She led everyone upstairs but skipped the dramatic opening of her bedroom door, just in case. To her relief, nobody was on it this time. “Check this out!” she said. She flipped the switch and turned on the disco ball. Everyone laughed.
“Looks very restful,” Julie said. She walked over to the bed. “This is quite a bed,” she said, looking up at the mirror. “Doesn’t it freak you out if you wake up and see yourself?”
“No,” Lori said. “I turn off the lights before I go to sleep. Including the disco ball.”
“I love this,” Molly said. “I think it’s hilarious. Like something out of one of your romance novels!” She sat heavily down on the edge of the bed.
“Oh,” Molly said. “Oh, no.”
“What’s the matter?” Lori said. “You don’t think my bed is comfy?”
“I think my water just broke,” Molly said quietly. Julie rushed over to her. “I think you’re right.”
“Let’s get you to the hospital,” David said.
“I’ll drive,” Jake said.
“I feel like we better hurry,” Molly said. “Oh!” Several people looked alarmed. “Should I call 911?” one of them asked.
“Don’t worry, everybody,” Julie said. “It’s not like in the movies. We’ve probably got hours.”
“I don’t think so,” Molly said. “I feel like yeah, you better call 911.” She groaned. “Like, right now.”
“Who has a phone on them?” Lori asked. But Julie was already calling, calmly giving out all the information. Lori asked everyone to please leave the room. David obediently moved toward the door.
“Not you!” Lori said. “You’re staying right here!”
“Oh, right,” he said. He held Molly’s hand. “You’re serious? You think you need an ambulance? I mean we’re pretty close to the hospital.” He looked like he was on the verge of panic.
Molly ignored him, moaning. Julie helped her move back away from the edge of the bed. Lori could see that her new bedspread wasn’t long for this world, and she was thankful she’d gone ahead and sprung for the expensive waterproof mattress pad. Molly’s mood had changed dramatically in the past minute. “This is happening,” she said, as another gush of water came out with a contraction. “Sorry about your bed, Lori.”
Lori raced to the bathroom, scooped up an armload of clean towels and placed them under and around Molly. Her training kicked in and she and Julie helped remove Molly’s underwear, Julie continuously offering little words of encouragement.
“I don’t think I should be in here,” Jake said.
“Stay! We might need some help,” Lori said. “And every nurse downstairs is wasted.”
Jake looked like he might be sick. “Sit in that chair,” Lori said, pointing to an armchair in the corner. “I want you here, just in case the paramedics need help carrying her down.”
Molly was breathing hard and moaning in between the contractions, which were less than a minute apart, Lori noted.
“Did you feel any contractions earlier?” Lori asked.
“Well, yeah. But I thought they were just Braxton-Hicks. Didn’t feel like much,” she said. “Oh, God! Are the paramedics here yet?”
“They’re on the way,” Julie said. “But we just called them. Just stay calm. Just relax.”
“We were supposed to get pictures!” Molly said. “I wanted pictures! You said you’d take pictures!” she said, accusingly, to Julie.
“It’s OK, honey, I’ll take some with my phone,” David quickly said.
Lori took another look. “I’m not going to check you internally,” she said. “It’s not my area of expertise. But it looks to me like this is happening right here. So just calm down and let it happen.”
She turned to Jake. “Actually, I think you better go downstairs and tell everyone what’s happening, and get ready to let the paramedics in. Tell everybody they don’t have to leave, please. In fact, tell them to keep their asses right here so they don’t fuck up traffic for the ambulance. Oh, and grab Tommy and tell him his mom is about to give birth! Make sure he hasn’t been drinking, and if he has, get somebody sober to get him to the hospital when the paramedics get here.”
Jake looked hugely relieved and made a beeline for the door. A minute later, Lori heard the music stop, but she didn’t have time to worry about anything but Molly right now.
“Oh God, oh God, I feel like I’ve gotta push!”
“Just let it happen,” Julie said. “If you have to push, go ahead. You’re doing great!”
Molly’s face turned red and she gave a push. Lori saw her perineum bulge.
“I can see your baby!” Lori said. “I see lots of dark hair! One more push, Molly! Go for it! David, get down here and get ready!” David looked petrified but he obeyed. He pulled out his phone with trembling fingers and began taking some pictures. Lori thought he’d be lucky if they weren’t all blurry — his hands were shaking badly.
“Fuck!” Molly screamed, and gave it her all. A squirmy little purple creature emerged, face down, and Lori prayed it would breathe — she didn’t have a bulb syringe or anything else if it didn’t. She saw that it was a boy but resisted making the announcement. She’d let David do that. She toweled the baby’s face and was hugely relieved to get a little cry out of him. He pinked up considerably as he took his first breaths.
“It’s a boy!” David choked out. He was crying. So was Molly. So was Lori, who let the tears fall freely as she continued toweling the baby.
“Let’s get him latched,” Julie said, helping Molly adjust her clothing out of the way. “It’ll help you pass the placenta.” Lori lifted the baby into Molly’s arms.
“Don’t we have to cut the cord?” David asked.
“We’ll leave that for the paramedics,” Julie said. “It’s actually good to wait a bit for that anyway. It’s still doing its job right now. See how it’s still pulsing? We want to wait until the baby gets all the blood he has coming to him.” She helped get the baby situated in Molly’s arms, and he stopped crying and latched on right away.
“He knows just how to do it,” David said, wonderingly.
“What’s his name?” Lori asked.
“His name is Henry,” Molly said. David leaned over and kissed his wife on the forehead. Lori recalled Henry had been the name of David’s grandfather, the one who had been murdered as a young man.
Then Molly made a little face. “Oh, Lord,” she said, and gave another push. Out came the placenta. Lori knew it was important to check to make sure all of it had come out. As far as she could tell, it had. The bleeding looked about right to her, though she wished it hadn’t been so long since she’d attended births as a nursing student. Still, she could see that Molly wasn’t hemorrhaging or anything. She looked at Julie, who went to births regularly, and shot her a questioning look. Julie nodded and Lori was relieved. All was well with Molly. The bedspread was certainly a total loss, though.
Just then the paramedics came into the room, and Lori and Julie stepped aside, answering their questions and letting them take Molly’s blood pressure. They cut the cord, helped Molly onto the gurney and covered her with fresh sheets. Lori wrapped the baby, who protested at having his first meal cut short, up in one of her pillowcases and placed him in David’s arms. He’d ride with Molly in the ambulance.
“Thank you,” he said quietly to Lori, and then to Julie. And then they were gone, leaving behind a very messy bed. As the paramedics carried out Molly and David carried out little Henry, Lori heard cheers from the party goers downstairs.
“You did great there,” Julie said. “You sure you don’t want to be a midwife?”
“You know, I think I might. That was pretty amazing.”
“You have blood and stuff all over you,” Julie said. “You might want to change before you go downstairs.” Julie’s own hair looked odd — Lori realized it was a wig. After looking in the mirror, she took it off, smoothed down her much-shorter but also-red natural hair, and repositioned the wig and her daisy chain cro
wn.
“I totally thought that was your natural hair,” Lori said. The two women washed up in Lori’s bathroom and Lori quickly changed into the first jeans and a T-shirt she found, and they headed downstairs, to more cheers.
Jake was waiting for her. “That was amazing. I can hardly believe what just happened. And everything is OK?”
“Everything is fine. They’ll check everything out just to be sure, but it seems to have gone perfectly. Really fast labors usually do. It’s generally the labors that get stuck where there’s a problem.”
“I was terrified,” he said. “I kept thinking of how things went wrong during Josh’s birth, and I was just sure something horrible was happening.”
“Nope, relax. Everything went great.”
“You didn’t seem nervous at all. You seemed totally calm.”
“Are you kidding me? I was scared to death! I haven’t seen a birth in forever. I was lucky it was fast and easy.”
“You better make an announcement,” he told her.
“Oh, right.” She looked around. Everybody was expecting an update.
“I have an announcement!” she said. “Please join me in welcoming little Henry Conrad to the world!” Everyone cheered wildly. “Mom and baby both seem to be doing just fine!” More cheering.
“As some of you know, this house was at one time legendary for its parties. However, I’m fairly sure that none of the parties here back in the day had anybody actually give birth at them, so I’m taking credit for the craziest party EVER in this house!” Somebody yelled out, “I bet a few were conceived here, though!”
Lori laughed along with everybody else.
“If anybody else here is nearly full term, kindly go to the hospital right now, OK? I am done delivering babies for the night. And if anybody is too drunk to drive home, please find a corner and sleep there or call for a ride. And now, Ash, bring me a big old glass of wine, because I think I’ve earned it!” More cheering.
Catarina picked up her violin. She played, instead of the haunting music she’d played earlier, a simple “Happy Birthday” tune, which everyone drunkenly sang along to, most of them saying “Baby” instead of “Henry” because they’d already forgotten the name. Quite a few people cried openly, including a good number of the men. Alcohol makes everyone sentimental, Lori thought. So do babies.
Lori took a sip of wine. The party was starting to break up; clearly the birth had capped off the evening. She held her hand out in front of her and saw that it was shaking. She put down the wine, carefully, nervous she would spill it. She had enough of a mess already without that.
“You were calm before but your hand shakes now?” Jake asked.
“I was in nurse mode before,” she said. “I’m used to dealing with stuff like that. But the reality is, if everything hadn’t gone so perfectly, there was only so much I could have done about it. I can’t start an IV or give oxygen in my bedroom. It’s not like I keep a birth kit under the bed.”
“Oh, your bedroom,” Jake said. “As soon as people clear out, I’ll help you get everything into the washing machine.”
“I’m throwing out the bedspread. That thing isn’t going to recover. The sheets will be fine, as long as I bleach the hell out of them.”
Her phone beeped.
Molly: “Everything is good. 8 lbs 11 oz!!!”
Lori texted back, “Congrats!! I’ll come visit you in morning”
People congratulated Lori as they left, many of them saying it was definitely the most exciting party they’d ever been to. Several asked what she had planned for the next one.
“Twins!” she joked.
Catarina was leaving. “Thanks for inviting me. I have three people who are going to bring in their old furniture for me. And I had fun. It’s very good luck, having a baby born in your house.” She was giving Theresa a ride home, since Tommy had gone straight to the hospital.
“I wish we knew what time the baby was born!” Theresa said. “I could cast his horoscope. But I don’t suppose anybody knows, do they?”
“Oh, yes. David was taking pictures. There will be a timestamp.”
“Cool!” Theresa said.
“You know astrology?” Catarina asked.
“It’s a hobby of mine,” Theresa said. The two chatted happily about the stars as they left.
As the last stragglers left or were picked up, Lori realized Harriet and John weren’t among them. In fact, she hadn’t seen either for a while. They’d apparently slipped out early, even before the birth. It wasn’t hard to figure out something was up there.
At last, everybody was gone. Lori and Jake headed wearily up the stairs, to confront Lori’s bed. It looked like a murder scene. They rolled up the bedspread and Jake carried it out to the trash while Lori rolled up the sheets and mattress pad. She put the sheets into the washing machine, along with a generous amount of bleach. The pad and the towels would have to wait for morning. Luckily, the actual mattress hadn’t been stained. Good thing. It had cost a mint, and she’d barely used it.
“I have a confession to make,” Lori said. “I was planning to invite you to sleep over tonight. But I’m thinking this bed is not exactly a sexy place to be just now.”
“I have a confession to make,” Jake said. “I was planning to sweep you off your feet and sleep here tonight. But to be honest, for some reason this room doesn’t seem as sexy as I’d thought it was going to be.”
They both smiled.
“It’ll be better after I’ve restored it to order. And ordered another bedspread,” Lori said. She turned off the light and they went down the stairs.
“Oh, what a mess I have to deal with now,” she said. There were dirty glasses and plates everywhere. She began picking them up and carrying them into the kitchen, where the counter was already pretty full. Jake began filling the dishwasher with nothing but glassware, which cleared off at least one part of the counter.
“You don’t have to do that,” Lori said. She poured herself a fresh glass — she’d had nothing but a couple of sips taken from her earlier drinks — and downed about half of it. “There. I finally get a drink! Though I’m grateful I was sober when Molly needed me.”
“Yeah, that ended up being a good thing. Let me at least clear a few of the dishes. I don’t mind,” he said, stacking small plates into a neat pile. “But maybe we’ll leave the rest for morning. Come here,” he said, holding his arms open to her. She gratefully sank into them. At first, she just relaxed. He began stroking her hair. She realized she was still wearing the silly headband, even though she’d ditched the outfit it matched. She untied it and he continued stroking her hair.
“There you are,” he said. “You looked so different tonight. Now you’re the woman I remember. Except with a lot more eye makeup.”
“What about your mustache?” she teased. “I don’t generally like to kiss guys with mustaches.”
“It’s not coming off without some chemical help,” he said. “I’ve got some stuff at home. But I was thinking about growing out my ’stache. I think I look quite dashing.” He stroked his mustache in an exaggeratedly thoughtful way.
“Like you’d ever give up the perfectly groomed real estate master look,” she said. “When you’re in work mode, you look like you were stamped out of a real estate agent machine. Like a standard-issue kind of thing.” She snuggled in closer, as he gently ran his hands up and down her back.
“It’s merely a costume, Lori. Like tonight. You put on a costume and you play a part. Nobody would trust me with their business if I showed up to a listing in ripped jeans and a flannel shirt.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m still sorry I had such a bad impression of you at first.”
“And what’s your impression of me now?” He looked down at her. The dim light at the edge of the kitchen where they stood put his face in shadows.
Lori tilted her head a little but spoke into his neck. “I think you’re amazing,” she said, her breath hot against his neck. She put her arms around
his neck and felt the small hairs there rise. She stroked the goosebumps on his neck, and heard Jake sharply inhale. She spoke again.
“There seems to be something about kitchens and us,” she said, again conscious of the way her warm breath on his neck affected him. He let out a soft growl and turned his face toward hers and kissed her deeply. Urgently. She kissed him back the same way. He suddenly picked her up and deposited her on the one cleared spot of the counter top, not breaking the kiss as he scooted her into place. He spread her legs and stood between them. She locked her legs around his waist and they kissed fiercely. His hands found her butt and grasped it firmly, shifting her position and pressing against her so that she could feel how excited he was.
“I want you,” he whispered. His hands grasped the bottom of her T-shirt and she nodded. He pulled it off in one quick motion, then removed his shirt as well. She had just a second to note that his chest was sculpted and gorgeous before he reached around her to unfasten her bra. He flung it behind him and she unlocked her legs so he could lean over and kiss her breasts.
“Magnificent,” he said, nuzzling his face against them. The false mustache tickled and she giggled briefly. He raised his head, a questioning look on his face.
“No, keep going,” she said. “I just changed my mind about the mustache — grow one! That feels amazing.” He returned his attention to her breasts, kissing them, then teasing them with the roughness of the mustache briefly, before fastening his mouth against one and sucking and licking it. Lori moaned, letting him know how much she was enjoying it. He turned his attention to the other one, then pressed them together and sucked both nipples into his mouth at once. Lori twisted her fingers into his hair and pulled his head closer. Then he kissed up her body back to her mouth, his erection again pressing hotly into her as his kisses grew more urgent. She reached down to the waistband of his pants. “Take these off,” she whispered.
He quickly obliged, kicking his pants behind him. His erection was tenting the front of his underwear — quite impressively, she noted. She hopped down from the counter and quickly pulled his underwear down and took him into her mouth. She swirled her tongue, getting everything wet so she could slide better, and he moaned appreciatively. Then he gasped as she reached around to his butt with both hands and pulled him close, forcing most of him deeply into her mouth. She relaxed her mouth and leaned into him, just managing to get everything in and letting her mouth adjust to his size, pushing her head a little bit further into him. That earned another deep groan. She paused, taking a big breath through her nose, then held her breath and concentrated on moving forward and backward with precision. She moved her head backward until she had only the tip in her mouth, then slowly swirled her tongue against his sweet spot, earning little moans of appreciation, then slowly taking him all the way in again. She read his reactions, gauging whether he liked the slow and artful tongue teasing or the constant in and out. So far he seemed to like everything, so she alternated back and forth between the two styles, giving it her all.
Kiss & Tell (Small-Town Secrets-Fairview Series Book 2) Page 14
