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“Tell me about it.” Jules looked out the window, his heart racing hard and fast. The city road was busy with cars zooming by. Construction workers were outside drilling. He felt like there was a drill pressing into him right now. Sure he was happy that Amber said “yes” to his proposal and it was good that she said she didn’t mind that they may never have biological kids together but a part of him still didn’t sit too well with his situation.
“You look like your mind is somewhere else, Jules. You okay? You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” Carl arched a brow.
“Nah. Not a chance, man. Listen, I’ve got to run. I’m meeting with Brenda so she can brief me on some upcoming changes with the Family Center.”
“Oh, and how’s that coming along?”
“As expected. The current employees were a little anxious about the change in ownership and worried about layoffs, of course.”
“And? You’re not going to lay off anyone, are you?”
“Are you kidding me? If I thought I would have to do that, I wouldn’t have bothered. You know me, Carl. I’m just as passionate about saving jobs as you are. In fact, they were a bit surprised that frontline workers at the center would be getting raises and there will be job expansion, not decrease.”
“Sweet. Now that’s called progress. Betcha they’re glad a Romero took over the facility.”
“Well, the old owners were hoping that I’d have an epic fail so they were the only ones who were reportedly disappointed with all of this.”
Just then, Jules’s ring tone sounded. The tune “My Girl” played.
Carl couldn’t help but chuckle. “Dude, that is so lame. Surely, you can do better than that, Jules.”
“Nothing’s lame when it comes to…my girl. Besides, it’s one of our songs—Amber’s a huge oldies fan, you know,” he said, answering the phone. It was Venus. Why was Venus calling from Amber’s phone?
“Thank God, Jules!” Venus sounded frantic. “I’m with Amber. We’re at the hospital. We had to call an ambulance.”
Jules’s heart exploded in his chest.
CHAPTER TEN
Amber shrieked as she was wheeled into the delivery room on the maternity ward. Her heart raced in her chest, her body felt pumped as if it were on a massive adrenaline spike. The nurses sprung into action while her obstetrician was paged.
“It’s okay, baby, I’m right here with you,” Jules assured. Amber squeezed his hand. Everything happened so fast. She didn’t even remember how many centimeters she was dilated when the nurse did the examination at the emergency room before they sent her to labor and delivery.
Amber was in active phase of labor—the phase before the final stage, which would be the transitional or advanced labor. Still, she felt as if she were about to give birth any time now but the ER nurse said she wasn’t dilated enough yet.
Amber’s contractions were growing stronger and stronger by the minute and the pain more intense and memorable.
She just moaned and groaned.
“Just breathe like we learned in the classes, Amber,” Jules instructed.
“Ah!” she screamed out as another shot of pain crippled her nerve.
“Okay, baby, that’s good.” Poor Jules didn’t know what else to do. She was gripping his hand so tightly, it almost hurt. Good thing he was strong and firm like an impenetrable boulder. She needed him to be her rock.
“Oh, Jules,” she finally managed to articulate. “I wanted us to be married first.”
“It’s okay. It doesn’t matter.”
“But it does matter. I want us to be married first. Please, Jules.”
“What?”
Amber cried out, unbearable pressure stabbing her lower back and tightness in her throat.
Dion got there in time and Jules’s assistant Brenda was nearby. “Okay, guys, where’s the nurse?”
“I’m right here,” a woman in blue scrubs called out. She was jotting down notes on a clipboard while watching the monitor with Amber’s vital signs.
“What can I do for you?” the nurse asked sweetly. Poor thing. She was probably trained to cater to the needs of expectant mothers providing whatever she could for them; however, she was obviously unaware what this expectant mother needed.
Most women asked for a back rub during this phase of labor or a wash cloth, not a minister who could perform wedding ceremonies.
Amber tried to follow the directions she’d learned in her prenatal class about keeping calm and relaxing her muscles but it was increasingly hard to concentrate when her body was going through an avalanche of painful contractions.
“We’re getting married,” Amber panted.
“Oh, that’s nice,” the nurse said. “When is the date?”
“Now!” Amber screamed out as another shot of pain struck her like a lightning bolt. Despite the agony, she tried to contain herself. Tears moistened her eyes. She felt her spine burn as if it were afire.
“Now?!” The nurse’s eyes widened. She glanced at her notes as if to see if the mother-to-be had any history of mental illness. Her pupils were probably as dilated as the size of a mother about to give birth.
Amber cried out again as the onslaught of fire blazed through her. She had always prided herself as someone who had a high pain tolerance but that was until she went into labor. It was true then, there was no pain in the world quite like it.
“Do you have a minister on hand at the hospital?” Jules asked.
“Um…I…we…um… do have a chaplain on call,” the nurse fumbled. She was almost lost for words.
“Amber, are you sure you want to do this now? I don’t mind waiting,” Jules reassured her as he leaned over her to hold her hand while stroking her forehead with his other hand.
“Don’t you want to marry me?” Amber demanded. Why was she getting so testy all of a sudden? Was it the tsunami of hormones caving down on her from every direction? She wanted this to be a perfect day for her, the baby and for Jules.
Amber so badly wanted her baby to be born in wedlock and she came so close. She didn’t want her daughter’s birth certificate to resemble her own with the admission of “unknown” where the father’s name should be. If Jules and Amber were legally married, then by law, Jules would be named the father. Period. It meant so much to her. She’d lost so much in her life, her parents, her brother... So many things she did not have control over but she wanted to have a little control over the birth of her precious baby. She didn’t know why she wanted this now, she just did. Something in her gut was telling her that it would be done and could be done safely. She wasn’t even fully dilated yet.
An hour later, Amber was still in the active phase of labor and nearing the advanced phase. It could be at any moment when she would come face to face with her precious little miracle.
Carl had managed to make it in and got an officiant, Mr. James Calderwell, who was also a JP, justice of the peace, on hand to perform the “labor” vows at the bedside. It was a good thing Jules had already applied for the marriage license. Jules was grateful to his brother for being there for him at the right time.
“Right, we’re going to do this, honey,” Jules reassured her. He never left her side since he got to the hospital. He wished he’d never left her side that morning but he really thought she would be fine. She wasn’t due for another few weeks. This was so sudden. But he was a Romero. They always knew how to rise to any challenge, expected or unexpected.
Seeing Amber in so much agonizing pain was like a wrench to his gut. He was pained him to see her like this. Man, he really respected the body of a woman more than ever. Seeing beautiful, sophisticated Amber bravely preparing her body to deliver a human being into the world.
He wondered why more men were not at the bedsides of their wives during this awesome yet emotional time. He was overcome by the spirit in the room. The obstetrician and nurses were preparing to deliver their precious little angel into the world, while the elderly JP—the man who was qualified in the province of Ontario to marry them, dressed in a dark business suit, wiped sweat from his brow with a cloth and adjusted the round-rimmed glasses on his nose as he prepared to race through the vows.
Ordinarily the delivery room would only have those involved with the delivery and the mom and dad but Carl and Venus along with his brother Dion were there as witnesses. The rest of the Romero clan was gathered in the waiting room—those who heard the good news and were able to make it.
“Okay, let’s begin,” Mr. Calderwell announced as he opened his Bible.
Amber bellowed as the pain hit her full force again. Oh, man! What Jules would do to take away the hurt and go through it himself so she would not have to.
Mr. Calderwell was understandably nervous. Jules remembered Carl saying that old man James admitted he was way beyond retirement. He was also a friend of Toni Romero, Jules’s grandfather. They went way back. Jules only hoped that there wouldn’t be any colorful language in the room as Amber came close to the delivery phase when she would have to push. He trusted Amber would do just fine. She was strong, and like the majority of women, she could do just about anything.
