Daddy in Disguise (Crescent Cove 7)

He pushed up his sleeves on his cotton shirt. The neck of it was a little misshapen from…well, from me dragging at his clothes. Otherwise, no one would know I’d had a religious experience next door.

Cripes.

I pushed open the door and flicked on the lights. “Okay, Ash, go to that cabinet and get as many big towels as you can find.”

“Okay.”

I pulled down my biggest pot to boil water. I didn’t know if that was really a thing, but if the baby was coming, shit was definitely going to get yucky as Dani had said.

“Okay, I got ‘em.”

I turned on the burner and twisted around. The stack of towels was past her head. I took two off the top. “Is your ankle okay?”

Her green eyes were sparkling. “I’m good.”

I narrowed my gaze. “Are you sure?”

“Okay, maybe you can take half.”

I took three more and turned her around, pushing the swinging door open to let her go ahead of me. “All right, let’s go.”

“Jesus.” Chaos had changed over my café into some scary triage unit. Considering a metallic blanket was now tented over Ivy’s knees, I had a feeling things were going even quicker than Ivy thought.

Dani took off like a shot and I hurried after her.

“I need my focus bunny,” Ivy said at the top of her lungs.

“Ivy, I need you to take some deep breaths.”

“I need my focus. I need it.”

Kinleigh was sitting next to the couch, her hands clasped around one of Ivy’s. “Gideon’s getting my backup go-bag. He’ll be right back.”

“I need it now.” Her face was ruddy and sweaty, her panic rising as Rory tried to talk to her.

I dropped the towels on the table by the second paramedic, currently on the phone with the hospital. I didn’t know much about the baby thing. My limited knowledge of children was past the toddler days.

Memories of Malcolm and his favorite toy bombarded me. I shoved them down ruthlessly. Now was not the time to remember him. But maybe the focus thing was almost the same.

“Does she need something to focus on for the contractions? Is that what she’s talking about?”

“Yes.” The doula-slash-paramedic looked up from between Ivy’s legs. “If you had something small for her.”

I turned to my corner shelving unit full of bats and pumpkins and spiders. Nothing that Ivy would enjoy. But maybe…

I shoved aside books to find the little stuffed bat she’d given me that was perched on top of an ice cream sundae.

I held it up. “Will this do?”

Ivy’s eyes were bloodshot from doing God knows what to get that kid out of her. “I need my focus bunny.”

Kinleigh sighed. “Honey, we’re getting it, but I just sent a man to find something in my shop.”

Ivy laughed and cried at the same time. “I’m never going to get that bunny.” She held her hand out. “Give it to me.” She snatched it out of my hands and set it on her belly.

“Okay, love, just deep breaths.” Rory’s voice came from the same area. The phone was tucked besid

e her in heaps of clothing and tablecloths.