A little while later, Brian’s phone went off. I was almost about to fall asleep. I had been there for four hours. I had been given another shot to stop the contractions, but they were keeping me in the hospital until further notice.
“Yeah?” Brian said when he answered.
“What in the hell is going on?!” Cole roared.
Brian winced and looked up at me. I held my hand out for his phone, and he gave it to me quickly, obviously not wanting to be on the receiving end of Cole’s anger. Hell, I really didn’t want to be, either. But I did this shit.
“Cole?” I whispered.
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Baby, are you okay? Fuck, my mom was blowing up my damn phone demanding to know where you were. What’s going on?” he demanded.
“I’m in the hospital,” I quietly explained, already dreading his response.
“What?!” Cole shouted. “What in the hell did you do?!”
“I didn’t do anything!” I yelled back at him, immediately getting defensive. Why the fuck was it always me that had to fucking do something?
Brian snatched the phone from me, shooting me a scowl. He put the phone on speaker. “She didn’t do anything, Cole. I think she was just trying to come up there to you after you left, and she ended up having contractions again.”
“For fuck’s sake!” Cole roared. “She always fucking does something like this! I’ll be home in a few hours,” he snapped.
“Don’t bother,” I spat. “I don’t want to fucking see you if you’re going to act like this.” I looked at Brian. “Hang up the fucking phone.”
“Brian, don’t you fucking listen to her!” Cole roared.
“Hang it up!” I shouted.
Brian did as I told him and sighed. “Cole’s going to kill me, you know that?”
“He’s more pissed at me than you,” I assured him. And it fucking sucked. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”
I turned my head away from him as tears filled my eyes. All I truly wanted was for Cole to comfort me, but instead, he had to blame me and yell at me and make me feel even worse. Even Dr. Kline said it could have happened at any time.
I meant what I said to him. If he was going to act like a fucking asshole, then I didn’t want him to come home.
* * *
When I woke up,someone was holding my hand, and two men were whispering back and forth. I blinked awake to find Cole standing over me, talking to Brian. He was holding my hand in his tightly. “Has the doctor been back to see her since she received the shot?” Cole asked, rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand.
“Once, but she was asleep. He just took notes of some things, told me everything looked okay, and left the room again,” Brian explained.
I yawned, and Cole looked down at me, his features softening instantly. “How are you feeling?” he asked me quietly.
“Fine for right now.” I yawned again. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you I was coming back,” he told me, arching a brow at me.
I glared at him, instantly pissed off—my defense mechanism. “I told you not to since you were being a fucking dick,” I spat at him. “I’m dealing with enough. I don’t need your fucking attitude on top of it.”
He leaned down and silenced me by kissing me. I moaned softly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered against my lips. “Do you know what it’s like for me to be hours away from you and find out that you’re in the hospital again?”
“You wouldn’t even be here if I weren’t fucking pregnant,” I snapped. I fucking hated that he only seemed to care because of this goddamn baby.
“Like hell I wouldn’t!” he shouted down at me, releasing my hand and running his fingers roughly through his hair, tugging on the ends. “You fucking know me better than that, Amelia! I was by your side every fucking time you got hospitalized! You fuckingknowI was! I was the first person you laid your eyes on every time you finally woke up, so don’t eventryto pull that shit on me!” he roared.
A nurse came into the room. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You can’t stress Miss Johnson out,” she told him, her tone a bit wary. Everyone knew the lethality of Cole’s anger.
Cole sighed through his nose and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not leaving,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “I won’t stress her out,” he reassured the nurse.