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“I’ve been waiting to hear that for weeks now. But damn, it hurts.” Pippa grits her teeth as yet another contraction makes her jolt. After it passes, she unexpectedly grips my hand.
“Promise me you won’t let anyone else except my husband stay in here during the delivery.”
I’m about to tell her that knowing the streak of stubbornness running deep in the Bennett family, I’m unlikely to be able to stop them if they put their minds to it. But Pippa’s grip is tight, and her eyes are begging.
So instead of protesting, I say, “I promise. No one else besides your husband and the hospital crew will stay.”
She lets go of me, visibly relaxed. Madness reigns for the next half hour. I get hold of Eric on the phone, and he panics the moment I utter the word labor. He arrives shortly afterward with his daughter, Julie.
They go directly to Pippa, and then Eric turns to a nearby nurse, questioning her, while the girl remains by Pippa’s side, fear and excitement warring on her lovely face.
Sebastian and Ava arrive next. He sits on the edge of his sister’s bed, chuckling and evidently trying to distract his sister from the pain. The rest of the family trickles in, and after each of them pokes their head in, they scatter outside in the hallway. Max and I are in the hallway as well, sitting and holding hands. I can’t help feeling as though I’m intruding on family time.
After a while, a nurse announces Pippa is ready for delivery. A pale Eric kisses his wife on the forehead.
“I’ll stay in here with you,” Alice declares. Pippa opens her mouth, but she can’t make out more than a few words before she cries out in pain from another contraction. Now I understand why she appointed me as her spokesperson. Great foresight on her part.
“Alice,” I call, stepping forward, “Pippa insisted that she only wants Eric inside with her.”
“But I—”
“No negotiating,” I say firmly. Alice narrows her eyes at me, then at Pippa, and nods.
“Men are such pussies,” Alice whispers to me as all of us except Eric leave Pippa’s room. The Bennett men are all awfully quiet. “They beat their chests, but childbirth scares the shit out of them.”
“It really does, doesn’t it?”
Once the door to Pippa’s room closes, everyone is silent.
I find Max pacing around an adjacent empty hallway, looking far calmer than in the car, but still not quite himself. His shoulders are hunched with tension, and his arms are folded against his chest. I don’t like seeing my man like this.
“Hey,” I tell him. “Everything will be all right.”
“There are about one thousand things that can go wrong during childbirth, and I read them all this morning.”
“You what?”
“Pippa told me on Friday how the babies might be late, and I started researching about that.”
“And somehow you ended up reading an entire book?” I can barely hold back my grin. Max is the most adorable man in the world.
“Yeah, don’t mock me.”
“I wasn’t about to.”
“Liar.”
“Fine, I was about to. But only because I think it’s very sweet.”
“Don’t tell anyone else.” His warning tone tips me over the edge, and I burst out laughing.
“Why, would it endanger your alpha male status?”
In an instant, Max pulls me to him, trapping me against his hard chest. “You’re too sassy for your own good today, you know that?”
“I’m just fascinated by you, that’s all.”
“And now you’re trying to talk your way out of it.”
