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“Help me get my pants off,” she said as she lay down.
Earl’s truck tried to stall out on the hill up to Siren Song, and Ravinia had tensed, ready to jump out. But the old pickup’s wheels caught and inched forward again, and Ravinia clenched her teeth and waited. The drive seemed to take forever. Finally, they reached the lane to the lodge, and through the darkness and snow she caught sight of the ambulance’s white and red lights. As they pulled to a stop behind the emergency vehicle, she heard the bang, bang as the EMTs slammed the rear doors shut. Two figures walked toward their respective doors.
“Back up, Earl,” she urged. “Quick. They’re taking her to the hospital.”
Earl said, “We need to tell Isadora.”
“We need to go!”
But Earl wasn’t about to be bullied. He moved his truck to one side and then climbed out, heading toward the gates of Siren Song. Ravinia scrambled out after him, as did Rand, and they all ended up hurrying through the gate into the lodge grounds, a place where men, apart from Earl, were rarely allowed. Five minutes, Ravinia told herself. Then she was going to get Earl to follow after the ambulance, or she was going to try to drive his damn truck herself.
Savannah bore down with all her strength. Pinpoints of light exploded behind her eyelids from the effort. She was drenched in sweat. She’d wrestled out of her jacket, but her shirt and bra were almost too much. Hale hovered somewhere in her nether regions, blocking the weather with his body as he stood in the open back door. Her entire body seemed intent on turning itself inside out. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. Could. Not. Believe. It.
Still . . . she was excited. She was having a baby. A baby. And her body was doing everything it should, even though conditions weren’t ideal. Very much less than ideal, actually. It was just . . .
Another contraction started, like a grip of huge, monster hands squeezing and forcing her insides down, down, down. She was holding her breath and forced herself to breathe, to pant.
Hale said in a tight voice, “I see the head.”
“Is he okay? It’s all right?”
“Yeah.”
She barked out a laugh and stared at the ceiling of the vehicle. “I’m going to push,” she said, feeling the desire come like a hard wave. “I’m gonna push. I’m gonna push. I’m pushing! Aaaahhhhhh.”
“Okay, okay, okay.”
“Okay?” she gasped.
“Yes, okay.”
“Hale, can you do this?”
“He’s coming. Yes.”
“Okay . . . okay . . .”
A moment later. Tersely. “Push again.”
Savvy wanted to argue. What the hell did he know? But she wanted to push. It was coming on her again.
And then she was pushing and there was sharp pain and yet she couldn’t stop and he was saying, “Wait, wait, wait!” but she couldn’t, and she yelled, “No, no! I can’t!”
“It’s okay. It’s all okay. He’s here. He’s here!”
“Have you got him? You’ve got him?”
“I’ve got him. He’s . . . It’s okay. . . . It’s all just fine. . . .”
And then the wail. The beautiful spiraling wail of the newborn in the cold night, and Savvy laid her head back while tears ran down her temples toward her ears.
CHAPTER 19
Hale came upon the deputy’s vehicle stalled out in a pile of snow about a mile and a half ahead of them. He slowed his already slowly moving SUV down to a crawl, seeing the man had tried to turn the Jeep around when he’d realized Hale and Savannah weren’t directly behind him. But now Hale wasn’t going to stop if he didn’t have to, unsure he would get moving again. He rolled his window down, ready to yell that message to the deputy, but as soon as the window was down, he heard in the stillness of the night a grinding engine coming toward them from the west.
“Snowplow,” the deputy yelled.
Relieved, Hale gave the man a thumbs-up of understanding. All he had to do was reach the plow and the roads behind it should be clear of drifts. Glancing in the rearview, he saw Savannah sitting with a seat belt strapped across her, swaddled beneath her coat and his; she was wearing her own, and his was the blanket covering her legs. Her eyes were closed, and his son, held to her chest, was invisible from this angle. Was it the safest means of travel? Not by a long shot. Did he see any way around it? No.
