“I’ll take it. How much?”
The woman named a price and I started to nod, already pulling out my wallet. Nick stepped forward and slapped a hand over the ring. “Before we buy, we’d like to see the loupe.”
“Before we buy?” What the hell was a loupe?
Simon let out a long breath. “You’ve been assimilated. Just deal.”
I didn’t know what that meant either, but I waited while the man retrieved something that looked like a small magnifying glass. Nick looked through it and murmured about “noting the inclusions” while Simon huffed and puffed and generally sounded as if he was ready to sprint out of the store at a moment’s notice.
“My. Wife. May. Be. On. The. Verge. Of. Childbirth.”
Nick ignored Simon and continued making noises about diamond quality. The woman noted a few things down on the invoice before she presented it to me. The price had been lowered quite a bit.
I glanced at Nick. “Seriously?”
“Told you I was an expert. Everyone thinks my skills are just playing guitar and the art of pleasing a woman.” He shrugged and walked past me toward the door, tugging a dazed Simon along with him. “We’ll pick you up in five. No dallying.”
I was waiting when they pulled up. Nick was driving. Simon was in the front seat with his head between his legs, an impressive feat.
“Get in,” Nick barked. “Margo’s in labor. Score one for the stud.”
“Oh my God, really?” I’d no sooner climbed in that Nick rocketed the Jeep away from the curb. My leg wasn’t even fully inside.
“She’ll be fine. Women have been doing this since the beginning of time. They’re far more capable than we are.” Even Nick seemed stressed as he tightened his hands around the wheel. “Besides, the midwife and Li are with her. Li never freaks out.”
I nearly shuddered. Amen to that. We needed someone who was calm and in control.
The baby was coming.
Dear God.
Lila
Lila was surrounded by babies. Drowning in them.
And now she was going to have to watch her best friend give birth. Possibly even help with it.
Luckily, the midwife, Nora, was there to help. They’d already vetoed going to the hospital, since the wind was getting crazy and there were all kinds of alerts sounding on their phones.
As far as she was concerned, if it had been up to her, they would’ve gone to the hospital anyway. But Margo still seemed to think she wasn’t in labor. And she wasn’t going anywhere without Simon.
As if he could help. Margo would probably end up strangling him before the actual birth.
Lila sighed and refolded the cotton towels Nora had asked her to gather. If she’d been smart, she would’ve stayed home with their twins, rather than coming on this vacation. Her hope had been that the lack of stress would lead to something positive on the baby front. Maybe. They really weren’t in any hurry, but when close friends and family knew that having a child was on the agenda, they tended to ask often how things were going. And look at you a lot when certain announcements were made.
Such as Zoe’s pregnancy. That one she hadn’t expected.
No matter how often she said they were okay with waiting to see what happened, the questions kept coming along with the speculative glances. Add in the endless baby reminders literally every place she went and she was ready to get pregnant one more time just so they could all move on. No one would stop asking otherwise.
Besides, she couldn’t help being a planner. She’d finally decided she really wanted one more child and now it was supposed to happen in the allotted time. And it just was not.
Yet.
Then again, Margo’s imminent birthing experience might just remind her of what exactly she was signing up for. Her daughters were moving out of the toddler stage. Did she really want to go back there again?
She glanced at Margo, who was still so beautiful with her flushed cheeks, big belly, and slightly frantic eyes.
Yes, she did. Without a doubt. The soft, sweet little baby waiting on the other side was worth all the discomfort.