Nine months later

Marta has been sitting with me and Mick for the past hour, since active labor began. She’s been a godsend. While Mick is terrified, she is stoic. While he’s emotional, she’s clear-headed. While Mick is anxious, she’s calm.

“Should be any time now,” the nurse says. “We’ll have you start pushing soon.” She goes to work, moving around, getting the room ready.

“I need to tell you something, mija,” Marta says, her face close to mine as she clutches my hand.

“What?” I ask, as she looks into my eyes.

“If your mother were here, she would be so proud of you,” she says, and her voice cracks. “I just wanted to tell you that. If she were here, she’d be so damn happy.” She wipes her eyes.

“My mother is here,” I say.

“Your mother is always with you,” she says. She smiles. “I just hope I’ve done her memory justice.” She pats my hand. “I’m going to the waiting room, to keep Emilio from pacing a hole in the floor.”

Another contraction hits, and I have a crazy urge to push. “Marta!”

She looks back at me from the doorway. “What, mija?”

“I need my mother,” I say, as a frustrated sob leaves me body.

“I know, sweetheart,” she says. “I’d do just about anything if I could give her to you right now.”

“No,” I clarify. “I need you, Marta. I need my mother. Please stay.” I need my mother to hold my hand. I need my mother to push me through this, because Mick is too worried, too excited. Too…not my mother.

She blinks back tears. “I’ll stay.” She takes my hand again. “I’ve never tried to take her place,” she says. Her hand shakes.

“She had her own place, and you have yours. And your place is as my mother, holding my hand, Marta.”

Mick smiles at me. He nods. He knows. He knows Marta is my mother, and I don’t want to dishonor my birth mother’s memory, but Marta has taken over that place in my life. She’s given me everything I’ve needed since the moment she met me. And I want to give her this.

“Stay with me,” I say again.

“All the way through,” she says.

“Are we ready to have a baby?” the nurse asks, as the doctor comes into the room.

Thirty minutes later, I’m holding a bundle wrapped in pink in my arms. Marta wipes sweat from my forehead. “Let’s get you cleaned up a little. Then your sisters will want to come in.”

Mick’s eyes meet mine. “Actually, Marta,” he says, “do you think you could send Henry back first? We’d like to talk to him.”

“I’ll go get him.” She kisses my forehead, lingering there longer than she normally would. “I’m so proud of you,” she whispers. Then she goes and hugs Mick. “And you too,” she says.

He hugs her back, laughing.

When she goes out the door, he comes to sit next to me. “I didn’t think it could get any better,” he says. “But then it did.” He grins.

The door opens and Henry steps into the room. He looks at the three of us and starts to laugh. “Marta told me to come back. I was hoping you wouldn’t expect me to catch it as it slipped into the world.”

“Nope,” I say. “She’s all here. Clean and swaddled.”

“Thank God for small miracles.”

He walks over and stares down at our daughter. She has jet-black hair like Mick, and her skin is pink and wrinkly. Her eyes are shiny from the ointment they used.

“You two make pretty babies,” Henry says.

“Do you want to hold her?” I ask.

“I’d like nothing more,” he says. He goes and sits in the nearby rocking chair and holds out his arms, as Mick sets her gently in his waiting grasp. “Damn, she’s something,” Henry says. “I can’t wait to tell her all about life. I got a million stories about my Nan that I can share with her.” He stares down at her. “That was a love story if there ever was one.”

“Speaking of Nan,” Mick says.

Henry finally looks up.

“We were trying to come up with a name…” Mick lets the sentence trail off.

“And we were hoping you wouldn’t mind if we name her after your wife,” I blurt out.

He stares down at the baby, as tears fill his eyes. He doesn’t even try to wipe them away. “I think that would be just fine,” he says when he can finally collect himself. “My Nan would love that.”

I take Mick’s hand and give it a squeeze. “Then it’s settled,” I say.

He smiles down at me. “It’s settled.”

“It’s settled,” Henry says, as he rocks our baby girl.

Soon, my sisters and Emilio, along with Mick’s parents, can’t stand it anymore and they come into the room as a group, and little Nan gets passed around from person to person, with Henry hovering like an old mother hen the whole while. The Reeds visit the next morning, and watching those big, tattooed guys fawn over a baby…that’s like nothing you’ve ever seen.

Even Patsy comes to visit, and she brings the children with her very briefly. She’s doing really well, and she just moved back to the city a month ago. Her mother moved with her, and she lives just down the street, so Patsy has the support she needs. The kids are beautiful and well-adjusted and happy, and I couldn’t be happier for them.

When they’re all gone, and Mick looks at me the way he does, like I hung the stars and moon, I can’t help but ask myself what I did to deserve this much good fortune. I’ll probably never know, but I certainly have been lucky.

“She’s pretty damn fabulous, isn’t she?” Mick asks as we both stare at our daughter.

“Yeah,” I say. “She is. She definitely is.” She’s my lemon drops, my laughter, and all my hopes and dreams. And so is Mick.

I start to hum the bars of the song, and her eyes open wide. She stares up at me, and my heart is absolutely flooded with hope. And love. And possibilities.

“I sure am glad you wanted to be my BFF,” Mick says softly.

“Me, too.”