We get married the morning of the Raspberry Jamboree in August. A private exchange of vows on the ranch.
But we turn the barn dance into an impromptu reception the whole town is invited to, and it’s the best night of my entire life—until it’s trumped by the night that Hope’s water breaks, four months later.
Chapter 40
Hope
December
The first contraction hits in my sleep, sharp and low. The second happens while I’m sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to decide if I should wake Zane up.
By the time the third has me in its grip, he’s awake and kneeling in front of me, trying to put pants on me because I’ve been sleeping in his rodeo t-shirt and nothing else.
I keep shaking my head.
“I know, City Girl, but it’s fucking cold outside and I don’t want you to get frostbite on the way to meet our baby.”
I love the way he says that. I need him to keep saying it, because?—
I lurch forward as my water breaks, a startling pop that soaks the edge of the mattress and my legs. I think Zane gets hit, too.
“No…” I whisper.
“It’s okay.” He kisses my forehead.
“Zane.” I clutch at his shirt. “No. Time.”
He goes still for a second, searching my face in the dim light of our quiet bedroom.
And then he explodes into motion. “Stay here.”
Like I’m going anywhere.
I roll onto the bed on all fours, pressing my face into my pillow as I try to breathe and get ready for the next contraction.
This baby is so low, suddenly, it feels like he’s going to tear himself free of my body any second, and all I can do is bear down and feel it happen.
When Zane comes back, Luna is with him. I don’t look up, but I can hear her voice, a low murmur.
Zane has towels from the bathroom, and he works one between my legs, then his hand lands firmly on my lower back, right where I’ve liked him to rub in the last few weeks.
“My mom is calling for help,” he murmurs. “You want to do this here?”
Want to? No. I wanted to make it to a hospital this time. I wanted an epidural and monitoring and all the good things Dr. Tailfeathers promised me.
But this is nothing like my labour with Bellamy. And what I want is out the window.
“I need the bathroom,” I manage to gasp.
With a towel between my legs, Luna and Zane help me get next door.
And that’s where two of Dragonfly Creek’s paramedics find me fifteen minutes later, as our baby is crowning and Zane is preparing to catch him.
“You look like you’ve got this under control, Dad,” one of them says. “But we’re here to check on your baby as soon as they slide into this world.”
With a yell, I push again, because there’s noslidinghappening here, only a very undignified eruption from my body.
But the look on Zane’s face when they call himDadmakes up for all of it, topped only by the next moment, as he cradles our baby in his hands and gazes down with an expression of such gentle wonder, my body immediately forgets the chaos of the last thirty minutes.
