Sweet Hope (Sweet Home #4)(93)
As I opened the door, Ally’s mama was on her feet in seconds and rushed my way. “Axel,” she said in relief, her strong Spanish accent as thick as ever, “How are my girls?” Her pretty face was just an older version of Ally’s. I could see the worried apprehension in her brown eyes.
Unable to keep from smiling, I replied, “They’re perfect… f*cking perfect.”
Mama Alita broke down into tears and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, laughing at her relieved response. Alita and Gabe had become my parents. They’d never judged me, just accepted me as the man Ally loved and welcomed me as their son. They were as perfect as in-laws as their daughter was the perfect wife… and they adored Austin and Levi too.
“She’s waiting for you,” I said. In a heartbeat, Alita was off down the hallway, practically running into the delivery room. I could hear her happy shriek all the way from in here.
Gabe, Ally’s papa approached me and shook my hand. “Congratulations, son. Welcome to the daddy of a daughter club.” He laughed like it was an inside joke. Pulling me to his chest, he patted me on the back and whispered, “Good luck.”
As he left, two little people suddenly ran under my legs and I reached down to pick them both up. “Zio Axe!” Dante called, his chubby cheeks red and his green eyes huge.
“Hey buddy,” I said and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He giggled, but just as he did, Taylor hit at my face wanting attention too. “Me too, Uncy Axe. Me want kiss too!”
Laughing, I pressed a kiss to her cheek and she pushed on Dante’s arm making him scowl.
“Okay, okay, missy, enough,” Molly said sternly and lifted her daughter from my arms, but not before pressing a kiss to my cheek. “Congrats, sweetie. I can’t wait to meet her.”
Lexi moved forward next and took her son from my arms who was still glaring at Taylor. Lexi shook her head at her son and beamed up a smile at me. Leaning down I kissed her on her cheek. “I’m so happy for you, Axe,” she said.
Rome came over next and put out his hand, “Congrats, Axe,” he said and squeezed my hand. “Make sure you look after them both, yeah?”
I nodded my head and he moved away. I would never be fully okay with that guy, and him me, but at least we’d moved past the wanting to kill each other stage and we could at least be in the same room… even get on, in some circumstances.
My eyes searched out Levi and Austin. As one, they barreled over and both wrapped their arms around my neck. Laughing, I held them tightly too.
“Auguri, fratello!” they each said and moved back with happy proud smiles. I saw Levi’s girlfriend Elsie over his shoulder. She got up and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Happy for you, Axe,” she said and I laughed at the blonde’s cute face.
“Thanks, Elsie.”
“So?” I asked, “Who wants to meet my daughter?”
All my friends and family headed for the delivery room, Dante and Taylor once again finding their way into my arms.
My beautiful daughter won them all over in seconds.
*****
As night hit, I stared at my sleeping wife on the hospital bed and moved to press a kiss onto her cheek. Ally stirred, her eyelids cracking open. I held my daughter in my arms, her brown eyes unable to stop watching me.
Ally lifted her hand and wrapped it in my long hair. “You okay, papa?”
I smiled and looked down at our daughter. “I’m perfect, carina. Fucking perfect,” I whispered.
I glanced at the door, feeling the need for fresh air. Ally must have seen it in my face. “Go, baby, show her the night sky.”
I tilted my head to the side, and said, “I love you, Aliyana Carillo.”
Smiling sleepily, she murmured, “I love you too, Axel Carillo. You’re all of my heart.”
Pressing a final kiss on her head, I headed to the door. Just as I was about to leave, Ally whispered, “You need to pick a name, Papa. Your daughter can’t be Baby Carillo forever… and I think I know what you want it to be. You just haven’t worked up the nerve to ask them, have you?”
I briefly closed my eyes. As always, my wife knew me too well.
Looking at my daughter swaddled in a pink blanket, I took a deep breath and headed out of the door. The hallway was quiet and I headed for the OB unit’s private garden. Walking to the nurse’s station, the older nurse who’d been looking after my little family looked up and her face melted into a grin.
I held up the band around my arm that was electronically linked to the tag on my daughter’s ankle. It told the nurses I was her father. “This ain’t gonna go off if I go into that garden just there is it?” I nudged my chin to the garden entrance.
The nurse shook her head. “No, you can go out there. It’s all fenced in and secure. So unless you can sprout wings and fly away, no alarms will go off.”
“Nah, no wings,” I said as I walked forward. Feeling all kinds of surreal as I held my child in my arms, Ally’s child and mine, I kept looking down at my daughter to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Dreaming that all of this, my life, wasn’t just one real f*cking good dream that I didn’t wanna wake from.
How the hell a sinner like me deserved all of this I had no damn idea.
As I opened the door to the roof garden, the summer night wrapped around me, the warm air seeping into my skin. The small private garden was deserted at this hour, so I moved to the patch of grass and sat down leaning against a wall, holding my daughter in my arms as I stared up at the clear night sky. All the stars were out tonight and a nostalgic smile pulled on my lips.