Having My Baby Read Online Free PDF Page A

an understated beauty about her he hadn’t noticed earlier.
    Jill’s cheeks puffed up as she and Chelsey readied for another push and Derrick found himself pushing along with them. The three of them puffed three times, inhaled, three more puffs, inhaled, pushed, and then they all repeated the process for another thirty minutes before the baby finally decided to enter the world.
    The baby’s cry wasn’t anything like the cries of all the other babies he’d heard before. This baby’s cry was mild in comparison, bordering on soothing, like music to his ears.
    Derrick looked over his shoulder and smiled into the camera before turning back to Jill.
    “It’s a boy,” the doctor said.
    “We did it,” Jill said, her voice weak.
    He thought she was talking to Chelsey until he realized Chelsey had joined the nurses down south.
    “ You did it,” he said. He reached for the cup of ice chips and after he’d fed her a few, he gently applied lip balm to her cracked lips. Then he stood back and watched the nurse hand Jill her baby…their baby.

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    The next day, Derrick ignored the cell phone vibrating in his pocket. He climbed out of his car, grabbed the bouquet of flowers from the backseat, and made his way across the parking lot to the entrance of Sutter Medical. He’d already talked to his mother, his father, Maggie, and four of his siblings. They all wanted to drive to the hospital to see the baby.
    Well, everybody except Maggie. Maggie wanted to wring his neck first for not listening to her. Then she wanted to see the baby. Instead, she told him she would see him at the Los Angeles County courtroom at three o’clock tomorrow afternoon if he wanted any chance at all of gaining partial custody of his baby boy.
    Now all he had to do was talk to Jill. It was seven o’clock in the evening. He’d planned on visiting Jill much earlier, but after getting little sleep and taking a dozen phone calls, time had gotten away from him. His son had yet to be named since Jill agreed to wait until today to make a decision. He liked the name Joe and Matt, nice healthy strong sounding names, but Jill hadn’t seemed thrilled by either of his choices. His sisters, on the other hand, were rooting for names like Colton and Deandre because, according to Mom, they really liked the show American Idol.
    He called the hospital this morning and was transferred to Jill’s room but nobody picked up. Although he’d only known Jill for a little more than a day, he felt pretty good about her being the mother of his baby. For one thing—she wasn’t Sandy; for that alone, he was grateful.
    A reporter greeted him about halfway across the parking lot and shoved a microphone in his face. She was tall with dark shiny hair slicked back out of her face. “Hello, Hollywood. Is it true Jill Garrison is having your baby without the benefit of sleeping in your bed?”
    The nickname “Hollywood” had been given to him fifteen minutes after he signed his first contract with the Los Angeles Condors, something about his “magnetism.”
    He remained silent. Reporters were like ants. If they got in his way, he stepped on them. If they kept to the side, he ignored them.
    She followed on his heels. “Is it also true that you didn’t know Jill Garrison until yesterday when police stopped you for voyeurism?”
    Derrick wondered if the reporter had talked to Jill’s friend. He kept his eyes focused on the entrance ahead.
    She held the microphone higher, closer to his mouth. “Why are you here?”
    Derrick merely smiled, mostly because the question was annoyingly amusing.
    “Perhaps,” the reporter went on, “you’re not aware that Jill Garrison left with Ryan Michael Garrison only minutes ago.”
    He pushed his way through the revolving door, leaving the reporter in the dust.
    Ryan Michael Garrison .
    No, he hadn’t heard, but he wasn’t going to take the reporter’s word for it. Jill wasn’t due to leave the hospital until