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Chapter Seven
Hadley
My water broke.
I knew it was going to happen. Just not right in front of our jerk for a neighbor whose name was closely similar to my soon-to-be born son. If Lucy hadn’t yelled… I called my doctor a few hours earlier after suffering contractions far too often and too close together, and she told me to head to the hospital. I saw her a few days ago and she let me know that Eli would come any day. She offered to admit me then, but I refused. Told her I would wait for Eli to pick the day himself with the promise that I’d stay home and rest until he did. And that was what I did all week.
I woke up this morning with the feeling that today was going to be the day.
I sat straight in my seat, shutting my eyes, and trying to think through the pain. I sucked in a breath and whimpered as another tight contraction took hold of my entire stomach, squeezing Eli further into a ball inside my uterus.
“Mommy!” I was scaring Lucy. I could kick myself for being so stubborn. My parents said they’d come to get us and I refused, saying I could do it. Although the hospital was only ten minutes away, I knew it would be impossible for me to drive. I’d seen my co-worker Ali walk right into the hospital while in labor, squirt the kid out, and strut around later like giving birth was a piece of cake. Some women had all the luck. Even though I had a pretty high tolerance for pain, when I reached a certain point, I was a goner.
And I was there. Fumbling around for my phone a second or two before I realized it was in my hand, I searched for my mom’s cell number when the car door opened. My neighbor, Elijah, peered down at me with a tight, worried scowl. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
I was in so much freaking pain that I gave up and whispered through another pinched breath. “My water broke.” No doubt he saw that long before I pointed it out. My gray pajama bottoms were soaked. I could hear Lucy crying in the back but couldn’t turn around. “It’s okay, Lucy, you knew that we were on the way to the hospital so I could have Bubby.”
“I’m scared,” she sobbed.
Me too. “It’ll be—” Another contraction hit, and I finally let my fear creep in. I held my stomach and gritted my teeth together. What if I had the urge to push long before my parents got there? I rushed with the phone, about to dial for them when Elijah unbuckled me.
“Can you stand to make it over to the passenger side?” he asked.
“I’m afraid to even stand,” I wailed as tears seeped from my eyes. “I’m going to call my parents. They’re already on their way to the hospital, but they can stop and get us like I should have let them.”
“You can’t fucking sit out here the way you are.” Why was he angry? I turned my head and saw his face near mine as he put one arm underneath my leg and his other against my back before scooping me up. My belly made it difficult for him to cradle me better. I caught his neck and gasped out of shock and intense agony as he lifted me over the console and onto the passenger seat.
There were some things, no matter how close to freaking out and miserable I was, that I couldn’t help but notice and that was the fact that this man had touched bodily fluids that gushed out of me when he had grabbed me. He climbed in and sat in them as he shut the driver’s door with a loud bang.
“What are you doing?” I murmured, clutching my stomach and practically screaming as my entire belly tightened into a giant ball again.
“Getting you to the hospital,” he replied, and I knew it made sense but I was mortified. I hadn’t even wanted Scott to see the agony and mess of childbirth, and that had been the man I’d loved. It was ten times worse for a handsome stranger to see those things. It was too embarrassing for a shy woman to handle.
Another contraction destroyed that train of thought. Eli was coming, and he needed me to get my crap together and make it to the hospital. I forgot about shame and remembered what was ahead—pain, tearing, and pushing then the joy of having Eli.
I couldn’t straighten my spine so I stayed hunched over as Elijah started my car and sped out of the parking lot.
“Mommy?” Lucy was still sobbing. I wanted to soothe her more than anything, but it was hard when I could hardly concentrate through the pain ripping through my pelvis.
“You ready for Eli to be here?” I asked her without moving from my position.
“Not if it hurts you.”
Her words made me smile through the pain. Kids were so honest.
“Do you need to call the dad or something?” Elijah’s eyes darted over toward me briefly then went back to the road. If my body hadn’t been tilted toward him, I would have missed the gesture.
“He already knows to be there,” I told Elijah, which was another issue I dreaded. All week Scott had nagged me to allow him in the room while I gave birth but I refused. There was a part of me that felt guilty for taking that away from him, but I’d never keep Lucy and Eli from him. I just couldn’t allow him in with me during such a private and intimate moment ever again. He’d lost that chance when he chose to get between my cousin’s legs. He might not have seen it that way, but I did. He made a choice and forced me to make one because of it.
Some women could forgive their men for cheating and come together stronger than ever. Not me. I thought I gave Scott all of me and had only wanted the same from him. Call me young or foolish, even absurd, but I could never look at him and feel what I had for him ever again. He ruined that, not me.
Scott could hold Eli afterward, but I only wanted my mom with me. Olivia would have been my first choice, and even though she left to get here a couple of hours ago, there was no way she would be here before Eli was born.
Now I was crying. Even though I said I didn’t want Scott in there—and I didn’t—I was still overcome with loneliness. I had him with Lucy so I didn’t feel this way, but I’d never felt so utterly alone as I did on the way to the hospital with a stranger that had been mean to Lucy.
What was I doing? How was I going to take care of two kids by myself? Any other day of the week I’d put on my brave face and count down the days until I got a better job, but not at that moment. Not when the pain was tearing into all my doubts and fears.
I sucked in a breath as my belly tightened and tears streamed down my face. Silence gave way to screams as the pain ripped through me. I leaned against the seat and practically tore off the car door’s arm. I briefly thought about doing the same to Elijah’s arm but caught myself last second. Lucy was hysterical in the back.
