Read While We Waited (The Reed Brothers #8) for Free Online Page A

him as he slides into the world. The nurse catches him and they lift him to lay him on her belly.
    “No,” Julia says. She closes her eyes and looks away. A tear runs down her cheek.
    “Julia, please,” I say. If she sees him just once, she’ll change her mind. I’m sure of it.
    “Take him away.”
    He’s crying now, and the sound is music to my ears. I walk over to the bassinette where they’re cleaning him and look down into his perfect little face. He has my coloring and my hair. “You want to hold him, Dad?” the nurse asks. She looks askance at Julia. But Julia is still staring in the other direction.
    “Yes, please,” I say. I take him from her and pull him into my chest. “Hello, Benji.” He’s only minutes old and I’m already in love with him. I can’t imagine how Julia could give this up. “Are you sure, Julia?” I ask her.
    “I’m sure,” she says definitely. She’s still refusing to look.
    They move us to a different room, one away from Julia. Apparently, it’s what they do in adoption situations and that’s how they’re treating this.
    I spend the night with my son in his own room, and I have no idea where Julia is. A nurse comes into the room and says, “The baby’s mother would like to see you. She’s about to be discharged.” I look toward Benji’s crib. “I’ll watch him. Go ahead,” she says gently. She pats my shoulder.
    She gives me Julia’s room number and I go there. She’s dressed in some baggy pants and a loose-fitting top and she has a bag over her shoulder. “Are you leaving?” I ask.
    She nods, and a tear slides down her cheek.
    “Julia…” I want to hold her, but I don’t know if I have the right.
    “Don’t make it any harder,” she says quietly. “Do you have the money?”
    I reach into my pocket and take out the cashier’s check for forty thousand dollars. I used the rest of the original fifty thousand to buy some baby stuff, and I paid an attorney to take care of the legal stuff so Julia could sign over her rights and I could get custody.
    And to finalize the divorce.
    “Thank you,” she says as she takes the check.
    “Are you going to be okay?”
    “It would have been easier if he’d gone to a different family,” she says. “This way, I’ll always know he’s with you and that he’s not with me, and he’ll know it too.”
    “I’ll make sure he knows you love him.” My heart is breaking.
    She nods. “I did this because I do love him. I can’t give him anything he needs. And I’m not one hundred percent sure you can either.” She looks at me. “Are you going back to your sisters?”
    “I doubt they’d have me at this point. I kind of closed that door.”
    She nods. “Take care of him, okay?” Her voice cracks and I can’t stand it anymore. I go to her and pull her into my arms. She falls into me and lets me hold her for a minute, until her sobs quiet.
    “When you’re ready to see him, call me?”
    “I won’t.”
    “You don’t know how you’ll feel a few years from now.”
    She nods. “Be good, Tag.”
    Then I see her new boyfriend standing outside the door. She’s leaving with him. She’s leaving me with a brand new baby, and she’s going to go to college like none of this ever happened. She’s going on with her life, and I get to keep the beauty we created together.
    I go back to Benji’s room and the nurse passes him to me like’s a tightly wrapped football.
    My phone rings in my pocket and I shift Benji over so I can pull it out. My heart beats faster thinking it might be Julia. Maybe she changed her mind. “Hello?”
    “Tag?” a male voice says.
    “Yes?”
    “This is Josh, and I’m going to marry your sister Star in a few days. We’d love it if you could be here.”
    “Y-yes,” I blurt out quickly. I clear my throat. “ Yes ,” I say again. Then my heart falls. “Wait. I don’t have any money to get there.”
    He laughs. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.”
    “I’ll need a bus