“Then you won’t,” he soothed, his voice unwavering.“Who is holding your hand?”
“Like you don’t fucking know!”she seethed, breathing out harshly through clenched teeth.“Where are the cameras?Don’t lie to me and tell me there aren’t any.You totally added more after Hayat’s little adventure.”
Little adventure?Peeking at Hayat in the mirror, I noted again her many, many bruises that were slow to heal.If whatever happened to her had been a “little adventure,” I didn’t want to see what happened when she went on a big one.
“Of course I know.I have your feed open on my second phone right now.But I want to hear your voice.”Vaughn’s voice stayed steady, a softness to it that I’d only ever heard from him when he spoke to his wife or daughter.“Who is holding your hand?”
“H-Hayat and Sammy.”
“And who is driving?”
“Vay.”
“Good.Then you are in the best hands.I will see you in a matter of minutes, wildfire.Hayat, you guide her through her breathing.Vay, drive carefully.Samara…you know what you need to do.”
“I love you!”Abi cried, another powerful contraction hitting her.I’d been keeping track from the dash clock, and things were definitely wonky.They didn’t have a pattern.
Vaughn said something rough in what I could only assume was Russian before the speakers went silent.
“Abi, you said there was pressure.Is it still there?”I asked, keeping my eyes mostly on the road, but flicking glances in the mirror to watch her, totally ignoring the whole conversation that had just taken place about there being freaking cameras in the SUV.That was something to digest later.Obviously, Abi was aware that her husband was stalking her every move.
It was unhinged, psychotic even, but kind of sweet.In a creepy, he knows how many breaths she takes per minute sort of way.Devotion didn’t look the same to everyone.
“Yes.In my bottom.It gets worse with each contraction.I remember this feeling from when I was pushing out Amala.Freaking Vitucci big-headed assholes.”She sucked in a breath, her body nearly drooping forward as the pain eased for the moment.“Not you, Sammy.You have a perfect head.”
“No, no, you’re right.It’s all the Vitucci DNA’s fault.Want me to kill my brother and mount his head as tribute to the pain you have to withstand?”
I laughed at the dry way she said it, like she would one hundred percent do just that, no questions asked.As a true friend should, even if it was her own brother she would behead.
“No!”Abi squeaked, the sound causing my hands to tighten around the wheel reflexively.“Hayat, no leaving Sammy alone with Vaughn for the next twenty-four hours.No matter what happens… Awwwwwwww!Fuck-fucking-fuck.Make it stop.”
“It’s not gonna stop until Mini Two takes her first breath, Abs,” Hayat said as she practically stuffed her hair into her friend’s hand.Playing with her curls did seem to calm Abi.
We were seven minutes from the women’s center, and I was wondering if we’d make it or if I would need to pull over and deliver that baby myself.
Hitting the hazard lights, I floored the gas.
Vega
Exhausted,I used my forearm to brush a few flyaway hairs out of my face as I walked out of the birthing center a few hours later.Abi and her precious new daughter, Calina, were doing well.Mommy and baby had given us all an intensely chaotic adventure, but I was thankful to have been a part of the experience.
Having to shove my hand into my new friend’s body to pull out her afterbirth when it got stuck was a quick way to bond us forever.We were never going to talk about the fact that she hadn’t had an epidural—there wasn’t time, damn it—so she’d felt it in a big way.When we’d gotten to the center, Doc had been in the middle of an emergency C-section.Any one of the six highly experienced labor and delivery nurses working that evening could have easily helped Abi give birth, but Sammy had been insistent I tend to her sister-in-law.
And I was under the impression there weren’t many people who said no when Samara Vitucci Reid insisted.
It was a quick delivery with a beautiful, healthy baby.Quick, as in we barely got the mother-to-be into her suite before she was pushing.Thankfully, her husband was already there.Although Vaughn intimidated the hell out of me, I was glad he was present for the birth of his child.
I wasn’t going to allow myself to get stuck on the realization that neither of my men would be present for the birth of our own baby.Choices had been made.Not just mine, but theirs when they married other women.I’d done what was right and told them I was pregnant.What they did with that information was their own business.
Sweet little Calina, with her red tufts of peach-fuzz hair and those wide blue eyes that looked so wise for someone fresh to the world, was perfectly healthy.She’d simply been in a rush to get out and stretch her legs once she’d decided it was time to be born.Abi was the one who had scared everyone with her heavy bleeding following the birth, until I’d found the piece of retained placenta.Hence, the whole shoving my hand inside her thing.
Hayat’s scream still had my ears ringing, but I wasn’t sure if her shout had been in terror from how her bestie had been hemorrhaging or the abrupt way I’d just done what needed doing.Given the dangerous people I’d been surrounded by, making anyone scream wasn’t healthy.One wrong gasp and people could get…twitchy.
After a lot of fluids, a bag of blood, and a ton of TLC from her nearest and dearest, Abi was glowing.I’d left her in the hands of the L&D nurses, with a promise to Sammy I was only a phone call away.My back was aching, and I needed a shower in the worst kind of way.
A chill climbed my spine as I walked to my car.Lexa or one of our fellow book club members had driven it over for me.I was thankful for their thoughtfulness, because cabs in Creswell Springs weren’t a thing.Neither was Lyft or Uber.The only bus I’d seen in the entire county was a school bus.Small-town life was inconvenient like that, but I’d come to learn that public transit wasn’t needed when everyone knew everyone and their business.They showed up for each other in the small ways that made the biggest impacts.
With the full moon shining down on me, along with plenty of streetlights, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings as I walked through the nearly empty parking lot.I thought I’d miss the sounds of the city, but since moving, I’d discovered the silence wasn’t nearly as loud in my head.The noise had been a comfort because it was my only constant, like a friend who was always watching over me.Even with two men in my life back then, I’d been so damn lonely.
