She deserved that extra care. She’d never received it from her mother or husband before, so at this moment when she was vulnerable and her vagina was being torn into a billion pieces, hell yeah she deserved it.
“Ok, I see the top of your sweet baby’s head, darlin’. On the next contraction, I want you to give a hard push and don’t stop until I say the word. Ready?”
“No,” she cried. “I don’t want to do it. It hurts, my vagina feels like it’s exploding, it’s hot in here, I’m thirsty, I’ve got all y’all staring at my Jo-Jo bow,” she rambled. “And… oh, shit,” she broke off with a loud groan and reared up as she pushed, her face turning a worrying shade of red.
“That’s it, girl. Keep going,” the nurse who’d moved to stand beside us encouraged Jose. “Maybe let your sister breathe though.”
Letting go of the grip she had around my neck, she shifted to grab my hand instead and squeezed it as hard as she could.
“Oh, she’s coming out fast. Are we ready?” the OB/GYN called to the other nurse in the room, grabbing for stuff from the table beside her.
It played out like this – the contraction ended so Jose got to relax and sit back, then the next hit and she was up and pushing again. Her grip tightened on my hand, it tightened, it tightened, and with a shout from the doctor, a scream for her, a crack from my hand, and a scream out of me, my niece came out and joined the two of us with her own.Chapter FourDB“Yo, Logan. I’m heading back to the hospital to check on the baby, ok?” I called out as I left my office.
“More like you’re checking on the sister,” he snorted, getting the finger in return as I walked past him.
“What about…” Rory asked as I passed her desk, but I cut her off.
“Got my phone and radio on me, and if those don’t work for some unknown reason, call the hospital and they’ll track me down.” I didn’t miss her responding growl and Logan’s snort, and I didn’t miss Hurst Townsend standing outside the door of the building talking to my friend Ellis either. “What are you two doing here? I don’t remember seeing your name on any of the reports today?” I directed this last bit at Hurst who was now looking affronted by the notion that I’d assume he’d been arrested.
“As it so happens,” he shot back, “I’m here to thank Logan for his help the other day. I bumped into this one who was on his way to see you, apparently. Says he heard you’ve got a lady friend, one who’s just moved into the area.”
A glint in a Townsend’s eye was never a good thing, ever. It usually signaled mischief, mayhem, sarcasm, humor, or you’d unknowingly drawn the short straw and it was straight up bullshit. And right now it was all aimed at me. Fucking woo!
“Smooth move arresting her, DB,” Ellis chuckled, earning himself a glare.
“He arrested her?” Hurst hooted, tipping his head back laughing. “Wait ‘til I tell the others about this.”
“I did it because I thought she was breaking and entering into the Joseph’s house.”
Calming himself down, Hurst looked at me like I was crazy. “Nah, they sold that place to some chick from New York or somewhere close to there. Had the For Sale sign taken down and everything.”
That was a point, I hadn’t seen the sign in front of it, but I’d assumed the trespasser had taken it down to confuse the other residents of the street or people passing by.
“You still got her locked up back there, DB?” Ellis asked, getting a nudge and chuckle from Hurst.
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, she’s at the hospital with her sister right now.” That I was definitely sure of considering her sister was having a baby, and I’d dropped them off myself only a couple of hours ago.
Both men sobered hearing this part of the story the nosy bastards had come to get the details about. “What’s up with her sister?” Hurst asked, immediately concerned.
“Her half-sister is Jose Harrison, formerly White.”
In a small town, news traveled fast, and considering what a loser Larry White was people knew exactly what had happened. Some of them also knew who Rita was to me and that she was involved in the incident, an element of it all that didn’t fill me with the warm and fuzzies.
“Tell me that asshole didn’t do anything to her,” Ellis growled, the muscle in his jaw ticking away as he rolled his head on his neck.
“That boy was born bad. When that girl moved here to marry him, I wanted so badly to speak to her and tell her to run like she had hornets on her ass,” Hurst muttered. “Wasn’t my place though, so I didn’t. Saw them around a fair bit, and each time he looked like a petulant little shit while she looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.” Ellis made a noise and nodded in agreement with this. “Wasn’t surprised to hear about him and Rita, pissed but not surprised at all. Now I’m relieved she’s out of that marriage and clear of his shit.”