by Freya Barker
“Honey, before your next contraction, I’m just going to quickly check you, is that okay? I have a feeling things are moving fast.”
“Jesus! We should be in the hospital.”
I give my brother a sharp look. “Would you like to stay?” I ask him with my eyebrow raised.
“Fuck yes.”
“Excellent, then since your wife is cool as a cucumber, and perfectly relaxed, I suggest you take your cues from her.” I get a sharp nod and an irritated look in response. Whatever. “Kerry, can you put your heels together, pull them as close as you can to your bum, and drop your knees to the side? Yes, just like that.”
It takes me two seconds to confirm what I suspected. There’s no way we’ll be able to get her in a car and to the hospital.
I wait for the next contraction to pass before I address Kerry. “From what I could feel, you barely have any cervix left, but your bag of water is bulging ahead of the baby’s head. Now you can stay in the tub if you really want, but it’s a little difficult to move around you, so I think if there’s any way you can, I’d much prefer you in bed or on the floor.”
“If I can get her to come out of the tub, we’re going straight to the hospital,” Damian states.
“And then your wife is likely to have her baby on the side of the road. Is that what you want?”
“I’ll try the bed.” Kerry’s eyes are closed but her hand searches for my brother’s, and I get a little choked up when she whispers, “It’ll be okay, Bella knows what to do.”
“Can you toss me that towel?” I point at the towel hanging behind Damian, and drape it over Kerry, so at least she’s half decent. “Did you put the old shower curtain under the sheet like I suggested last week?”
“It’s still sitting on the dresser.”
I turn to Jasper, who is back in the doorway, giving me a little nod before disappearing again. Apparently he doesn’t need many words either.
“As soon as Jas is back and this contraction is done, the two of you are going to have to help her out of the tub.” Catching on, my brother just nods affirmatively.
Jasper
I quickly toss the pillows on the floor, pull the comforter off the bed, and slip the plastic between the mattress and the fitted sheet. It takes no more than a minute before I’m back in the doorway.
“Jas?”
I quickly move past Bella and help Damian get his wife to her feet. With Kerry mostly held up between us, we barely get her out of the tub, before she threatens to go to her knees with another contraction.
“Her water just broke,” Bella says, but I think Kerry is beyond hearing.
Between us, we manage to get her in bed, and I’m about to slip out of the room, when Bella calls me back.
“I need all the clean towels and sheets you can find. Linen closet is the narrow door next to the bathroom.”
“Is there anything you want me to boil?” I ask when I hand over a stack of linens. Bella actually chuckles at that.
“No thanks. Anything else I need I have in my bag. But I think you can get a stiff drink ready for Damian, he’s gonna need it. And before you come back up, could you unlock the door so the EMTs can get in?”
I love that she blindly trusts I understood her earlier message and followed through. No words necessary.
Instead of just pouring Damian a drink, I grab three tumblers and the bottle. I have a feeling we could all use one after.
I open the door a crack and head back upstairs, where I sit down on the floor in the hallway and listen to Bella’s calm and confident voice guide Kerry.
Barely twenty minutes after Damian first called her upstairs, I hear the first tentative cries of a newborn, and I take a head start and pour myself a stiff one to celebrate.
“MA? CONGRATULATIONS.”
Damian hasn’t stopped grinning.
The EMTs arrived about ten minutes too late. They came in, offered to take mother and child to Mercy for aftercare, but Kerry adamantly refused. So instead, they stayed to look the baby over and make sure Kerry was all right, before heading back to Durango with an empty rig.
We’re all sitting around the bed, Kerry is nursing the little one, and the three of us are nursing a scotch, when Damian calls his family on speakerphone.
“What? Already? Is it a girl? Like I said?”
“It’s a boy,” Bella says, smiling at her brother.
“It’s a boy!” we hear her muffled yell, presumably to Ignacio, before she gets on the phone again. “What time are visiting hours over?”
“We’re not in the hospital, Ma. Kerry delivered at home,” Damian says, looking at his wife with pride.
“What? What do you mean she delivered at home?”
“Things went so fast. We were lucky Bella happened to be here.” Now it’s my turn to look proudly at my wife-to-be, as I put my arm around her and she snuggles into my side.
“Bella?”
“You should’ve seen her, Ma. She was an absolute rock. I don’t know what we would’ve done without her.”
At his heartfelt words, I feel Bella turn to hide her face in my chest.
“BEST WEEKEND EVER.”
“You can say that again,” I tell her, my face buried in her hair.
I tighten my arm around her, and pull her even closer to my front, as her fingers play through the hair on my arm.
“Dante Ignacio Gomez. Did you see Papa’s face when they told him?”
“Sure did,” I mumble.
I almost had to drag her away from Kerry and baby Dante. Her parents showed up just two and half hours after Damian called them with the news, and after another hour or two of celebrating both Dante’s birth and our engagement, she finally conceded. Unfortunately, she is clearly too wired to sleep. Not even the orgasm I gave her tired her out. We’ve been in bed for near two hours already and clearly her mind hasn’t topped spinning yet.
“Jas?”
“Mmmm.”
“Did today scare you?”
“No. Why do you say that?”
“I was just wondering. With Damian freaking out at first, I thought maybe you’d think twice about having kids.”
“Is that what you’ve been mulling over?”
“Maybe.”
I press my lips to the soft skin behind her ear.
“I can’t think of anything better than to have babies with you. I’ve only ever dreamed of a family of my own.”
For a minute, I think perhaps she’s finally fallen asleep, but then she turns with tears in her eyes but a cheeky smile on her lips.
“Wanna start now?”
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THIS TIME I WANT TO start with the blogging community. If ever there was an underappreciated breed of people, bloggers would be it. These women (and men) who give tirelessly of their time, without any compensation for the hours they put in promoting the work of others, are often forgotten, and the reality is, we wouldn’t get our books seen if it wasn’t for their continued efforts. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for sharing, promoting, reading and reviewing my books.
My Barks & Bites group of friends always look out for me. They have one thing in common: love for my books. There are no words to thank them enough.
Deb, Debbie, Pam, Sam and Nancy: thank you so much for picking apart my manuscript. You are imperative in making Cabin 12 the best it can be.
Two women who have become indispensable to me are my fabulous editor, Karen Hrdlicka, and my amazing proofreader, Joanne Thompson, who are much, much more than those titles suggest. They are co-plotters, critique partners, mood stabilizers, voices of reason, cheering squad, and most importantly they are my friends, and I truly would not know what to do without them.
My agent, Stephanie Phillips of SBR Media, should actually be added to that list above. In our daily talks she listens to my rants and insecurities, before smoothing my feathers or boosting my confidence. Stephanie is my guru and I’m blessed she was willing to take me under her wing.
A
new addition to my team in recent months is Buoni Amici Press, or Debra and Drue—the double Ds as I call them. In the short time we’ve worked together they have taught me so much about marketing and advertising, and I have no trouble putting myself in their more than capable hands.
I also want to thank Ena and Amanda of Enticing Journey for their incredible professionalism and their ongoing support in promoting my stories. You guys are amazing.
Last but certainly not least my readers—thank you for the kind words of appreciation, the warm hugs of friendship, and the fabulous shows of support. Without you there would be no point.
Love you all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FREYA BARKER INSPIRES with her stories about 'real’ people, perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills, and some hot, sizzling sex in their lives.
Recipient of the RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for best first book, “Slim To None,” Freya has hit the ground running. She loves nothing more than to meet and mingle with her readers, whether it be online or in person at one of the signings she attends.
Freya spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!
Freya
https://www.freyabarker.com
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or mailto:[email protected]
ALSO BY FREYA BARKER
CEDAR TREE SERIES:
SLIM TO NONE
HUNDRED TO ONE
AGAINST ME
CLEAN LINES
UPPER HAND
LIKE ARROWS
HEAD START
PORTLAND, ME, NOVELS:
FROM DUST
CRUEL WATER
THROUGH FIRE
STILL AIR
SNAPSHOT SERIES:
SHUTTER SPEED
FREEZE FRAME
IDEAL IMAGE
PICTURE PERFECT (coming soon!)
NORTHERN LIGHTS COLLECTION:
A CHANGE IN TIDE
A CHANGE OF VIEW
A CHANGE OF PACE
ROCK POINT SERIES:
KEEPING 6
CABIN 12
