Unbreak My Heart (18+, ManxMan)

Chapter 30 Baby I'm Amazed

"Did you wash your hands?" I asked.

"Yes, like 10 minutes ago, last time you asked."

"Okay then." I placed Paisley in Benji's arms and Nico brought over the bottle and showed him what he needed to do while I went into the kitchen to wash my hands.

The four of us spent a quiet afternoon with our new girl, until she started to get sleepy and Nico put her down for a nap with the help of his brother.

"Ajax and I brought stuff to make dinner, you're supposed to do that when a new baby comes home, to help out the new parents," he explained. "I've been reading all these parenting magazines and googling stuff. I'll go get it started."

I followed him into the kitchen and sat down on a stool. "It's not like one of us just gave birth to her Benji," I laughed.

"Still, you're probably going to have lots of sleepless nights, so you have to save your energy."

"Mia said she's mostly sleeping through the night already, but either way, we'll take turns."

"You two make a great team, you'll work it out."

"We do, don't we," I mused, looking off in the direction of Paisley's room. Would I have ever imagined myself here, right now, in this situation three years ago? Not in a million years. "Thank you," I said to Benji in a quiet voice that came out raspy. I don't know why I suddenly felt so emotional, but it was like we'd been on a roller coaster for so long, and it finally slowed down and approached solid ground.

Benji grinned. "I don't know...I mean...part of me was telling myself to stay out of it...but a bigger part of me knew it was meant to be and I just...had to...it was like my instinct pushed me on."

"I'm glad it did," Nico said, walking out with a baby monitor, Ajax not far behind. He walked up behind me, wrapping his warm arms around my middle, pulling me back into his solid chest. "Look where we are now, baby," he said quietly in my ear. I leaned my head back on his shoulder, closing my eyes, basking the moment. Yeah, everything felt perfect right now.

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Nicolas

2:00 a.m.

I'd placed the baby monitor on the night table right next to my ear and found myself lying there just listening. I'd already gone in to make sure she was still breathing about 10 times. Mia had said that Baby Paisley, one of her many nicknames, often woke up around 2:00 a.m. for a diaper change and a bottle, but then would generally go back to sleep until 7 or 8:00 a.m., but I still couldn't help but worry that everything was alright.

I stared at the clock for 15 minutes. Why wasn't she up? Was everything okay? Maybe I should go check on her. I looked over at Finn who was sleeping soundly. He'd gone in and checked on her at midnight and told me to wake him if he didn't hear her cry for her night feeding. Of course I wasn't going to. I was awake anyway.

Finally I heard some quiet fussing, not crying yet, but I could tell she was starting to wake up so I quietly jumped up and ran down the hallway. When I peeked down into the crib her fussy face turned into a little smile and she clapped her little hands together. "Hi Munchkin." She reached her hands up to me and did this little thing where she squeezed her fingers together then opened them several times. We'd realize it was her way of saying pick me up, so I carefully lifted her into my arms. "Do you have kisses for Papa?" I asked as she began mouthing my chin. "I see you need a new diaper," I chuckled. "I think Papa can take care of that and then we'll get you a bottle." Paisley gurgled in response and made little smacking noises with her lips.