and Kate enter behind us, and Kate coos and clasps her hands. “Oh, look how tiny he is.”

Nico smiles, wrapping his arms around Kate from behind, hands protectively cupped over her stomach. He whispers something in her ear, and I instantly know she’s already pregnant.

“Come here,” Matt says to me.

Erica, who’s been holding my hand until now, lets go so I can approach the bed.

“Do you want to hold him?” Aries says, passing the bundle of baby to me without waiting for a response. I haven’t held a baby since Matt’s daughter Lucie was born, and that was years ago. “He can’t hold his head up,” she reminds me, her own hand cradling his head until she’s confident I have him in my arms.

I stare at his little face, all scrunched up and swollen. He's only a couple of hours old, and it blows my mind that thechild we've all been waiting for is finally here. His tiny hands escape the swaddle, exposing wrists that are soft and wrinkled. Miniature fingers grip my index finger, and an unexpected sense of awe that sweeps through me. I'm choking up out of nowhere. Adjusting my hold, I accidentally knock the little cotton cap from his head, revealing a shock of red hair.

“Wow,” I murmur. “Congratulations. You had a ginger baby.”

There’s a ripple of laughter.

“Yeah. I must have nuked Matt’s dark-hair genes,” Aries replies. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“He’s gorgeous.” I run my finger over his tiny nose and bend to pick up his hat and fit it back on his head. “Congratulations. What’s his name?”

“Seb,” Matt says.

My name sends a jolt through me. “Yeah? What?”

“No, stupid,” Matt replies. “We named him Seb.”

“Sebastian?” I ask.

“Nope,” Aries confirms. “Just Seb. We know you hate Sebastian.”

“We’d like you to be his godfather,” Matt adds.

“Me?” It’s a stupid question, which is appropriate given how stupid I’m sounding at the moment, but it’s a lot to take in. I can’t believe Matt would offer me something like this, or call his son after me, and I can’t say anything sensible because my throat gets choked up again. “Oh, fuck,” I mutter. “I’m gonna cry.”

Nico steps up behind me, a hand on my shoulder as he peers around me to see little Seb’s face. “He’s nearly as wrinkly as Dad.”

The mention of our father causes a chill in the air. The board ousted him after Diana and I exposed him. He’s powerless. A lot of shit went down for Diana after that night at the Hawkston Mayfair, but eventually her father agreed to do the deal with Nico at the helm instead of Dad, and Diana didn’t have to marryanyone for it. It was a win all round, for everyone but Dad. He’ll still get the family name over the door, but his health is failing and whether he lives to see it happen is another issue entirely.

“Fuck off,” Matt says, but his eyes are bright and there’s no anger in the words. In fact, he looks deliriously happy.In love, I suppose, is how he looks. In love with Aries; with his kids, Charlie and Lucie; and now baby Seb too. With his whole perfect life. He deserves it though, after everything he went through before he met Aries.

Erica puts her hands over the baby’s ears. “You all need to watch your language around this innocent soul.”

“Oh, it’s already too late for that,” Aries says. “He’s a Hawkston.”

“So you accept, then?” Matt asks me.

“Of course. I’m honoured. I might have to start going back to church, but yeah.”

Nico takes baby Seb from me, and he and Kate peer down, mesmerised by the tiny little guy.

We spend a few more moments congratulating Matt and Aries, and watching Seb’s tiny movements, before we leave the room and let them rest. Nico offers to take Erica and me to lunch with him and Kate, which we agree to, but before we go, there’s one thing I need to do before I lose my nerve.

“Erica?”

She’s walking down the corridor ahead of me and Nico, chatting to Kate. At the call of her name, she pauses and turns back. I sink to one knee, causing her brows to rise and her mouth to drop open.

I pull the ring box from my jacket pocket and flip it open. “Will you marry me?”