"Hi," Ethan said. His voice was hoarse from exhaustion. And that was probably a dumb thing to say, even if his voice was working properly. He should have thought about this before and come up with something profound or cool or important or whatever. But even if he had thought about this before, it wouldn't have mattered. Every thought had fallen right out of his head.

It felt like a dream. Like this wasn't real. Like he would wake up and be back at Northwestern in his dorm room and the last seven months would have never happened. Because this couldn't be real, right? Ethan Degler, age twenty, wasn't actually a father. That was too wild.

But in his arms was a tiny baby girl. His daughter. Ethan was her dad. Now and always and forever.

Despite what he'd told everyone for the last however many months, Ethan actually did have doubts about whether him keeping this baby was a good idea, whether he could actually be a father and handle this. Holding her in his arms for the first time, he knew. He could be her dad. He would do whatever it took to protect her and be with her and help her grow. Because holding her in his arms, he was just overwhelmed with the fact that he was looking at the most perfect and the most important thing in the entire universe. He wouldn't let her go for anything.

A light tap came at the door, forcing Ethan to tear his eyes away from the baby.

"Hey there," Mom said gently, a beaming smile on her face. "Can I meet my granddaughter?"

"Yeah," Ethan answered, grinning like a lunatic. "Come see."

Mom came over and hovered by his shoulder to look down at the swaddled little mush in his arms. And even though Ethan would have physically attacked anyone who said it out loud, he had to admit that his baby daughter did look like a fleshy mush. Most babies did, as far as Ethan had learned from all the research he'd done about childbirth and newborns.

"She has your eyes," Ethan said. The baby was asleep right now, but Ethan had seen her when she first opened her eyes about an hour ago, and they were the exact same color blue as Mom's.

"She has your nose," Mom said. She reached out and lightly touched her index finger to the baby's nose. Ethan couldn't see much of a resemblance, but he wouldn't contradict her.

Regardless of whether or not she did have Ethan's nose, this baby otherwise looked just like Hailey. Her skin wasn't as dark as Hailey's, which made sense with Ethan as her father. And her hair was black and the little of it on her head was coarse and coiled.

In the back of his mind, Ethan was glad that Mom had taken Hailey to that black salon in San Jose because he would definitely need to find some help when it came time to figure out how to do her hair properly. There were probably some TikTok accounts he could follow to learn more. Shit, he had so much to learn about everything.

But he couldn't start stressing about all of that right now. He changed the subject. "How's Hailey?" he asked.

The labor had been fast but intense. By the time they got to the hospital and into a room, she was already dilated enough for the epidural, and it wasn't too long after that when she got taken to the delivery room. Ethan and Mom both got to go with her, and he tried to help as best he could, but Hailey did all the hard work. Mom held one of Hailey's hands and Ethan held the other. And just before lunchtime, Hailey gave a final scream and pushed that baby girl into the world. Even an hour later, the sound of the baby's first cries still echoed in his head.

The doctors and nurses took the baby and cleaned her off and measured her and whatever, and then Ethan was allowed to accompany the baby into another room, which is where he'd been ever since. Mom had stayed with Hailey.

"She's good. Resting. We talked to the doctor, and she and the baby both will stay overnight. And I talked to Hailey's dad, and they already bought the plane ticket for her to go home," Mom said.

"Is she okay with everything?" That was really the thing he was worried about. They'd talked about all this till they were blue in the face, about how Hailey wanted to have the baby and then leave. And Ethan was prepared for that. Only things changed when you gave birth, right? Isn't that what people always said? Ethan didn't know if anything had changed for Hailey.

Mom gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You're gonna have to ask Hailey that yourself," she answered. "I'll stay with the baby if you want to go see her now."

Ethan knew he was supposed to accept that offer. But he hesitated. "Later. I don't want to let her go yet. I feel like I already love her more than anything. And she's like an hour old. Is that insane?"

"No," Mom replied, smiling. "No, that's pretty much how I felt about you and Charlie, too. That tiny little creature that you've been waiting all these months to meet is finally here. You've got nine months of love all stored up waiting for her."

He gazed down at his baby girl's sweet little face. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

"Have you decided on her name yet?"

Ethan was surprised it took her this long to ask. Mom didn't like to be kept in the dark, and she could be relentless when she was curious about something. He had expected her to ask him every day for the last month what he was going to name his daughter. Because he'd known for a while what he would call her. "Yeah, I have."

Mom paused, waiting. "Well!?" she insisted.

He liked teasing her a little bit, but he wouldn't keep her in suspense any longer. "Madeline Ellen Degler."

Ethan snorted laughing when Mom's jaw dropped and tears filled her eyes in the most cliché way ever. She blinked back the tears and chuckled at his reaction. "I think that's perfect. How'd you come up with it?"

In all honesty, he didn't want to answer that question, but he sort of had to now. "Um, well, you remember how me and Charlie spent that summer watching Mel Brooks movies nonstop when I was like fourteen?"

"Yeah, I remember. Wait, did you name your baby after Madeline Kahn?"

Ethan shrugged slightly, trying to hide his blush and not jostle the baby. "I thought she was funny and pretty." So what if he'd named his daughter after a long-dead actress he'd had a crush on in high school?

"Well, she was funny and pretty, and I don't know much about her, but I think it's a beautiful name," Mom said.

"We can call her Maddie."

Mom smiled again at that. "I love it." She brushed her finger against the baby's cheek. "Hello, Maddie," she murmured before turning her attention back to Ethan. "So I guess when you said you wanted to name the baby after someone you care about, you were talking about Madeline Kahn?"

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Her middle name is Ellen, Mom."

"Yeah, I got that," she teased. "And I'm honored, sweetie, thank you." She leaned in to kiss his cheek.

He was getting a little too emotional and he didn't want to cry, so he didn't tell her that she was more worthy of having someone named after her than anyone else on the planet. He didn't tell her that she was the best mother in the world and if it weren't for her love and support, he never would have even considered being a father. He would tell her all those things another time. But for right now, he just wanted to keep staring at Maddie. His Maddie.