Carrie was red and squishy, and her hair was matted to her head, but she was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on. The doctor quickly handed her to the nurse before going back to work between my legs. I looked at Evan and Beau, and they were both looking between me and the baby with tears in their eyes.

“That was fucking amazing,” Evan said, and he didn’t even apologize for cursing. He leaned down and kissed my sweaty forehead. “You’re amazing, Blaire.”

“You’re going to need a couple stitches down here,” Tamara called, and Beau’s face took on the approximate color of the inside of an avocado.

“Sit down before you pass out,” I told him, and he flopped down into a chair beside the bed and puffed out tiny breaths like he himself was in labor.

“Stitches? Down there?” Beau rasped.

I nodded, and we all smiled when we heard Carrie’s sharp cry pierce the room. Oh, my sweet girl!

I called out, “APGAR?”

“Nine! Very good,” one of the nurses called back.

Evan and Beau stared at me blankly, but I was still too breathless to explain. Tamara tilted her head toward her intern and said, “Dr. Billings, would you like to explain the APGAR score to these gentlemen?”

Billings, a short, squat young man with glasses, spouted off his textbook answer, “The APGAR score is an assessment of the baby’s general health. It checks for skin color, heart rate, reflex, muscle tone, and respiration. It is taken one minute after the baby is born and then again at five minutes. Ten is a perfect score. Seven and above indicates that the baby is healthy, so a nine is excellent.”

“Well, why didn’t she get a goddamn ten?” Beau growled, seeming highly offended that someone implied that his niece was less than perfect.

“Feet are a little blue,” the pediatric nurse called out.

“Blue?!” Evan yelled, craning his neck to see Carrie as the nurses and pediatrician tended to her. “Get… get a specialist in here right now. I want the best. Who is the best doctor to deal with… with blue-footed babies?”

Dr. Billings gave him an indulgent smile and explained, “Most babies’ feet are slightly blue until they warm up a little. I assure you it’s quite common and nothing to worry about.”

My tired body was shaking with laughter at Evan trying to demand a specialist, and Tamara looked up at me, not even attempting to hide her amusement. “Blaire, I’m gonna need you to be still, or you’re going to end up with a piercing you didn’t ask for.”

“Oh, dear God,” Evan said just before his knees buckled. Luckily, Billings caught him before he hit the floor.

“We’ve got a fainter,” one of the nurses said in a bored tone. “Third one today.”