“Shelby called me,” he says.
Shit. I must be worse than I thought if she did that. “You did?”
“Believe me, not the call I wanted to make,” she says. “But you’re being hardheaded and not listening to me, so I had to bring in backup. As much as it pained me to do so.”
“And I’m glad she did,” he says, looking back to Shelby with… wait… is that a little bit of care in his eyes? Wait! Is this it? Is my child already performing miracles by getting these two to not hate each other? “How could you not drag her ass to the hospital? Clearly, she’s in pain.”
I thought the thought too soon…
Shelby immediately gets defensive. “I don’t know Beau. Maybe because I’m not about forcing people to do things against their will.”
“She’s in labor!”
“She’s not in labor. Believe me, that was the discussion about six hours and three coffees ago.”
“This has been going on all night?”
“Yes. It has. And I didn’t sleep at all making sure she was okay and the contractions didn’t speed up.”
“And you didn’t think to call me?”
“I’m sorry, what were you going to do? Nothing. It was the middle of the night. There was literally no sense in calling you.”
“You don’t think I’d want to know? Classic Shelby. Her way or no way and God forbid you lean on someone for help.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t call Beau to save the day. In a situation he couldn’t do anything for.”
“Stop!” I scream, and good timing too because a minor contraction hit at the same time. “Y’all, I love you both, but I really need you two to cool down the ‘Beau and Shelby Hate Each Other Show’ today. I just… I can’t.”
The two share a look and then give each other slight nods. It’s not saying I’m sorry, but it’s silence, and I’ll take it.
“What can I do?” Beau asks, kneeling on the floor next to me. “And can the answer be to take you to the hospital?”
“No, I’m…” I swallow a hiss, and whatever I was about to say next, as another very minor, nothing to worry about, contraction hits me.
“Those were two pretty close together,” Shelby says.
“I thought I hid the last one.”
“You didn’t. Now can we go to the hospital?”
“I’m going to say something I never thought I would, but I agree with Shelby.”
She starts to reply—likely of the smartass variety—but Beau puts up his hand. “Just let me agree with you and maybe she’ll go.”
She swallows her words and gives him a glare, before sitting down on the bed next to me. “Please Gabi. Let’s go. Sure, they could send you home. I know that’s a possibility. But let’s have that peace of mind?”
“Fine,” I grumble as I let both Shelby and Beau help me to a sitting position. “But please, don’t tell Maddox yet.”
“Maddox doesn’t know!” Beau yells. “How could you not tell him?”
“Because I didn’t want him to worry, and he’s two hours behind us,” I defend. “I wanted him to get sleep for the game and to not worry about me when there’s nothing to worry about.”
“But he’s awake now and probably hasn’t gone to the stadium yet. This is the time to pull him away before his game begins.”
I think about it for a second, remembering his face and how upset he was during our fight about him traveling around the time of the birth.
“I know that, but when it’s a false alarm—because it’s going to be—then he’s distracted. He’s going to have a horrible game and it’s going to be my fault.”
