Infinityglass

Epilogue

Emerson, Late April

“Are you okay now?”

Michael held out a bottle of cold water, careful not to touch my skin. A hospital wasn’t a good place to set off an electrical current. I took the water, and like the two previous bottles, stuck it down the back of my shirt.

“Childbirth is supposed to be hard on the mother. Not the aunt. If I passed out for this baby’s birth, how am I ever going to manage having any of my own?”

“Knowing you, by sheer will and force of determination,” he said mildly. “We’ll deal with it when it happens.”

“We will, will we?” I grinned at him.

We both knew it was only a matter of time.

“Is there a baby?” Kaleb burst through the waiting room doors with Lily behind him. “Is it here?”

“There’s been a baby for months, and don’t call it an it,” I snapped. Fainting made me grumpy.

“You just did.” Kaleb cocked his head to the side.

Lily sat down beside me and lifted my hair off my neck with one hand, fanning me with the other. “You know Thomas and Dru won’t tell anyone if the baby is a girl or a boy. It’s not Em’s fault.”

“You’re too good for him, you know,” I said to Lily with a sniff, but I winked at Kaleb.

He flipped me off, but he was smiling.

“Why are you so excited, Kaleb?” I asked. “Babies don’t seem like your thing.”

“Neither do cookies, but you don’t complain about those.”

A door opened and a nurse stuck her head out. “Ready to meet your newest family member?”

My stomach tried to take a vacation by way of my mouth. “As I’ll ever be.”

“Thomas and Dru asked for all of you.” The nurse stepped back so we could enter the birthing room.

I wanted to take Michael’s hand, but I crossed my arms over my chest instead.

Dru’s face shone radiant, and my brother was so puffed up with pride I half expected him to pop.

“Emerson,” Dru said, “meet your niece. Clarissa Elisabeth.”

“After Mom.” I looked at Thomas, and couldn’t stop the tears from falling. He had a few of his own.

“And you,” he said.

And me.

“Do you want to hold her?” Dru asked.

“I … I don’t know. What if I break her?”

“You won’t.” Michael’s smile of encouragement was all I needed.

I bit my lip and stepped up to the bedside, psyching myself up. “Okay.”

Dru held a bundle of blanket and baby out to me, and I took her in my arms. She was beautiful, tiny, and perfect.

“Hello, Clarissa Elisabeth,” I whispered. “Welcome to the world.”

I bent down to place a kiss on her forehead.

And started laughing when every light bulb in the room blew.