“I knew that,” she says, rolling her eyes, and then twisting her lips to one side in thought. “Milaya,” she repeats, moving her lips slowly around the name. She says it a few more times and then smiles. When she looks up at me, her eyes are glittering with tears. “I love it.”
Eve presses a kiss to Milaya’s tiny nose and smiles. “My sweet Milaya.”
I kiss Milaya’s mitten-covered hand and then kiss Eve’s temple. I smooth down her sweaty hair with my hand and brush the flyaways behind her ears. “My sweet wife.”
She grabs my hand, and we stay there for a long time, doing our best to soak in the sweetness of our new baby girl, and our wonderful life.
The new kid is green. As green as any recruit I’ve ever seen.
“Hold up your trigger hand.” I raise my right in example and the recruit lifts h
