Ally shook her head. "No."
Nick blinked, stiffened.
"Just follow my lead if Mama asks anything." Basically cover for the fact that they hadn't had a marriage in eight months. She rubbed the ache in the center of her chest. She didn't know why thinking that caused her so much pain. But God, when would everything stop hurting?
In the end, they hadn't been enough for each other. There was no shame in that. But she still couldn't completely suppress her bitterness.
The waitress waddled toward their table, a plate in each hand. The scents of sausage, butter, and fried food wafted in the air. The waitress winced as she set down their food on the table.
"Can I get you—oh." The young girl's eyes widened and she snapped both hands to her back. "Oh, shit."
"Are you okay?" Nick and Ally stood at almost the exact same moment.
Tears welled, highlighting the deep brown of her eyes, and panic on her face.
"Brit?" David Wiseman was already across the diner and standing next to the shaking girl.
She dropped her head and cupped her hands around her enormous belly. "My water just broke."
Chapter Two
The burly cook was immobilized, as if sucked under by a wave of anxiety so intense he couldn't move. And Ally, Nick's soon to be ex-wife—shit, the agony of seeing her again nearly brought him to his knees—clearly needed a moment. He glanced helplessly at Ally, wanting to spare her the pain of seeing a woman in labor, but he couldn't.
"But you aren't due for another six weeks," the cook argued.
"You want to tell that to my babies?" she snapped.
Babies? Nick didn't waste time worrying about the fact that she had more than one in there. The surreal tableau sharpened into clear focus and he sprang into action. This he could do. He was good in a crisis. Give him an emergency and he'd solve the problem, organize the action, take care of everything.
Nick curved his arm around the waitress’s back and helped her sit in a chair one table over. "Call 911," he ordered the cook. "Ally, find some clean cloths so we can get Britney here wiped off."
While Ally hustled toward the kitchen and the cook was on the old rotary phone attached to the wall near the swinging door, Nick helped the girl prop her feet on another chair.
"Yes, it's an emergency!" The cook's voice rose as he gripped his hair in one tight fist.
Britney had tensed at the sheer panic of her boss's actions. Nick gently patted her shoulder and tried to distract her as the cook spoke into the receiver, pacing back and forth as he gesticulated wildly.
"Hey. How you doing?"
"Fine." She sniffled.
Oh God. Not tears. Ally bustled back to the girl and began to gingerly dab at her legs. "You said ‘babies’."
"I'm having twins."
"You're very lucky," Ally said softly, her voice full of longing.
Nick blanched. Dammit. Why this? Why now?
Britney laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. The bitter bark was unmistakable. Before she could say any more, Nick interrupted. The last thing Ally needed was someone to mock her greatest dream. Her only dream. The most important dream in her world. More important than him, than them.
"Can we call anyone?" The father, maybe?
Britney's bitter laugh turned into a sob. "No."
"But—"Ally started to speak.
Britney groaned and grabbed her stomach. Nick could actually see the contraction ripple across the tight knit of her shirt.
"Breathe, honey." Ally rubbed her back.
David stomped back to them. "It's going to be awhile."
"What?" Britney shot straight up.
"Apparently there was a multi-car wreck on I-80. Right now all the nearby ambulances are busy."
"No need to panic," Ally said calmly. "Babies take a long time to arrive."
"Let's just make you more comfortable while we wait." Nick smiled at Britney and infused his voice with calm confidence. Fake it 'til you make it. He'd been doing that for the last year. One more night wasn't going to matter.
Nick and Ally helped Britney to the large booth in the back of the diner. The curved quarter circle booth had a slightly different upholstery, re-covered when old man Woods fell asleep waiting for his food, dropped his cigarette and burned a hole too big to patch in the seat.
The cook paced around the diner. "Maybe I can get Daniel to come lend a hand."
Calling Daniel Hennessey, the local EMT, was a great idea. He was probably already working if all the ambulances were busy, but Nick figured David could knock himself out, and keep busy while they waited.
Ally smiled at Britney and said, "Great idea, David. Why don't you work on that?"
Britney's lips curved into a weak smile. But her smile turned into a grimace and another contraction undulated over her belly. She gripped Ally's hand tightly.
He could be wrong, but the contractions seemed awfully close together.
"Another one?" Ally asked.
Britney's entire body tensed, her face seized in a rictus of pain.
Ally commanded softly, "Breathe, honey."
David snatched up the phone and dialed another number. Nick ignored his increasingly frantic pacing and noted that the contraction seemed to be over.
Ally pulled Nick aside and murmured, "I think we'd better go scrub our hands and arms with the industrial kitchen soap."
He took a step back. She couldn't mean what he thought she meant. "What?"
"I read every pregnancy book on the market," she whispered fiercely. "Her contractions are really close together."
"But the ambulance—"
She shook her head. "There's a strong chance the ambulance isn't going to make it. We need to be as sterilized as possible."
"The girl is having twins. Two babies. Holy shit." Nick paused for a moment to let that thought sink in. Then he shoved everything else aside and concentrated on logistics.
"David, we need two boxes—preferably ones that held non-food items—scissors, and lots of clean towels," Nick directed the cook, who had hung up the phone and was looking at the device as if it were a rat in his kitchen.
"What?" His eyes were glazed as he shot a worried glance at the young waitress. "Daniel didn't answer."
Nick snapped his fingers. "Have you got a box of food prep gloves? We could use those too."
"What? Daniel didn't answer," David said again stupidly. "I think he went home for the holidays."
"We have to get ready." Nick repeated his needs to David slowly and David finally nodded. Once he was sure that David understood what he needed, Nick went to scrub his arms. Then, he sent Ally to scrub up. They were both as clean as they could be, and ready to deliver a baby, babies, in a diner. Holy shit.
Ally had cleaned the tabletop and set a stack of fresh towels on top. Disinfectant and a slightly sweet overlay of bleach scented the air. Britney was now sitting on the tabletop, legs hanging over the edge. Using a dampened cloth, Ally was swiping Britney's face gently.
Ally had helped Britney remove her socks and shoes and underwear. Good God, he hoped the ambulance made it here in time.
"You're doing great, honey." But Ally shot Nick a concerned glance.
"It's too early," Britney wailed.
"Life happens on its own timetable." Ally smiled but there was a bittersweet quality to the curve of her lips that broke Nick's heart all over again.
Sometimes he wondered how they had failed each other so spectacularly. And why they could never recover from the shit that life had thrown at them.
Nick glanced at the analog clock above the service window. It had only been about fifteen minutes since her water broke.
David came rushing back into the dining room from the storeroom. "I got everything you asked for."
"Let's line the boxes with some clean towels." Nick and David prepared the makeshift cradles while Ally continued to softly encourage Britney to breathe through her contractions.
He couldn't be sure, but he thought that they were
getting closer together.
"Oh my God." Britney gripped Ally's hand so tightly that both their fingers were snow white.
Ally continued a steady stream of reassuring words. Then she said to Nick, "I think we might need those gloves soon."
Britney moaned. "God I feel like I need to do something. I need to push." In that moment she seemed so young, so unprepared for what was going to happen next. When he'd been her age, he and Ally were young and in love and deliriously happy. On top of the world.
For years he'd never faltered, never hesitated, because he'd been invincible. They'd been invincible. It had taken an inconceivable heartbreak to make him finally realize that he couldn't conquer the world; the loss of his wife to make him realize that happily ever after never really existed.
But those thoughts faded as Ally calmly said, "Time to call 911 again, David."
Her pulse beat so hard in her throat that Nick could see the panic she was trying to hold in. Shit. Nick started sweating as he realized what her statement meant.
"What? Why? Why is no one where they need to be right now?" David's hair stood up on end and his eyes were wild.
Ally said, "We need the emergency responder to talk us through delivering these babies."
Chapter Three
David got the 911 operator back on the phone and stretched the cord as far as he could until he was about ten feet away from where Britney lay on the banquette. Ally could hear the squawk of the responder as she calmly started issuing directions.
"Done and done," David replied. Then he told Ally, "Put a clean towel underneath her."
Ally placed the towel on the table while Nick helped Britney lift her hips so they could slide the protection underneath her.
Ally didn't have time to think about what was happening. To think about how she'd been dropped into her greatest fantasy and her greatest tragedy, in living technicolor, with her estranged husband by her side.
She'd dreamt of delivering their baby. She'd toured the hospital with the fancy birthing suites, and gone window shopping for safe cribs and trendy maternity clothes. She'd been bursting with her desire to have a baby. She'd spent months imagining the sheer joy she and Nick would feel when they added to their circle of love. It had sounded sappy even to her but that was how she felt.
But there had been no luxurious surroundings or state-of-the-art monitors, no morning sickness or growing baby bump. Instead, her dreams had died in the basement of the hospital in a sterile room devoid of any fancy decor, when their final attempt at conceiving ended in failure.
David yelled, "We need to take off her skirt."
Nick blanched.
Ally helped Britney remove her bottoms. They placed three chairs across from her exposed lower body. Ally propped a leg on each outside chair to hold Britney's legs apart and then sat gingerly in the middle chair in between her spread legs. Ally laid another towel over Britney's lap.
She prayed that there were no complications. The poor girl was swollen, and Ally could see that she was dilated and ready to start pushing the babies out.
"Gonna need help here, boys."
David turned around, took one look at his employee's spread legs and the head of the baby crowning, and promptly passed out.
He crashed to the floor with a boom, but amazingly didn't hit anything on the way down.
Nick jumped up to check on him. He picked up the phone and started talking into the mouthpiece, relating David's condition to the operator, "I think he's fine."
"What happened?" Britney couldn't see over the mound of her stomach and Ally wanted to keep it that way.
"Just a little mishap." She made sure the scissors were in easy reach and then focused on getting ready to deliver a baby when he or she made an appearance. "You concentrate on those babies."
Nick's calm voice carried to Ally as he serenely propped David's feet up and all the while continued to give Ally and Britney directions from the 911 operator.
"Okay, honey, breathe."
Britney hee-hee-hee'd through the pain while Ally rubbed her belly and breathed with her.
"Oh my gosh." The baby was coming. She could see a mop of dark thick hair covered in goop and blood—thank God, David couldn't see this. If just the sight of Britney's girl parts had him fainting then this sight could have caused a heart attack—getting ready to burst out of Britney.
"How're you doing?" Nick murmured to Britney, as he clasped one of her hands in his. His gaze was riveted on the baby about to make an appearance.
"Hurts, hurts, hurts," she almost sobbed.
"But your reward is almost here," Ally said softly. She kept her hands beneath Britney's bottom so that she would be ready to catch the baby. In one final push, the baby's head popped right out of her. Nick had the turkey baster ready and was suctioning goop out of the baby's mouth, even as Ally continued to encourage Britney. "Come on, sweetie. Another push."
It seemed like all at once the entire baby slid out of her and let out a robust cry. "It's a boy." Nick's voice was awestruck. The baby was red-faced and covered with all the sticky goop that came out with him.
"Good God, his testicles—" They were bright purple and huge.
Britney tried to see over her still big tummy. "Is he okay?"
"He's beautiful," Ally whispered.
Nick shut up and coolly took the baby from Ally. With one quick shudder, he efficiently snipped the umbilical cord and tied a knot in the bloody cord.
The baby was unbelievably tiny in his hands. Ally was struck by his gentle reverence as he wiped the baby clean using the large metal mixing bowl full of warm water. Then he wrapped him in a clean towel.
"Ambulance should be here soon," David said quietly. He'd recovered from his dead faint, but still stayed cautiously on the other side of the diner.
Nick carefully placed the baby boy in the nest of cloths in an empty banana box.
But Ally's work wasn't done yet.
"We've got one more baby to deliver." She patted Britney's knee and held her breath. The premature boy seemed to be fine. He was making the sweetest little noises. But Ally couldn't focus on that right now. She needed to deliver baby number two.
Within a few minutes, another head was crowning. This time the baby's hair was wispy and blond.
"Here comes baby number two." An immense triumph rushed through Ally. "Go ahead and push, Britney."
She breathed through the contractions with Britney as the young waitress birthed her second baby. With one last push, the baby slid from Britney. "It's a girl!" Ally said softly.
Nick was right there again with the scissors and adeptly cut the cord, this time without the little flinch first. Then he cleaned the precious baby. Ally stayed with Britney as she delivered the afterbirth. Britney was crying softly as she stared at the baby in Nick's hands.
Reality hit Ally. She had wanted that, wanted that look of wonder and joy on Nick's face. She forced her gaze away from the miracle of two healthy babies and looked out the large plate glass window at Snow Creek's picture perfect Main Street.
Swags of holly boughs hung from old-fashioned street lamps. White twinkling lights and big red bows adorned the metal lamp posts. In Hansen's Toy Store window, spotlights illuminated a festive Christmas display. A miniature HO train chugged around a track that meandered through mountains and streams, past the replica of the town of Snow Creek from the Main Street Diner, to the Mitten Inn, to Caroline Bonny's store.
A dusting of snow glittered on the sidewalks and soft, wet flurries drifted down like the fake snow of an old snow globe. The scene was straight from a Currier and Ives postcard. The perfect ideal of Christmas.
She forced her attention back inside the tired diner with its faded attempt at festivity and worn linoleum. She was like the diner. Used-up, washed-out, perfectly-functional, but no longer beautiful.
Ally didn't want to touch the babies; it would hurt too much to hold those precious gifts in her arms and know she would never be a mother. She placed the baby girl into
Britney's hands and bustled around, efficiently taking care of the cleanup. As the adrenaline let-down began, a thick, hard knot formed in Ally's chest. She couldn't look at Nick holding the baby boy. Instead she dumped the debris from the birth of the twins into a trash bag.
Sirens echoed in the still quiet air. Ally swallowed the hot ball of jealousy and forced herself to look at Britney. The girl was holding her baby daughter, her face a mask of shock. The door to the diner burst open and the paramedics rushed in with a rolling stretcher for Mama and portable bassinets with oxygen hoods for the babies.
With brisk efficiency, they examined the babies and then placed them in the portable cradles and covered them with the oxygen hoods, then they loaded Britney onto the stretcher and strapped her in.
Britney looked back at Ally and Nick with a tear-drenched gaze and whispered, "Thank you."
"Is there...anyone we can call for you?" Ally forced the words through lips stiff with the effort to hold back her yearning.
But Britney merely pressed her mouth into a flat line and shook her head.
As the paramedics rushed her and the newborns out the door, Ally did the unthinkable. "Where are you taking her?"
The paramedic twisted around. "North Star Hospital."
Ally's gaze shied away from the babies and new mother. But Britney had no one.
"We'll come visit,” she resolutely promised.
Chapter Four
Nick couldn't keep the smile off of his face. They'd delivered a baby. Two! What an unbelievable rush.
He turned to Ally, but at the still, silent sorrow that surrounded her like a shroud, he halted. Her shoulders were so stiff she appeared ready to crumble like an improperly-shored building in an earthquake.
She held unnaturally motionless as she watched the paramedics load Britney and the babies into the ambulance. The expression in her eyes shattered him. And despite the fact that their divorce papers crinkled in his pocket, he curled his arm around her shoulders, worried at the bony evidence of how much weight she'd lost, and circled her around until her ear pressed up against his chest and her face nestled into the curve of his neck. Nick tried to protect her from any more hurt. Like the husband he used to be.
Love on Main Street: A Snow Creek Christmas Page 37
