Page 45 of A Very Oceanport Christmas
"Yeah, about that... my dad pointed out how stupid I was being. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure if I was being stupid or if I was running from that as much as I was running from everything else."
"What are you talking about?"
"I can attend college remotely for my undergrad degree. That'll give us some time to figure things out before I'm ready for med-school. I used to argue with myself that I couldn't study seriouslyandbe of help to my dad, but..." He licked his lips again. "I think I was just using that as an excuse for making absolutely no changes at all." He glanced back at the headstone. "It's like I didn't want the world or myself to move on while she wasn't." His attention shifted to me again. "You changed all that, though."
"So you're going to do it?" I asked, clinging to the part of his little speech that didn't make me feel like warm goo on the inside because I still needed to focus. "You're going to study?"
"I will, but only if you can pitch in for me at the ice cream parlor when I'm too busy to do it."
"Of course I will!" I jumped at the opportunity to be of use.
The grin on David's lips told me that he'd predicted I would.
I shook my head at him, and then I pulled him close to kiss that stupid grin off his face. "Just so you know," I said when we broke apart again after a long, long minute, "this is going on my top ten list of weirdest places to celebrate Christmas."
"I thought lists were more your paps' thing."
I chuckled. I'd certainly moaned about my paps' proclivity for creating lists often enough. "I may have picked up a thing or two from him."
David glanced at my belly. "What do you think our baby is going to pick up from us?"
I didn't even have to think about it. "How to do Christmas right."
"You just said this was a weird place to celebrate Christmas," David pointed out.
"Weird doesn't mean bad," I argued. "Besides, it's all in the company."
"If you say so."
"I do!"
David gave me another kiss, this one lasting even longer. "Merry Christmas," he whispered against my lips.
"Merry Christmas," I echoed back at him, knowing in my heart that my greatest wish had been fulfilled.
15
David
Sam's baby, our baby, was born approximately two months after Christmas, at the end of February. He went into labor while we were closing up the ice cream parlor, and of course hedidn'ttell me that anything was going on until everything was done. I kind of wanted to be mad at him about it, but couldn't. Not while we were about to have a baby.
Sam's parents came to the hospital with us. We were lucky to have them drive us, because it meant I could sit in the back with Sam and hold his hand.
When we got to the hospital, I was the only one he'd wanted in the delivery room with him. He'd told me he didn't want to admit to his parents how terrified of the whole process he was. I took that as my cue not to admit how terrified I was either.
Not that either of us had needed to be scared.
The birth went smoothly. Well, as smoothly as these things ever went. Sam spent a couple of hours in labor, and I hated to see him in pain--and I was fairly sure that my left hand was never going to be the same again. At one point, he'd told me that he understood now why his parents had only ever had one child and he swore that he was never gonna let himself get knocked up again either—but the minute the baby was placed in his arms, an expression of pure joy took over his exhausted face. Part of me wanted to take a picture of it, part of me thought the moment was too intimate to render in pixels.
"It's a girl," he said with a goofy smile on his lips. "They said it was a boy, but it's really a girl."
"I'm sorry," the doctor apologized. "Sometimes we get these things wrong and you end up with a surprise."
"The best kind of surprise," Sam said, still with that doped-up grin on his face. I didn't know if it was the painkillers or the rush of the moment making him feel that way, but damn, I couldn't help but smile like a fool myself. The baby was the cutest thing ever. All blue eyes and dark hair. She looked exactly like Sam--if Sam had blue eyes, anyway.
"What are you naming her?" I asked, pressing a kiss to Sam's forehead.
"You mean, what are we naming her," he corrected. "We're a team, remember?"
