Riley
EIGHT MONTHS LATER…
Having a baby is a gift. A privilege. A special experience.
And damn fucking hard!
Of course I would marry a man well over six feet with muscles for days. Common sense would conclude his offspring would be big.
And I’m not.
According to the nurse who helped us when we arrived at the Winter Lake medical center, I’m smaller than average for a grown woman. I didn’t like the way she looked at me or Felix when she asked how old I am.
Twenty-one is not young. Although it’s not old either.
When another contraction grips my stomach, I curl around my swollen belly and moan.
“What can I do?” Felix asks. It’s the same question he’s been asking for the last seven hours and I’m so over it, I want to punch him.
Of course I need to wait for the pain to subside.
“When the contraction stops, Riley, let me know. I’d like to check your dilation again.”
I want to punch the nurse, too.
Actually, I think I’ve wanted to punch every person that’s come into this room since we got here. I’m not an angry or violent person, but there is a person currently trying to rip my insides open to get out. I’m entitled.
“Riley, did you—”
“I heard her,” I grit out. I feel him step away and instantly want him closer. Grabbing his shirt, I tug him back to me. “Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I wish I could take the pain for you. Are you sure you don’t want an epidural?”
“Too late, I think,” the nurse murmurs. “Gone yet, Riley?”
She’s been so gracious while I’ve been a fire-breathing dragon all afternoon. “Yeah…”
“Okay, I’m just going to…” She rolls me to my back as she speaks then pulls one leg… “Well. Okay, mom, try not to push on the next contraction.”
“I’m not.”
“You are, Riley. You might not consciously be doing it, but the baby’s head is crowning and we need to get the doctor in here.” She steps away as another pain hits. “Don’t push!”
Easy for her to say. Definitely hard for me to do. “Holy hell. Birthing a baby is fucking hard!”
“You’re doing so great.” Felix grips my hand, presses his lips to my forehead. “I’m in awe, Riley.”
I can’t speak. I don’t think I’m breathing. It’s taking everything I have not to bear down. Except I don’t think I’m doing a good job because when the door opens and our doctor steps in, there is a second of silence before a baby’s wail fills the room.
“Okay, looks like we got here just in time,” Doctor Groves says as he rushes to the foot of the bed.
“You’re too late,” I murmur, my gaze glued to the head sticking out of my crotch.
I wasn’t going to look. Didn’t want to see my insides being stretched beyond recognition. Except this miracle of life that’s taken hours to achieve is too hard to resist.
“Okay, let me check for the cord…” Doctor Groves has his hands around the baby’s head. “All clear. Next contraction we’re going to work these shoulders out.”
“We’re not done?” I know we’re not. Have no idea why I asked and I don’t have time to think about it because pain cramps my stomach and I’m pushing.
Pushing and pushing and then pop. The pain changes and the baby we’ve waited nine months to meet slips from my body surprisingly easily after hours of labor.
“Got yourselves a boy,” Doctor Groves says with a grin. “A big strapping boy. My guess is over nine pounds, close to ten.”
Our boy is placed on my chest, and I can’t take my eyes off him. “Hello, baby.”
“Look what you did, Riley.”
Felix’s voice sounds choked, and I look up to see tears streaming down his face, but the smile tells me how he really feels. “He looks like you,” I say.
“Does he?”
“Yes. A big boy.” I grin.
“We got a name for this strapping boy, mom and dad?” Doctor Groves asks from between my legs. He’s dealing with the afterbirth, and I was so enamored with our son I didn’t notice my body had expelled it.
“Yes.” I smile at Felix and nod for him to speak.
“Colby Granger Wallis.”
“Big strong name for a big strong boy,” the nurse says as she drapes a blanket over Colby. “Congrats, mom and dad.”
“Thank you.” I make eye contact with the woman who hasn’t batted an eye at my behavior. “For everything.”
“You did all the work, Mom.” She smooths her hand down Colby’s covered back. “We’ll leave the three of you alone for a bit. Although I don’t know how long that great uncle in the waiting room will wait,” she adds with a smile.
“Oh, Felix, you should go tell—”
“Soon. We’ll take a few minutes first. Get to know this guy a little before we invite the world in.”
Felix has made so much progress in the months since we met. He leaves the cabin all the time now. Comes into Winter Lake with me or Granger or on his own. I know he says it’s me, but I think he was ready to live again when we met. Ready to embrace the life he’d shut himself off from.
“I love you, Felix. More every day.”
“I never expected you, Riley, and I may have some anger around how you came into my life, but I will be forever grateful you did. I love you. Thank you for being my wife, thank you for giving me our son.”
He’s got it all wrong. I’m the thankful one. Until him I never knew what love was, what it was like to be loved. And now I spend every day being grateful for it—for him.
Thank you so much for reading The Mountain Man’s Mail-Order Wife.