She and Mitch had not been able to agree on what they should name their baby yet, and perhaps that was why Lacy had not delivered her yet.
She’d just stepped onto the cold tile of the master bathroom when a pain unlike anything she’d felt before ripped through her abdomen. She automatically threw out one hand, and thankfully, the vanity stood there ready to support her.
Lacy cried out, knowing immediately that she’d just experienced her first contraction. Panic reared through her, but Lacy reminded herself that she had done a great many difficult things in her life, and she would not be alone through this one.
“Mitch,” she said, her voice loud among the dark silence of the house.
Of course, her husband could not hear her, and Lacy didn’t dare twist to look over her shoulder toward the bedroom.
“Sunshine,” she said. “Alert Mitch.”
The dog barked, and Lacy wished she’d brought her phone with her into the bathroom so she could call Mitch and a light would flash.
“Champ, alert Mitch,” Lacy said, the aching in her lower abdomen radiating around her back now—all signs of her going into labor. She didn’t dare move.
She heard Mitch groan behind her. “Wake him up,” she said to his hearing dogs. “Wake him up…Mitch.”
He’d trained them to alert him when his name was spoken, and Lacy said it one more time. A moment later, Mitch made another noise, but he wasn’t verbal and didn’t actually speak. Only a few seconds after that, the bedroom light snapped on, and Lacy managed to reach up and turn the light on in the bathroom too. That brought her husband to her side.
“I’m going into labor,” she told him, her hands flying through the signs.
He was devastatingly handsome, rumpled and fresh from sleep. He looked confused for a couple of heartbeats, and then he said,I’ll get dressed and get your clothes.
Lacy nodded while Mitch returned to the bedroom. She survived another contraction before he came back, and she said,Ineed my phone to time the contractions.
He jogged away from her and returned with it, as well as her favorite maternity pants and one of his oversized T-shirts that she had taken to wearing as the weather warmed.
Tell me what to do, he said.
Lacy nodded to the shirt.Help me get dressed and make sure I don’t fall down.
They’d talked extensively about how to communicate during the labor, as Lacy might not be able to use her hands to sign as much as she normally did.Just watch my face, baby, remember?
He nodded, his jaw tight and a fierce frown of protectiveness between his eyes. He helped her get dressed, and then he picked up the baby bag and kept his arm around her as they slowly made theirway out of the house and into her SUV. Mitch growled as he moved the seat back, so he could drive them to the hospital.
They had sat down with Jacob and his parents, so everyone knew how to communicate with them when Lacy went into labor. She often acted as a go-between for Mitch and the rest of the world, and as he pulled around their circle drive, she reminded herself that she, Jacob, Mitch, and his parents could all sign.
Lacy didn’t want either of Mitch’s parents or her brother in the delivery room with her, and she and Mitch had decided they would manage on their own. They had promised to call Jacob, Cactus, and Willa when they were on their way to the hospital, so they could help with the academy, the dogs, and Mitch, if necessary. Mitch had brought Champ and Sunshine with him in the truck, as his two main hearing dogs went everywhere with him, but he had a few others he worked with on a daily basis.
“I’m going to call everyone.” She typed the message on her phone and turned it toward Mitch.
He read it while driving down the lane and nodded. Her brother would be up in another hour and a half, as he got toSigns for Successearly to start on the groundskeeping, so she sent a text to Jacob first.
Mitch and I are on the way to the hospital. We’ll let you know what we need beyond help with the dogs. If you could take care of them today, that would be great.
She called Mitch’s mother, because when she had first suggested that she would just text, Willa had looked like Lacy had lit the world on fire. Mitch’s mother didn’t answer, but Lacy simply dialed again—right as another contraction began. She quickly hung up and checked the timer.
“Three and a half minutes,” she said out loud, and then she showed it to Mitch.
He nodded again, flexed his fingers on the wheel, and sped up. They lived about twenty-five minutes away from the hospital, but they’d driven it before, and Lacy thanked the Lord that she’d gone into labor early in the morning when there was notraffic.
Mitch pulled up to the emergency entrance of the hospital, and Lacy opened her own door and turned her legs to get out. In that moment, her water broke and she froze, her mind racing.
Mitch jogged around the front of the truck, which he’d left running—a habit he always had, no matter where they were.
“My water just broke,” she told him.
Mitch nodded, his eyes tracking down to her knees.Can you walk?
