Chapter 11
NOAH
“How’re you feeling back there lass?”
I glanced in the rearview mirror as we drove, catching sight of one extremely pregnant Sadie Clarence. It was a hell of a thing to see her for the first time in years in this sort of state. The girl ? thewoman?looked ready to pop.Lasswas hardly the right way to refer to her.
“Good – I think. Though I wasn’t quite ready for this just yet. I thought I had more time.”
“Well, twins are known to come early.”
“Yeah, that’s what my doc said too.”
“Want to hear something crazy?” I asked, clicking on my turn signal as I slowly moved from one lane to the next. “Did you know that only five percent of babies are actually born on their due date?”
“Really?”
“Really. The due date’s really just an educated guess. You put more than one baby in there and all sorts of things happen – most of which are damn near impossible to plan for.”
I glanced back in the rearview mirror once more, seeing that she appeared good and calm. That’s just what I wanted. Some moms-to-be tended to get a little panicky during their first birth, and the first step to ensuring things went alright was to make sure the energy stayed positive.
A text from Cammy came in while I was stopped at a red light.
Got a bag and I’m on my way. Her parents are coming, too.
I thumbs-up reacted just in time for the light to turn green.
“Your parents are coming. Bet they’re all kinds of eager to be grandparents.”
“They are,” she said. “Especially since I’d told them before I got pregnant that I wasn’t planning on having kids until I wasat leastthirty.”
She said the wordthirtylike it was impossibly far off in the distance – it was a reminder of how damn young she was.
“Well, life has a way of throwing you curve balls – as you Yanks like to say. Trust me, this is all going to work out just fine. And if you’re worried about your career, don’t. If anything, you’re going to be motivated to work even harder once the little ones are here.”
She smiled, but it didn’t last long before she winced, crying out in pain as another contraction hit. I shot my hand back as I drove, offering it to her. Sadie took it, squeezing me hard enough to hurt a wee bit.
“Take it all out on me,” I said. “Squeeze as hard as you can, got it?”
“Got…got it!”
I hated to see the poor girl suffer. It was all going to be worth it, however. We made one more turn and I spotted the big, lit-up building that was UCHealth. It was the hospital nearest to me, which was a good thing – I knew plenty of doctors on the staff.
Relief took hold as I pulled in front of the emergency room doors. I was almost certain that the birth was going to go off without a hitch, but all the same, I was damn glad to be at a hospital rather than the den of my daughter’s tiny flat.
“We’re here,” I said. “So far, so good. Say, did you find out what you were having?”
“Nope,” she said with a slight smile. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Then that’s what you’re going to get, darling. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to find out.”
“Me either.”
I reached back and gave her hand one more squeeze before stepping out of the car to greet the nurses who’d emerged from the doors of the ER and called out a greeting to me. My reputation preceded me.
“Got a twenty-five-year-old about to have twins,” I called out.
That was all the information they needed to hear. One of them hurried inside, presumably to grab a wheelchair, but I wasn’t about to wait around for that. Instead, I opened the back door.