The Right Reason To Marry

She kind of wanted to cry, which was probably just hormones. But still. She really did want to get along with him. “Okay. You’re right. You’re not freaking out and I shouldn’t have even hinted that you were and I’m really, um...” Her already weak train of thought went right off the rails as she felt something shift inside her—a gentle shift, yet also a sudden one, a tiny pop of sensation deep within.

And then something was dripping along the inside of her thighs.

Frowning, she looked down, which was pointless. Her giant belly blocked her view and whatever was dripping down there, it was only a trickle. So far, her thigh-highs seemed to be absorbing it.

“Okay,” said Liam. “Something’s happened. What?”

She made herself look straight into his startled blue eyes and she put real effort into speaking calmly. “My water just broke. Would you mind driving me to Memorial Hospital?”

Chapter Three (#uc16cd7a5-6ee0-5f13-a5ef-b2a391d158ef)

Even more stunned than he’d been for most of the past few days, Liam croaked out, “Drive you to the hospital? Yes! Yes, I can do that.”

“Great.” With a low groan, Karin gripped the crib rail and lowered her head.

“Karin, are you...?”

She put up her free hand. “Just a contraction. Hold on...”

He stood there in the doorway waiting, feeling completely useless, as she panted and groaned some more.

Finally, she let go of the crib rail and looked straight at him. “Where’s my phone?”

“I think I spotted it on the kitchen counter?”

“Right.” One hand under her enormous stomach, she lumbered toward him. He fell back from the doorway so she could get by and then trailed after her as she made for the main room.

In the kitchen, she snatched up the phone. “This’ll only take a minute. I’ve got a group text all set up—to Naomi, Prim and my dad. All I need to do is hit Send.” The woman amazed him. Was there anything she wasn’t ready for? She poked at the phone. “There. I’ll call my doctor on the way—now get me a bath towel. Try the hall bathroom, first door on the left. I’ll meet you at the front door.”

“A towel?” He just stood there gaping at her because somehow his feet had forgotten how to walk.

“You want me to leak amniotic fluid all over the seats of that fancy blue Supercrew pickup out in front?”

“Uh. No?”

“Then go.”

That got him moving. He raced off and returned with the towel. She had a suitcase ready, just waiting in the hallway. He took the suitcase and helped her into her coat. She grabbed her purse from the table by the door and off down the outside stairs they went, pausing midway for her to weather another contraction.

At the truck, he threw the suitcase in back, spread the towel on the seat and helped her in. She was already on the phone with her doctor as he turned the pickup around and headed up the hill behind the house.

At Memorial, he learned that the doctor was on the way and they were ready for Karin. They whisked her into a labor and delivery suite and let Liam tag along.

Luckily, he’d studied up on what the father should do during the birth. He’d learned that his sole mission in the delivery room was to be a source of strength and support, to be as patient and attentive to his baby’s mother as he possibly could.

He really tried to be that, even though when her girlfriends showed up, he was mostly relegated to staying out of the way as they stepped up on either side of her to comfort her and coach her through her contractions. They fed her ice chips and helped her to the bathroom when she needed it. The whole thing took hours, with the doctor in and out, the delivery nurses, too.

Once he asked if he could take pictures.

Naomi turned to him and spoke gently, “It’s so great that you’re here, Liam, but Karin doesn’t want you taking pictures of her lady bits.”

“I would never do that,” he answered fervently. “Just...maybe of the baby and then maybe of Karin with the baby and then maybe I could hold him, too—I mean, after he gets here, of course?”

On the far side of Karin, Prim was stifling a giggle.

Naomi grabbed him in a hug. “Isn’t he adorable?” she asked Karin and Prim as she let him go.

He was trying to decide whether or not his manly dignity had just been impugned when Karin said, “Of course you can take a few pictures with your son.” She met his eyes directly and he knew she was remembering that night in February, when he’d snapped a shot of her in his bed and she’d assumed he’d gotten more than just her face.

“Terrific,” he replied, suddenly just crazy happy, right there in the delivery room, crazy happy and sure that everything was going to work out fine, though exactly what “fine” entailed he had no clear idea.

Things got messy soon after that. There were fluids and a little blood and Karin’s groans started to sound more like screams and angry shouts.

But then the baby’s head was crowning and everything sped up. As soon as the little guy’s shoulders emerged, it was all over. The rest of him slipped out quick and easy. He was so tiny and wrinkled and red, covered with sticky whitish goo, wailing as the doctor caught him and laid him in Karin’s waiting arms. Naomi grabbed Liam and pulled him around to stand in front of her, right next to Karin and the naked infant on her chest.

On Karin’s other side, Prim stepped back so the nurse could wipe some of the goo off the baby and the doctor could deal with the umbilical cord. All Liam could do was stand there and stare.

He’d never realized how much he wanted children.

Not until this moment, when he actually had one—yeah, he’d had vague yearnings in the past year, to get more serious about his life, to get married, start a family.

But only in a generalized sort of way.

Until today.

Today, he knew exactly what he wanted—to be a father to this perfect little miracle he and Karin had made.

“Take a picture, Liam,” Karin teased softly as she stroked the baby’s shoulder, her hand gliding down the fat little arm to the tiny fist. Instantly, the baby wrapped his itty-bitty fingers around her thumb and held on.

Liam got out his phone and snapped a few shots.

The nurse gave him a towel to put on his shoulder. She let him hold his son for the first time. That was amazing, though it didn’t last long.

He passed Naomi his phone and she got a few pictures of him with the baby. Too soon, the nurse took the little guy back and gave him to Karin again and she nursed him for the first time. Liam thought maybe he should turn away, give her some privacy. But she didn’t seem concerned and nobody else cared. He watched as his son latched right on and went to work, the fingers of his right hand resting on the upper slope of Karin’s breast, opening and closing as he sucked.

Liam watched not only his newborn son, but his son’s mother, too. He stared and marveled and thought how, from that first night they’d had together last Christmas, she’d been constantly keeping him at arm’s distance, giving in to the attraction between them, yeah. But then, once the hot times were over, pushing him away.

And what about the last few days since he’d found out about the baby? She’d continually reminded him to take his time, think it over, figure out just how involved he wanted to be.

As though a man could choose his level of involvement when he became a father.

There was no choosing with something like this. When it came to fatherhood, a man needed to be all in.

And he was. In this. Going for it. All the way.

Okay, he got it. He knew he had no idea, really, what the hell he was doing. But he could learn. And he would learn. One way or another, he was making it work with Karin. He damn well would create a family with the mother of his child.

Last Friday, that first day he found out she was pregnant, he’d stuttered out a half-assed proposal of marriage. She’d said no before he even really got the words out.