Okay.
Okay, Eden.
Think.
I’d had backaches yesterday. Ache, pressure, a few twinges today, but nothing dramatic. Nothing that screamedthis is it. Nothing that told me I should have stayed put. Or brought my phone. Or not stormed out the shop like a woman possessed.
Another pain hits before I’ve fully recovered from the last.
I cry out this time, the sound torn from me as my body bends again, hands braced on my thighs. My bump feels impossibly heavy, hard beneath my palms, my skin pulled tight as my stomach contracts.
Panic floods me, hot and immediate.
No phone.
No one around.
No Martha.
No midwife.
Kade.
The name beats through my head in time with my pulse.
He’s less than five minutes away. I know that. I cling to it like a lifeline. If I can just keep moving, just get closer, this will be okay.It has to be.
I force myself upright again, breathing the way Jan taught us. In through my nose, out through my mouth. Slow. Controlled. Even though nothing about this feels controlled.
My legs tremble as I take a step. Then another.
There’s a constant pressure now, low and relentless, like my body is bearing down whether I’m ready or not. I stop, leaning against the fence, forehead pressing into the cold wood as I fight the urge to scream.
“It’s fine,” I whisper, more plea than statement. “Labour takes hours.”
Another contraction crashes through me, and I cry out, my vision spotting as I grip the fence and sob openly now, fear clawing its way up my throat.
All I can think about is Kade and how I haven’t asked the question that’s been burning in my chest for weeks. I haven’t told him that I’m ready. That I want us. That I’m terrified of loving him again, but I do. God, I do.
And now my body is deciding everything for me.
I straighten again, wiping tears from my face with shaking hands, and start walking, slower now, careful, deliberate. Each step sends another jolt through my spine, but I keep going because stopping feels worse.
Because the only thing scarier than this pain . . . is the idea of doing it without him.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
KADE
I answer my phone with a smile already on my face.
“How was the final shift?” I ask.
“Kade?”
My smile fades. “Mrs. Wainwright? Why do you have Eden’s phone?”
She chuckles softly. “I couldn’t work out how to use it. Aren’t the screens big these days? Nothing like my old Nokia. I don’t even have a touchscreen.”
