Emmeline’s eyes bulged and she gasped. It felt as though a water balloon had popped inside her. Warm liquid coursed down her leg, puddling around her feet and soaking her wedge-heeled flip-flops. She squeezed Nicholas’s hand tightly and whispered, “I think my water just broke.”
“Are you okay? Nurse, please, we need you now!” exclaimed Nicholas, his hand running anxiously through his hair. “The baby’s early. Emmeline’s not supposed to be in labor yet!”
“Nicholas, I parked your car,” said Callum, coming through the door with Ginny and their principal. “Never thought I’d ever get a chance to drive it!” Ginny elbowed him. “How ya doing, Em?” he asked.
“My water just broke, and the nurse wants me to fill out forms.” Emmeline turned to Ginny, pleading for her to do something. Emmeline’s floor-length burgundy maternity dress had wet blotches going down her front, making her uncomfortable and utterly embarrassed.
The elderly man waiting at the desk motioned with his good arm to the nurse. “Go to her, I can wait. Look at her, she’s a baby herself.” The nurse smiled gratefully at him.
“Aaaaahhh!” Emmeline doubled over again, her fingers digging into Nicholas’s arm. He grimaced and then plastered a smile on his face.
The nurse got up from behind the desk, came over with a wheelchair, and settled Emmeline into it, while Ginny took over filling out the forms with ease.
“Where are they?” shouted Amy, making a grand entrance into the waiting room. Her normally perfect auburn hair was tousled and her cheeks were flushed.
“Mom, we’re here,” answered Emmeline dryly. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Amy’s need for control over every situation, and a hint of anger punched through the pain as it dawned on her that things were going to get a lot more complicated in a moment.
“I can’t believe you are in labor now! Don’t you understand? Your father had a terribly big business meeting today. He had to cancel it, and he could lose a major account, you know. He’ll be here soon.”
“Don’t blame me, blame this ball of fire trying to consume me from the inside. It wants out, and not even Dad’s schedule is going to stop it.” She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. She didn’t want her baby to be born in the midst of fighting. There had been too much of it over the past several months.
“Don’t be so dramatic. I’m simply trying to tell you why he isn’t here yet,” Amy said.
“I’m going to have this baby whether he makes it or not, Mom. Besides, Nicholas is here. That’s what counts.”
“Nicholas! Oh baby, are you okay?” Nicholas’s mom rushed through the door shouting, her gray eyes wild. “Amy.” She nodded coolly to Emmeline’s mother the moment she saw her.
“Dorothy.” Amy returned her frosty greeting and awkwardly straightened out her brown tweed blazer.
“Nicholas, do you need anything? What do you need? Do you need a wheelchair? Nurse! My son needs a wheelchair, he is going to be a father!”
“Oh Dorothy, he doesn’t need a wheelchair. He’s not having the baby!”
“It’s not all about you, Amy.”
“Guys, this is not the time,” warned Emmeline, tired of the division that existed between them. For months, she had secretly hoped they wouldn’t get to the hospital until after the baby was safely in her arms. She was sure it would make everything so much easier.
Emmeline smiled weakly at Ginny as she dropped the clipboard off on the desk. Principal Senlit approached Emmeline and put her hand on her shoulder, squeezing it slightly. “Your family is here. Will you be okay now?”
Emmeline nodded and said goodbye. As her principal turned to leave, Emmeline couldn’t help but notice how grateful she appeared to get out of this hornets’ nest. She wished she could go with her too.
“If you guys would like to follow me, I can take you upstairs to the maternity ward.” said the nurse, ushering them toward a set of elevators down a hall.
Emmeline groaned. How could any of this be happening? How did I get myself into this situation? she thought for the hundredth time. She tossed her long brown hair over her shoulder, wishing for an elastic to tie it back. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. I was supposed to be older, I was supposed to be prepared, I was supposed to have traveled before I started having a family. I don’t even know what I want to do with my life yet. It was all too much. Labor was nothing like she imagined. She couldn’t remember exactly what she had thought it would be like, but it wasn’t supposed to be this, she was sure.
The group paused to let a stretcher by, and Ginny leaned over and hugged Emmeline. “You know I can go in with you if you want. I don’t mind.”
“I know, but I think Nicholas and I have this covered. Besides, they don’t like too many people in the delivery room.”
“I’ll see you after, and tell them to find me if you need anything. Callum and I will be in the waiting room, hiding from your parents,” said Ginny. Callum winked at Emmeline as another wave of contractions walloped her.
“Why can’t there be a better way for babies to be born?” she whined as Nicholas started to push the chair again.
“I’m so sorry.” His voice sounded thick with emotion. She turned her body to try and look at him. His shoulders were slumped and concern was written in his eyes. “I’m sorry I did this to you.” He reached out and squeezed her hand, then looked to his mother for help. Dorothy was pulling strands of hair out of her head.
“It’ll all be over soon enough,” the nurse reassured them as she pressed the up button on the elevator.
Dorothy abruptly nudged Amy out of the way to stand next to her son. “Don’t apologize, Nicholas. She was there too.”
“Are you blaming Emmeline for this?” Daggers shot out of Amy’s eyes.
“Mom, not now,” begged Emmeline. She could feel her body tensing up, and dreaded the next excruciating contraction that was on its way. “I thought there was supposed to be pauses between the contractions! These seem like they just keep coming.”
“Everyone’s body is different,” the nurse said. “You never know what will…”
“I can’t sit by and listen to this woman call you a slut,” Amy interrupted.
“She’s not calling Emmeline a slut. We were both there in the beginning, and we are here together in the end.” Exasperated, Nicholas pushed Emmeline onto the elevator with a little more force than he must have meant.
“Quick, Nicholas, push the door close button!” Emmeline hissed in a loud whisper.
The elevator doors started to close, leaving the expectant grandparents behind in the hall.
Emmeline smiled. “Sorry, no room! You’ll have to take the next one, or the stairs. Level two!” she managed to get in just as the doors fully shut.
“You know the maternity ward is on level three,” said the nurse, eyeing her suspiciously.
“Oops,” Emmeline said before a contented smile spread across her face. She hadn’t meant to say the wrong floor, but for once, her habit of spitting out the wrong word worked to her advantage. “Hold on, baby, we’re almost there.”
Chapter 3
The elevator doors opened to a crisp white hallway lined with images of newborn babies with their chubby cheeks and legs adorably posed. Tender anticipation flooded Emmeline’s heart. How many hours would it be until she was holding her own newborn in her arms? With her water breaking, she knew for certain that this wasn’t false labor; this was it. She looked up at Nicholas, who was now more cautiously pushing her wheelchair, well away from the commotion, and caught his eye. He smiled at her as if he was thinking the same thing.
What would the baby look like? Would they have Nicholas’s smile or his hair? Would the baby be short like Emmeline? Would they have Nicholas’s personality, or have one all of their own?
“Do you think it will take long for them to find us?” she asked. “They are going to be so mad.” She was still surprised with herself for making Nicholas shut the door before they could get in.
; Nicholas chuckled. “Probably, but at least it gets them off our backs for a while.”
Emmeline was pleased he was taking this so well. It was one thing she didn’t need to feel guilty about for now. Up until she got pregnant, it had seemed like he had a reasonably normal, close family. They had accepted Emmeline into the fold, and even had her and her parents over for dinner many times, which pleased her social-climbing mother to no end. Everything changed the moment they found out about the pregnancy. Emmeline had been sent for a loop, stunned at their sudden brutality.
It had been a horrible time. She’d been dealing with the idea of becoming a mom and had barely worked things out with Nicholas. His mom constantly made things worse, going out of her way, it seemed, to attack Emmeline, especially when she was feeling her most vulnerable. Not to mention her own parents’ disappointment when they had learned the news.
Erik, Nicholas’s young brother by almost seven years, was the only one in their families to be thrilled from day one. To him, this was the coolest thing ever. He tried to console Emmeline, saying, “I’m going to be the best uncle!”
The nurse led them down the hall, past the nurses’ station, stopping briefly to say, “Emmeline Hope is here.”
The woman at the desk nodded. “Put her in room three. Emergency called up already to let us know she was coming.”
Another wave of contractions hit Emmeline. They were coming fast and consistently. She tried to think back again to all the books she read about pregnancy. They had all agreed a first labor could take hours, although it didn’t feel like that at that moment. It felt as though this baby could crawl out any second.
“When does the person with the epidural get here?” she begged.
The nurse, unfazed, said, “We’ll get you settled in room three, and the doctor will be in to see you in a few minutes.”
Nicholas pushed Emmeline to the assigned room close to the desk. The nurse found a blue cotton hospital gown and handed it to her.
Emmeline changed quickly in the bathroom, and then climbed into the hospital bed. She grimaced as Dorothy’s voice began to echo through the halls.
“Where are they?” she demanded. “Where is my son—and that hussy?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” a woman’s voice answered.
“My son!”
Her mother’s voice was next. “I want to see my daughter. She is about to give birth. She needs her mother.”
“If she gets to go in, so do I,” Dorothy declared.
“I guess they found us,” Nicholas said dryly to Emmeline, who could feel her toes curling. “That didn’t take long.”
“I don’t want them here. They’re making it harder.”
“Let me see what I can do,” the nurse said as drew a light blue curtain across, shielding the bed before she walked out.
“Do you think she’ll be able to keep them at bay for a while?” Emmeline asked quietly. She was surprised at how cool her mother was toward Dorothy. Emmeline knew part of her mom desperately wanted to be accepted by Nicholas’s mother as an equal. Amy had the respected Hope last name, and yet Dorothy had all the money and prestige. If she and Nicholas were announcing their marriage instead of having a baby, there probably would be a totally different reaction, despite their age.
“Aw, don’t worry. Olivia, I have this,” Emmeline heard the nurse say. “Would you like a cup of coffee? I’m sure I can scrounge you up one if you like.”
“No,” Amy said sharply. “I want to see my daughter. She needs her mother.”
“My son can’t be in there all by himself!” said Dorothy. “I have to be there for him.”
Emmeline squirmed in her bed, listening. Nicholas rolled his eyes and shut the door.
“Why is it that I go into labor and it’s all about them?” Emmeline asked. Her dreams of beautiful, TV-perfect delivery vanished. Would anything go right?
“Listen, who gives a crap about what they’re doing out there? We’re having a baby, and I refuse to let them spoil it. I am happy, I mean, terrified too, but I get to welcome my own little girl into the world today.”
Emmeline’s eyes went misty. As long as he was beside her, she figured she could make it through this. They had come so far already.
There was a knock on the door, and the doctor introduced himself. He was a small man with thick glasses and an air of confidence about him that almost at once made Emmeline feel more at ease.
“Do those happy people outside belong to you?” he asked sarcastically. Emmeline rolled her eyes and bit down on her tongue, unsure if she wanted to admit it or not. At least the doctor had a sense of humor.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Nicholas said. “I swear they were reasonably normal people until they found out about the baby. Although I think my mom’s been off for a while, I don’t know…” His voice trailed off.
“I can keep them out of the delivery room if you would like,” the doctor offered, pushing his glasses up on his nose.
They both nodded gratefully.
“Deal. Now, shall we check and see if this little one is on their way anytime soon?” He took a moment to check her over, and then said, “This is it. You guys are going to be parents today, and by the look of it, pretty soon.”
Hours passed in a blur as Emmeline held tightly on to Nicholas’s hand. She could see little drops of sweat line his forehead as he offered for the tenth time to rub her back, anything to ease the spasms that tortured her body. Somewhere deep in her mind she welcomed each contraction; there was a power to it that she hadn’t expected, a strength that she didn’t know her body possessed. It was painful and exhilarating all at once. Each one brought her closer to her baby, and her heart fluttered with the thought.
Nicholas never left. Occasionally they heard mumbling from behind the closed door to the hallway. It was easy to block them out then. Although if Emmeline was being honest, there were times she wished she could have her mother in there with her. Holding her hand, telling her that she was going to be all right, stroking her hair, like she did when Emmeline was little. It would have been nice—but in her heart, she knew that once those doors were opened the circus would start all over again. Besides, she didn’t want Dorothy in the room. It was better this way.
The pushing started, and she grunted out cries with each contraction. Emmeline was shocked at how her body took over, seeming to know exactly what to do even as her brain fumbled around, not understanding how to process the pain or what was happening.
“I can see the top of your baby’s head,” said the doctor. “Nicholas, do you want to come around and catch the baby?”
“I can do that?”
The doctor nodded and vacated his spot on the rolly-stool that had been his position for the past several hours. Nicholas took his place, and Emmeline could see his cheeks turn pink. The doctor gave him a few instructions, and then asked, “Are you ready for this?”
“I don’t know,” he said, then chuckled. Emmeline wasn’t sure either, but the desire to push enveloped her body again
“Emmeline, that’s it! The head is out! She’s got dark hair and everything.”
With two more gigantic pushes, a little girl slid safely into her father’s arms.
Emmeline sucked in a deep breath. Her whole life had just changed.
Chapter 4
Emmeline held her squirming baby in her arms, thinking how her round head and little tuft of dark hair looked just like Nicholas’s. He was beaming, thrilled that he got the little girl he wanted. She was perfect: ten fingers, ten toes, and a little button nose. Despite being two weeks early, she was only a little small, weighing just over five pounds.
Nicholas reached down and picked up his daughter’s hand. The baby instinctively wrapped her tiny fingers around his thumb. One look at him and Emmeline could tell he was completely in love. So was she. The feeling was overwhelming.
“So, what do you think?” Nicholas asked, barely able to take his eyes off his baby girl who was blissfully unaware of
the firestorm that was trying to force their way into her perfect little world. The new mom and dad heard the commotion rise outside their closed door and couldn’t ignore it anymore. Emmeline looked anxiously up at Nicholas.
“I guess we better get this over with.” She picked up her daughter’s other hand and asked, “Are you ready, little one, to meet your grandma? Don’t worry if you’re not. I’ve lived with her for seventeen years and I’m still not ready.”
Nicholas opened the door, and for a moment the noise from the hall stopped.
“Would you all like to meet your new granddaughter?” he asked, his chest visibly puffed up. Within seconds the room was filled with two full sets of anxious grandparents. Emmeline hadn’t realised that her dad was even there until that moment. Both he and Nicholas’s father must have arrived while she was giving birth.
“Why on earth wouldn’t you let us in?” asked Dorothy, her hand resting on her hip. “I have half a mind to sue those doctors, keeping me away from my own child while he was having a baby.”
“They kept me out too, you know. Oh…” Amy’s voice trailed off as she laid eyes for the first time on her granddaughter. Her face softened. “She’s so beautiful.”
“Mom, can’t you simply enjoy the fact that you’re a grandparent for even a minute?” asked Nicholas. Emmeline could see how much he wanted his mom to approve of his daughter, and hoped that she could see it too. They had been so close before. Hopefully, some of that sentiment still existed deep inside Dorothy. Emmeline made a promise to herself to make sure she always did what was right for her daughter, not to let disappointment or anger ever get in the way of her being a good mother. This baby was now her world, and she was prepared to do everything she could for her child.
“She looks like you, Emmeline, all pink and chubby,” Amy said softly, approaching the bed where her daughter and grandchild lay. “She even has your mole.” It was on the side of the baby’s cheek in exactly the same place that Emmeline had hers. Amy sighed.
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 49