A Week at the Beach (37 page)

            I looked him up and down, letting my eyes roam over his naked body.  “Do you think maybe you should put some clothes on?”

            “Shit!” he said and ran down the hall back into our bedroom.  Within a minute, he was back, wearing a pair of shorts, an old button-up shirt, and a pair of flip-flops.  “Ready?”

            “Is that really what you’re going to wear?”

Five painfully long hours later, I leaned back against the bed and watched Nick as he held our son in his arms. As tired as I was, I couldn’t take my eyes off the little blue bundle, or the man holding him in his arms.

            “He’s so little,” Nick said quietly as he stared at our son. 

            “He’s not that little, trust me.  You haven’t been carrying him around for the last nine months.  You didn’t have to push him out either.” I laughed softly.

            Nick looked up at me and smiled, “He’s perfect.  You did a great job.”

            I shrugged, “I had some help.”

            Nick laughed.  He looked back down at the baby sleeping in his arms and said, “I know we talked about if he was a boy that we’d name him Flynn, but he doesn’t look like a Flynn to me.”

            We had stuck to our guns about not finding out the sex of the baby. It had led to some heated discussions about names.  After two months of arguing, we’d finally settled on Flynn Michael for a boy and Cassie Faye for a girl. 

            “What do you mean?” I asked with a strange look.

            Nick stood up and sat on the edge of the bed.  He held our son so that I could get a good look at him.  “He doesn’t look like a Flynn, see?”

            I stared at the beautiful little face I’d been waiting to meet for the past nine months.  He had very familiar features.  “What does he look like to you?”

            Nick sighed, “He looks like your dad.”  He looked at me and smiled, “I think we should name him Nathan, but call him Nate.”

            “You want to name him after my dad?” I could feel the tears stinging my eyes and the sob in my throat.

            Nick nodded, “Nathan Flynn Fletcher.”

            I smiled and nodded.

            Nick leaned over and gave me a kiss.  “I love you.”

            “I love you, too,” I said with a smile.  I leaned down and kissed the little blonde head wrapped in a blue blanket, “I love you too, little Nate.”

            “I like it, Nate Fletcher,” Nick grinned down at our son. 

            “When did my parents say they would be here?” I asked as I watched him smiling at our baby.

            “I texted them about an hour after he was born so they should be here any time.”

            I fidgeted, worrying about the state of my hair.  Three hours of labor was probably enough to mess up my hair.  “How do I look?” I asked timidly.

            “Beautiful,” Nick replied without even looking at me. He got up from the bed and put Nate back in his bed. 

            “Be serious, Nick!  They’re going to want to take pictures and I don’t want to look like a mess.”

            He turned to me with a grin, “A brush wouldn’t hurt.”

            “Oh! Get my bag, please!” I sat up straighter, frantic to fix myself before my parents walked in. 

            Nick chuckled and handed me my bag.  “It doesn’t matter to me that your hair is messed up you’re still the most beautiful woman in the world.”  He leaned down and grabbed my face in both hands and covered my face in kisses.

            I laughed and pushed him away, “Don’t tease me.  My mom is going to be showing everyone these pictures.  I can’t look awful in them.”

            “You’re so vain!” he teased me and sat down on the bed.  He pulled Nate’s bed closer and gazed at him.

            I brushed my hair, applied a little powder to my face, and put some lip gloss on.  When I was done, I tossed the bag on the floor and turned to Nick, “Better?”

            He smiled and winked at me, “How can you improve perfection?”

            I rolled my eyes at him. 

            He stood up and leaned over me, “It seems pointless to do all that to your face and just let this stay open, don’t you think?”  He shifted my gown so that I wasn’t flashing anyone.

            “Why didn’t you tell me my boob was showing?”   Despite the fact that he’d seen them plenty in the last nine months, I was still red-faced by my exposure.

            He laughed, “I didn’t see anything wrong with it?  I was enjoying the view, actually.”

            I punched him on the arm and he laughed.  “What did you tell my parents?”

            “I told them that the baby had arrived and then I told them what hospital and room number.”

            “Are you sure they’re coming?  It’s after midnight.” I asked, anxious to see my parents and have them meet Nate.

            “Your dad wrote me back saying that they were on their way,” he sat down on the bed next to me.  He looked down at me then grabbed my hand, “You’re shaking.  Are you nervous?”

            “A little,” I admitted with a hesitant smile.

            “Why?  The hard work is over,” he reached up and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

            I sighed, “I know.  I just want them to like him.”

            Nick smiled sweetly at me, “You know they’ll love him.  They’ve already made plans to spoil him rotten.”

            I looked at him with a smile, “You didn’t tell them he was a boy, did you?”

            Nick shook his head.

            I turned my head to look at the blue bundle in the clear bed next to us, “My dad always wanted a boy, you know.  He’s going to be very excited.”

            “I know,” he smiled.  “He told me.”

            I turned back to him, “When?”

            “When we were at a baseball game this spring,” he smoothed the blanket around me.  “He told me that he’d always hoped for a son so that he could take him to baseball games and teach him to throw a football.”

            I reached up and touched his face, “Was that before or after you told him about your dad?”

            “Before,” he smiled at me then took my hand in both of his.  “Cami, I know I’ve said it at least a thousand times since you told me you were pregnant, but I promise you that I will never be anything like my dad.  I was scared that I wouldn’t know how to treat you and the baby, but your dad has really helped me.  I will never hurt you like my dad hurt me and my mom.”

            My eyes started to water, “I know.”

            He held my gaze for what felt like a long time.  Our breathing and the quiet sighing of our son were the only sounds in the room. 

            “I have something for you,” he finally said in a soft voice.  He smiled and pulled a long flat box out of his pocket.

            I smiled and took the box, “You didn’t have to get me anything.”

            He laughed, “Your dad told me to have a piece of jewelry ready for after you give birth.  He said he gave your mom a necklace after you and your sisters were born, and she still wears them on your birthdays.”

            “She does?” I had never noticed the pattern of my mom’s necklaces.  He nodded and urged me to open the box he’d given me.  With a smile, I lifted the lid of the box to find a silver pendant attached to a silver chain.  I stared at it, trying to figure out what the pendant was supposed to be.

            “It’s a hammock,” Nick said with the hint of a chuckle.

            A huge grin broke across my face, “Oh, I was wondering what it was.”

            He took the necklace out of the box and unhooked it.  He wrapped his arms around my neck and fastened the necklace for me.  When it was hooked, he touched the pendant as it lay flat against my skin.  “Do you know why I got you a hammock?”

            “I’m guessing it has something to do that week at the beach?”

            He nodded, “Actually, I got you a hammock because that’s where I fell in love with you.”

            “It is?”

            “Yes, in the hammock, under that house is where I fell in love with you.  When I told you about my dad and you said that if we had been friends that your family would have taken me in, that was the moment everything changed for me.  That hammock changed our lives, and I don’t want to forget that.”  He leaned forward and kissed me on the lips.

            “Knock, knock!  Can we come in?” my mom’s quiet voice broke through our little moment.

            Nick gave me another quick kiss then leaned away from me. 

            “Come in, mom,” I said cheerfully and grabbed Nick’s hand.

            “Oh, sweetheart, how are you?  Did everything go well?  Are you in any pain?” my mom rushed to my side.

            I laughed at her, amazed that she was able to control the urge to immediately run over to the tiny bundle beside the bed.  “I’m great, mom.  Our son was very cooperative.”

            My mom’s eyes welled up with tears, “A boy!”  She put her hands on my face and leaned in to kiss my nose.  When she pulled away she said, “Oh goodness!  Let me meet this precious child!”  She left my bed and walked quickly over to the small clear crib sitting next to my bed. 

            I watched and listened as she gasped loudly as she laid eyes on her grandson for the first time.  “You can pick him up, if you want to.”

            She smiled and shook her head slowly before leaning down to pick up the blue swaddled bundle.  “What’s his name?”

            I looked at Nick and nodded.  I wanted him to tell them.

            He smiled, “We’d picked out a name, Flynn Michael, but when we met him he just didn’t look like a Flynn Michael.”

            “What does he look like?” my dad asked as he reached down and squeezed my hand.

            “He looks like you, dad,” I said with a laugh.

            “He does,” Nick added.  “That’s why we decided to name him Nathan Flynn Fletcher.  We’re going to call him Nate.”

            My dad closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth.  He squeezed my hand, “Are you sure you want to give him my name?  If the poor boy looks like me, isn’t that punishment enough?”

            I laughed, “It wasn’t my idea, but I think it’s perfect.”

            My dad stood up and wrapped his arms around Nick, “Thank you, son,” he said quietly as he embraced him. 

            “Thank you,” Nick said back before breaking their hug. 

            “Do you want to hold him?” my mom asked and walked over to where my dad was standing. 

            He nodded and took a seat in the recliner next to the bed.  He smiled as my mom lowered the baby into his arms.  “It’s amazing how small they are at first.  I remember when I held you when you were this small.”  My dad spoke absently as he stared at the baby in his arms.  “God, I’d never been so happy and so scared in my whole life.”

            “I know the feeling,” Nick said and sat down on the bed next to me.