Another one. Three minutes apart. “You’ve got this,” he said, and held her through it.
When she relaxed back into him again he took his concentration off her long enough to meet her sisters’ worried gazes. He considered their surroundings and the conditions and what their next move should be.
The windows were lit by the strings of lights, and he could see the heavy snow still falling. Shit. The huge room was filled to the brim. Just about the whole town of Lucky Harbor was here tonight, and that was a good thing, considering people like Dr. Josh Scott were out there on the dance floor, Josh doing his white-boy thing. If the Bean was coming tonight, things could be worse.
One song ended and the next began. Chloe was quiet. While around them the place was loud and warm, they were cocooned from the outside world. Voices filtered to him, and his cop brain processed through the tidbits with one ear.
“Yeah, he’s still the hottest guy here,” came a woman’s voice.
“Damn her for finding him first.”
“Maybe it’s not too serious between them,” the first woman said.
The other one snorted. “Right. I mean, sure, they have a house and now a child together, and there was that whole wedding thing, but other than that…”
Tara snorted and Maddie shot the two other women a hard look.
Sawyer tuned them all out and once again turned to look out the floor-to-ceiling windows lining the north wall.
Snow and more snow.
He and Ford exchanged long looks over Chloe’s head.
Nope, they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Chapter 6
I’m fine,” Chloe told Sawyer after another gut-wrenching, heart-stopping contraction.
No, Sawyer thought. She was not. And it was his responsibility to make sure that was fixed ASAP. He pulled out his phone and sent a text. Two minutes later, Josh made his way out of the crowd toward them, with Mallory at his side. Mallory was married to Ty, another good friend of Sawyer’s, and she was a nurse.
“What’s going on, sweetness?” Josh asked Chloe, putting a hand to her wrist.
Taking her pulse.
Chloe opened her mouth, probably to say nothing was wrong, when another cramp hit.
“Two and a half minutes from the last one,” Sawyer told Josh. “Four in the past twenty minutes.”
Mallory crouched on Chloe’s other side in her full-length ball gown and put her hand on Chloe’s taut stomach, undoubtedly feeling the same clenched muscles that Sawyer did. Mallory’s gaze was on Chloe’s face as she panted through the pain.
“Probably false labor, right?” Chloe gasped.
Both Josh and Mallory shook their heads.
“Damn it,” Chloe said. “I’m not leaving this party—” She broke off as another cramp hit, and the breath seemed to get squeezed out of her. “Holy cow,” she said between clenched teeth. “The Bean’s determined to be as big a pain in the ass as her daddy.”
Everyone but Sawyer laughed. He couldn’t take his eyes off Chloe. She was suffering, and it was killing him.
“Where’s the pain?” Josh asked. “In your back?”
“All the way around.”
Josh nodded and straightened. “We need to get things ready.”
“For what?” Chloe asked with wary suspicion.
Josh smiled at her. “Your baby.” He turned to Mallory. “Can you find out what our options are?”
Mallory nodded and moved off.
Chloe turned to Sawyer in disbelief. “My due date is two weeks away.”
“It’s not a return-your-book-to-the-library-on-time kind of due date,” Josh said. “Babies come when they want. And a baby from you and Sawyer…” He shook his head, like there was no measuring the level of stubbornness their baby would have. “Anyway, think of it like this—you’re getting a really great Christmas present a little early.”
“I can hike out and get my truck,” Sawyer said. “Four-wheel over the sidewalks if I have to. I can get us to the hospital—” He broke off when Chloe cried out with the next contraction and leaned into him.
“With the snow and ice we might get stuck on the road and that’d be far worse,” Josh said quietly. “I’ll call for an ambulance, but I think we’ll have a baby before it even gets here.”
“Oh, my God,” Chloe said in a whimper.
Sawyer wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her hot and sweaty temple. “It’s going to be okay.”
“How?” she demanded. “I’m going to have a baby at Town Hall! In a ball gown that used to be Tara’s robe!”
“I knew it!” Tara exclaimed.
Sawyer turned Chloe to face him and made her look into his eyes. “We’re going to handle this. Together.”
“Really?” she asked. “Are you going to push a bowling ball out your—”
He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and a hug. “Chloe,” he murmured softly, “you can do this.”
“But I don’t want to!” she cried. “I don’t want to do it. Not here, not now—oh, God,” she moaned, clutching her belly. “Not another one so soon…”
When the pain passed, Chloe opened her eyes and found Sawyer watching. Calm. Steadying. Always there for her.
“Always will be,” he vowed, making her realize she’d spoken out loud.
“Then if you wouldn’t mind,” she managed, “maybe you could take over this labor gig for me…”
He didn’t laugh or even smile. Instead, he gripped her hand and pressed it to his heart. “If I could,” he said with quiet intensity.
She huffed out a barely there laugh. “Trust me, you wouldn’t like it. Men aren’t built for this sort of thing.”
“If I could,” he repeated, and she realized he meant it to the core.
He would do anything for her, absolutely anything. Including taking on the DEA jobs for the money they needed to build onto their house to make room for the baby. Including walking away from those very same DEA jobs—that he freaking loved, he couldn’t hide that much from her—because they upset her.
Lucille, the town busybody in charge of all things social media and also in charge of tonight’s event, came rushing up, moving with surprising speed and agility given that she was older than God himself.
“Exciting!” she chirped at Chloe.
Word had already gotten out. No big surprise. Lucky Harbor wasn’t the kind of place that kept secrets very well.
“Yeah, exciting,” Chloe said. “Or terrifying. Take your pick.”
Lucille patted her gently on the arm and turned to Sawyer. “The kitchen would normally be our best bet, but it’s a wreck and the caterers are still in there. I’ve got the controller’s office unlocked and ready for you instead.”
This wasn’t the way he thought the birth would go, but life with Chloe had rarely gone the way he’d planned. It’d gone better. Here was hoping that streak continued.
“It’s clean,” Lucille said. “And has good lighting. There’s a private bathroom in there with a working sink for everyone to wash in, and I just sent someone to hunt down towels and blankets. It’s the back office, private and quiet.”
It would have to do. Sawyer bent down and lifted Chloe in his arms. He followed Josh through the community room, down the hallway to the offices, and into one where the desk had been cleared off and covered with blankets and pillows.
He set Chloe down and turned, raising a brow to find Ford, Jax, Tara, and Maddie all crowded into the room behind them.
Tara and Maddie pushed past him to cluster around Chloe.
The guys faced him. “Going to be a daddy,” Ford said, and clasped a hand to his shoulder. “You ready?”
“I don’t think he is,” Jax said. “He’s looking a little pale.” He leaned in close. “Just make sure you don’t faint. They really hate it when the daddies faint.”
Sawyer firmly escorted them out of the room.
“This is pretty appropriate, Chloe,” Tara said. “All your life you’ve been racing through
it, and now your baby’s taking after you.”
“You,” Chloe said in a hiss, “I could do without right now.”
Josh and Mallory washed thoroughly, and then Mallory instructed Sawyer to remove his jacket and wash up as well.
The best thing that could be said about Chloe’s labor was that it was brief. Brief but hard. Over the next hour she screamed and cursed at Sawyer, and for good measure, Tara and Maddie as well. She actually decided to ban them, saying, “I want to be alone with the man who put me in this condition.”
Tara and Maddie opened their mouths to argue, and Chloe, in a moment of absolute stubborn clarity, sat up and jabbed a finger to the door.
They left, and Chloe went back to her business of having a baby with a single-mindedness that impressed the hell out of Sawyer. She’d have made one hell of a world leader—if the world could get past the fact that she loved drama but not rules or any form of organization.
The loud festivities continued in the community room, making a strange accompaniment as Chloe’s labor pains came harder and closer together.
Mallory was called out when one of the party revelers got drunk and slipped and fell, hitting his head. “Effing Anderson,” Josh muttered.
Maddie came back in and Chloe seemed happy to see her. Not five minutes later Josh said, “Head’s crowning. Need another set of hands over here.”
Maddie and Sawyer looked at each other, and then Maddie started to move toward Josh.
“No!” Chloe yelled. She gave Sawyer a nudge that was more like a shove. “Go help our baby. She needs you.”
Sawyer hesitated. He didn’t want to move from her side, plus there was the very real fact that she had a vise grip on his hand so hard he was pretty sure she’d embedded her fingers into his skin.
“Sawyer,” Josh said, and something in his tone had Sawyer disentangling his hand from Chloe’s—probably with only a few broken bones. He kissed her forehead before shifting to the end of the makeshift bed.
“Can you do this?” Josh asked quietly.
Sawyer, who had no idea what he was agreeing to, nodded.
“Some dads pass out,” Josh warned.
“Not this one,” Sawyer said, and hoped that was true.
Josh kept his voice low for Sawyer’s ears only. “The cord’s wrapped around the baby’s neck. I need you to put one hand here, under the baby’s head, and the other here so that when the shoulders come out, you’ll get a good grip.”
Jesus. He nodded.
“It’ll be slippery; be careful. I’m going to make sure the cord doesn’t wrap any tighter.” Josh looked at Chloe. “Ready to push?”
She looked panic-stricken. “No! Listen, this has been fun, but I want to go home now, okay? I’ll come back tomorrow, I promise.”
Sawyer knew she was completely consumed by the pain and a little out of it. Leaning over her, he put his face right in hers to get her attention. “Chloe, babe, you’ve got this.”
“But I don’t!”
“You do. Don’t you know? You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. You can do anything.”
Her glossy eyes filled. “I can’t. Please, Sawyer, do this for me?”
She never asked for help, never, and she was officially killing him. “Oh, babe,” he said softly, wishing with everything he had that he could do just that. “I’ve got you. I’m right here. Together, okay?”
Another strong contraction hit and she had no choice.
“Chloe, push,” Josh instructed.
She clearly gave it all she had, crying out with it, almost screaming, and Maddie yelled right along with her, no doubt because her fingers were now being crushed instead of Sawyer’s. As the contraction seemed to go on and on, Chloe rode the wave, swearing with impressive skill, threatening both Sawyer and Josh for good measure while she was at it.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped when she could, panting, trying to catch a full breath. Sawyer had been watching her carefully for signs of asthma, but so far so good.
“No worries, and you’re doing great,” Josh told her. “The last woman I helped deliver threatened to cut off my twig and berries. Of course, it was my wife, so…”
Chloe laughed and then cried out again with another contraction, each of which was ripping Sawyer’s heart out, just right fucking out of his chest.
“A couple more pushes,” Josh promised, “and we’re done.”
“We?” Chloe joked weakly, and pushed.
“That’s it, keep pushing,” Josh told her. To Sawyer he said, “Here comes the shoulder.”
Chloe gritted her teeth and pushed for all she was worth.
“Good girl,” Josh said, “here comes the baby, right into Dad’s hands—ah, there she is. Sweet, beautiful baby Thompson.”
Sawyer stared down at the baby in his hands in shock. Logically, he’d known that this was the end result, but holding the baby in his hands it suddenly became real.
A baby.
They’d made a baby.
Who wasn’t moving. “Josh.”
“I know.” Josh’s hands were right there with him. Together they turned the baby over, laying her chest on Sawyer’s palm, head down while Josh rigorously rubbed her back.
“Is she okay?” Sawyer heard Chloe ask anxiously.
The baby coughed and sucked in a lungful of air. With the next breath, she wailed her distress at the world in general, her eyes still tightly closed.
Sawyer took his own breath. Jesus.
“She’s perfect,” Josh said to Chloe, quickly and efficiently tying off the umbilical cord. He cleaned the baby with a warm washcloth and wrapped her in a towel, handing her over to the new mama.
Maddie had helped Chloe get propped up on the pillows, but the last few hours had been hard on her. Her hair had gone wild and there were shadows of exhaustion all over her face, but she’d never looked more beautiful to Sawyer than she did right now.
She stared down at the baby in her arms with the same awe and amazement Sawyer felt, and then she lifted her head, her eyes shining brilliantly.
“We did this,” she whispered. “My God, Sawyer. They’re trusting us with a baby.”
He laughed softly, but his throat was so thick and burning he couldn’t do more. “You were amazing,” he said.
“No, I—”
“Amazing,” he repeated.
“Take her,” Chloe said. “I want to see her in your arms.”
Sawyer took the soft warm bundle. The quick warm bath seemed to have soothed her, because she’d quieted. His hand spanned the baby’s entire body.
His daughter.
He who’d once been the scourge of all of Lucky Harbor, a troubled, neglected, abused kid with no good future in sight, had somehow managed to turn his life around enough that he had an incredible wife and a new baby.
A family of his very own.
Chapter 7
Every single inch of Chloe’s body ached and throbbed, but adrenaline was a funny thing. It allowed her to ignore the pain. She was shaking a little bit. Okay, a lot. And from the back of her mind she was aware that Josh and Maddie were still bustling around taking care of her, but she couldn’t tear her gaze off Sawyer and the baby.
Their baby.
God.
She watched, holding her breath as she stared at father and daughter. She’d never seen that look on Sawyer’s face before. The cop face was gone, and the tight mask of control he usually wore as a buffer between him and the world had slipped away, replaced by sheer awe.
The baby had opened her bright blue eyes and seemed to look directly up into her daddy’s gaze.
Gently, his face serious, Sawyer bent his head and kissed her forehead.
The baby stretched and and made a wide yawn, and Chloe nearly melted at the utter beauty and heartbreaking sweetness.
“You’re perfect,” Sawyer whispered to the baby. “Absolutely perfect.” He looked up at Chloe then, his eyes suspiciously shiny. “She looks just like you, thankfully,” he said. “But given how stub
born she was tonight, she might have a hell of a lot of Thompson in her. God help us all.”
Chloe laughed, and held her arms out for the baby again.
Sawyer laid the infant in her arms, and over the sweet bundle she looked into her husband’s gaze. “Are we okay?” she whispered.
His mouth quirked but his eyes remained serious, oh so serious. “We’re always okay. Always will be.”
Again her eyes filled and she tried to say something but let out a sob instead.
“Ah, Chloe,” Sawyer said, voice thick with emotion.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I’ve been such a bitch. I lost my mind there for a while, and then you kept leaving, and I thought—”
“Never,” he promised, cradling her face in a palm, letting his thumb swipe softly over her lower lip. “I’m in this, Chloe. All the way in. I thought you knew that. I thought I vowed that to you when we got married. I thought I’ve been showing you every day for five years.”
Her heart squeezed. “You have. And it’s been the best time of my life, but I guess a little part of me worries I tied you down.”
“Or,” he said, “you worried that you were tied down.”
She stared at him. “I shouldn’t be shocked that you know me better than myself.” She closed her eyes and then opened them. “Yes,” she admitted softly. “I’ve never been so tied to a place, to a person. Until you. But,” she said when his eyes began to shutter, “it’s the way I want it. I want to be tied to you.”
He studied her for a long moment and then his lips curved.
“You’re picturing it, aren’t you,” she said drily. “Me tied.”
“To my bed,” he said on a low laugh. “Yeah, a little bit. But mostly I’m liking knowing that you’re tied to my heart.”
Aw. Damn, he was good. “I let my stupid fears get the most of me,” she admitted. “I was afraid of being a crazy wife and mom. I don’t know how to do this, Sawyer. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Merry Christmas, Baby Page 4