Page 330 of By His Vow

The baby is coming right fucking now.

It all happens so fast; I almost don’t have time to panic.

Almost.

Tatum grips my hand in a tight hold, crushing as hard as she can, I can only assume so I can feel just a hint of the pain she is in right now. The other holds the gas and air mouthpiece to her mouth, and she sucks on it like she’ll die without it.

“I can’t do this,” she cries after the strongest contraction she’s had so far rolls through her.

“You can, Tate. You’re doing so well,” the midwife praises.

“I need painkillers. Give me everything,” Tatum cries.

“I can’t. It’s too late.”

“Oh fuck,” she screams, her entire body locking up and her face turning beet red, and she pushes.

“You’re doing so good, baby. He’s going to be here soon.”

“ARGH,” she screams again before falling limp. But her relief is short-lived because another contraction hits her almost immediately.

“Push as hard as you can. The head is right there.”

The midwife looks between Tatum’s spread legs, and I find myself doing the same.

“Oh my god,” I whisper when I find that she’s right. “He’s got loads of hair,” I tell Tatum.

“I don’t care, just get him out of me.”

I smirk. It’s the first time she’s said he.

“Next contraction and you’ll deliver the head,” the midwife says. I haven’t even registered her name. It’s all too much of a blur.

“Okay, okay. It’s—ARGH,” Tatum screams, her grip getting even tighter, which I didn’t think was possible.

“That’s it. That’s it,” the midwife encourages before Tatum falls back with an exhausted cry.

“One more contraction and you’ll have your baby.”

I look down again and instantly feel a little lightheaded when I literally see a head poking out of my wife.

Oh god. This is really happening.

Someone is going to hand us a helpless child as if we’re qualified to keep it alive.

Wrapping my free hand around the bar of the bed, I try to keep it together.

Tatum needs me not to lose my shit right now.

“It’s coming,” she cries before she gives it one final push.

“That’s it,” the midwife says as Tatum crashes back, exhausted, her eyes falling closed.

But the second a small cry fills the room, she’s fully alert again as if she hasn’t just been through all of that.

There is so much emotion in her eyes, so much love for our new little person, I fall for her all over again.

“Congratulations, you have a beautiful baby boy,” the midwife says before placing him on Tatum’s chest.