Because she wasn’t ready to let him go yet either, Emma relaxed into his embrace, telling herself a few more minutes of utter perfection wouldn’t hurt anything.

Hannah woke with a start from a sound sleep, her breasts tingling from the dream she’d had that the baby was crying.

“What’s the matter?” Nolan asked, his voice thick with sleep from his post in the recliner next to her hospital bed.

“I need to check on her.”

“You checked her an hour ago. She’s fine. The nurses will let you know if she needs you.”

“I have to see for myself.”

Thankfully, he seemed to understand that there’d be no sleeping—or peace—until she was pacified. Groaning, he dragged himself out of the chair and rubbed his hands over his face before holding up the robe he’d brought her from home and wrapping her up in it.

Nolan held her hand as they walked to the NICU where they spent five full minutes washing their hands. Then he helped her into the gown and shoe covers everyone was required to wear to gain entrance.

“Back so soon?” one of the overnight nurses asked when they went in.

“I just wanted to check on her,” Hannah said.

“Of course. She’s feisty, that little one.”

“Like her mother,” Nolan said dryly, drawing laughs from both women.

Hannah gazed down at her tiny daughter, drinking in every detail for the thousandth time. She never got tired of looking at her. Callie’s lips moved in her sleep, the same way her daddy’s did. Hannah loved that she already saw similarities between the baby and Nolan. She stared at her, watching the rise and fall of her little chest and marveling at the miracle of her

“You ought to sleep while you can, Mom,” the nurse said.

“That’s what I say, too,” Nolan said, yawning.

“One more minute.” Though every inch of Hannah’s body hurt from the delivery, her aches and pains were secondary to the overwhelming joy of finally being a mother to such a sweet little girl.

Baby Callie. Her daughter. She was a mom! Had anything ever been more exciting than that?

“You need to rest, sweetheart,” Nolan said.

“I’m too excited to sleep. All I want to do is look at her.”

“I love seeing you so happy.”

“I’m so happy. I feel like my heart is going to burst or something. Are you happy, too?”

“Hannah… How can you ask me that?”

“Just making sure.”

He kissed the top of her head. “I was over the moon to have you, but having her, too, is just… It’s everything. She’s everything. You are everything.”

“Thank you for her and for her name. That was the single-best idea you’ve ever had, and it’ll make a lot of people very happy.”