Kendall #2
“You didn’t,” I promised him seriously, turning to face him once the car was off.
“The baby’s not even a day old yet, Rhys.
And you didn’t do anything wrong. Besides, Josie didn’t want either of us around when she was in labor,” I tacked on.
“And she needed to rest after, anyway. It’s not a big deal that we weren’t here first thing in the morning. ”
Maybe I was being overprotective, but his obvious sadness about the whole thing was starting to really get under my skin.
Not that I was going to confront Benji about it or anything, especially not today.
Today was all about the baby and Josie. But I didn’t know why he was being so weird about the whole thing, specifically toward Rhys.
He didn’t seem annoyed with me, and our situations were basically identical.
But then, he’d always had kind of a sore spot when it came to Rhys and I’d never exactly been sure why.
We made our way through the lobby and elevator to the room number Benji had texted me. The door was half-open but I rapped my knuckles on it anyway before slowly pushing it open.
The sterile white of the room was broken up beautifully by bunches of bright balloons and bouquets of vibrant flowers, but my eyes zeroed in on the bundle in Josie’s arms. A tiny, wrinkled up face surrounded in a pink blanket.
“A girl,” I said, my voice coming out all watery even though I hadn’t meant it to. “Oh my god.”
Dashing up to her bedside, I was shocked at the overwhelming rush of emotions.
I’d been excited the whole time since they’d announced the pregnancy, but it was so real now.
It was finally sinking in. My best friend, the person who I’d spent so many hours with, laughing and crying and sharing secrets, was a father.
He’d made a little person with half his DNA, and half the DNA of the woman he really, really loved.
“She’s like a little princess,” I whispered, my heart exploding in my chest like a glitter bomb.
“Do you want to hold her?” Josie asked, and I nodded, carefully pulling the chair next to her bed closer. Benji hurried over and helped transfer the precious cargo from Josie’s arms to mine, probably so she wouldn’t have to move around too much.
I gasped softly at the warmth of her impossibly tiny body in my arms, my eyes racing over her features. “Benji, she looks just like you.”
“Yeah,” he answered quietly, the slight rasp in his voice betraying his emotions too. “Everybody’s been saying that.”
Josie sniffled a little, but laughed softly. “Imagine carrying an entire human around in your uterus for 40 weeks just for her to come out looking like a copy paste of her dad.”
“Hey, I helped,” he piped up and she scoffed.
“You helped,” she repeated wryly. “I’d hardly call your contribution work.”
He chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “Well, no. That part was pretty fun. But I, you know, carried bags around and went out and picked up stuff when you were craving it.”
I laughed, shaking my head as I gently stroked a fingertip over her perfectly smooth cheek.
Her eyes were blue, like someone had taken the color right from the prettiest, clearest sky.
Kind of like Rhys’ eyes. “Love that you guys are already talking about raw-dogging in front of the baby. I mean, one day is plenty old enough, right?”
At my side from where he was staring down at us, Rhys snorted. “Hey, we grew up in a household where sex was talked about openly and we both turned out okay. Mostly.”
“Mostly,” Benji agreed.
“So what’s her name?” Rhys asked, and I realized I’d been so enthralled by her that my brain hadn’t even worked up to that point yet.
“She’s Astrid Willow Kensington,” Josie said. It was literally the perfect name for a princess.
After cooing and fawning over her for a few more minutes, Josie asked Rhys if he wanted to hold her. I watched his eyes widen a bit as he cleared his throat.
“Ah, I don’t know… She looks pretty breakable.”
“Oh, don’t worry so much,” she teased, waving a hand dismissively. “You’ll be fine. Your uncle instincts are going to kick in right away.”
I could practically hear his nervous gulp as Benji gently lifted the snoozing bundle from my arms and I let Rhys take my place in the seat.
Once he did, I planted my butt on the corner of Josie’s bed.
I watched as Benji leaned down to place her in Rhys’ arms. Once he had, I expected him to stand back up straight but he lingered, hovering close for a few odd moments.
“What?” Rhys asked incredulously, and I felt a strange bloom of confusing tension in the air as Benji silently stared at him for a few more seconds before finally standing up.
“Nothing,” he said briskly.
“What’s wrong, Benji?” I asked. When I glanced over at Josie, she looked as confused as I felt. She obviously didn’t know what was up with him either.
Benji’s eyes slid over to me, but I couldn’t decode anything in them. “It’s nothing. I just remembered something,” he tacked on carelessly, like it really was nothing. “Make sure you support her head,” he said, directing his attention to Rhys again.
“Oh! Uh, yeah,” he stammered out, shifting a bit to make sure Astrid was perfectly protected in the basket of his muscular arms. “Like this?”
“That’s great,” Josie encouraged him. She, at least, didn’t seem to have any weird bitterness about Rhys, which I was thankful for. “Total uncle material.”
He looked so adorable holding her that I could barely suppress a squeal. The scattered pieces of my heart, what was left of it after Astrid had burst it into a million pieces, started melting like wax in the sun.
Would he ever hold our baby like that one day?
It was a crazy thought. He’d barely only admitted that he was bi, but…
I couldn’t help imagining it. I was so in love with him I could hardly stand it.
I was sure I’d never love anyone in the entire world as much as I loved Rhys Kensington, and if I didn’t have him then the idea of marriage and kids was just completely worthless.
Because I worried I might have been visibly swooning, I tore my eyes away from the two of them, and shifted my attention to Josie. “How are you feeling?”
She sighed a little, but tilted her head. “Exhausted, but relieved. And nervous,” she finally admitted, pushing some of her auburn hair up off her forehead.
“Why nervous?”
“Well, just… They say this is the easy part. Like pushing a watermelon out of a keyhole is easy,” she remarked, rolling her eyes. I snorted, but didn’t really want to think about it too hard. “But then all these sleepless nights are coming up and it’s supposed to be so overwhelming, and…”
“You can call me for help, like, anytime,” I promised. “Seriously, I’ll drop everything for whatever you need. Even if you just want me to sit with her for a few hours while you sleep.”
Her eyes got comically wide and watery. “Aw, Keke! You’re the sweetest.”
“If you need me to pick anything up and bring it over, I’m happy playing errand boy,” Rhys added, and she gave him a very soft and very pleased expression.
“My parents and Benjamin’s parents basically said the same thing,” she sighed. “I’m so lucky.”
“You’re lucky and Astrid’s going to be the most spoiled child in the history of the world,” Benji piped up wryly, but it was obvious he was happy about how willing to help we all were.
We chatted a bit more about the baby and the short term plans Benji and Josie had, until a nurse came to check Josie’s blood pressure, and then informed us she needed her rest. We assured them again that we were available for help with anything they could possibly need.
“Uh, do you mind dropping me back off?” Rhys asked as we stood up to leave.
“Oh! Sure, no problem,” I said, glad he’d thought to ask about it in front of them so it wouldn’t look weird that we were leaving together.
The last thing I needed was for Benji to pick up on any weird vibes between us while he was already having weird feelings about Rhys to begin with.
I hugged both of them, took another long look at my new niece, and then we headed out.
Out in the car, my phone got a bunch of notifications at once. I must not have been getting service in the hospital, but I hadn’t noticed.
“I have a bunch of missed calls,” I remarked. “But I don’t recognize the number.”
“Well, at least we know it isn’t Benjamin or Josie,” Rhys scoffed, and I grinned.
“Oh, they left a voicemail,” I realized. “Probably someone that doesn’t know how to text trying to place an order.”
Most of my customers placed orders through my social media, so they tended to be younger, but if it was someone local then an older person still opposed to text messaging wasn’t totally out of the question.
I clicked through the voicemail prompts to listen, then put the phone up to my ear, expecting to hear some fragile old lady or something. When my dad’s deep voice came slithering out of the receiver, all my stomach muscles clenched and I nearly fumbled the phone.
My mom had called me a bunch of times in the last year or so, until I’d eventually blocked her number, along with my dad’s for good measure.
He’d obviously changed his number or called from somewhere else or something.
He informed me, in his signature gruff voice that always made me feel like I was being lectured or insulted, that my mom was sick and it wasn’t looking good.
Rhys reached out to rub a hand over my arm, clearly able to tell whatever I was listening to was making me upset.
“If you’re any kind of man, which I’ve always doubted anyway, you’ll come work things out with her before it’s too late,” Dad said, taunting me through the phone.
Once the message was done playing, I dropped my phone into my lap and let out a frustrated groan, dragging my palms over my face.
“What happened?” Rhys asked.