Page 115 of Act Like You Don't Care
"I am."
I leaned over to kiss him. "Thank you." He squeezed my hand and shook his head, but his smile warmed me to my core.
The nurse leaned over to wrap the blanket around the baby. "So, Cordelia Margaret Laydon?" she asked.
"No," I said. "Cordelia Margaret Astra." I saw Miles's shocked expression and reached out to cup his cheek and trace the line of his chin with my thumb. "Don't argue with me. You know it never ends well." He laughed and turned his head to kiss my palm, but as he stood up, I thought I saw him fighting tears. Yeah, I wasn't much good at saying I Love You, but I thought maybe I'd gotten the point across all the same.
The nurse carried our daughter off and I discovered that maybe this experience had changed me a little. "I love you," I whispered into the air as our baby was taken to the other side of the room, then clung to Miles and forced myself not to kick away the doctor and the nurse still doing whatever to my nether parts so I could chase after her. My arms felt empty and the thought of being even three feet from her raised an emotion in me that I couldn't identify, but I knew that I would go straight through anyone trying to get between me and her, no matter the cost to myself.
"You did good," Miles whispered and I pulled him down for a kiss.
"So did you. Dad," I replied, and then they were bringing Cordelia back to us, all sparkling clean and still as confused as ever, and soon after we were left alone to learn how to be a little family together.
Tam
One Year Later...
"Tam!"
Miles's anxious shout made me drop the dishes I was putting away after our dinner and race down to the family room.
"What happened?" I demanded, bursting frantically into the room, scanning for the baby.
"Watch," he said and picked Corey up and set her on her feet next to the ottoman in the middle of the room. She grabbed hold of it to steady herself and began creeping around the edge.
"Really? That's why you yelled like someone just got murdered? She's been doing that for a month."
He just winked at me and moved out to the middle of the room, holding out his hands. "Come to Dad."
She grinned cheekily at him and cruised to the end of the ottoman, then turned and took three unsteady steps all by herself until she could fall into the safety of Miles's hands.
I laughed in delight and fell to my knees beside them. "What a good girl! Look at you go!" She got a kiss and a hug for being such a fantastic kid, and Miles got a kiss and a hug because... well, he was Miles.
The damn ring box was still sitting in my agent's office, waiting for the right moment for me to ask him.
I leaned into him and laughed as he set Corey up again and she came straight to me for another hug. "My best girl," I told her and kissed her dark hair. She had her father's coloring, but my curls. Her nose, which had been undecided for several months, was trending toward looking like mine. I thought she was perfect. So did Miles.
I'd dropped Jim in the pool when, upon being asked what he thought of his niece, he'd said she was okay. After that, he too agreed that she was perfect.
"She's bang on for her milestones," Miles said proudly. "I wonder if she's got another walk in her. We should get some video for the grandparents." Suiting actions to words, he pulled out his phone and pointed it at us. Obediently, I stood Corey up again by the ottoman and then crouched down with my hands out to her. "Come on, baby, come to Daddy!"
She giggled and sat down bump on her bum.
Miles laughed. "Definitely your daughter."
I flipped him the bird, careful Corey couldn't see it, then picked her up to cuddle her. "You know," I said slowly, thinking this all through right on the spot. "We should probably take a bit of time off.”
“Put her down and see if she’ll take another couple of steps,” he coaxed.
I frowned at him. “And you call me stubborn.”
“You are. I’m persistent—there’s a difference.” He grinned and put the phone away as he got to his feet, closing the distance between us so he could wrap Corey and me up in a loose hug. “We just won’t tell our mothers we didn’t get video.”
“I like that plan,” I told him. With Corey being the first grandbaby on both sides of the family, the amount of grandparent attention she got was awe-inspiring, but it came with a lot of management responsibilities for both Miles and me.
Corey giggled when he blew a raspberry against her cheek. I didn’t get raspberried—I got a kiss that reminded me that he still hadn’t answered my question about taking time off and that I had a question I needed to ask him. At the right time, under the right circumstances. “So, time off?”
“What were you planning?”
