Xiomara reluctantly pulled away from Omar's addicting mouth to look over his shoulders at the intruder. Amelia stood in the doorway, her lovely caramel skin radiating youth. Her short hair was pinned up away from her face. The white coat she wore had a small ink stain on it. She smiled and walked into the room followed by a nurse Xiomara recognized from earlier.

Xiomara laughed and looked at her friend like she was crazy. "Baby number two? I don't think so. My factory isn't exactly working as it should. Some of the screws and bolts are loose and I'm afraid they might never be the same again."

Amelia approached the bed and stood next to Omar. "You're the only person I know who would compare the vagina to a factory. How are you? I had some free time, so I thought I would drop by and check up on you." She kissed Xiomara on the check. "And congratulations with your baby boy! You too, Omar. Will says he'll pass by later."

Omar nodded. "Thank you, Amelia. We couldn't be happier."

"I second that," Xiomara said. "Omar proposed to me." She showed Amelia her ring, using that moment to inspect it for the first time herself.

The ring was truly beautiful. She wiggled her finger in different directions just to see the array of diamonds surrounding the center gem sparkling in the light.

"Oh wow, you guys. That's truly amazing. The two of you belong together and you're going to be wonderful parents. I'm so glad Will and I can call you our friends." Amelia beamed and turned her head toward Omar. "And what's up with you and Will proposing in hospitals?"

Omar looked worried for a second or two. "Is that bad? If she'd like a better, more romantic proposal I'm definitely up for it. I know it's not the best, but I couldn't wait any longer. There's nothing I wouldn't do to make her happy."

"That's so sweet," Amelia said in a dreamy voice.

"And not necessary," Xiomara interjected. "This was perfect, honey. I'm the happiest woman in this entire hospital."

Omar raised a sexy eyebrow in question. "Just the hospital? I was hoping to make you the happiest woman in the world."

Xiomara glanced up at her man. Fuck. Why did he have to be so amazing? Okay, why was she complaining?

She twisted the ring on her finger like a talisman, loving the feel of the warm gold on her skin. She'd always believed that wedding and engagement rings represented love and a bond between two people, but now she realized it was that and so much more.

That ring on her finger was a sign of possession. Of belonging to someone else other than herself, and not in a materialistic kind of way. A sign of selflessness. She was no longer just Xiomara Castillo looking out for Xiomara Castillo. No matter how much she loved her mother and her siblings, helping them had mostly been for her peace of mind, because somewhere deep down inside she'd ways felt like it wasn't her place to take care of their every need. For them it had always been about what they could get from her.

With Omar and Jaxon it was different. Loving them didn't feel like an obligation. Putting them first only felt natural. She knew without a doubt that Omar would always put her and Jaxon first. That he would cherish her and love her. That she could count on him when she was feeling low. And for once in her life she could finally sit back and let someone else take care of her for a change.

Xiomara took Omar's hand and held it. "I will be the happiest woman in the entire universe as soon as I see our son and we get to go home as a family."

"That's great then," the nurse with no name said, "because that's why I'm here."

Three heads turned to stare at her. She looked to be somewhere in her mid thirties. She had owlish looking eyes that seemed to see a lot more than what was just on the surface. Her pink nurse uniform was pristine and her flat shoes made a shuffling sound on the floor as she approached the bed and stuck out her hand toward Xiomara.

"My name is Alice," she said. "I'm the primary nurse assigned to your baby. Since we're short staffed this week, I'm also your main nurse. So first things first, it's time to take your antibiotics again. After that you can freshen up in the bathroom over there. Your fiancé brought some of your stuff over last night. So that's great. I asked him if you wanted to breast feed or not, but he wasn't sure. It's important to have you pump and store your milk if that's the case. If your baby keeps improving the way he is, by week thirty-five he should have no problem breastfeeding like normal."

Xiomara swallowed the pills given to her. She knew that she and Omar hadn't had a chance to talk about a lot of things pertaining to the baby, and with everything going haywire with Natalya, that chance had been taken away from them completely.

She looked up at Omar and smiled. "I want to breast feed him."

There. She'd decided. One less thing for them to talk about.

"It was always your decision, baby," he said. "So breastfeeding it is."

"That's wonderful," Alice said. "In the meantime you're going to have pump regularly to keep your breastmilk flowing. I know you must have a lot of questions, but I can't answer them all. Dr. Plachakova will come by later to talk to you about your care. Dr. Volmar is the neonatologist specializing in newborn intensive care here at the Medical Center, so I recommend you talk to him. Today I will guide you around the NICU. It can be a little scary at first, but it will be your second home for as long as the baby's here."

"Thank you for informing us," Xiomara said, "but why didn't someone wake me up?"

Alice smiled. "I was under strict orders to let you rest. Right now your baby isn't feeding well on his own, so it made no sense to disturb you. The faster we get rid of the infection, the faster you can help him."

A few minutes later Amelia said goodbye and the rest of them headed toward the NICU after Xiomara had gotten something to eat. Omar supported her all the way there as she dragged her IV-drop around on a metal pole on wheels. Walking felt weird, like her body was unfamiliar with her new posture. In a strange way she missed having her big belly.

The NICU was busy. There were people, doctors, and nurses bustling around and the sound of beeping monitors was a constant buzz in the background.

Xiomara entered Jaxon's unit filled with anticipation. She wasn't sure what to expect. The unit was small and tidy. There was nothing remotely warm about it. No colorful curtains or toys in the corner. No lullabies, just the beep beep of a monitor.

She approached Jaxon's incubator slowly and touched the glass. This moment. She would remember for all times.

Jaxon was really small, smaller than she remembered. A series of sticky pads connected to wires covered his torso, arms and legs. His eyes were covered with a white bandage. She looked up at the screen displaying numbers and didn't understand what any of it meant. She wanted to cry, but Omar's hand on her shoulder steadied her. She leaned into him for a moment, relishing in the strength he provided.

"That's our son," he whispered near her ear.

He was a proud father, she could tell. "He doesn't really look like me though."

"He has your hair. And your chin. That cute stubborn chin."

Omar was right. The poor thing did have her pointy chin. She couldn't look away from the miracle in front of her. The entire situation seemed surreal. The sight of his tiny fingers curling toward his palm totally shook her up. He looked so peaceful even with his eyes protected from the blue light cascading down on his bare skin like a scene from a bad sci-fi movie.

"Can I touch him?" Her hand was already inside the incubator before the nurse could answer her.

"Of course," Alice said. "Right now he needs the bili-lights to help with the high levels of bilirubin in his blood. At this rate, his treatment should be over in a day or two. You can hold him then."

Xiomara swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. She was a mother, and this was her son. The eight past months came rushing at her. How scared she was when she first found out that she was pregnant, and for a stranger no less. She remembered the constant trips to the bathroom and her insatiable craving for donuts. She remembered the many nights when she couldn't sleep. Those moments of excitement, fear . . . uncertainty. The first time Donut rolled over and the first time he kicked. She remembered how strong her love was for someone she'd never met. Her son. Her baby.

When she hesitated, her hand hovering over Jaxon's soft cheek, Omar guided her the rest of the way. That first touch. Exquisite. Fingers caressing buttery soft skin. It was like touching an angel.

She giggled, the sound bubbling over in the somber setting. Jaxon turned his head toward the melody of her voice and stretched out a tiny hand in her direction. She caught his fragile-looking fingers with her pinky. He had a strong grip. Love blossomed inside of her, overflowing past the capacity of her heart.

"He's magnificent, Omar. I still can't believe we created him or that he came out of me. How did we do this?"

Omar's eyes lit up and he brushed his lips against her ears. "I'll be glad to show you one of these days. It involves certain intimate body parts coming together in a very non PG way."

She threw him a provocative glance over her shoulder. The seduction in his voice was nearly impossible to resist. "You do you know we can't do anything for like six weeks, right?"

"I'm a patient man," he whispered.

"Are we talking about the same man? You know, the one who made love to me against bathroom tiles because he couldn't wait to be inside of me, or the one who threatened me to move in with him because I was dragging my feet, or are we talking about the one who proposed to me in a hospital because he couldn't wait to make me his fiancée?"

"Fuck. You're right. I'm not. I guess we'll have to get creative then."

She smirked. "I guess."

•  •  •

Five days later

Everything was alright with the world. Her mother and her siblings had come to visit. Esmeralda was back home with Carolina for the time being until they got everything settled with Jaxon. Omar didn't want them going back to the condo, and she totally agreed with him. She could never feel safe there again.

Natalya was a thing of the past – well, in some ways. Drifting off to sleep was often difficult. Somehow she was associating the floating feeling of sleep with the drifting motion of the canoe. But she wasn't scared, not when Omar was holding her close, his arms tight around her like a bind, an unspoken promise to never let her go.

She twisted the engagement ring on her finger and looked across the unit at her man. She flushed when she caught him already looking at her with stars in eyes. Something inside of her melted and her skin sizzled with intense heat. It felt like somebody had injected warm, melted chocolate into her veins.

With her son snuggled comfortably against her chest and her fiancée staring at her like she was the best thing since slice bread, she couldn't have been happier.

"You touch your ring a lot," Omar said from his seat in the corner of Jaxon's unit where he was busy answering work emails and looking for a new house for them to move into.

Xiomara shifted Jaxon on her bosom making sure his head was positioned exactly above her heart just as the nurses had taught her to do. Apparently, Kangaroo Care or skin to skin contact with her baby had a lot of benefits. She couldn't wait to take her little angel home with her and spoil him with love.

She glanced down at the ring and smiled. "I love it. It gives me comfort. How's the house hunting going?"

"I found something I think you might like. . ."

"But?"

"It's huge. Six bedrooms."

She rolled her eyes. "I told you, we don't need a mansion. Especially since I can't contribute in a significant way."

"Can you just let me take care of this? It makes me feel good to provide for my family, to provide for you."

"Fine. I'm not going to argue with you about this. It's your money."

He took the laptop off of his lap and sat it down on the floor next to his chair. He was by her side on his knees a moment later. "Is this going to be our first fight as an engaged couple?"

She glared at him. "We're not fighting. When I fight I throw punches."

"God, I would pay good money to see that."

"Really?"

"You're going to love this house, baby. It has everything. It's perfect for the four of us. There's a playground for Jaxon and lots of space for when Esme brings her friends over. And, wait for it, it has a gym."

He rubbed the back of Jaxon's head and her heart melted. How could she say no to him when he'd spent the last five days cooped up in this unit with her, singing and reading to their son. They weren't allowed to sleep in the NICU, but there was a hotel right across the hospital, and every time they got kicked out of the unit they went there, only to come back bright and early the next morning.

"You know damn well that Esme doesn't have many friends," she said. "Nowhere on that list did you mention anything that would benefit me. I don't know why you don't just come out and say it. You need all that space because you plan on turning me into a baby-making machine, but I can tell you now, that's not going to happen. I refuse to be my mother all over again. I plan on getting a college degree even though I don't know what the hell it is I want to do yet."

"You don't need to go back to school to start a business. And what's wrong with making babies if we can take care of them?"

She scowled at him, fighting back the urge to smack him across his head. "I'll be the one stuck at home taking care of them. Not you. And what's all this talk about starting a business? I don't know anything about running a business, Omar. So, of course, I have to go back to school."

She tightened her shirt around Jaxon to make sure he stayed warm. He didn't seem to mind the way they were talking over his head.

"Not necessarily if you plan to open a business in the field you're in right now. I called Willem this morning to ask about the hiring of maids and cleaners for his hotels. With his three hotels combined he has over a thousand rooms that need cleaning on a daily basis. So I suggested he let you take over all things related to housekeeping. Hiring, firing, scheduling, background checks, you name it."

"I. . ." She didn't know what to say. "Can you take Jaxon?"

Omar lifted the baby out of her arms and she slowly buttoned up her shirt. Her mind was racing at the possibilities, but she was afraid to dig deeper, to think bigger.

As soon as Jaxon was nestled comfortably in his incubator she turned her attention back to Omar. "Can you explain this to me again?"

"It's simple. Think of it as an employment agency for housekeeping. You do all the work and Willem pays you. Outsourcing is always easier."

"But don't they have a HR-department to handle all of that?"

"Well, yes, but three different ones. If you do this, the housekeeping for all three hotels will fall under one umbrella. There have been cases where a person was not hired by one hotel because of a discrepancy only to get hired by the next hotel because that particular hotel doesn't screen everybody. It shouldn't be like that. The hotels are the same, just different locations."

"Wow. You really think I can do this? Run a big cooperation like that?"

"I've seen the way you run Willem's villa. You're incredible. You can take extra courses if you feel the need to. You just have to believe in yourself. I believe in you. Don't let your family history stop you from going after what you want. My dad never did. He was a lowly carpenter, but he worked his way up to become an independent contractor and from there on he started his own construction company. Just say the words and I'll help set everything in motion. I don't have a degree in business and accounting for nothing. It may be awhile before everything is finalized, but you'll need that time to come around, to focus on Jaxon."

She licked her lips. "I trust you, Omar. Running a villa and being in charge of over a thousand rooms is not the same thing. So I'm going to trust you with this one. I have thought about starting my own cleaning company, but I never, ever thought it could be possible. Not now, not in a million years."

"Don't be scared. I'll be there with you every step of the way." He kissed her forehead and smiled at her. "Are you in?"

"I'm in. I'm so fucking in!"

"Jaxon, block your ears. Your mom is out of control."

"Oops."

She toppled over laughing. With her head thrown back and tears of joy streaming down her face she was the happiest woman in the entire universe.

*****

Just two more chapters to go, folks.

•

Rita Ora - Your Song

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