“That was fast,” I told her, standing from the stool I’d been sitting on and walking to the front of the garage.
She smiled at me and I saw the fatigue in her pretty gray eyes. “I’m going to go lay down for a nap.”
“That sounds great. I could use one too.”
She stopped and stared at me. “You never nap.”
“Eh, I could use one today.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you actually going to nap?”
“What else would I be doing?” I asked, cleaning my hands off with a rag.
“Staring at me while I sleep.”
She was pretty close. I was only going with her because I was worried about her. She looked exhausted. Not that I was going to tell her that. “I’ll be out before you,” I told her.
“Uh huh. We’ll see about that.”
I took her hand and led her upstairs. Stripping down to my boxer briefs, I climbed into bed and curled my body around hers. Thoughts of what I’d be missing out on if I’d never met her filled my mind as I listened to her breathing even out. Being here with her was exactly what I wanted. She would be my choice, always. This life wouldn’t be shit without her and I was going to do everything in my power to keep her safe.
* * *
Grunting,I jerked awake. Devyn wasn’t in bed and there were shadows starting to creep over the floor as the sun went down. “How long did I fucking sleep?” I muttered. I stared blearily at my watch. “Fuck me.”
This was why I didn’t nap. I woke up not knowing what fucking century it was. I hated that groggy feeling I woke up with and usually avoided it like the plague.
Pulling on a pair of sweat pants, I made my way downstairs. “You shouldn’t have let me sleep that long,” I called out. The light was on in the kitchen so I headed that way. The playful words I was about to use to tease my old lady died in my throat as I took in the look on her face. “What’s wrong?”
She sighed, worry and fear heavy on her face. “It just keeps going up.”
I looked at the blood pressure monitor readout. One sixty-three over one hundred and three.Shit.“Have you taken your meds?”
She nodded. “It was higher earlier, so I took a dose like Dr. Natalie told me to.”
“How long has it been?”
“An hour.”
“Okay. Go pack a bag, just in case. I’m going to call the OB office to see what they want us to do.”
She nodded and went upstairs. I punched in the number to the office and waited as it took us to the after-hours services. I could call Natalie directly, but she had other doctors at her practice and I didn’t want to pull her from a day off if one of them could handle this. No one could work twenty-four seven.
When the operator answered, I explained what was happening.
“Okay. I’ll give the on call physician a head’s up and they’ll give you a call back,” the operator told me. Her voice was soft and kind. She was probably used to keyed up fathers calling on behalf of their spouses. But either way, her voice seemed to get me grounded.
I was worried, but I couldn’t let Devyn see that. I didn’t want her to worry about me when she just needed to focus on herself.
That was a woman thing, and definitely a mom thing. She could be in the middle of a stroke, but if she saw that you were worried then she would want to stop everything to make sure thatyouwere okay.
My phone rang and I sighed with relief when it was Dr. Natalie. Apparently she was on call for deliveries that night, or so she said. The relief flew right out the fucking window as I explained about Dev’s blood pressure and she told me to bring her to the hospital.
It didn’t take Dev long to come downstairs with a bag.
“What did she say?” she asked.
“She wants us to go to labor and delivery,” I told her.
