Sleep this last week has evaded me. I’ve tossed and turned, thinking about Rhett more often than not. What will life be like if he has BMD? Will he let me help him? The other part of me gets lost in the fantasy of him not having it. And maybe then he will let me all the way in. I understand him now. It eases the ache that was put there by his gentle rejections.
My phone rings on my nightstand table. I look and see Ava’s name flash across the screen; the second thing I notice is the time. It’s three o'clock in the morning.
Oh my God.
She’s having the baby. All of my own personal thoughts evaporate into thin air as I answer the phone.
“Is it happening?” I ask, skipping hellos because baby having is serious business.
Her laugh on the other end of the line makes me laugh. “Yes. You are welcome to come down whenever. If you want to waittil the morning, that’s fine too. I’m six centimeters; I just got the epidural. My personal goal is to push her out before sunrise.”
“Honestly, I’m not sleeping anyway, and I don’t have to work tomorrow. Might as well add some excitement,” I say, immediately hopping out of bed.
“Willow is on her way too; Weston has to work cows in the morning so he is staying put,” she adds.
“One last girls’ night,” I joke. “I’m getting dressed now and then I will be on my way.”
“Sounds good. Thank you for wanting to come. It means a lot,” Ava says. Her parents are gone, and she doesn’t have any family. I’ve made it my personal mission to make her feel like the sister we both never had.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I say as I smile into my phone.
The perks of working at the hospital are that I don’t have to stop at the front to make my way in. And lucky for Willow, I spot her parking at the same time as me, so she doesn’t have to go through the hassle of going through the ER. Being a small hospital, the front door is locked from six pm to six am, but you can get in through the ER. Lucky for me, I have the badge that opens all doors.
“You ready to be the welcoming committee?” I ask Willow as we walk through the hospital.
“Oh yeah. We’re going to make sure the music stays on and Maverick doesn’t pass out,” she says like we have any say in the matter.
“How they can pull calves out of their cows, but get queasy with human blood is a mystery,” I say as we step into Labor and Delivery.
“Another reason why girls rule and boys drool,” she sing-songs.
Ava had texted me what room she was in, so I knock twice on door number two and push our way in.
She lays in bed, flipping through channels as Mav snoozes on the couch. The room lights are dimmed, probably to not disturb sleeping beauty in the corner. The recliner is piled high with their bags. As I look at Ava’s bedside table, I see Ava is already making good use of the giant hospital water bottles.
“Hey baby momma, how ya feeling?” I ask as I walk up to her and lean in for a hug, but the positioning of the bed makes it significantly more difficult.
“Bored out of my freaking eyeballs. Kind of wishing I wouldn’t have gotten the epidural so fast because now I'm stuck in this stupid bed.” She slaps her hands down on either side of her and sighs.
“I think if it were me, I’d rather be bored out of my eyeballs than writhing in pain, but hey, that’s just me,” Willow says with a wink.
“Well, I hope you guys brought some cards and hot gossip; we’re going to need to pass the time.” Ava folds her hands over her chest and looks between Willow and me, summoning us for the task.
The only hot gossip I have is me, and it feels a bit insensitive to take away from her moment.
Willow and I nervously glance at each other, having a silent argument of who is going to come up with something to appease our dear, laboring friend.
“Seriously, neither of you have anything. Come on, help a girl out.” She cocks her head to the side with far too much attitude.
Well, I guess now is as good a time as ever to break the news. Maybe it’ll help get her mind off it. My palms start to feel sweaty and I clear my throat. Words don’t often evade me. I’m quickly finding that telling people I’m pregnant is the cure for that.
“Uhm,” I clear my throat one more time for good measure, “I’ve got something if you two can keep a secret.”
Ava’s face splits open into the world's most devilish smile. This is how I imagine TMZ producers look when they get a hot tip of new gossip on an A-list celebrity. “Tell me more.”
My face grimaces, but no one here will judge me, and really, it’s better to practice run this whole thing out on them before I get to telling my parents. “I might be a little bit pregnant.” I hold my hand up in a pinching motion.
No one gasps or has any crazy reaction. My bitch ass brother ruined my news. “Weston told you already, didn’t he?” I look to Willow, who now recycles my pinching motion.
