Join the Club (SWAT Generation 2.0 7)

The two wings of the house were large. My side being four bedrooms plus an office while Booth’s was four bedrooms plus a storage room that could be converted into an office if they ever had a need for it.

We would also be sharing a four-car garage.

And, in the middle of it all, Asa got his room. That way he wasn’t on one side of the house or the other.

He got to share us both.

Which was exactly what this family and he needed.

No more did he have to go from one house to the other. Spend weekends at Booth’s and weekdays at Delanie’s.

He’d be in one house, with both of his parents, and both of his stepparents.

It was every kid’s—at least ones that didn’t have married parents—dream.

The best of both worlds.

“When you go back there.” Dillan pointed at a large glass of ice water that was sitting on the edge of the counter. “Take that with you. Delanie poured it right before y’all came in.”

I picked up the glass, ruffled Asa’s hair, and headed in the direction of our bedroom.

Running my fingers along the pine that lined the walls, I pushed through the door to our master suite and closed the door behind me.

I heard a disturbing sound when I went farther into the room and winced when I saw Delanie hovering over the toilet, her hair caught in her hand.

She was naked except for a pair of panties, and she was holding her stomach as if she was trying to hold in her insides.

I dropped down onto my knees behind her and held her hair for her.

“Shit, baby,” I said. “We need to take you to the hospital if your back is hurting you this bad.”

Her answer was to throw up again.

It went on like this for another five minutes before she sighed and stood up out of my arms.

She walked to the tub that was still filling up, cranked off the faucets, walked over to the counter, and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste before starting to brush her teeth.

I watched from my perch on the floor as her breasts swayed with the movements of her arms.

“I think I just tweaked my back,” she said. “I’m so fuckin’ nervous about tomorrow.”

Dillan had a bad pregnancy.

She’d thrown up. A lot. She’d had high blood pressure that had threatened her with bed rest twice. She’d developed gestational diabetes. Then she’d dealt with swelling so bad that she’d had to stop working over the last month.

I could see how Delanie would be scared shitless about the induction that was scheduled for tomorrow.

After brushing her teeth, Delanie tossed the toothbrush down onto the counter, slipped her panties off, and then sank down into the bath.

It was as she was squatting down and sinking in that her face went absolutely white.

She cried out in pain and all but fell the last few inches.

I was on my feet and hurrying toward her when she gasped and surfaced from underneath the water.

“Oh, God,” she breathed as she wiped the water out of her eyes. “I think I might very well take you up on that trip to the ER. I must’ve hurt myself picking up the boxes today. Though, just sayin’, I swear I didn’t feel anything that bad. Just minor twinges all day long.”

I cupped her face in my hands and pulled her to me, placing a kiss onto her nose.

“You need to take care of yourself,” I ordered her.

She rolled her eyes, but I could still see the pain on her face.

“The water is making it feel better,” she mumbled through a sigh.

Just as I let her face go, another grimace of pain rolled through her.

“Every time I move a certain way it hurts,” she said. “Like tight bands of pain starting at my lower back and curving around my belly. God, even my boobs hurt.”

I stood up and went to fetch her ice water that miraculously hadn’t spilled in my haste to get to her earlier.

Handing it over, I started to unload the nearest box, keeping a steady eye on my woman.

Thirty minutes later, she was feeling better and decided to go to bed instead of going to the hospital, and like the fool I was, I let her.

It was only an hour later that the scream had me running back into our room.

Pushing the door open wide, I came to a sudden bone-jarring halt when I entered the room and saw what awaited me.

“Something’s wrong,” Delanie said as she hunched over her stomach, her face awash in pain. “Something’s really wrong. I think we need to call 9-1-1.”

Booth, who’d heard the scream as well, had his phone out in seconds.

Delanie fell back onto the bed, and then she screamed again.

This time, I couldn’t help but see what had been hiding with her being hunched over.