“Do you want to hold her?” I asked.
He looked up at me like I’d hit him.
“Are you sure?”
“Support her head,” I said. “She hates it when you don’t support her head.”
I stood up and walked over and put our daughter in his arms for the very first time.
He held her like she was made of glass. Exactly like I’d seen him hold his cousin’s baby at that barbecue, years ago. Like his heart was breaking.
Evelyn blinked up at him. She looked at his face for a long moment with her serious, unfocused newborn eyes.Then she yawned. A huge yawn that took up her whole face. And she curled her tiny fist around the collar of his clean blue shirt and fell asleep.
Ben made a sound I’ll never forget. Not a sob, exactly. Something deeper. Something that came from the very bottom of him.
