by Quinn, Taryn
People were always fighting over it.
I made a mental note to put my order in over there. They were always so damn busy. It had taken me six months to get the stools for the bar on his order list. Then again, I’d been building The Haunt in my head for a year.
“Her?” Rylee asked.
“Shoot.” Ivy blew out a rapid succession of breaths. “I’m supposed to keep it a secret.”
“Does Rory know?”
“No, he wants to be surprised.” She let out a long moan. “Actually, funny story, I wanted to be surprised, and he played along.” She groaned and rubbed the side of her belly. “Then when he was talking to the doctor, I accidentally heard the tech say girl.” She tipped her head back and shouted out a laugh and cry combo that made all my girl parts shrivel. “So, here I am with a big secret because my husband has been trying to play along with me. Oh my God, I can’t do this.”
Rylee came to sit by her side. “The ambulance is on its way.”
“Kinleigh! Where is my husband?!”
Kinleigh was on the phone near the window, her shoulders hunched. She held up a finger and spoke urgently to someone on the other end who was definitely not Rory.
Gideon came up beside me, Dani in his arms. She was covered in paint, but her wide green eyes were worried. “Is Miss Ivy going to be all right?”
He rubbed her back lightly. “She’s going to be just fine.”
“Is the baby coming?”
“Possibly in my café.”
“Cool!”
I glanced up at her with her arm wrapped around her dad’s neck. He didn’t cringe away from the paint she was wearing.
“Are you done working now, Dad?”
My neck felt really hot. I was pretty sure the whole room was looking at us. I glanced down at my shirt to make sure it wasn’t on backward.
“Yeah, kiddo. We’re good to go home as soon as we make sure Ivy’s okay. Is that all right?”
“Can we go to the hospital with her?”
“You’re all going to the hospital with me if Rory isn’t here.” Ivy slapped the back of the couch and arched up off the cushions like a demon. Dear God.
Gideon caught my gaze, his eyes wide with actual fear.
“Weren’t in the birthing room, Dad?”
He swallowed. “Jessica actually went into labor on location.” Gideon tipped his head against his daughter’s. “I didn’t get there in time.”
I found myself rubbing his arm in sympathy before I dropped my hand back to my side. What the hell was wrong with me?
A knock on the door had me whirling around. I patted my pockets then ran back to the counter for my keys.
Chaos reigned after that. Rylee, Gideon, and I moved tables to get the stretcher into the dining room.
Kinleigh came back over to Ivy with the phone and held it out in front of her. “He’s trying to get on the next plane, but I got him on video.”
“I don’t want video, I want him here.”
“Ivy, love.” Rory’s voice came through the speaker loud and clear. “I swear I’ll be there as soon as humanly possible. I never should have left you.” His voice was out of breath.
Ivy snatched the phone from Kinleigh. “I cannot do this without you.”
“You are strong and perfect and I know you’ll make sure that little girl comes into the world safe and sound.”
Ivy instantly burst into tears. “You know?”
“Of course I know. I’ve been trying not to say it every bloody day.”
“Okay, miss. Let’s get you on the—”
Ivy let out a scream that made the whole damn room go silent. She sat up. “I’m going nowhere.”
“You are not having this baby in my damn café.”
The paramedic pushed the stretcher out of the way to get to Ivy. “Okay, let’s just calm down a little. Is this your first birth?”
“Yes.” Ivy wiggled on the couch to get into a better position.
“Ivy,” came Rory’s tinny voice.
“Yes.” She held the phone up in front of her face. “Yes, I’m here.”
“Let the nice people take you to the hospital.”
“I don’t think I’m going to make it to the hospital.” Ivy’s huge eyes were full of tears. “I’ve had that backache thing all day. And you know those Braxton Hicks? Yeah. Those doctors are liars.”
“Jesus.” Gideon took a step back.
“Wimp.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Next time you do the kid thing, that’s not going to fly.”
His eyes locked with mine. “Is that so?”
I looked away quickly. “Hey, is there anything I can do to help? Towels? Hot water?”
The female paramedic started unpacking a kit. “We should be okay to take her. We’ll just check her vitals and see how things are going.”
“Down there?” I swallowed. I really didn’t want to see it. The last time I’d seen pieces of a birth had been in health class. I was still haunted.
I could watch a head get severed, no problem. A head coming into the world? Nope.
No, thank you.
“Yes, I need to see how far she’s dilated. Lucky for you guys, I’m a doula on the side.”
“I don’t know what that is.” I held my hand up. “Don’t want to know either.”
She laughed and took out a few things out of her kit and went to Ivy. “Okay, mom-to-be, what’s your name?”
“Ivy.” Her voice was breathless, thanks to the breathing thing and sheer panic.
You know, because there was a human coming out of her.
Jesus. I bent at the waist to get my own breath for a second. I really couldn’t have all these emotions swinging around like this in one hour. From orgasmic bliss to terror seemed a little cruel.
“Are you okay, Macy?” Dani patted my hand, then tucked her fingers into mine.
The floor shimmered once before I blinked back the tears. “Yeah, kid, I’m good.” But I held on because the kid looked just as scared as I felt. I glanced up at Gideon, who was standing right by me. “Maybe you should take her home.”
Dani lifted her chin. “I can stay. I want to see Miss Ivy’s baby.”
“Hopefully, she’s going to the hospital to have the baby.”
“Then I can go to the hospital. Right, Dad?”
“We don’t want to be in the way, sweetheart.”
Ivy let out an ear-piercing scream. “I need my go-bag. I need my husband. I need August!”
“I can do two of those things.” Gideon put his hand on Dani’s head. “You’ll be okay with, Macy?”
She nodded. “I’ll help.”
I waved him off. “I’ve got her.”
Dani dragged me toward the counter. “We can get towels. I’m thinking this is going to be yucky.”
That was an understatement. I looked over my shoulder to find Kinleigh explaining where the go-bag was at her apartment. As usual, Gideon was taking charge. He was good at it with his men and here. And I didn’t want to analyze why that made my chest tight.
He pushed up his sleeves on his cotton shirt. The neck of it was a little misshapen from…well, from me dragging at his clothes. Otherwise, no one would know I’d had a religious experience next door.
Cripes.
I pushed open the door and flicked on the lights. “Okay, Ash, go to that cabinet and get as many big towels as you can find.”
“Okay.”
I pulled down my biggest pot to boil water. I didn’t know if that was really a thing, but if the baby was coming, shit was definitely going to get yucky as Dani had said.
“Okay, I got ‘em.”
I turned on the burner and twisted around. The stack of towels was past her head. I took two off the top. “Is your ankle okay?”
Her green eyes were sparkling. “I’m good.”
I narrowed my gaze. “Are you sure?”
“Okay, maybe you can take half.”
I took three more and turned her around, pushin
g the swinging door open to let her go ahead of me. “All right, let’s go.”
“Jesus.” Chaos had changed over my café into some scary triage unit. Considering a metallic blanket was now tented over Ivy’s knees, I had a feeling things were going even quicker than Ivy thought.
Dani took off like a shot and I hurried after her.
“I need my focus bunny,” Ivy said at the top of her lungs.
“Ivy, I need you to take some deep breaths.”
“I need my focus. I need it.”
Kinleigh was sitting next to the couch, her hands clasped around one of Ivy’s. “Gideon’s getting my backup go-bag. He’ll be right back.”
“I need it now.” Her face was ruddy and sweaty, her panic rising as Rory tried to talk to her.
I dropped the towels on the table by the second paramedic, currently on the phone with the hospital. I didn’t know much about the baby thing. My limited knowledge of children was past the toddler days.
Memories of Malcolm and his favorite toy bombarded me. I shoved them down ruthlessly. Now was not the time to remember him. But maybe the focus thing was almost the same.
“Does she need something to focus on for the contractions? Is that what she’s talking about?”
“Yes.” The doula-slash-paramedic looked up from between Ivy’s legs. “If you had something small for her.”
I turned to my corner shelving unit full of bats and pumpkins and spiders. Nothing that Ivy would enjoy. But maybe…
I shoved aside books to find the little stuffed bat she’d given me that was perched on top of an ice cream sundae.
I held it up. “Will this do?”
Ivy’s eyes were bloodshot from doing God knows what to get that kid out of her. “I need my focus bunny.”
Kinleigh sighed. “Honey, we’re getting it, but I just sent a man to find something in my shop.”
Ivy laughed and cried at the same time. “I’m never going to get that bunny.” She held her hand out. “Give it to me.” She snatched it out of my hands and set it on her belly.
“Okay, love, just deep breaths.” Rory’s voice came from the same area. The phone was tucked beside her in heaps of clothing and tablecloths.
Dani rushed over to the female paramedic. “Here.” She stacked towels next to her.
“Thank you very much. You’re such a good girl.”
Dani flushed, her freckles glowing. “Sure. No big deal.” She rushed back over to me.
The door banged open and August came flying in with the bag. “I’m here.”
Ivy’s other hand popped up. “Auggie. Oh, God. Rory isn’t here. I mean, he’s here on the phone, but—” Her sobs started up again. “God, it hurts.”
August Beck, her older brother, leaned over the back of my couch, frustration etched in his face. “Is this the best place to do this? Can’t we get her to the hospital?” He glanced at Kinleigh helplessly, then at the paramedic.
He was a hulking, dark-haired guy who looked like he was just about to lose his lunch at the things going on at the end of the couch. He moved up to his sister and pushed away stray bits of hair from her braids. “You always like to make a splash, Ive.”
“At least I didn’t have her in the truck.” She arched as another contraction slammed into her.
“Can’t you give her something?” August gripped the back of the couch.
The paramedic shook her head. “Sorry. She’s way too far along and we don’t have those kinds of medications in the ambulance.”
“Okay, Ivy. I’m going to need you to push when the next contraction comes around, okay?”
She shook her head. “No, I can’t. I can’t have her now. I need Rory.”
“Nope, you are going to do this with all of us. Great energy in this room, right? Strong women all around and even males who haven’t passed out yet.”
Ivy collapsed back against the arm of the couch. “That is a miracle.” She let August’s hand go to grab her phone. “Rory?”
“I’m here.”
She laughed weakly. “I don’t want to do this without you.”
“I’m right here. You’ll never be alone, I promise you. Thank God for technology. My mum is even on her way over. She can’t wait to meet her grandchild.”
“Oh, is she?” Her eyes went wide and suddenly, she tensed again. “Here we go.”
“I need you to push now.”
“Now?”
“Now!” The paramedic’s voice was stern and calm. It seemed to snap something to attention in Ivy. She immediately grabbed August and Kinleigh’s hands and bore down.
Holy shit. I couldn’t move. Dani ran over to me and hugged me around the middle, burying her face in my side at the rash of grunts that came out of the usually sweet Ivy.
It seemed like it took forever, but then everything became hushed as Ivy slumped back.
“Okay. That was awesome. You’re doing amazing. This little girl? It’s a girl, right?”
“That’s what we overheard at the doctor’s.” Ivy’s voice was weak.
“Well, this little girl is going to come out in no time. I just need you to hang in there with me, okay?”
Ivy nodded.
August seemed at a loss and he kept trying to reach over the couch.
“Just rip off the back if that’s what you want to do.” I absently stroked Dani’s hair.
August looked up. “Really?”
“Go for it. That’s going directly into the scrapyard after this little incident.”
August squatted down and his big hand slid down the side of the back of the couch. He pulled something off his belt and after a little work—far less than I thought should hold a damn couch together—the backing came loose. He jerked it up and threw it onto the floor so he could kneel on it “Better. Hey, sis.”
“Well, that’s one way to do it.” The paramedic shook her head then gripped Ivy’s knee gently. “We’re going to push again in a minute, okay?” When Ivy didn’t answer, she repeated herself.
“Yes.”
August slid his arm behind his sister to support her. Kinleigh did the same so they were practically hugging Ivy. Their other hands were clasping each of Ivy’s as she slowly tensed again.
“Here we go.”
August looked over his sister to Kinleigh and the air seemed to charge. Hmm. Well, that was interesting.
Then it was all about the baby. Gideon came to meet me and Dani, standing behind us. Rylee sidled up to the other side of me and grabbed my hand.
I didn’t even bother trying to step away from any of them. It was as if one unit was banding together in each camp. I wasn’t even sure how much time had passed. The paramedic’s soothing voice never changed. Even when I was pretty sure Ivy was going to tear her head off.
August and Kinleigh were a combined unit in this weird little bubble around her. I couldn’t take watching Ivy crying about how tired she was. I tried to break away, but instead of letting me walk off, Gideon turned me around and held on.
When the baby’s crying filled the room, I sagged against him.
Thank God.
“Big bad boss lady afraid of a little blood?” Rylee asked. “You were good when I was giving birth.”
“Yeah, well, there were doctors and I didn’t have to see…everything.” I waved my hand behind me.
Dani looked up at me. “Is the baby okay?”
“Hear all that crying going on? That’s a good sign.”
She glanced to her father. “That true?”
“The pros tell me so.” He smiled down at Dani, then hugged me closer, brushing his lips along my temple. “I think I better get her home.”
I nodded and stepped away from him. “It’s late.”
“I want to see the baby.” Dani folded her arms.
“Give Ivy a minute with her family over there and we’ll see what’s what.” His pocket started buzzing and he took out his phone. His face went stony and he shoved it back into his jeans.
“Everything okay?”
/> He glanced at Dani then back at me meaningfully. It took me a second, but I caught on quick. The ex. Nothing like the blond bombshell of his past to throw some cold water on everything.
Kinleigh had gone around what was left of my couch to hug August as Ivy took a minute to show Rory his new baby. From all the squeaking and crying both from baby and mom, I was pretty sure everything was good.
Ivy was wrapped up in blankets and the hot water came in handy to get the baby cleaned up enough to take a ride in the ambulance. She waved us over.
“Meet Rhiannon Grace Ferguson.” She cradled her close but turned her out so everyone could see.
Dani stood on her tiptoes and leaned in to get closer to the baby.
“Dani…” Gideon started.
Ivy shook her head. “It’s okay. Isn’t she beautiful?”
“She’s all squishy,” Dani replied.
Gideon hung his head and we all laughed.
“Well, she’s been through quite a bit tonight.”
Dani touched her little pink hand. “Wow.”
“Yeah, pretty much all I can say too,” Ivy whispered. She looked up at me. “Sorry I kind of put on a show.”
“At least it wasn’t in the middle of lunch.” I placed my hands on Dani’s shoulders to gently pull her back.
Ivy laughed and kissed the top of her daughter’s head. “No. Small favors there.” She craned her neck to smile up at August. “And I had my backup coaches here.”
“She’s beautiful, Ive.” August’s voice was deep with emotion. “Mom and Dad will meet us at the hospital.” He finally released Kinleigh. “Why don’t you go with her on the ambulance and I’ll follow in the truck.”
Kinleigh nodded. “Yeah, definitely.”
Rylee came forward to say hi to the baby. “Vee is going to be pissed she missed it.”
“At least there would have been cookies. I’m famished.” Ivy laughed and kissed the baby again. The baby’s hair was so fine, but it seemed to have a bit of a red tinge to it.
“Hey, Ash, you want to go get a few cookies from the bakery cabinet for our new mama?”
“Yeah.” She ran without a limp. Guess that sore ankle was miraculously feeling better now that she didn’t have time to think about it. “Can I have one too?”