Cash hurried to the left side of the armchair, a wet rag to wipe the sweat from my brow hanging over his arm, while Bad remained holding my hand on my right. “Shit. You think it’s time, Dad?”
Bad’s hazel gaze held a laser-sharp focus. “Only one way to find out.”
Cash frowned, tilting his head to the side for a moment until realization finally dawned on him. His mouth dropped open before snapping shut. His Adam’s apple bobbed once as his pleading stare flicked from me to his dad. “I…I can’t,” he stammered out.
“Someone’s gotta check how dilated she is. You ain’t got your hand in a vice-grip right now. You do it.”
Cash looked at me, and I almost—almost—laughed. I’d never seen Cash Mooney embarrassed or bashful since meeting him. Didn’t even know it was possible.
Another contraction swept through me. Another relentless wave of blinding, white-hot pain and pressure.Shit.
“Cash, you’ve made a fuckin’ art of lookin’ at pussy. Don’t tell me you can’t do it now,” I growled out.
Bad snorted at my side, and despite the pain, the barest hint of a smirk tugged on my lips. Cash’s shocked, mortified expression was just too good to behold.
He gulped, chewing his lip for a minute. “It ain’t the same,” he pleaded.
“If you ain’t gonna help, then get out,” I snapped, another swell of pressure pummeling into me. “Fu—” My head fell back as I slammed my eyes closed and tried to just breathe through it all. Tears slipped down my cheeks.
“I’ll do it.” Cash’s words were genuine, soft, and earnest. Not a shred of the cocky cowboy I’d come to know.
My eyes shot open, gaze snapping to his.
He nodded, saying the words again. “I’ll do it.” Then, nodding and repeating himself over and over, as if it had become a mantra, he knelt before the armchair. “Okay, just um…just lean back. You sure you’re okay with this?”
If another pulse of blinding pain didn’t ripple through me just then, I’d have offered him some sort of form of encouragement, but the pained groan that came out of my mouth was the best I could do as I fisted the hem of the silky nightdress Aunt Violet had gotten me, bunching it up towards my stomach. Cash’s gaze left mine for but a moment, but the way it snapped up to me only a blink later, complete astonishment and a trickle of fear shining in his green-gold gaze told me everything I needed to know.
“Holy. Fuckin’. Shit.” His voice boomed over the storm. “Well, I ain’t no doctor, but I’d say start fuckin’ pushin’.”
I thought the contractions were bad, but the fear and panic that bubbled to life in my chest and pumped through my veins with each labored breath I took was worse. Far worse. I couldn’t do this. I just… I couldn’t.
Not without Maverick here.
My breathing—or whatever you could call the shallow gasps I managed to suck down my throat—hitched, making my lungs burn at the realization I was going to be doing this without him.
My body trembled, and I couldn’t stop shaking my head back and forth.
No. No. No. No.
“No. I can’t! I can’t do it!” I was up and out of the seat quicker than should have been possible, all but shoving Cash out of the way as I moved to brush past him—a bad idea as the pressure weighing down on me, urging me to push, brought me down to my hands and knees.
“Holy shit! Chey!” Cash’s shout sounded far away as the worst contraction yet tore its way through me, forcing my entire body to shake.
The pressure was too much. Too unbearable. I sucked in sharp, shallow breaths, my gaze trained on the floor as I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood. Anything to take away from the overwhelming pain and pressure building, building, building.
I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t do this. Icouldn’t—
Cash’s face materialized before me, his hands cupping my cheeks. “Breathe, Chey. You got this.”
“I can’t, Cash. I—”
“Damn it, Chey. You can.”
I shook my head, tears leaking down my cheeks and blurring my vision. “I can’t. Not without Mav.”
“You can and you will. I ain’t Mav, but I’m here. Now I need you to buck up and push.”
An ember of anger sparked in me at his words. Buck up? I’d like to see him do this. Push a fucking baby out with no medication. No doctor. Just a couple cowboys whose only birthing experience was with fucking livestock.
