“I know, sweetie,” Mom murmured, pushing some hair out of my face. “It’ll help, I promise.” I stared into her eyes and then followed her as she breathed in and out, and after another fifteen seconds, the contraction started to wane.
“Brody, call Doctor Lee, tell him we’re on our way to the hospital.” Mom stood, and I knew she was in teacher mode as she gave everyone jobs to do. People were rushing around me, but all I wanted was one person…
“Ford?” I whispered, and his hand landed on my shoulder. I hadn’t realized he was so close, and as I started to turn my head, he crouched down beside me, his hand resting on my thigh. His hazel eyes were full of apprehension but also a twinge of excitement. “I need you,” I told him. I couldn’t keep anything back, not now.
“Can you walk?” Mom asked me, and somehow she’d gotten ahold of a towel. What did she need a towel for?
“I think so.” I gritted my teeth and placed my hand on the table, then used it to help me stand. My legs wobbled, and my head spun, and I was sure I was about to faint any second.
“I got you,” Ford’s deep voice said, and a second later, his arm came under my knees and the other behind my back, and I was hosted in the air. He pulled me against his chest and stared down at me, whispering, “You’ve got this.” The determination in his eyes was enough to let me know I did have this. That was until another contraction started.
Chapter Ten
FORD
She gripped me harder, her nails biting into the skin on my arm, but I didn’t care. Whatever she needed to do to feel better was okay with me. Her face screwed up as another contraction rolled through her, and I decided I wasn’t going to stick around. She needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible and get pain relief.
I darted out of the kitchen with Lola on my heels, and out of the house to my car. Lola opened up the back door and placed the towel on the back seat. I frowned. “What the—”
“Her water broke,” Lola said, cutting me off. “It’s not like in the movies. It doesn’t all come at once and then that’s it.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, and we didn’t have time to let her explain, not with Belle gripping me like she was trying to squeeze the life out of me. I gritted my teeth against the sharpness of her nails in my arm and slowly lowered Belle onto the towel, but she wouldn’t let me go. She held on tight, her blue eyes shining with terror. “Don’t leave me,” she begged, and my body jerked. She’d asked the exact same thing of me that day in her dorm, and I’d walked away anyway. But now it was different. There was nothing that would stop me from being with her. Nothing.
“I’m just gonna drive,” I told her, running the palm of my hand down her cheek to try and soothe her. “I’m not leaving, Baby Belle. Never again.”
She stared at me, searching my eyes, and whatever she saw there had her nodding, and then she let go and relaxed back on the seat. “Okay,” she whispered, and I heard her swallow. “Okay.”
I waited a beat, keeping my gaze connected with hers to drive my point home, and then backed away so Lola could get in. I didn’t waste time opening the driver’s door and then turning the engine on. I could see everyone else out of the corner of my eye darting around outside, but I couldn’t pay attention to them, not when I had a mission to accomplish.
“Which hospital?” I asked Lola, and she reeled it off to me a second before Belle called out from another contraction.
“That one was closer,” Lola told me, her gaze meeting mine in the rearview mirror. “Mine weren’t that close until I’d been in labor for at least ten hours.”
“What does that mean?” I asked her, speeding down the road. What was she trying to tell me? I’d ne
ver done this before. I’d only ever waited in the waiting room as a baby was born, so what the hell did it mean?
“It means this baby isn’t wasting any time.” My eyes widened, and I knew I had to get to the hospital faster. It would normally take me at least twenty minutes, but I had to try and half that time.
“I need to push,” Belle shouted, her voice higher pitched. “Ford! I need to push.”
“We’re ten minutes away,” I told her, feeling frantic. “Hang on.”
“I can’t,” Belle cried out. “Mom, I need to push. I have to push.” She groaned in pain, and I was really hoping she was trying not to push. She couldn’t have a baby in the back seat of my car.
I heard some rustling in the back and then the ripping of material, but it was nothing compared to Lola’s gasp. “Pull over, Ford.”
“What?” I took a turn and slammed my foot on the gas pedal. “We’ll be there in a couple of minutes. Just hang on.”
“Not sure we have that long,” Lola shouted. “I can see the baby’s head.”
“What?” The car swerved to the side, and I righted it. “What do you mean you can see the baby’s head?” I darted my gaze to the rearview mirror and realized Belle’s leg was up against the back seat. Holy shit. She was going to have our baby in the back seat of my car.
“I mean that I can see the head,” Lola repeated. “As in, the baby is coming right now.”
“Another one is coming,” Belle shouted out. “Ford! Ford!”
I could see the parking lot in front of the hospital entrance up ahead, so I sped up and parked at an angle, not caring if I was blocking anyone. I pushed open the driver’s door and then opened the back door Lola was leaning against. “Go get someone,” she told me, and I stepped back to do as she said.