Short Rides (Rough Riders 14.5)
Piper looked up at her. Those big green eyes—eyes just like Jack’s—were serious and a little devilish. “What’s that?”
She smiled. “My tummy is making some loud noises. Think the babies might be hungry.”
“I hungry too.”
“Go ask Gran-gran for a snack. But no cookies.”
“K.” Piper shot her mother a smug look before she leapt off the recliner and tore off into the kitchen.
Keely wiggled in the seat, trying to get comfortable. She felt heavier today like something had shifted down low in her abdomen. Movement made her nauseous so she hadn’t done anything but sit for the last hour. Still, her heart raced like mad. Her fingers and toes tingled. Her shallow breathing increased the sensation of dizziness. This was not normal.
She put down the foot rest and set her feet on the floor. Had her toes fallen asleep? She couldn’t feel the rug beneath her, just more of those sharp tingles.
Her mom came around the corner carrying Katie, who immediately started saying, “Mama, Mama, Mama.”
“Hey, sweet pea.”
Katie shrieked and pushed away from Gran-gran, reaching for Keely desperately as if she hadn’t seen in her days, not minutes. Her mom set her down. Katie toddled over, her brown eyes teeming with tears, her blond hair sticking up in every direction. She clutched the side of the recliner. “Mama, Mama, Mama.”
“I know it’s naptime and you want a story, huh?”
Katie tried to crawl in her lap and Keely’s heart about broke. Katie was such a sweet, snuggly baby, but Keely didn’t have the strength to pick her up right now.
“Sweetheart? Are you okay? Your face is bright red.”
“No. I’d better call Jack and have him get me to the doctor.” A spike of pain hit her, like she was being ripped apart from the inside out. Then she felt a rush of wetness between her legs.
Alarmed, Keely looked down expecting to see water, but blood stained her shorts. Blood. A lot of blood. Oh God. Panicked, she stood abruptly.
Too abruptly. All the blood rushed from her head and she lost her balance. Black spots obscured her vision.
Her mom screamed, “Keely!”
Everything switched into slow motion. She knew she was going down but she couldn’t make her arms work to break the fall.
Two strong arms caught her. “Whoa, girlie. I gotcha.” But she and her dad both ended up on the floor anyway.
Keely couldn’t breathe. Her belly started to cramp like she’d never felt. She groaned with pain. What was happening?
“Caro, call an ambulance.”
Keely whispered, “No. Call Jack. Call him now.”
“We will. But we’ve gotta get you to a hospital.”
Her entire body shuddered with cold. Those swirling black and white spots were back. Her head felt like it was beneath a waterfall.
Yet she heard Katie crying. Hysterical I-want-my-Mama shrieks. Then Piper joined in. Keely needed to get to her children to calm them down, but she couldn’t even move.
Rough-skinned hands stroked her face. “Stay still. Stay with me baby girl.”
She opened her mouth but nothing came out.
“Caro, get the girls out of here,” her dad said sharply.
The distressed cries of her daughters vanished.
Keely fell into a state of nothingness until the pain came again and her entire body convulsed from the power of it.
Voices rose and fell around her. She tried to concentrate on just one to pull her out of the void. Her dad’s was the loudest.
“You are stayin’ here,” he snapped. “I’m ridin’ in the ambulance with her.”
“But Carson that doesn’t make sense. She needs me—”
“Right now those little girls need you more. And sugar, you’re close to hysterical. That ain’t gonna help her. Jack’s gonna need someone to calm him down and you’re in no shape to do it.”
“And you are?” she demanded.
“I have to be.”
Loud noises, activity and more voices surrounded her. Then the world went black as Keely slipped into unconsciousness.
All Knocked Up: Chapter Five
After the phone call from Carson, Jack kept the speedometer at one hundred miles per hour as he drove from Rapid City to Spearfish. And Cam must’ve pulled some strings because no one stopped him.
He’d contacted Doc Monroe but she’d already gone to the hospital in Spearfish to consult on Keely’s behalf. Then he’d talked to Keely’s mom to make sure Piper and Katie were taken care of. Keely’s sisters-in-law were on their way to take over so Carolyn could go to the hospital.
He glared at the dashboard clock. It’d been forty-five minutes since he’d received the call and he was still ten miles from Spearfish.
If anything happened to Keely he’d...
No. Don’t go there. Just drive.
Everything became a blur until he arrived at the hospital.
He ran through the emergency room doors.
The nurse said, “Can I help you?”
“Keely Donohue. Arrived via ambulance from Sundance?”
She pointed to the door marked Stairs. “They can help you on the third floor.”
He scaled the stairs two at a time. Before he reached the receptionist’s desk, Carson approached him.
“How is she? Where is she?”
“They’re prepping her for emergency surgery.”
Jack had to brace his hand against the wall to keep his knees from buckling. “I want to be with her. I need to be with her.”
“You can’t be. Believe me, I asked.”
Bullshit. The next medical person he saw would be taking him to Keely. “What happened?”
“She stood up, blood rushed out and she passed out. The EMTs didn’t say much on the ride here.” Carson cleared his throat. “Let’s go to the surgical waiting area. Maybe they’ll have more news.”
The waiting room was empty, giving Jack room to pace. He went through a checklist of a dozen things he should’ve done. And two dozen things he shouldn’t have done. Like get her pregnant again. It’d seemed funny and surreal, three pregnancies in three years. But he wasn’t laughing about it now.
If she dies, it’s your fault.
“God.” He wanted to punch the f**king wall.
“Jack. Take it easy. You look like you’re gonna pass out.”
“That’s because I can’t f**king breathe until I know if she’s all right.”
A nurse in scrubs came into the room and Jack immediately loomed over her. “I want to see my goddamned wife. Take me to her now.”