Water Broke at Midnight, Husband Waited for Her BFF's Hair, Baby's New Daddy Didn't novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Visiting Hours

Garner and Lacey return with balloons, Kira has security take them out in front of the ward, and the form Garner signed lists Lacey as the baby's emergency contact; Greg reads the name and says she is his sister.

Garner was back at nine the next morning with a bigger bouquet and a silver balloon that said GODMOTHER.

Lacey held the balloon.

I saw them from the bed through the open door, and I pressed the call button.

The nurse who came was the same one from the night before.

"They're not on my list," I said. "Please stop them at the desk."

"Mrs. Ferris," she began.

"Haskell," I said. "I'm Kira Haskell."

I had not planned that.

It came out of my mouth and it sounded right.

She nodded and went out.

I could hear the whole conversation through the door, because Garner does not know how to whisper.

"That's my wife in there," he said. "That's my daughter."

"Sir, the patient has asked for no visitors."

"She's confused. She's had a traumatic night. Lacey, tell her."

"She gets emotional," Lacey said, in her soft voice. "Her hormones. She had a panic thing in college, you know."

I sat up so fast the stitches pulled.

I had told Lacey about that once, six years ago, in a dorm room at two in the morning.

I had never told Garner's family.

Garner walked in anyway.

He walked past the nurse and stood at the foot of my bed with the flowers held out in front of him.

"Kira. Come on. Look at me. I'm here."

"You're late."

"Lacey says you've been dramatic all week." He lowered his voice. "She said Tuesday you told her your contractions were fake, that you wanted attention. So when she asked for ten minutes, I thought, okay, it's another one."

I looked at him.

"Tuesday I told her I'd had cramps and was scared. She said they were Braxton Hicks and I should relax."

"Well, she was trying to help."

"She was trying something."

The hallway had gone quiet.

A husband with a diaper bag had stopped three doors down to listen.

A woman in a hospital gown was standing at her own door with her hand over her mouth.

Garner noticed the audience and straightened up.

"Everybody's fine," he said, to the hall. "My wife's just tired."

"Garner," I said. "Look at your daughter."

He had not.

He had been in the room for two minutes, and he had looked at me, at the flowers and at the door.

Tilly was asleep in the clear bassinet beside my bed, one fist against her cheek.

He glanced at her and away.

"She's cute," he said.

"Her cord was around her neck twice."

"But she's fine, so."

"So," I said.

The nurse was back with a clipboard and two security guards.

"Mr. Ferris, you'll need to leave."

"I'm the father."

"You're listed as the father," the nurse said. "The patient has the right to restrict visitors. Before you go, I need to ask about the form you filled out at the front desk last night."

Garner's chin lifted.

"What form?"

She turned the clipboard around and held it where I could see it.

It was the newborn emergency contact sheet.

Line one said *Garner Ferris, father.*

Line two said *Lacey Kreider, godmother, authorized to pick up infant and receive medical information.*

The time stamp at the bottom said 1:52 a.m.

He had signed it before he came up to see us.

He had signed it before he saw his daughter.

"I didn't think," Garner said. "She's family. She's been here every day."

"She's been in my guest room for three weeks," I said. "Did you sign this at eight minutes to two in the morning to make her feel better?"

Lacey tried to step in front of him.

"Kira, honey. It was a formality. You were asleep. Somebody had to."

"Somebody had to what? Take my baby?"

"Authorized to pick up infant," the nurse read quietly, so the hall could hear.

The woman at her door took her hand away from her mouth and said, "Oh, hell no."

Lacey flushed to the roots of her curls.

"This is ridiculous. It's a sheet of paper."

"Then you won't mind if I cross you off," I said.

I took the pen from the nurse's pocket myself.

I drew one line through Lacey's name, and then I pressed the pen to the paper and drew it again.

"Under Garner's name," I told the nurse, "put mine. Mine is the only name on that line. If anyone else comes for her, you call me."

"Absolutely," the nurse said.

Garner took a step toward me.

The guards were on him before he got there.

"Kira!" he shouted. "You can't do this. I'm her father! I have rights!"

"You had fourteen minutes," I said.

He stopped.

I had not told him I'd been counting.

He did not ask how I knew the number.

A guard took his elbow.

Lacey went out ahead of them, with the silver balloon bumping the doorframe.

The woman in the gown clapped twice, loudly, and said, "Good for you, honey."

I lay back and shook for a while.

The nurse put a blanket over my legs without saying anything.

When I opened my eyes again Greg was standing in the doorway.

He had changed out of his uniform.

He held a car seat in one hand, new in the box, and a paper bag in the other.

"I was going to leave it at the desk," he said. "Granola bars. I wasn't sure what you'd eat."

"Thank you," I said, and meant it more than I had meant anything.

He set the box down and picked up the clipboard the nurse had left on the chair.

I think he meant to check that the seat's sheet was in the box.

His eyes went to the contact form, to the line I had crossed out, and stopped.

His hand closed on the clipboard.

"Greg?"

He read the name again.

"Lacey Kreider," he said.

His voice was very flat.

"Do you know her?"

He put the clipboard down gently on the chair.

"Yeah," he said. "She's my sister."

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