Tempt The Playboy (Tempt 2)

“I love it.” Noah puts his two cents in as my father walks outside from inside.

“Would you look at this,” he says, watching his feet at he comes down the stairs.

He’s coming to us with something strapped to his chest. “It’s called ‘nurse me tender.’ It’s for Noah so he can see what breastfeeding looks like.” The thing is tied around his waist and over his shoulder, a bottle placed where the breast would go. He grabs a baby doll and puts it to the bottle. “Look, I’m almost a woman.”

“Holy shit,” Austin says as he comes into the backyard. He goes to Lauren and wraps his arm around her waist, bending to whisper in her ear.

Her hard face goes from kill him to it’s going to be okay. She nods her head at him while he walks to us, looking at my father and him trying to breastfeed the baby and then my mother and her ridiculous hat.

“You’re lucky that you’re giving her a nephew.” Austin points at Noah while he smiles.

My stomach gets tight for a second as I rub my hands over it in a circle. “Oh,” I say out loud. “That was a big kick,” I say as I get another tightness around my belly and this time it leads to my back. “Ouch,” I say while Noah looks at me and then the unthinkable happens. My water breaks, gushing out and onto Austin’s shoes.

“What the fuck?” Austin says while I look at Noah.

“I think my water just broke.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Noah

“Heee hhheee hoooo hooo heee heee hooo hooo. That’s it, just breathe through your nose, out through your mouth,” the nurse tells Kaleigh while her eyes are closed and she is focusing on the pain.

She is sitting in the middle of the hospital bed with her legs crossed, wearing a hospital gown. The contractions are every four minutes. I am kneeling behind her, rubbing her shoulders and her back when the contractions come again.

We are in the hospital finally after her water broke all over Austin’s shoes and he turned and almost yacked. We all got her into the car where I got us to the hospital. We went through lots of arguments over where to have the baby. Kaleigh wanted to have it in our bedroom, in a tub. I was almost in agreement when she took us to go watch another room do it. One look at the tub and I vetoed that. So we compromised. We’ll have it in the hospital if I bring all her Zen stuff. The room lights are dim, to almost off, the sound of the ocean and waves in the background softly playing along with some flutes and bells.

“Knock. Knock. Knock,” Dede says as she walks in with her balloons in one hand and flowers in the other hand, her hat still on her head. “What is that noise?” She scrunches up her nose.

“It’s Zen music, Mother.” Lauren walks into the room, pushing herself forward. Sneezing once, twice, three times. “Is that sage?” she asks and Kaleigh just grunts.

“Okay, time to do a check,” the nurse says as she gets off the bed. “Lie back, feet up,” she says, getting up and going to the side and grabbing a pair of gloves. “Okay,” she says, lifting up the gown. As soon as she does that Austin walks right in, his eyes going straight to Kaleigh on the bed. “Oh my God,” he says and looks to the side and then at the floor and then puts his hand to his mouth. “I’m going to be sick,” he says, looking pale.

Lauren goes to him, grabbing his face.

“Why does it look like that?” He looks like he is going to cry. “Why is it puffy?”

I put my head back and laugh. “Dude, the baby is almost crowning. You should come watch.”

“Are you fucking insane?” Austin says and walks out of the room while Lauren grins.

“He gets queasy.”

I look down to see that the nurse has her hand all inside Kaleigh.

“You’re at nine centimeters. This one is coming in fast.”

“It’s ’cause she played with her nipples and we had sex before the shower.” I look at Lauren. “Sorry about that. I just couldn’t resist. She needed the sperm.”

The nurse gets up, throws her gloves in the trash, and calls someone on the phone. “Okay, the doctor is on his way up. We are going to get everything ready,” she says, going to the corner of the room and turning a light on in one of those glass cases. She grabs some blankets and opens them up. She rolls it close to the bed.

“Something is happening,” Kaleigh says while her face is now covered with sweat. “I feel so much pressure. It hurts so much now.” Her head goes from left and right and she tries to breathe, but that is out the window and now she is howling in pain.