She was, he had no doubt, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Jen was trying to talk to him, and he turned towards her, but she seemed nothing more than a pale shadow in the light of this new star.
He grabbed Jen’s hand. His wife, her hair flat and pasted across her forehead, face white and drawn. He kissed her dry lips.
“Jen, everything is fine. Right?”
The woman nodded. What had her nametag said? Julie? “Perfect.”
Yes. That was the word. She was perfect.
Dr. Brody was saying something, but Peter’s eyes were drawn away. What was she doing over there? He strained for the sound of her voice. What was that? A whisper? Was she crying?
“I love you, Jen,” Peter murmured in his wife’s ear.
She smiled. “Me too. We did good, didn’t we?”
He nodded, still watching, waiting for a glimpse of her. He’d caught a flash of one dark curl, a rosebud mouth.
He let go of Jen’s hand and moved slowly across the room, unable to stop as one foot went ahead of the other. He peered around Julie.
He gazed at one exquisite ear, shell pink and gleaming. Up-turned nose. The bluest eyes he had ever looked into. And where did those eyelashes come from? My God, he thought. Women paid a fortune for eyelashes that long.
Peter heard Jen straining, and he glanced back. Brody and Jen were staring at each other, some sort of unspoken current moving back and forth as his wife grimaced, then fell back, done.
He reached for her hand, and her grip was surprisingly strong, and the look she gave him was long and full of wisdom and truth. You are mine, the look said. We are forever. What happens between you and your wife will never touch us.
He barely heard, because she was reaching for him, and she slipped into his arms, head nestled against his shoulder as though it had always belonged.
But he was beyond hearing. All he knew lay in his arms, lips slightly open, eyes wide and trusting.
“And do we know who she is?” Julie asked.
“No,” Peter said gently. “Not Tyler. Abigail.” He looked at Jen. “It means ‘a father’s joy’.”
And his daughter began to cry.
- Dee Ernst is the author of the romantic comedies Better Off Without Him, A Different Kind of Forever, and the recently released, A Slight Change of Plan. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband.
