CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Beaufort, South Carolina
December 25
Nathan Bishop was a light sleeper. Years in the military bookended by years of disquiet had made for restless nights. At the moment, inner contentment and the beautiful body molded next to him had quite the soporific effect. As a result, he had twice swatted at the hand that shook his shoulder before registering the urgent whisper.
“Nathan? Nathan?”
“I’m up. I’m up. What's going on?”
“It's time.”
Nathan yawned. “Nah. Can’t be. It's still dark out. Go back to sleep, Emily.”
Emily sat up in the bed and waited. Five, four, three…
“I’m up. It's time? Time time? I’m up.”
Emily's face contorted in pain as she gripped her belly.
“Boy, they got bad fast. That was seven minutes in between.”
“Seven minutes!” Nathan hollered before jumping out of the bed.
“Well, they’ve been twelve minutes apart for a while. Now seven. So I think it's time.”
“Twelve then seven?” Nathan hopped around with one foot stuck in the leg of his jeans as he grabbed a T-shirt from the dresser. “Jesus bloody hell, how long have you been faffing about with the timing?”
“Excuse me? Did you just refer to labor as faffing?”
Nathan righted his clothes, took a deep breath, and sat next to his wife on the bed.
“Emily, darling. How long have you been experiencing contractions?”
“Since noon.”
“Noon!!!—” Deep breath. “I see.” He pulled her hand off her belly and held it between his own. “And why haven’t you mentioned it?”
“I wanted to be one of those cool, together moms. You know, third baby, she's-got-it-all-figured-out. Plus, I didn’t want to bother you with all this Cam stuff going on, but I may have waited a bit too long. I think my water just broke. I didn’t account for the fact that this is my first actual labor.”
Their twins had been delivered via a scheduled C-section.
“Right.” Nathan sent a quick text to his Aunt Maggie; the godsend had offered to watch the twins should this very circumstance occur. He cleared his throat. “In the future, when you are forty weeks pregnant, I would like to be apprised of everything from a gas bubble to a pebble in your shoe. Understood?”
“Copy that.” She saluted.
Nathan held the back of her head and took his wife in a fierce kiss. Emily whimpered in response. Then moaned as another contraction seized her. Nathan shifted seamlessly, placed a hand on her middle, and checked his watch.
“Maggie should be here straight away. I’ll get your bag.” He found her violet gaze as the contraction ebbed. “Let's go meet our daughter.”