Page 93 of The Champion
“Looks like it’s a girl!” the official said with a smile.
When she came out, the official handed her to him as shelooked up at Jimi, his panicked expression melting to adoration.
There in the midst of the dirt and methanol filling thecrisp fall night, another Riley was added.
“She’s beautiful.” Jimi said handing her to me, I laughedthat she was wrapped in his driving suit.
“Jimi,” I refused to look at him, knowing damn well, whathe did. “Please tell me you at least have underwear on.”
“Yeah,” He chucked looking toward the baby. “I decidedsince I didn’t want to see your track layout you wouldn’t want to see my gearshift.”
“There’s no doubt in my mind Jameson and Spencer are yoursons.”
I took one look at my daughter and started bawling. Shelooked identical to me but I saw so much of my mom and Charlie in her as wellas Jameson. She had his exact lips and hair color.
“What’s her name?” Jimi asked. My eyes rimmed with tearssmiled.
“Jameson wanted to name her Arie Marie.”
“What?”
“Arie. Pronounced like R-re.”
“What’s with you two and naming your kids strange names?”
“You’re one to talk there smartass. You named Jamesonafter whiskey.”
“I have two with normal names.” He defended still staringat Arie.
“Yeah, I always wondered how that happened.”
He laughed handing Arie to me.
“Nancy was sleeping when they came around with the birthcertificate. I wrote the first name that came to mind.”
“Whiskey huh?”
“Hey, it got me through the birth of him.”
“So you saw him born?”
“No, hell no...I’venever seen a kid born...untiltoday.”
“So this was your first?”
“Yep,” His hand rose to wipe the sweat from his forehead.“And I can’t say I want to see it again. That was horrible. I just may havenightmares. All that blood and screaming and blood,” He shivered. “I need someair.”
Everything moved quickly once she was born and we needed toget to the hospital so Jimi, of course, drove.
Arie was tiny but had a lot of attitude. She already hadthe Riley scowl down when we made it to the hospital and the nurses tried tobath her. I couldn’t stop smiling that I had a daughter now. The only thingthat marred my happiness was the fact that her father wasn’t there to see herbirth, or right now while she was being cleaned, measured and weighed.
Ami, who had kindly kept an eye on Axel during the laborand birth, came in holding him on her hip. When Axel came in, he looked at mewith wide happy eyes and then when he spotted the baby in my arms that wasn’thim...he wasn’t thrilled.
Neither was Jameson when he finally arrived.
He rushed through the door to the room, “Did I miss it?”His eyes, just like his son’s, caught sight of the baby in my arms. “Is that...?” he rushed to my side peeking down ather.
“Daddy, meet your daughter...Arie.”
