“Can you grab the gift bags in the back seat?” Steph asked him.
“Yep.”
Stephanie stood back while Grant gave a soft knock on the door.
Dan came to the door, smiling so big it was a wonder his face didn’t break. Steph had never seen him smile quite like that.
“Come in!”
The baby was crying in the arms of her mother, who was rocking her.
“She’s got a set of lungs, huh?” Grant asked as he hugged Dan.
“Hell to the yes,” Dan said. “She’s loud like her mother.”
“Right,” Kara said. “Like anyone thinks I’m the loud one.”
An older woman emerged from the extra bedroom. She had short, white, curly hair and blue eyes.
“Grant, Stephanie, meet our Bertha,” Dan said. “Kara’s grandmother and my girlfriend.”
“Haha.” Bertha hugged Grant and then Stephanie. “He wishes. Heard so much about you two.”
“Likewise,” Steph said. “We couldn’t wait to meet you.”
“Welcome to our island,” Grant said. “What do you think so far?”
“It’s almost as beautiful as my corner of Downeast Maine.”
Kara had told them how Bertha was still lobster fishing almost every day well into her eighties—and wouldn’t have it any other way.
Steph moved closer to Kara and the baby, eager for a look at the new arrival. “She’s gorgeous. Just like her mother.”
“That’s nice of you to say, but she’s the spitting image of her father, God help us all,” Kara said with a teasing grin for her husband.
“I can’t deny it,” Dan said.
“That poor kid,” Grant replied.
Dan gave Grant a shove that had Grant retaliating with a headlock.
“Business as usual,” Kara said to Steph. “Would you like to hold her?”
“Can I?”
“Of course.”
Kara transferred the precious bundle to Stephanie, who looked down at baby Dylan in amazement. She was so tiny and pretty.
“How’re you feeling?” Steph asked as she gazed at the baby.
“Not too bad, all things considered.”
“So it was horrible?”
“I wouldn’t say that. It just took longer than I thought it would, but the end result is so incredibly worth it. Look at her.”
“She’s perfect.”
