Listen, Pitch (There's No Crying in Baseball 3)

“Oh, sweet baby Jesus! Owwwwwww!”

The nurse lowered the drape that’d been covering Renata’s lower half from her brother. Her brother looked, and then promptly joined his brother-in-law in the corner, his face white as death.

I looked over at Renata, glancing from her husband to her, and said the only thing I could think of to say. “So, we made it in time for the birth.”

Renata laughed the rest of her way through the contraction she was on.

“Oh, yeah,” she wheezed. “And they weren’t lying. This really does feel like a ring of fire. Does it look bad?”

I looked down at Renata’s vagina and tried to hide my wince. “Well…it’s a good thing that vaginas are made to stretch, or I’d be worried you couldn’t come back from this.”

She laughed, which then turned into a groan as Renata curled over her belly and started to push.

I stepped forward just as the nurse did, too.

And together we stood there as the baby fell into the nurse’s hands.

“Well…” I said breathlessly. “That was fun.”

The nurse with her freaked out eyes didn’t seem to be agreeing with me.

***

“That was fun.” Renata wiped her eyes as the hilarity continued to overtake her. “That was not fun! We’re never having another baby. Not unless Henley wants to be our surrogate. Then I could get on board with that.”

Rhys made a disgusted sound. “That’s just plain weird.”

“No, what’s weird is when your brother sees your vagina while you’re giving birth and doesn’t do anything but turn green. What’s weird is when your brother’s on his deathbed, and he comes back to life, then forgets to call you and tell you that he’s going to live. That’s weird,” Renata snarled.

I stood up. “I’m going to go to the cafeteria and grab everyone something to drink.”

Dewight stood up with me. “I’ll go with you.”

We were out of the room before either Rhys or his sister could disagree.

We’d made it out of the room before I halted Dewight. “I’m not quite sure you’re allowed to take the baby off the floor.”

“Oh, shit.” He turned around and went back inside. Moments later, he returned sans baby.

I gave him a small smile. “So…do they fight often?”

He gave me a droll look. “You have no idea.”

Our walk to the cafeteria was filled with chatter.

I asked how he was taking this new fatherhood business, and he said he was still unsure about it all.

It was when we’d arrived at the elevators that something had him stiffening.

“What?”

He reached forward and gently took me by the hand and had me behind him before I could draw my next breath.

One second I was reaching forward past a guy in a suit to press the up button, and the next I was staring at Dewight’s t-shirt-clad back.

“Umm, Dewight?” I asked in confusion.

“What are you doing here?” Dewight snarled, startling me.

In the short time that I’d spoken to him, today in person and past days on the phone, never once had I heard him sound like that. Even when he was annoyed at his brother-in-law for not calling to let him know that he was okay.

“I’m just here to meet my precious grandniece,” came a thick Italian voice. “I want to make sure she gets this gift. It’s not every day that a new life is born into the Ribera family.”

“You mean the Camden family, correct?” Dewight corrected him. “Because our child isn’t a Rivera or Ribera, whatever the hell you want to call them. She’s a Camden.”

Camden was Dewight’s last name. Rivera was Rhys’. I’d never heard Ribera before.

“Back in Sicily…it translates to Ribera, yes?”

Dewight growled. “She’s not a Rivera. She’s a Camden.”

I peeked around Dewight’s shoulder and saw a well-dressed older man with inky black hair that was turning white at the edges, staring at Dewight like he was a piece of fluff on his shirt.

The moment that I did, the man’s shrewd, calculating eyes came to me.

“Ahhh,” he smiled, making my bones chill. “If it isn’t Rhys’ wife.”

I felt my stomach plummet.

It didn’t take a genius to know who this man was.

Rhys’ ‘Uncle’ Pablo.

I stepped out from behind Dewight and studied the man casually.

He didn’t look like an Italian mob boss.

He looked like an old man that would probably blow over with a stiff wind.

But, as I glanced around the hospital, it didn’t go unnoticed that the man was obviously not alone. There were two men a half dozen feet away, dressed similarly as him, watching us with too much intensity to be anything other than this man’s muscle.

I felt a shiver of unease roll down my spine, like someone cold and dead had just drug their fingers from the base of my neck all the way to the top of my tailbone.

My stomach clenched in reaction, and I wondered how long it would take for Rhys to get to me if I screamed.