by Marie Force
“That can’t be right,” Owen said. “Her water broke an hour ago. She’s only just started having contractions. It’s a month early!”
They’d been due to go to the mainland tomorrow and stay at her father’s home in Providence so she could deliver in an actual hospital when the time came. Apparently, that wasn’t going to happen now, and Laura focused on breathing through the pain as her husband became more agitated. Not that she blamed him. After what Janey and Maddie had been through, they both had good reason to freak out about an island delivery. It was, in reality, their worst-case scenario.
“I’m really sorry, Owen,” Dr. David Lawrence said after examining her. “But I don’t recommend you go anywhere, or you’ll run the risk of having the babies on the ferry or by the side of a road. They’re eager to make their debut. Laura is fully dilated and completely effaced.”
“That can’t be!”
“O.” Laura extended a hand to him. “Come here.”
He stopped pacing and came to her side, taking her hand.
“Calm down,” she said. “I feel fine. I feel ready. David and Victoria are completely qualified to deliver these babies. Please take a deep breath and help me.”
He swallowed hard and made a visible effort to relax. “Okay. I’m here. What can I do?”
“Call my dad and my aunt Linda. Ask them to come, and your mom will be waiting to hear what’s going on.”
“I’ll take care of it. Will you be okay for a few minutes?”
She smiled up at him. “I promise.”
He leaned over the bed to kiss her and then left the room.
“Vic,” Laura said through gritted teeth. “I already feel like I need to push.”
“Let’s take a look.” Victoria raised the sheet covering Laura’s lap. “Oh damn, you’re crowning.” Over her shoulder, Victoria called for David.
He came running with Owen right behind him.
“We’ve got babies who want out right now.”
“Now?” Owen cried.
Laura wanted to comfort him, but she was gripped by another fierce contraction that required her full attention.
Everything moved fast after that. The table was adjusted for delivery, her legs positioned, and Owen directed to get behind her to support her while she pushed. David prepared bassinettes for the babies.
“Okay, Laura,” Victoria said, “on the next contraction, let’s push.”
Laura took hold of Owen’s hands. “Help me, O.”
He squeezed her hands. “Anything you need.”
She could hear the tears and the fear in his voice. This wasn’t what they’d planned, but it was happening, and the only thing they could do was roll with it. Their babies already had minds of their own.
Victoria consulted the monitor that kept track of her contractions. “Here we go.”
All-consuming pain and the need to push overwhelmed Laura. The next thirty minutes were a blur of pain and pressure and tears.
Owen wiped away her tears and whispered sweet words of love and encouragement while holding her up from behind as she pushed.
“I can’t,” she said, gasping after a particularly strong contraction. “I can’t do it.”
“Yes, you can.” Owen used a cool cloth that Victoria gave him to wipe the sweat from her forehead. “You’ve got this. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. There’s nothing you can’t do.”
Mallory appeared at the doorway. “I heard you were shorthanded today and might need some help.”
Victoria looked to Laura who nodded, relieved to see her cousin and to have another medical professional to help.
“Come in,” Vic said. “Happy to have you.”
Mallory washed her hands and donned gloves before she came over to the bed. She placed her hand on Laura’s shoulder. “How’re you doing?”
“Hurts.”
“No epidural?” Mallory asked Victoria.
“It was too late by the time she got here. She was ready to deliver.” Victoria eyed the monitor. “Here we go, Laura.”
The pain and pressure overwhelmed her once again, dragging her under to a place of intense concentration. Behind her, Owen provided unwavering support, holding her up when she lacked the energy to do it herself. He talked her through it, telling her how much he loved her, how he couldn’t wait to meet their babies, how proud he was of her, how strong she was.
She focused on his voice and pushed as hard as she could until she finally found some relief.
“It’s a girl!” Victoria said, holding up the baby so her parents could see her.
“Oh my God,” Owen said. “We have a daughter!”
“Is she okay?” Laura asked.
“She’s beautiful,” Mallory said.
“Ten fingers and ten toes,” David added as he took the baby to be evaluated.
“Why is she so quiet?” Laura asked, her heart racing with fear and anxiety as another contraction started, reminding her she was only half done. “David! What’s wrong with her?”
His silence was almost as loud as the baby’s until a loud cry from the newborn echoed through the room.
“That’s what we wanted to hear,” David said.
Laura could hear the relief in his voice.
Owen hugged her a little tighter and kissed her neck.
She could feel the dampness of tears on his face.
“Here we go again, Laura,” Victoria said in an endlessly upbeat tone of voice.
The contractions were harder, sharper, more painful the second time around. They were also coming closer together, giving her little time to rest in between.
“Almost there, sweetheart,” Owen said. “You’ve got this.” He wiped her face with another cool cloth that Mallory handed him.
“You’re doing great, Laura,” Mallory said.
“One more big push,” Victoria said.
Laura began to cry. She was so tired and in so much pain that she couldn’t focus on anything else. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” Owen said. “We’ll do it together.” He gathered her into his arms and held her up as she screamed her way through another mighty push that finally yielded relief from the relentless pressure.
“You have a baby boy!” Victoria announced as the baby let out a lusty wail.
Laura sagged into Owen’s embrace.
“You did it,” he said wiping her tears and then his own.
“We did it.”
His smile lit up his entire face. “One of each!”
“I’m so glad we waited to find out what we were having.”
“Me, too.”
David brought their baby girl to them, wrapped in a receiving blanket. She looked up at them with an expression that seemed both wise and stunned.
“Oh my God,” Owen whispered. “Look at her.”
Laura’s heart melted at the reverence she heard in his voice. “Hi, baby girl,” she said, nearly blinded by tears that just kept coming. Unlike the tears from earlier, though, these were tears of joy. The babies were here, they were safe, and they hadn’t had to leave their beloved island to have them.
“Are we set on Joanna Sarah for her?” Owen asked.
They’d agreed to name a daughter, if they had one, after her late mother, JoAnn, and his mother, Sarah.
“I think she looks like a Joanna Sarah, don’t you?”
“Absolutely. We’ll call her Jo and Joey.”
“I like that.”
David handed their son to Owen.
“Oh damn, look at you.” Owen used his free hand to rub his chest. “Is it normal to feel like you’re having a heart attack after your wife gives birth?”
“That’s just your heart expanding to make room for two more people to love,” Mallory said.
“I love that,” Laura said, smiling at her cousin.
“What’s his name going to be?” Mallory asked. “I can’t stand the suspense.”
Laura and Owen exchanged glances, and then he spoke for both of them. “We wanted them to have the
same first initial so his name is Jonathan Russell. His middle name is for my grandfather.”
“Jo and Jon,” Mallory said. “I love it.”
Victoria, who’d stepped out for a minute, returned with Laura’s dad, Frank, her brother, Shane, and her aunt Linda.
“That was quick!” Linda said when she saw the babies.
Frank came over to get a closer look at his new grandchildren, who were sleeping in their parents’ arms.
“Meet Joanna Sarah and Jonathan Russell Lawry,” Laura said.
“Oh wow,” Frank said on a long exhale. “One of each. How perfect. And named for your mother.” His voice thickened with emotion. “I love that, Princess. She’d be so honored.”
Laura squeezed his hand. “I hope so.
“Katie will be so bummed she missed this,” Shane said of his fiancée, who was also Owen’s sister. “What a day to have professional training on the mainland.”
“Take some pictures for her,” Owen said.
After they posed for photos, Laura said, “You know what the best part of this day is?”
“I bet I know,” Owen said.
“I bet you don’t. It’s that I’ll never, ever, ever have to be pregnant again.”
“But how will I recognize you, my love?” Owen asked. “You’ve been pregnant the whole time I’ve known you.”
“Very funny. Wait till you find out what I really look like. You might not want me anymore.”
Leaning in close to her, he gazed into her eyes as he kissed her. “Not a chance of that.”
Chapter 4
Later that evening, Mallory hitched a ride home with Linda. The entire family had been into the clinic to visit Laura, Owen and the babies. David had determined that both she and the twins were in great shape, and thus there was no need to transport them to the mainland for further medical attention. They’d be spending at least two nights at the clinic, where David and Victoria would keep a close eye on all three of them before allowing them to go home.
“What a day,” Linda said, choking back a yawn. She’d been unflagging in her support of Laura and Owen since her arrival at the clinic hours ago.
“She appreciated you being there.”
“She’s another daughter to me. Her mom died so young. It was such a tragedy. Frank raised those kids all by himself.”
“From what I’ve heard, he did it with considerable help from you guys.”
“We did what we could, but we were out here and they were in Providence. Laura and Shane came out to spend the summers with us, and Frank came on weekends. We muddled through.”
“Laura told me once that those summers were the highlight of her childhood.”
“Did she?” Linda smiled. “That’s awfully nice to hear.”
“I wish I could’ve done what they did.”
“Spend summers here?”
Mallory nodded. “I got to go to camp while my mom worked. I would’ve rather been here.”
“I’m sure she did the best she could.”
“Did she?” Mallory wanted to blame her testy tone on the long day, but that wasn’t it.
“You want to talk about it?”
Mallory desperately wanted to talk about it. “I’m so angry with her, which makes me feel terrible because she’s gone and can’t defend herself. But I can’t help it. Look what she kept me from for almost forty years! My father, my brothers, my sister, cousins, uncles, you. I’m so damned mad that some days I don’t know how I’ll ever get past it.”
“It’s understandable that you’d be upset.”
“I went past upset months ago. Now I’m just downright furious. All those years, I thought I was just missing a father, but I also had five siblings and four cousins. We could’ve grown up together, but she chose to keep me all to herself. Her family had nothing to do with us. Do you know how lonely it is to have exactly one other person as your family?”
Linda pulled her yellow bug into the driveway at the White House, as the locals referred to their home, and cut the engine.
“You know what the worst part is?”
“What’s that?”
“After all this time, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to call him. Big Mac? Dad? What do I call him?”
“He’d want you to call him anything that feels comfortable to you. If you want to call him Dad, call him Dad.”
“Will the others care if I call him that?”
“Why would they? He’s your father, Mallory. You should call him Dad.”
All of a sudden, Mallory realized she’d gone off on a rant and sagged against the seat. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to dump my crap in your lap.”
“My lap is more than happy to accommodate your crap,” Linda said.
Mallory laughed at her choice of words.
“I’m a professional mom. It’s what I do best. No one can replace your mother, but I’m here if you need an ear or a shoulder.”
When her eyes burned with tears, Mallory used her fingers to hold them in. “I don’t want to be angry with her, but I can’t help it.”
“You have a right to your feelings. We all do.”
“Why couldn’t she have told me about him sooner? What did she think would happen if she did?”
“I don’t know, but she must’ve been afraid of something.”
“What? She knew him. She had to know he’d never try to take me from her.”
“She probably never expected her parents to turn their backs on her. People do unexpected things all the time. Perhaps she felt it wasn’t worth the risk to tell him about you.”
“Maybe,” Mallory conceded.
“You may never fully understand the why of it, Mallory, but in time, you’ll make peace with it. She left you a priceless gift by giving you your father’s name.”
“I know, and I try to tell myself it’s enough.”
“But you still feel cheated.”
“Yeah.”
“You should talk to your uncle Kevin. He’s an excellent therapist. He might be able to help you deal with those feelings.”
“That’s not a bad idea, especially since I’m going to be spending more time here.”
“You are?”
Mallory nodded. “Mason offered me a job working on the rescue this summer, and I decided to take it. It’ll buy me some time to figure out what’s next.”
“That’s wonderful news! Your dad will be so thrilled. You’re more than welcome to stay with us. We have plenty of room, as you know.”
“That’s very sweet of you, but you guys need your privacy. I heard Janey’s house in town might be available to rent after Adam and Abby buy a house.”
“That’d be ideal for you.”
“I agree. I love that house.”
“It sounds to me like you had a very productive day. You helped to save a life, you landed a new job, found a new home and helped deliver your cousin’s babies.”
“And to reward myself for that great day, I indulged in a pity party.”
“Give yourself a break. In the last year, you’ve lost your mother, found your father and his family, and got laid off from the job that was at the center of your life. I’m surprised you’re not in the fetal position after all that.”
“I resort to the fetal position every now and then.”
Linda chuckled. “You’re going to get through this latest challenge. I have no doubt about that. You may even look back to realize getting laid off was the best thing to ever happen to you. If nothing else, it’ll force you to take a look at what else is out there, waiting to be discovered.”
“Right now it just feels like a mountain to be climbed.”
“Shaking up your life is overwhelming, for sure. I have a good feeling about you moving out here. This place has magical restorative powers. Ask anyone. They’ll tell you. I think this is going to turn out to be a whole new beginning for you, the Summer of Mallory.”
“I like that. The Summer of Mallory.”
“Here’s to new beginnings.”
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While new beginnings were great, moving was not. Mallory had lived in the same house for twelve years and had accumulated way too much stuff, much of which she donated or sold at a yard sale. She spent entire nights sifting through her belongings, paring down to the necessities she would need on the island.
The rest would go into storage while the house was rented. Movers would arrive in an hour to take her bed, sofa and other furniture and household items to Gansett, while she packed her car with clothes and personal items. Both vehicles were scheduled on the three-o’clock ferry to the island, thanks to her brother-in-law, Joe. Being related to the owner of the ferry company had its perks.
She carried the last of the boxes to her car, these containing items that she’d never part with or allow out of her possession. Priceless memories she carried with her to her new life on Gansett Island.
Her realtor, Judy, dropped by to pick up the keys for the tenants who would move in on the first of June.
“I’m so jealous that you’re moving to Gansett,” Judy said. “I’d kill to live out there.”
“I’m excited,” Mallory said, and she was now that the sifting, sorting and packing portion of the move was finished. “We’ll see if I’m excited when winter rolls around.” Would she still be there then? Who knew? But that was part of the fun of her new adventure. Anything was possible.
“Well, good luck. I’ll keep an eye on the tenants and make sure they take good care of the place. If you decide to sell at some point, you know where I am.”
“Yes, I do. Thanks again for everything.”
After Judy left, Mallory took one last walk through the house, spending a few moments in each empty room before she locked up and jumped in her car for the trip to Point Judith to catch the ferry. As Mallory drove away from the house she’d called home for a dozen years, she never looked back.
Three hours later, Mallory led the moving truck to her new home in Janey’s tiny but cozy house and found a crowd waiting to greet her. They’d put balloons on the mailbox and strung a Welcome Home banner across the front porch.
She was moved to tears as she took it all in—her dad and Linda, Mac and Maddie, Joe and Janey, Adam and Abby, Ned and Francine, Tiffany and Blaine, Shane and Katie, Riley and Finn, Uncle Frank and Betsy and Uncle Kevin and Chelsea. The only ones missing were Evan and Grace and Grant and Stephanie, all of whom were due home soon.
