“I assume.”
“I can’t help you with the nanny, but I can get things up. What else do you need?”
“Um. Diapers? Bottles? I bought some stuff, but it’s also in boxes and I don’t know what else I’d need yet, but—”
“I got it.”
“You don’t know anything about babies.”
“No, but there’s this thing called the internet. I can look it up. If you trust me, then trust me to figure this out. I’ll get your home all set up for you, okay?”
Nolan took a deep breath and met Grayson’s gaze. “I… yeah. Thanks. You don’t have to do that.”
“I want to.”
Nolan got up. Somewhere in his frenzy, he’d put underwear on, so he wasn’t completely naked when he walked across the loft and opened a kitchen drawer. He came back with a set of keys. “The square one is the main door downstairs. The round one is my mailbox, but don’t feel like you have to check the mail while I’m gone. The hexagonal one is for the loft door. Make sense?”
“Yup. Got it. Seriously, Nolan, I’ll figure out what needs to be done here and do it. You can count on me.”
Nolan smiled. He leaned over and briefly kissed Grayson on the lips. “I’ll probably only be gone a few days, a week at the most. I’m sure there are things to sign and the baby may not be able to leave the hospital right away and… yeah. I’ll call or text when I can to let you know when I’ll be back.”
“Okay.”
“You’ll be great at the reveal. I know it will go well. Okay?”
Grayson nodded, although hewasquite nervous about it. Nolan tended to lead the tours through the houses when they did reveals. He had a better way of explaining his design decisions. Grayson would probably only really be only be able to point to things and say, “I like blue.” But, whatever. Nolan needed him now. And he’d show Nolan that he could step up and be what Nolan needed.
“Okay,” Grayson said. Then he sat on the bed and watched Nolan pack, knowing fun time was over. Things were serious now.
Chapter Twenty-One
THE WI-FIon the plane didn’t work longer than about three seconds at a time, so Nolan had no contact with the outside world until he landed at LAX. When he could finally access his voicemail, he had three messages from Clyde, the last of which explained that Angela had given birth, it was definitely a girl, and he’d meet Nolan at the hospital. “She’s beautiful,” Clyde had added. “The proper number of fingers and toes, great big eyes, and a little nose that will just melt your heart.”
Nolan had only brought a carry-on suitcase, so he bypassed baggage claim and got a cab. He decided to go straight to the hospital instead of the hotel Grayson had reminded him to book just before he’d left for the airport.
He called Clyde from the cab, so Clyde was waiting for him right off the elevator on the maternity floor when Nolan arrived. He eyed Nolan’s suitcase and said, “So you really came here right from the plane.”
“Yeah, sorry. I’m anxious, I guess.”
“I don’t blame you. There’s a private waiting room down the hall where you can stash your luggage. Then I’ll take you to meet your daughter. Come with me.”
Nolan’s heart squeezed.Hisdaughter. He still couldn’t quite believe any of this was real.
It took another twenty minutes to stash Nolan’s suitcase and wrangle a proper visitor’s pass to the newborn room, but finally they were walking toward Nolan’s daughter, and Nolan’s heart pounded.
“Normally, this hospital lets the babies stay with their parents. But Angela didn’t want to see her because she thought it would be too upsetting, so they’ve got the girl in this room down here. So don’t be alarmed that there aren’t many other babies.”
“Okay. That probably wouldn’t have occurred to me as something to worry about.”
“I know. It’s just that you see those cute rooms on TV with all the babies lined up like they’re in a display case, and that’s not what this is. Sometimes adoptive parents freak out about that.”
There was a big window with blue and pink balloons painted around it, but it mostly seemed to show a couple of basinets and nurses bustling around.
But then… there she was.
Before Nolan really understood what was happening—he was somewhat hampered by the fact that he’d been awake for more than twenty-four hours straight—a nurse was placing an infant with a tiny pink hat into his arms.
Something in Nolan changed irrevocably in that moment. He wasn’t sure what he’dexpectedto feel, but it wasn’t this completely overwhelming love for the tiny human who stared at him with great expectations.
