“She’s working at a free clinic her in Austin,” he said. “Diagnosing ear infections and treating STDs. Giving back, I guess.”
That was just like Harley.
She disappeared from my sight. I could have gone downstairs and intruded on their meeting, insisted on knowing why she didn’t so much as leave me a voicemail message. But what good would that do?
I stayed there, feeling the hurt and the pain. I was feeling again…and that was because of her. I think for the longest time after Jesse and Grace died, I just stopped. Stopped feeling, stopped caring. Stopped participating in life. But now I was feeling and a part of me wished I could make it stop again.
I cried like a damn fool when Bailey brought her baby home. Held him in my arms and cried like…well, like a baby.
It was getting out of control!
I needed to get a life.
“Hey!”
I turned to the sound of someone yelling. Then it came again.
Pepper.
I rushed down the corridor that led to the living quarters David and Ricki shared. I’d done this once before, rushing at the sound of Pepper’s cry when Ricki had a seizure. Was that it? Was she having another seizure? But when I burst through the door, Ricki was calm, her eyes bright, but not fearful.
“What’s going on?”
“Her water broke!” Pepper announced.
“It’s fine,” Ricki said. “I just—”
But then she moaned, her hand slinging over her belly. I went to her, vaguely remembering what it’d been like when Jesse went into labor with Grace.
“Contraction?”
She nodded, the first touch of fear coming into her eyes. “Pressure.”
I frowned. It was too early for that.
“What does that mean?” Pepper demanded.
“It means she’s having a baby today.” I touched her hand in an attempt to keep her calm. “Go downstairs and get David.”
She ran, not in the least calm. Ricki laughed.
“She’s an excitable one.”
I touched her belly, awed by the miracle of what was happening here. Under my palm it tightened, hard as a rock and Ricki moaned.
“They’re too close,” she said, fear again filling her eyes. “Much too close.”
“It’s okay. We’ll get you to the hospital.”
She shook her head, and then she cried out as another contraction rushed through her.
“It’s coming. Right now.”
“You’ve only been in labor a minute.”
“I don’t know what’s happening, but it feels like it did when Chase was born. It’s coming now!”
What was I supposed to do? I didn’t know anything about delivering a baby. I stood and pulled the sheets off her, exposing the wet puddle from her amniotic fluid dripping from her body. She was sweating and that added to the moisture. She sat up a little and began to push.
“Don’t do that!”
“I can’t help it.”
And then the door burst open and Harley, her eyes dark with exhaustion, hesitated only briefly when she saw me. But then she focused on Ricki and came over, taking her hand as she quickly assessed the situation with just a glance.
“I’m Harley. I’m a doctor.”
“Thank God!” Ricki sighed.
Harley smiled. “You’re having pressure?”
Ricki nodded.
“I’m going to check your cervix.”
Harley gestured to David and had him help her maneuver Ricki on the bed so that she could access her properly. I stepped back, moving until I hit the wall. Pepper came to stand by me, her eyes wide with wonder and fear.
Harley subtly slid her hand between Ricki’s legs, talking the whole time, making jokes about groping her the first time they met. I could see the tension in her shoulders and the concern written on her face.
Ricki suddenly reared up just slightly. “He’s coming, he’s coming!”
Harley just nodded. “Push.”
“No!” David said. “We can’t have a baby here!”
“We are,” Harley said. “I can feel the head.”
And it was like seconds—when it was really minutes—but one second Ricki was in labor, the next Harley was holding a squirming, screaming infant in her arms.
“It’s a girl!”
***
The whole group gathered as the paramedics loaded Ricki and the baby onto the back of the ambulance.
“They should name her Chaos,” someone commented, referring to all the drama she’d caused her parents during their pregnancy.
“Close. They’re naming her Eris.”
Laughter drifted around the circle.
I stood back by the door and watched. They were all there. Ingram and Bailey, their sons close in their arms. Alex and Tierney. Elliot and Brooks. There were engagement rings on Brooks and Tierney’s fingers. There was a rumor they were planning a double wedding. And Knox. She was standing off to the side, a secret smile on her lips. There was rumor that she and Dunlap were also planning their nuptials, or that they’d already taken the plunge and were keeping it on the down low for some reason. And Pepper and Nolan. He had his arms around her shoulders and was whispering in her ear, finally calming the fear and concern that had nearly driven her to hysteria.
I could feel the happiness almost palpably. I had to get out of there.
I went back upstairs and nearly ran head long into Harley. There were bloody sheets in her hands.
“I was just…” She stopped, her eyes moving everywhere but to my face.
Was it really that difficult for her to look at me?
“The laundry shoot is just in there.” I pointed to the doors she’d just come out of. “On the wall.”
“Thanks.”
I followed her, watching as she dropped them down. She turned and headed back to Ricki’s bedroom, so I followed.
“You were pretty amazing today.”
“Just a run of the mill delivery.”
“Not for them.”
She nodded in agreement as she moved around the room, straightening up the new sheets she’d found somewhere. I went over to help, but still couldn’t get her to look at me.
Until words started to fall from my lips like verbal vomit.
“Why didn’t you call me? Send me a text? Let me know where you were? I waited all this time, wondering where you were, wondering if the cops were going to call and tell me that something had happened to you. I couldn’t believe you would just disappear like that, after everything.”
“I thought it was what you wanted.”
“Why would I want you to disappear?”
“Because I’m a reminder of everything that happened.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that.
“What does that mean? A reminder?”
“Your family was murdered and my brother confessed, my mother knew all along who it was and never said anything to anyone.” She shook her head as though she still couldn’t wrap her head around it. “And I’m just the girl who wouldn’t let it go, the one who badgered you and everyone else until it all just exploded.”
“Until we found out the truth.”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t let it go and now my brother’s dead and your wife…you’ll never get that back. You’ll never be able to forget.”
“No. I won’t.”
She nodded, her head lowered as she stared at her hands. I crossed the room, moving around the bed, and slid my hands over her upper arms.
“But what does that have to do with us? Am I not allowed to move on with my life?”
“Of course! But—”
“You can’t tell a man you love him and then just disappear.”
She turned and her eyes jumped to mine, clouded with tears. “You heard that?”
“I’m a lot of things, Harley, but I’m not deaf.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t think…”
I brushed the tears from her face before taking it in my hands.
&nbs
p; “I love you. I never thought I would feel that way again. I never thought that I was even capable of that sort of depth of feeling. But I do. I love you. And I want to be with you. I’m not quite sure what that means right now, but—”
“That’s okay. I think we have time to figure things out.”
I shook my head. “No. If this thing has taught me anything, it’s just how short life really is.” I pressed my fingers into her hair and tugged her closer. “I lost Jesse and Grace, and I wasted years lost in my own hell. Now I just…I want to live. I want to feel. I want to be happy. And I want to do all that with you.”
She stared at me as if she didn’t believe me.
“Are you sure? All this stuff—?”
“It’s just stuff. It’s in the past now.”
“So where does that leave us?”
I shrugged. “I hear there’s a sweet old justice of the peace downtown who offers a discount on his wedding services.”
She tilted her head. “That’s not too fast for you?”
“We have to wait two days after we get the license. That’s probably long enough.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah.”
“And then that gives me until David gets out of the hospital to inform him I’ll need a little cottage of my own. Can’t bring my bride home to a guest room in my boss’s childhood home.”
“I have a place. A nice townhouse downtown.”
“Yeah? I should also warn you that David pays me well, but not that well.”
“Oh, that’s fine, too. The trust my dad left for me is more than enough to keep us comfortable, I think.”
“Yeah?”
She laughed. “I know it’s important to get these things out of the way at the beginning of a committed relationship, but do you think the rest could wait a little while?”
“Have something else in mind to do?”
She glanced suggestively at the bed. I scooped her up in my arms.
“A little too weird. A woman just had a baby there, but I have a king-sized bed across the hall.”
“That’ll do.”
~ END ~
GRAY WOLF SECURITY, Texas: The Complete 6-Books Series Page 90