Chapter 62 Asher Nash

Chapter 62: Asher Nash

She’s About to Be a Mother

“Asher, honey, I don't know how to thank you for calling us.” Desiree's mom pulls me into a tight hug.

We're still waiting for the action to really get started. She's dilated six centimeters now, and contractions are starting to come a little more frequently at six minutes, but the doctor says we still have lots of time.

She can't eat anything, but I can, and I am a growing boy. Or I'm an athlete who has fairly strict dietary concerns even in the offseason.

Addy is in with her now, and I’m about to grab a bite to eat with Coach Dixon and Sue.

“Before we go down, can I talk to both of you?” Nerves climb through my chest as I make myself say the words.

“Of course. Anything,” Sue says as Coach continues to narrow his eyes at me.

“Look, Coach, I'm sorry we kept this from you. We both knew how you'd feel about the two of us together before we had a chance to give it a real shot. But I've known your daughter now for the better part of a year. We're about to have a baby together. I know it's not what you want, but I'm not going anywhere. Like it or not, I'll be a part of your family for the rest of my life. I’ll always be there for Des and the baby, and I want nothing more than to marry her and to spend the rest of my life with her. I may not be good enough for her, but I'll sure as hell try every single day to be. I love her more than I've ever loved anyone in my life, and I'm begging you for your blessing before I go in there and ask her to marry me.” The words come out rushed and nervous and genuine .

He studies me and then glances at his wife.

She gives him an encouraging smile. “You know how I feel about it.” She raises her brows pointedly. “Bill, she’s about to be a mother. Let her be happy. Let her go.”

He draws in a deep breath, and he presses his lips together before he answers my question. “I always knew she was going to end up with somebody like you.” He shakes his head a little. “It’s why I warned her off players. But you, Asher Nash…I think you’re her other half in pretty much every way. It pains me to admit it because I always wanted better for her than I was able to give her mother. I've gotten to know you pretty well over the last year, and I think that's why it hurt that you didn't feel like you could tell me that you were seeing her. But to know that you’d still reach out to us to make sure we knew when she was going through something despite the way I’ve treated you…well, it means the world to me. And seeing you drop everything to get to her in her time of need tells me exactly the kind of husband and father you'll be for her and my grandchild. I know that she's getting better with you than what I was able to give because I don't know that I would've been able to do that knowing how much Sue's dad hated me.”

I glance over at Desiree’s mom, and she brushes away a tear on her cheek.

“I hope you don't hate me, sir.”

“I don't,” he says, shaking his head. “Far from it. And that's why of course I'll give you my blessing.”

Relief filters through me at his words, and I can't help when I leap at him and pull him into a hug. “Thank you,” I murmur, overcome with emotion.

“Don't let her down.”

“You have my word,” I promise.

We head down to get food, and once we’re sitting with plates in front of us, Sue asks, “So when are you going to do it?”

“I hadn't really thought about it, but I suppose I'd like to do it right away. It's sort of feels like the final piece of the puzzle to make our family complete once the baby’s here.”

She clasps her hands together. “I think that might be the sweetest thing I've ever heard.”

We finish our dinner and head back up to Desiree.

“How’s progress?” I ask as soon as I walk in. I head over to her and press my lips to hers as I set my hand to her stomach.

“Moving along,” she says. “The doctor says I'm at eight centimeters now.”

“What does that mean?”

She shrugs. “I guess it means we're getting closer.”

She's not wrong. It's not long before the doctor comes in and lets her know it's time to start pushing.

Her parents leave the room so it's just the two of us, the doctor, and two nurses. The nurse shows me how to hold one of her legs up as she holds the other leg, and when the next contraction hits, Des has to push.

Her red hair flies around her shoulders with each heave of her body, and I've never felt more in awe of another human being in my entire life. She literally grew our baby in there over the last thirty-five weeks, and now she’s pushing it out of her body and into the world. What a fucking phenomenon.

She pushes with everything she has, but it's not quite enough.

After an hour of pushing, I can tell she's starting to get tired, but she's not about to give up now.

“Okay, the next one’s starting,” the nurse says as she watches the screen.

“Give it everything you've got, Desiree,” the doctor says.

I grab onto her leg with one arm and grab her hand with the other. She squeezes the shit out of my hand as she pushes with all her might, and a moment later, the baby slips from her with a loud cry.

A loud cry.

That’s a good thing.

The anxiety that has filled my chest all day knowing that he or she is coming early seems to ease a little at that cry, and the nurse’s next words leave me with this feeling of pride and love and wonder that fills me to my very soul.

“It’s a boy.”

The nurse hands me scissors to cut the umbilical cord, and I watch as they take the baby for just a moment to examine him and clean him up.

His lungs are definitely working based on the little cries he’s producing as he’s introduced to this strange and wonderful world.

“He looks healthy,” the nurse says as she sets the baby on Desiree’s chest, and I’m looking at her as she looks down at our son. Our son . Tears stream down her face, and emotion clogs the back of my throat as I look at the two people I love most in the entire universe.

I don’t even know his name yet, and I love him more than I ever knew I could love another person.

“Do we have a name yet, Mom and Dad?” one of the nurses asks in the periphery, and hearing someone call me Dad for the first time is a bit of a shock.

We haven’t discussed boy names. She seemed so sure it was a girl that we only tossed around girl names. She liked Miley, and I liked Cassie. But boy names?

I have no idea.

She glances up at me, and I see the light in her eyes. “Jacob?” she asks softly.

My chest aches at the tribute to my best friend. I think about how much more Jake was than his final moments, about how he was adventurous and fun, always up to meet a new challenge, always laughing, always smiling.

That’s what I want for my boy.

I can see this kid being my little best friend as we go on adventures together. We’ll go to parks, and he’ll ride on my shoulders as we hike up mountains, and we’ll travel and see the world as a family.

“Are you sure?” I ask.

She nods.

“What about William for the middle name?” I ask.

“After my dad?” she asks, brushing a tear away.

I nod.

“Jacob William Nash,” she repeats, looking down at our boy.

He has a light dusting of dark hair on his head, and I think he’ll look a lot like me. Maybe someday down the line, we’ll have a little girl who will have gorgeous red hair like her mother, and I’ll keep her inside until she’s thirty-five because if she’s anything at all like her mother, I’m in big, big trouble.

“It’s perfect,” we say at the same time.

We spend the first hour of Jake’s life as a quiet family of three. He lays on her chest, and the two of us gaze at him in wonder as he starts to calm. He falls asleep, and I press my lips to his forehead.

I can’t believe he’s mine.

I can’t believe she is mine.

The nurse takes the baby and shows me how to swaddle him—which I immediately forget—and hands him to me. I stare down at him before I hand him to his mom, and I can’t believe we’re parents now.

These are the two people I will prioritize and love and adore and sacrifice everything for…for the rest of my life.

“Marry me,” I whisper softly, brushing my lips across her temple.

Her eyes lift from the baby up to mine. Her brows are a little furrowed, and her eyes are rimmed in red and watery as the tears continue to fall.

She’s never looked more beautiful. She nods as her eyes connect with mine. “Yes.”

I lean down, and my lips collide with hers just as they’ll do thousands of times to come. She’ll hold our son and maybe another one or a daughter down the road if we’re so lucky, and we’ll kiss and remember this moment right now. I feel like I’m at the peak of love, on the precipice of emotions, and yet I also know there’s so much more to come, that I’ll fall more in love with her every single day just as I have since the night we met despite the trials and tribulations we’ve faced.

I pull back and lean my forehead to hers as this new sensation of joy bursts through me.

We revel in this feeling for a few minutes, and then she whispers, “I need a cheeseburger.”

I bark out a laugh so loud that I almost wake the baby. He jerks in his sleep but doesn’t wake, and I let out a breath.

I’ll need to get a handle on my volume, I guess.

The nurse puts in a call to the cafeteria, and before the food comes up, I ask her if she wants me to call her parents in. She nods, and I turn to walk out to get them.

“Wait,” she says.

I back up and move in beside her.

“Do you think it’s okay to tell them that I just agreed to marry you? That was genuine, right? Not, like, out of emotions in the moment?” She’s fretting, and I try to come up with the right words that will ease her fears.

Only one thing comes to mind. “I asked your parents for their blessing earlier today.”

Her jaw slackens. “You did? So…this was planned?”

I chuckle. “I didn’t really have a plan for where or when, and I don’t have a ring to give you, but I will. I know I want to spend my life with you. So I asked, and I got the blessing. From both of them.”

“Both of them?” she repeats. “Oh, Asher.” She bursts into tears again, and somehow, I know, I just know , that life is going to be full of these wonderful emotions together.

For the rest of our lives.