Love in a Cup

Chapter Nineteen

Lexi

The minute they laid my baby girl on my chest, I felt as if all the wrong in the world was right. I felt the most all-encompassing love fill my heart, and I knew I'd go to war for this child.

It was strange. In the span of a few breaths, my life was utterly changed. It was even bigger than having just gotten married.

My life was forever connected to this human being. Forever. Even after death, we'd be connected, because she was mine.

"Wow," Robby said beside me. He was leaning against the bed, staring at Reese.

Our daughter, even if she wasn't his by blood, she belonged to him, too.

"Do you want to cut the umbilical cord, Dad?" My nurse asked. He looked at me, asking for permission. I nodded and smiled, fighting the emotions clogging my throat. We were so lucky to have him.

After the doctor finished the work she needed to do on me, I was able to sit up and try breastfeeding. It was the scariest thing! I wasn't sure if I was doing it right and Robby laughed.

"Babe, I think Reese has it under control. I'm pretty sure you just sit there."

I rolled my eyes, but he ended up being right. Our little girl just knew what to do. It was astonishing. Even though I'd known that babies had instincts at birth it was still an out of body experience to see it all happen for the first time. I mean, I was feeding my daughter with my body. The same body that had grown her and birthed her into the world. ME!

Later, Robby's parents and my sister came into the room wearing cautious expressions. Banks was excited, but I could tell Robby's mom wasn't sure where she stood for sure. I nudged Robby and pointed to the gift bag we'd picked out and had Sawyer run home to get right before Reese was born.

He handed the bag to his mom and she pulled out a pink shirt, in her size, that said, "Worlds Best Grandma." She started crying, hiding her face in the shirt in her hands, and Robby and his dad pulled her into a hug.

"You're really lucky," Banks whispered, looking at the trio.

"I know. Six months ago, this would have sounded absolutely insane to me. Now, being with him feels natural; like it was always supposed to happen this way."

"Life is like that, Lex. Things happen and we can't change the timing, but somehow, the world keeps spinning. We move on and we grow."

We were quiet for a few minutes as Banks started down at Reese. "She really is beautiful. It sounds like a silly thing to say, but she looks like a babydoll."

I grinned. "I kind of thought the same thing."

Robby left his parents and came back to sit with me on the bed. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Hungry," I answered and he laughed.

"I'll have Luke bring food up and I'll hand the little princess to Grandma and Grandpa," Banks cooed. My knee-jerk reaction was to sob when I saw Camilla smile down at Reese.

"Did you pick out a middle name?" She asked, looking up at us with tears in her eyes. We'd already explained that Robby would be able to adopt her as soon as we legally took care of the paperwork with Andy's lawyer, but we'd waited until today to tell anyone her middle name.

Robby said, "We decided to go with Reese Renee."

Camilla went silent, soaking in the fact that we'd named out baby after her.

"So," his dad cleared his throat. "The next one will be named after me, right?" I let out a wet laugh, trying to stop the tears from falling, but it was impossible.

How had I started this pregnancy with so little. I didn't know where I'd live, where I'd work, how I'd save money or raise a child. Now... Now I have everything. My in-laws loved me, they loved my daughter, my husband was imperfectly perfect, we laughed all the time and fought over silly things. I felt real joy that day, for the first time in a very long time, I knew that my family would be okay, even if times came where we had to walk things out one day at a time.

We'd always be okay.