“Ouch!”
“Are you all right?” Lani hurried to her side. Annabelle gripped and squeezed her hand hard enough so that in seconds the blood had left Lani’s fingers.
“Damn, I wanted it to be tomorrow, after Rose’s birthday. It’ll complicate things if I have this baby today.” Her face was pinched, and through the bravado, Lani saw fear.
“Are you going into labor, Annabelle?”
“Yessss.”
“Okay, I’ll get help.”
“Ethan’s going to be worse than me,” Annabelle gritted out. “He’s squeamish. Shit, I’m getting another contraction. It’s too quick.”
Her hand was gripped tighter, and Lani felt helpless in the face of the woman’s pain. Yes, it was natural, and yes, she’d seen it before, but still, it was difficult to watch.
“You need to let go of my hand now, Annabelle.”
“Okay.”
Lani eased her fingers out of the grip and ran outside. She’d met Dr. McBride senior earlier so it was to her she headed.
“Annabelle’s by the bathroom, and I think she’s going into labor.”
The woman calmly put down her glass. “Go and get Ethan now, Lani, and I’ll go to Annabelle.”
“Okay.” Jumping off the step, she ran to where Ethan stood with his friends. “You need to come now. I think Annabelle is in labor.”
“What? God, really?” Color leached from his face.
Lani grabbed his hand and started running back into the house.
“Belle!” Ethan roared.
“She’s all right,” Dr. McBride said calmly when they reached the two women. “Just starting labor.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty good at detecting these things.”
“Right.”
“Well now, Annabelle, is it party time?”
Annabelle moaned around another contraction as Jake arrived. She grabbed Ethan’s hand, then snagged Lani’s before she could escape.
“You want to yell or bite, Annabelle, you do that to the man you married,” Jake said. “Not the doctors, okay?”
“Got it.”
“Okay, so we need to make it to the bedroom, as I’m sure you don’t want to have this baby in my hallway,” Jake added.
“She’s having it now?” If possible, more color left Ethan’s face.
“Not sure till we’ve checked her over, bud.” Jake gripped his friend’s shoulder.
They moved slowly, with Lani still holding Annabelle’s hand. She’d leave as soon as they were settled in the room.
“Pull back the covers, Lani,” Jake said. “Then go and tell Branna what’s happening and get some clean linen from her.”
