Epilogue
“How’s the most beautiful woman in the world?”
Harry comes into my room in the private clinic, leans over the bed, and kisses my forehead. Then he produces a bouquet of flowers in every shade of blue imaginable from behind his back.
I smile. “Harry, the room is already full of flowers.”
I glance around at the vases overflowing with blossoms on every available surface, the petals catching the sunlight from the window. It doesn’t even feel like a hospital room; it’s like sleeping in a forest.
“Someone wise once said you can never give the woman in your life too many flowers.”
“Someone wise?”
“My mom.”
“Oh, Harry.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “She knew what she was doing because she raised the best husband in the entire world.” Hot tears well in my eyes and I sniff loudly. “Sorry, hormones.”
“I’ll take as many hormones as you want to throw my way, Ruby.”
Setting the bouquet down on the mobile tray, he reaches into the bassinet and picks up the baby. Our baby. Our beautiful baby boy.
Cradling him in his arms, he sits on the edge of the bed and nuzzles the baby’s nose. “I could stare at him all day.”
I know how he feels. Every time I look at the baby, I can’t help thinking that we created a little miracle when we were falling in love with each other. He’s so perfect, so … Harry.
“He looks just like you.”
Harry shakes his head, still gazing at his son with wonder in his eyes. “He’s going to have your eyes.”
“How can you tell?”
“Because that’s what I used to whisper to him every morning when he was inside your belly.”
He kisses the tip of the baby’s nose, and I can’t help thinking that Harry is going to be the best father ever. He will protect him—protect both of us—with his life, but his son has already brought out a gentle side of Harry that I’ve never seen before.
I mean, he was gentle with me when I was pregnant, pre-empting my needs, rushing out in the middle of the night to find whatever crazy food I was craving, stroking my back whenever it was aching. But the way he is with the baby is another level.
And just when I think I couldn’t love him more, I realize that my love for Harry is constantly growing, evolving, learning.
“It’s true.” Harry is watching me, a wide grin on his face. “You’ve made me the happiest man in the world, Ruby.”
“You might not be saying that when he’s screaming to be fed in the middle of the night, and you have to be up early for a meeting.”
“I promise you that I will be saying it until I draw my last breath.”
I study the baby’s face, the tiny button nose, the eyelids that are almost transparent, crisscrossed with delicate veins, the perfect pink lips. “I’ve been thinking about what we should call him. I like Brandon.” It’s Harry’s middle name.
“Brandon.” Harry tries it out, caressing the sleeping baby’s cheek with his fingertip.
The baby’s eyes flicker open, his gaze settling on his dad as a smile twitches the corners of his mouth.
“He’s smiling at me.” Harry turns wide gleaming eyes my way, before directing them back to the baby.
“It’s wind.”
“No, it isn’t wind, is it?” Harry kisses the baby’s forehead. “You’re smiling at your dad, aren’t you?”
I chuckle. The two men in my life. How can it ever get better than this?
“I like it,” Harry says. “Brandon Graham. What do you think?”
Fresh tears spill over my bottom lashes. “You want to name him after my dad?”
“I can’t think of anyone better. Can you?”
Karl Weiss disappeared around the same time as my mom. I don’t know if they’re together; neither Harry nor I have heard from them since, and I’ve stopped trying to imagine them playing happy families in another city where no one knows them.
For a while, it made me sad to think that my mom would never be a part of our baby’s life, but I’ve made peace with it now. Her loss, as Harry would say. My baby will have all the love that he needs from his parents. When he was placed in my arms shortly after he was born, I made a silent vow to make sure that he would never grow up to be like them. Brandon Weiss will fall in love one day and care for his family the way Harry cares for us.
I shake my head. “Brandon Graham Weiss. It’s perfect.”
Harry takes our son to the window. “You see this, Brandon Graham Weiss? This is New York city. That building over there—” I smile as Harry gestures to the skyline through the glass “—is the Chrysler Building. Impressive, huh?”
Harry glances over his shoulder and winks at me.
“This building—” he points somewhere right of the Chrysler Building “—is going to be Weiss Tower one day very soon. That’s right,” he adds as if the baby asked him a question, “Weiss is your name. And I’ll tell you something else, Brandon: one day, this will all be yours. The entire city. The United States of America. The entire planet. There is nothing too big, or too grand, or too far for my son, and don’t you ever forget it.”
Harry looks at me with tears in his eyes.
“He’s listening to every word I say.”
I can’t help smiling at my two beautiful men. “They say that babies are sponges.” I read every baby book I could find while I was pregnant. “They soak up more information in their formative years than at any other point in their lives.”
“I’ll have to start teaching him about the business then. He’ll be prepared when it’s time for him to take over.”
“What if he doesn’t want to take over from you?” I arch an eyebrow at my husband. “What if he wants to be a teacher, or a journalist, or a dancer?”
“He’s my son. He can do whatever he damn well pleases, so long as he does it from his office inside Weiss Tower.” Harry chuckles to himself. “Oh, I almost forgot your mommy’s gift,” he murmurs to the baby.
“You bought me a gift?”
One thing I learned early on in our marriage: there’s no point telling Harry that I don’t want or need to be spoiled. He has made it his life’s mission to do exactly that, spoil me, and if he gets it into his head that he wants to buy me a gift, or book a vacation, or buy an antique crib for the baby’s nursery, nothing or no one will stop him.
“Over there, Brandon…” Harry gestures to the window again. “Is a place called Greenwich Village. You’d better get used to the name because that’s where you’re going to grow up. I’ve bought your mommy a townhouse in Greenwich Village with a courtyard out the back and a garden annex for your grandfather.”
He turns around to face me, his eyes glistening with tears.
I push back the covers and swing my legs over the side of the bed. My movements are still slow following Brandon’s birth, and I’m still adapting to my flat belly after months of not being able to see my feet, and Harry is there before I can stand up, ushering me back into bed.
“What are you doing, Ruby? I wouldn’t have told you if I’d known you’d try to get out of bed.”
“I’m fine.” I peer up at him. “I’ve had a baby; I can still stand up and hug my husband.”
Relenting, he helps me onto my feet and the three of us hug together, me, Harry and our son.
“Am I interrupting something?” The voice comes from the open doorway.
I whirl around to find my dad standing there with a bunch of vibrant wildflowers in his hand. “Dad!”
“I’ve come to meet my grandson.” He enters the room, still supported by his cane, but looking stronger than I’ve seen him since his first stroke. “Although I don’t think you need any more flowers.”
“A wise woman once said, you can never give the woman in your life too many flowers,” I say, welcoming my dad into our hug. “Meet Brandon Graham Weiss. Your grandson.”
Dad sits down, stows his cane to one side, and Harry places the baby carefully into his arms. Tears stream down his cheeks as he peers into the green eyes of our baby.
“He looks just like you did when you were a baby, Ruby,” Dad says, his voice filled with emotion. “Welcome to the world, baby Brandon. You’ve made all our lives complete.”
He has.
You don’t realize there is anything missing in your life until your baby comes along, and then you understand that you were simply biding your time, waiting for them to arrive and fill the invisible slot that belonged to them all along.
New baby. New home. New life.
It doesn’t get any better than this.
Thank you for reading Ruby and Harry’s story, I hope you enjoyed it, please leave me a review and share to help me grow.