hesitated.
She gave another low groan and bent, clutching her belly, still standing on the side of the road next to his SUV.
“Breathe through it,” he said. “As soon as this contraction stops, you need to get into the back of my truck and I’m going to deliver your baby. Your contractions are coming too fast to make it anywhere. Where’s your husband? You want me to call him?”
The contraction passed and she gripped his hand. “My husband is dead—and I wouldn’t call him if he weren’t. Now. Take me to the hospital.” She panted a bit then caught her breath. “Please. I can’t have this baby on the side of the road. What if something goes wrong? What if—?”
“All right, we can try. Just promise me you’ll holler if you have to push. Understand?”
“Yes, yes. I understand.”
She made it into the back seat before the next contraction hit her. He talked her through it. “I’ve got to move your car out of the middle of the road, okay? I’ll be right back, I promise.”
“Okay. Okay. It’s fine. I can do this.”
The compassionate doctor inside him took over. “Of course you can, Kaylee. I’ll be there to help.”
“The keys are in the ignition,” she whispered. “Hurry.”
* * *
Kaylee watched him leave and breathed a prayer to the God she wasn’t sure was even listening. But just in case he was... I don’t know why stuff like this happens to me, but, please, get me through it. Help me. Let my baby be all right, healthy, whole and fine...
“I’m back.”
“Drive. Please drive. Fast.”
Still, he hesitated. “Kaylee, we’re an hour away—”
“Get in and drive! Please.”
Joshua sighed and climbed into the driver’s seat. “All right, but I can guarantee you we’re not going to make it.” He cranked the big Suburban and pulled onto the road that would take them toward Nashville’s hospital.
“We’ll make it,” she said. “We have to make it.” After all she’d been through, delivering her baby on the side of the road would just be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. No, she could do this. She was strong. She’d survived marrying into a mafia family—unbeknownst to her at the time—then being thrown out of said mafia family when her husband’s parents disowned him. She’d lived through visiting her spouse in prison, learning about his affair, then being tossed out of her home, pregnant and penniless, by the very man who’d promised to love her forever. She was a survivor. If she had to have her child on the moon, she would do it, and they were going to have a wonderful life together. Her baby deserved it.
“What were you doing driving yourself?” he asked just as another contraction hit.
She panted her way through it before responding. “Dad wasn’t answering his phone. I called two other friends, and they didn’t answer. I waited to see if one of them would call me back. Obviously, I waited too long. I didn’t want to spend the money on an ambulance—” Another contraction hit and she couldn’t get another word out. Kaylee clenched her teeth and tried to breathe at the same time. She really should have done the classes, but—“Ah!”
“Breathe, Kaylee. Breathe through it.”
“You breathe through it! I don’t want to breathe through it. I want it to stop!” Then the pressure was just too much. “Oh, no. I have to push. I have to!”
“Don’t push!” The SUV slammed to a stop and then he was there with the back door open. He rested one hand on her right ankle. “Look, let me help you.”
“I don’t know you. You can help me by getting me to the hospital.”
“Don’t you recognize me?”
She blinked at him, trying to focus. “No.” She’d been in pain and fear for the last ten hours. Everything was kind of blurry. And the pressure...
“I’m Joshua Crawford. Dr. Joshua Crawford.”
Another wave of pain hit her even as she processed his name. Joshua Crawford. Oh, no. Not the son of the woman who planned to marry her father. The gold digger who’d sunk her claws into him.
She remembered Joshua now. And wished she didn’t. But she had heard that he was a doctor. Hadn’t she? Or was he some mixed martial arts fighter? The pain eased, the pressure lessened. But she knew it would be back. “I thought you were on the MMA circuit. When did you become a doctor?”
“I became the doctor first. MMA was later. Or rather, during.”
“What?”
“Never mind. I’ll explain later.”
More indescribable pain hit her. She couldn’t speak for the next couple of minutes, but once the contraction passed she looked at him and nodded. “Okay. Just make it stop.” At least she had a doctor to help, so maybe God did care about her just a little. At the moment she didn’t care, she was just thankful.
“Don’t push.”
“If you tell me not to push one more time—”
Joshua ran to the back of the SUV. In the midst of the contractions that seemed to come one after the other in a never-ending wave of pain, she heard him rummaging.
He returned and set a bag on the floor. “Try to relax. I’ve done this before.”
“You’ve had a baby before?” She gritted the words. “I doubt it. If you had, you would never tell me to try to relax—or demand I not push.”
He gave a low laugh. “No, I’ve never had a baby before, but I’ve delivered a few. Okay? How about try to take comfort in knowing that I’m going to take care of you and your little one?”
“That’s better.” She breathed through her mouth like she’d seen people do in the labor room where she’d worked a rotation. Surprisingly, it helped. A little.
“I don’t have everything I would like, but I’ve got a large tarp and a medical bag. It’ll have to do.”
“I’ve got towels in my car. In case my water broke. I was sitting on them in the driver’s seat.”
“Okay, be right back.”
He took off again and she did her best to breathe through the next contraction. When it was over, she sucked in a deep breath. “Whoa.” She had a new appreciation for mothers who chose natural childbirth over having an epidural. She hadn’t planned to do it this way.
She really wanted the epidural.
But it wasn’t to be. Now she just wanted her baby here, whole and healthy.
Joshua returned, towels in hand.
“That was fast.”
“I didn’t have to go very far.” He grinned. “I was driving really slow because I figured this was going to happen.”
She’d take that up with him later.
“I’m ready when you are.” He covered her with two of the towels and his respect for her privacy nearly made her cry. Then another wave of pain hit and she just plain didn’t care anymore. She just wanted to be done. And to sleep. Yes. Sleep would be amazing.
“Fine. Just do it.” She let out another yell and lost herself in the process of giving birth.
Kaylee wasn’t aware of time passing. She was mostly aware of the pain, but also the excitement that the end was finally here. The end...and the beginning. The beginning of a new life with a new life.
And then Joshua was placing him in her arms and everything