by Chloe Walsh
"I know that, but I still feel horrible about the way I was." And the things I reacted…
"Baby, you're almost nine months pregnant and that bitch was goading you." Nate pulled me closer. "I think you're entitled to at least one hormonal melt down."
"Yeah, okay." I grinned sheepishly. "At least I made it a big one…ouch!" I rubbed my stomach and exhaled a deep breath, breathing through the pain. "Damn."
"What?" Immediately, Nate was in panic mode. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I whispered, breathing through the twinging pain. "Just Braxton hicks again."
He looked at me with a doubtful expression. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," I replied when the pressure eased. "Don’t worry."
"I have to go to Trey's straight after practice today." He looked almost guilty as he spoke. "He's backed up at the garage and offered me some overtime. But if you're in pain…"
"Nathan, I'm fine." I smiled brightly, forcing myself to hide my disappointment. I didn’t want him working overtime again tonight, but I also didn’t want to cause another argument. "I can catch a ride home with Ivy."
Nate frowned again. "Are you sure?"
No, I'm not sure... "Positive."
****
I ENDED UP WALKING THE whole way home from school. Ivy had already left by the time I got out to the parking lot, and not wanting to make a scene for Nate during practice, I decided to walk off these cramps.
It was painfully warm outside, and by the time I reached our trailer, I was aching from head to toe and coated in an unattractive layer of sweat.
Trudging up the steps to the door, I reached into my pocket for my key and almost cried out loud when I came up empty.
"Dammit!"
Tears prickled my eyes in utter disappointment. I'd been walking for almost an hour and I badly needed to use the bathroom.
Distraught and desperate to relieve myself, I trudged down the steps once more and waddled off in the direction of Becky Cole's trailer.
Asking Nate's mother if I could use her bathroom wasn’t exactly appealing to me, but I was two minutes away from peeing my pants.
"Feel the burn, Andi," I muttered to myself as heat radiated through my core. "The burn is good." I had no idea why I was repeating this mantra over and over, but it was distracting me from the god-awful pressure in my bottom right now, so I continued to chant. "Keep on burning… Burn, baby, burn…"
When I reached her trailer, I had to crawl up the steps on my hands and knees, the pressure almost too much to bear.
Desperate to get my pants off and relieve myself, I didn’t bother to knock. The pressure in my private area was crippling me, and I was beginning to panic. Something didn’t feel right.
By the grace of the good lord, her door was unlocked and I hobbled down the narrow hallway to the tiny cubbyhole bathroom.
"Ms. Cole?" I called out desperately. "Ms. Cole?"
She wasn’t home…
Once inside the bathroom, I threw my bag on the floor and scrambled towards the bowl, ripping at my shorts in the process.
"Oh god."
Dropping to the floor, I panted breathlessly as I kicked my shorts and panties off.
"Oh lord."
The sight of the blood on my underwear caused my heartrate to spike and my vision blur.
"Oh no…" A stabbing pain attacked me once more and I hunched over in agony.
Seconds later, a gush of strange scented water poured out of me.
My waters.
Oh god, my water had broken.
"Aghhhh!" I screamed as I hunched on all fours and cried out in agony. "Aghhhh!" The urge to push was overwhelming me. It was all I could think about. Getting rid of this pain.
Screaming in agony, I pushed as hard as I could. "Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Aghhhh!" The burning sensation in my vagina almost paralyzed me then and I screamed out in a mixture of pain and terror. "Oh god…help me!"
Bearing down, I pushed through another unbearable pain until the sound of something landing on the bathroom floor startled me.
Seconds later the sound of a baby crying filled the tiny room.
Gasping for air and shaking violently, I forced myself to turn around and look.
Fear rocketed through me the moment I laid eyes on the tiny baby covered in blood, shaking and screaming on the bathroom floor.
"Oh my god," I sobbed as I crawled over to where the baby was laying. "Oh my god."
With trembling hands, I reached down and picked the baby up.
A boy.
I was right.
He was a boy!
Tears were pouring down my cheeks, and I honestly couldn’t feel my legs as I sat on the bathroom floor with my baby in my arms. "Hi," I whispered, bawling my eyes out. "I'm your momma."
He looked up at me and screamed his lungs out.
"You're a loud one, aren’t you?" I sobbed as I reached for my shorts and wrapped him up real tight. "You're loud like your uncle Jackson. Yes, you are."
The wetness trickling down my legs was causing the panic inside of me to rise once more, and I also knew the cord still attaching my son to my body needed to be cut real quick after being born to prevent infection.
Shuffling lightheadedly towards my bag, I reached inside and grabbed my cell phone before quickly dialing 911.
"Hello, what's your emergency?" a male voice asked.
"I've just had my baby on the bathroom floor," I choked out, feeling lightheaded and dizzy. "He seems fine, and he's full term, but I'm still bleeding some and the cords not cut."
"Okay, ma'am, can you tell us your location and I'll have someone out to you real fast."
Leaning against the wall for support, I rolled off Becky's address. "I'm ah…" I shook my head and tried to clear my vision. "I'm feeling real lightheaded, sir." My body was shaking worse now. "I'm 'a… I think I need my insulin…" My words were slurring too. I was seeing two babies now… "Am I gonna die?"
"No, ma'am, you're not going to die," he reassured me. "Just stay on the line with me. Keep talking to me…"
"I can't feel my body," I croaked out, sagging against the wall. "I'm…numb." I swallowed deeply. "And thirsty…lord, I'm so thirsty."
"Hold on ma'am," the operator told me. "They're only a minute away."
"I can hear them," I whispered as the sound of sirens in the distance filled my ears. "You're gonna be okay," I whispered to my baby. "Everything's gonna be okay now." I pressed a kiss to his tiny forehead. And then I closed my eyes and allowed the darkness to consume me.
****
Nate
THE CALL CAME WHEN I was midway through winding back old man Peterson's timing belt.
It came in the form of paramedic telling me my wife had given birth to a healthy baby boy and was on the way to the hospital.
I couldn’t remember what happened to that timing belt, or what I'd done with the tools in my hands at the time.
I could only remember running faster than I'd ever moved in my life to my truck and committing dozens of driving violations in my bid to get to her.
When I reached the maternity ward, I was still wearing my overalls from work and had a nervous fucking tick of some sort that was making my legs shake like crazy.
"Andi Cole," I practically shouted when I reached the nurses station. "She's my wife. She's had a baby. A boy. I think?" I couldn’t stop fucking shaking. "She's diabetic. I need to see her." I exhaled a ragged breath. "I need to see her right now."
The nurse smirked from her perch behind the computer desk. "Room 3B. Just down the hall."
I nodded and sagged in momentary relief before shoving off the desk in my pursuit for room 3B. "Thank you."
When I reached the door with 3B on it, I didn’t even bother to knock. I just threw it open and barged inside.
My heart stopped in my chest the moment my eyes landed on Andi curled up on a bed with a tiny baby suckling at her breast.
"Andi baby," I choked the words out as the biggest wave of relief I'd ever
felt rolled through me.
She was okay…
She was here…
She was safe…
"I did it, Nate," Andi said proudly, looking up at me with more love than I was sure I deserved. Her tiny face was deathly pale and she was hooked up to an IV. "Meet your son; Nathan Junior."
"Boy, you better change those clothes before you even think of holding that baby," a nurse I hadn't even realized was in the room announced.
Ignoring the nurse, I walked straight to my wife. "You are amazing." Tears filled my eyes as I bent down and kissed her fiercely. "Christ, I love you so much." I couldn’t take my eyes off her face. "Did you do this all by yourself?"
She nodded proudly. "Isn't he perfect?"
I couldn’t say. I was too busy staring at his momma in complete awe.
Reluctantly, I tore my gaze from her and looked down at the baby on her chest. The minute my eyes landed on his blonde head, my heart constricted in my chest.
He was so tiny.
Shaking, I reached out a hand and stroked his cheek.
Fuck me.
I made this baby.
He was half me…
"Hey, little guy," I whispered, heart hammering in my chest. Christ, his skin was so soft. "How's it going?" Unable to stop myself, I reached for his hand.
Without an ounce of hesitation, he wrapped his tiny hand around my finger and I was done.
Just like that.
I was in love.
"You're his daddy, Nathan Cole," Andi whispered softly. "And he loves you almost as much as his momma does."
Well shit…
"Thank you," I whispered, not knowing what else to say, and yet knowing nothing I said would ever be enough. I could live a hundred lives and never find the words to express how much I loved this girl.
"You saved my life when you walked into it all those years ago, and every day since," she whispered with a tear in her eye. "Figured I owed you something."
I chuckled. "He's one hell of a something, little spoon."
****
Epilogue
Eight Years Later
Andi
Boulder, Colorado
Contentment wasn’t something I had ever known much about growing up in a town as tight knitted and narrow minded as Springhill.
Putting up with the challenges life threw at me and being content with life were two entirely different feelings.
I had put up with a lot while living in my parent's house, but I had never once felt contentment. Suffocating and withering inside was how I had spent the majority of my childhood feeling. Being strong wasn’t my forte and being outspoken could cost me my freedom.
I was a ghost.
Just a ghost.
Like a bird in a cage, I had complied. I had lived the life of a caged animal, taking the scraps I was given, and never daring to push for more.
Until him.
Until Nathan Cole…
"CALLIE, YOU HUNGRY YET? Dinner's just about ready."
"I'll be down in ten minutes," she sang out from somewhere upstairs. "I'm just rinsing the conditioner out of my hair."
"Well you better hurry on down if you don’t want your uncle to eat everything up," I told her. "I made your favorite; pecan pie."
Callie was spending the summer with us before starting CU in the fall and I had quickly learned that she loved homemade southern cooking almost as much as we did.
"Tell your husband that if he touches any of my pie, I'll pitch a fit!"
"Did you get all that?" I teased when I returned to the kitchen and realized that Nate had already made his way through half of the pie.
"Tell her to pitch what she wants," he shot back with a smirk before shoving another forkful of pie into his mouth. "It's…oh…orth…it."
I smiled indulgingly at the man in front of me who was still dressed in his work scrubs. "Yeah, sure looks like it, Doctor Cole."
"Hey, don’t judge," Nate shot back with a wolfish grin.
Shoving his chair back, he stood up and prowled towards me like a man on a mission. "You know I have no control when it comes to your pie," he purred when he reached me. Wrapping one hand around me, he used the other to tip my chin upwards. "Fucking perfection."
"Nate!" My cheeks turned bright red.
"What?" Cocking his head to one side, he smiled down at me with a predatory looking gleam in his eyes. "Your pussy and your pie all taste the same to me."
"Ugh, that disgusting." Callie's voice came from behind me. "On second thought, Uncle Nate, you have the pie."
"You sure?" I asked, turning in Nate's arms to look at my sister. "There's plenty leftover."
"Uh-huh, certain," she shot back, looking queasy. "Besides, I have a date in a little while, so we'll probably go eat something then."
"Ah!" My eyes lit up in delight. "And how is the infamous Cash Carter?" I waggled my brows. "Has he popped that special question yet?"
"After three months?" my sister shot back. "Sorry to disappoint you, but not every girl is ready to jump into marriage with the first boy she dates." She waggled her brows. "And who knows? Maybe I like Casey a little, too."
I gaped. "Cash's twin brother?"
"What?" Callie shot back with a smirk. "I kinda like the whole good twin thing Casey's got going on."
"As opposed to Cash's evil twin persona?" I shook my head in confusion. "I honestly can't keep up with you, girl."
"Good. I like to surprise." Having said that, Callie grabbed her purse off the counter and waved us off. "Don’t wait up, you two," she hollered out as she flicked her long black hair over her shoulder and danced out of the kitchen.
"Don’t give me a reason to wait up," Nate called after her, but the sound of the front door slamming assured us that Callie Cole wasn’t listening.
"That girl's gonna be the cause of me going grey before I'm thirty," Nate muttered then. "She's got more of Jackson in her than you or me."
I still found it strange to talk about Callie being a part of all three of us. Kim had finally come clean to her last summer, which was why I suspected Callie's sudden interest in Colorado had more to do with getting away from her mother than spending time with us. But I kept those thoughts to myself. I was happy to have her here, whatever her reasons may be.
"You think Callie's bad?" I grinned up at him. "Wait until this one arrives." I patted my swollen belly and chuckled. "She could be a mixture of all of you."
"Well, shit. I'm in big trouble with you girls, aint I?" Nate looked at me with a boyish expression. "I better tell Uncle Jackson to bring Nate Jr. home early from their camping trip. I'm in need of some testosterone around this place."
"I love that," I whispered then, walking back into my husband's arms.
"You love what?"
"That sexy southern drawl." Inhaling the masculine scent of him, I pressed my cheek to his chest and sighed in contentment. "All these years away from home and you never lost it."
"You feeling okay, baby?" Nate asked when he noticed me flinch.
"Uh-huh." I smiled brightly up at his face. "Your girl here's got quite the kick."
His hand dropped to my stomach and he smirked. "Well, you tell her that her Daddy says stay put and keep on cooking." He stroked my bump tenderly. "And no arriving early like her big brother."
Like she heard her father mention her name, Grace screamed at the top of her lungs, the sound reverberating through the baby monitor attached to my hip.
"Da-Da… Da-Da!"
Nate winked at me and pressed a quick kiss to my brow before calling out, "Daddy's coming, baby girl."
"You've got that girl good and spoiled, Nathan Cole," I teased as I watched my husband rush for the staircase. "She has you wrapped around that little finger of hers."
"Ha," he called out. "Must've learned that little trick from her mamma."
I watched him until he was out of sight, grinning like a fool all the time.
"God blessed me when he sent me you, Nathan Cole," I whispered to myself, an
d even after all these years, I still felt like pinching myself.
Everyone had been certain we would fail; my parents and Jackson, Nate's mother and Kim. No one believed in us. In the love we had for each other and the life we vowed to spend together.
They had been wrong.
So very wrong.
Because after almost nine years of marriage, a lifetime of friendship, and three children together, I still pinched myself when I woke up beside Nathan Cole every morning, and he still called me his little spoon when we went to bed each night.
Moving to Boulder had been the changing day in our lives.
We made a new life here for ourselves.
And we built a family on the foundation of our love – and Teagan and Noah's house, that Nate finally agreed to accept. After I gave birth to Nate Jr., it was much easier to make him change his mind. Once his child was born, his pride slipped away.
Our journey hadn't been easy. It had been plagued with college exams and night feeds and silly arguments but we had made it. Together.
Looking back at the girl I used to be and looking at the woman I had become, I couldn’t have imagined my life turning out the way it had.
Becoming a mother. Loving so hard my heart felt as if it would burst from my chest. Becoming his wife…
All of the pain and all of the sacrifices. We were still together. I loved him more now than ever before and that love only seemed to blossom and grow with every day of our lives we shared together.
He was my childhood sweetheart.
He was my best friend.
He was my husband.
He was my partner in parenthood.
He was my lover.
He was my hero.
The End.
Playlist for Off the Hook
Music is one of the most important parts of my writing process.
I create playlists for each individual character and book.
Check out my Spotify where I make all my playlists for my stories:
