“You’re too hard on Jessamine,” Lisa said, taking a tidy bite of her steak.

“I thought her name was Jessica,” I said, dumbfounded.

Lisa rolled her eyes. “This is why you can’t keep good help.”

“I never should have promoted you to CFO.” I sawed at my steak mercilessly.

“Aww, that’s so sweet.” Lisa patted my cheek, but she wasn’t being patronizing. Okay, maybe she was a bit, but I was being a giant baby, and I deserved it. Jessica, or whatever her name was, was the third assistant I’d hired since promoting Lisa to CFO.

“You know the real reason none of them work out?” Lisa set her silverware aside and leaned back to take a sip of wine.

“Tell me, oh wise one.” I really did enjoy the more equal footing Lisa’s new position had put us on. She’d never hesitated to call me on my BS before, but now she really didn’t hesitate, and she laughed at me to boot.

“Their major crime is that they aren’t me and you just need to get over yourself.”

“Who needs to get over themselves? You think pretty highly of yourself it seems.”

Lisa smirked. “Of course I do. And so do you.”

I couldn’t argue with her when she was right. But she was always right. So I argued anyway.

“Anyway, when is that little godchild of mine going to get here? I’m not getting any younger you know.”

“You’re telling me. At least you have grandchildren to distract yourself with.”

Miles was three days past his due date, and his doctor had just started talking about possibly scheduling an induction if he went longer than a week. I had originally taken the whole week off, assuming that the baby would already be here by now, but with no baby in sight, I had apparently been too wound up for Miles to deal with, and he’d sent me back to work with strict orders to keep going into work until he told me he was in labor.

My phone rang. Miles. I mouthed his name to Lisa as I answered, doing my best not to get my expectations up.

“Hey babe, what’s up?”

“Oh, not much.” His breathy tone belied his calm words. “Just heading to the hospital to have a baby.”

“Now?” I realized I’d screamed the word when several tables turned to see what was wrong and Lisa dropped her knife in surprise. “Do I need to come to the house? Or call a taxi? Hold on, I’ll be right there.”

“Parker, I’m fine. Just go ahead and meet me at the hospital. Jace was dropping off some baby stuff and I asked him to drive me.”

“How long have you been in labor?” I was already grabbing my suit jacket and standing as Lisa assured me she would cover the check.

“Since last night…” Miles said sheepishly.

“What?” I was yelling again. “What?” I asked more calmly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’ve been having contra—” he paused for a moment and my heart rate skyrocketed. “Contractions,” he said finally. “I’ve had them off and on for days, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up if it wasn’t the real deal. Jace just took one look at my face and knew. So here were are.”

“So here we are,” I repeated as I got in my car. “Hey, I’m driving now, but I’ll see you in a few moments, okay? Just… just don’t have the baby without me. I don’t want to miss it.”

Miles laughed. “You’ll be there in plenty of time, Parker. Just drive slowly. We’ve had enough accidents to last a lifetime.”

He was right. It pained me to keep to the speed limit, but I did so. When I pulled up to the hospital, I could see Jace standing outside the main entrance, so instead of parking, I pulled up to him instead.

“Thank goodness,” Jace said, a little frantic. “You better get up there quick. The baby is coming.”

“I thought Miles said I had plenty of time,” I said, panicking.

“That’s what I told him so he wouldn’t worry. Go! I’ll park your car. Labor and Delivery Room 3422.”

I ran. Frantically babbling Miles’s room number, several nurses pointed me in the right direction, and then there he was, beautiful. Two nurses descended on me as soon as I blurted out that I was his alpha and I was shoved into his room in no time flat.

I bent down to kiss Miles’s head as soon as I reached him, and he smiled tiredly.

“Are you ready to meet our baby?” he asked tiredly.

“So ready,” I whispered, my voice failing me.

“Okay, Dads, on three, push!”

The next ten minutes were intense, and then our little girl screamed her protest at being thrust into the world, and I clipped the umbilical cord. Shortly after, she was snuggled on top of Miles’s chest, and the rest of the world faded away. Everything I needed was right before me. Everything I thought I would never have—here it was. And it was perfect.

A few hours later, Miles was sleeping and I was simply staring at Ariana. She was bundled up like a burrito, and all I could see was her sweet, precious face. She was so tiny! The feeling of responsibility I had for this tiny creature suddenly loomed over me, making me more determined than ever to do right by this little girl and the amazing man who had brought her into the world.

There was a quiet knock on the door, and then Marcus’s head popped in. “Is now a good time?” he whispered.

“Of course!” I stood to greet my brother with a hug. Things were better between us. I still felt like there was a wall between us, things that Marcus wouldn’t talk to me about, but I had hope he would feel comfortable enough to talk to me about it someday. But today, I wanted to introduce my baby girl to her Uncle Marcus.

“Can I?” Marcus asked, his eyes darting to Ariana’s bassinet.

“Yeah, let me get her out.”

“I don’t want to wake her up!” Marcus protested.

“She’s a sleeping champ,” I assured him, gently picking her up and placing her in his eager arms. “All she does is eat and sleep, eat and sleep. The nurses assure me it’s normal.”

Marcus held Ariana with a reverence that seemed at odds with the Marcus I’d come to know, but very reminiscent of the Zeke I grew up with. I couldn’t help but yearn for that closeness we used to share, that openness. I blinked away a tear. It was important to me that Marcus stay in Ariana’s life… in our lives.

“Hey, you made it,” Miles said sleepily from his bed.

“As if I’d miss meeting my first niece!” Marcus said, his voice choked with tears, which made me emotional all over again. “I’m counting on you giving me, like, five more of these!”

“Don’t you even think about it right now,” Miles warned both of us. “We’re adopting from here on out.”

I left Ariana with her uncle to step over and give Miles a kiss. “I’m okay with five more. But I’ll take them however you want to give them to me.”

“Enough talk about more kids,” Miles chided, though a smile graced his lips. “Tell me how amazing my daughter is. We made a good one, didn’t we?”