Chapter 9 - The Night He Stayed
Naomi went into labor on a Tuesday.
Luca considered that appropriate.
“Your customers will complain if you disrupt the weekend schedule.”
She looked at him from the passenger seat.
“If you make one more joke, I’m naming the baby after Tessa.”
“Tessa is a fine name.”
“For a boy.”
“I’ll remain quiet.”
He lasted nearly two minutes.
At the hospital, the careful plans they had made became less important than the next manageable thing.
Water.
Breathing.
A different position.
Another question for the nurse.
Naomi had imagined she might become calm and luminous.
Instead, she became sweaty, irritable, and certain that whoever designed the bed had never been uncomfortable.
Luca remained beside her.
He did not tell her to be brave.
He did not insist that she was doing beautifully when she wanted to complain.
When she said it hurt, he said, “I know you’re hurting.”
When she said she was frightened, he asked what would help.
Sometimes the answer was his hand.
Sometimes it was silence.
Once it was ice chips delivered without the expression of a man negotiating a difficult contract.
He complied.
Hours passed.
At one point, his phone lit up with a message from counsel concerning a major company decision.
The timing mattered.
He read enough to understand.
Then he stepped to the doorway while a nurse stayed with Naomi.
“Follow the agreed process,” he said quietly. “I’m unavailable.”
When he returned, she was watching him.
“Everything all right?”
“Other people are doing their jobs.”
“And yours?”
He took her hand.
“I’m doing mine.”
Near dawn, Naomi became exhausted enough to cry.
“I can’t.”
Luca brushed damp hair away from her forehead.
“You don’t have to decide about the whole thing. Just this minute.”
“That sounds like something from your counselor.”
“It was expensive advice. I’m trying to get value from it.”
She laughed despite herself.
Then another contraction came, and the laughter vanished.
He stayed.
Not as a wealthy man capable of arranging everything.
As a husband who could not take away the pain and refused to disappear because of that.
When the baby finally arrived, Luca forgot every sentence he had prepared.
Their daughter announced herself with a furious cry.
Naomi began laughing and crying at once.
Someone placed the baby against her chest.
Warm.
Real.
A dark tuft of hair.
An expression suggesting the entire experience had been poorly organized.
“Oh,” Naomi whispered.
Luca stood beside the bed, one hand covering his mouth.
“Come here,” she told him.
He moved closer.
The baby’s fingers opened against Naomi’s skin.
“She’s here,” he said.
“Yes.”
“She’s really here.”
Naomi looked up at him.
The fear was still there.
She could see it.
But it no longer stood between him and the life in front of him.
“What do you think?” she asked.
He laughed through tears.
“I think I’ve been an idiot about a great many things.”
“That isn’t her official name.”
They had chosen it weeks earlier.
Sofia Evelyn Bellini.
For the sister he had lost and the grandmother who had taught Naomi how to begin again.
When Luca held her, he looked absurdly careful.
“Support her head,” Naomi said.
“I am.”
“Breathe.”
“I’m doing that too.”
“Occasionally.”
He smiled down at his daughter.
“Hello, Sofia.”
The baby settled against him.
He did not interpret it as forgiveness from the past.
He understood, finally, that a child was not born to resolve an adult’s grief.
She was simply a person who needed him.
That was enough.
Tessa arrived later with food the hospital had not approved and an expression that dared anyone to object.
Marco carried the bags.
Evelyn met the baby by video first.
For several minutes, she thought Sofia was Naomi.
Then her eyes sharpened.
“That’s your girl.”
Naomi pressed her lips together.
“Yes, Gran.”
“Let her make a mess.”
“I will.”
“She’ll learn more that way.”
Luca stood behind Naomi’s chair and rested a hand on her shoulder.
When everyone left, the room grew quiet.
Their daughter slept between feedings in the bassinet.
Naomi looked at Luca.
“You’re allowed to sleep.”
“So are you.”
“I did the larger portion of the work.”
“An unassailable point.”
He helped her settle against the pillows.
Before she closed her eyes, she reached for his hand.
“Are you frightened?”
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
May you like
He bent and kissed her forehead.
This time, neither mistook fear for a reason to leave."
