Page 91 of Labor of Love

The room was quiet. I looked toward the rocking chair, and Silas was still there. He’d put his flannel shirt back on but left it unbuttoned. The baby was sleeping, cuddled to his bare chest. Silas quietly read the well-worn paperback in his hand.

“Good book?” I asked to get his attention.

He looked up and gave me a slow smile before hefting his oversized body out of the chair and coming to my bedside. Somehow, he managed to do it without jostling the baby at all. He was a natural.

“It’s one of my favorites.”

I glanced at the title before I asked, “You like romances?”

“Yeah, that’s what I do when I’m not driving.”

“You read them?”

“Well, I like to write them, but there’s a fair amount of reading too.”

I had run out of small talk, and Silas knew it.

“Are you ready to meet your baby?” I nodded and eagerly pushed myself to a higher sitting position on the bed. I suppressed a groan when pain shot through me. Silas gingerly placed the baby in my arms.

They were perfect. Long dark lashes lay against rosy cheeks. Their mouth was a dark-pink rosebud. The baby had a head full of dark hair with a mixture of shading, just like mine. My grandma always swore we were descended from owl shifters, which explained our hair. We’d evolved past shifting, but some traits remained.

With the baby still sleeping, I double-checked to make sure all their parts were present. As expected, they had ten pudgy toes and another ten fingers to match. Their little snoring noises weretoo cute. I moved the blanket a little and took a quick peek inside their diaper.

“He’s a boy.” I continued to hold my baby, and I couldn’t imagine anything so perfect and beautiful came out of me. It might have been a minute, or it could’ve been three days, but at some point, the baby stirred and his eyelashes fluttered against his cheek. He slowly opened his eyes, and I stared into the mismatched orbs of his father.

My breath caught in my throat. Like his father, the baby’s eyes were beautiful in their contrast, one an endless ocean blue and the other a deep forest green. The shading might have been slightly different, but there was no mistaking the paternity of this child. “I… I…”

Silas laid his giant hand gently on the baby’s scalp before running it over his fuzzy hair. He moved his hand down the baby’s back and his fingers lightly brushed against my arm. The innocent touch sent a shudder of awareness through my body, and I hoped to the gods he hadn’t noticed.

“Shush. We can talk about what this all means later. We’ve got plenty of time to make decisions. Right now, what matters is that the two of you get to know each other and relax. It’ll get sorted out later.” Silas paused to cradle the baby’s head again before he continued, “He still needs to tell you his name.”

I nodded gratefully and returned to stare at the baby in my arms. When I nudged my finger into his closed fist, he gripped me with a surprising strength. I laughed and glanced at Silas. “He’s a strong one.”

Silas looked at him with pride and nodded in agreement.

“Are you an Augustus?” The baby opened his eyes and stared at me, and I swear there was a smile on his upturned mouth. All the baby books I’d read said that any smiles this early were only gas, but I didn’t believe them. That was a smile.

“Does it mean strong?” Silas asked

“Ha, no. Well, at least I don’t think so. It’s the Roman emperor. He was really into state accounting, and that’s what I do.”

“You’re an accountant?”

“Yes, a forensic one, but governmental audits are what I like best. Not so cool,” I added with a nervous laugh. Why in the gods’ names it mattered what Silas thought of me, I couldn’t explain. “And I’ve always liked it.”

“Augustus Prescott is a good name. It sounds solid.”

“It seems so much for a little guy.”

“Do you know what kind of shifter you're from?”

“My grandma always claimed our family were owl shifters. Why?”

“What about Auden instead? It means wise friend.”

“Auden? Is that your name?” I asked the little guy in my arms. Another smile, but even bigger this time. Clearly, this was an advanced baby.

“Auden Prescott sounds like a guy who could get stuff done,” Silas confirmed.

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