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“Oh for God’s sake!” Like a bucket of ice water, Luke’s voice splashed into their bubble and burst it. Jax stayed as he was, though it cost him considerable effort. He could imagine what this must look like to Luke. Him posed like a damn model, pictures of himself strewn all over the porch, and Kiki curled at his feet, still scribbling away.
“Oooh, Kiki!” squealed Andie, stooping down awkwardly and picking up the sketch closest to her. “These are fab! Are you going to sculpt him too?”
“For the love— Would you stop?”
Jax found it hard to keep his face straight as he watched Luke try to keep a hold on her as Andie stooped to pick up another.
“Stop doing that! Hold still. Fine. I’ll get them. Now will you hold still? Or better yet, sit down. Move your ass, Jax, and—”
“No!” all three of them said, Kiki the only one of them to say it without adding a glare in his direction. Andie even hit him in the arm and added a huff.
“What?” Luke demanded, dumbfounded—though why this surprised Jax, he did not know; the man was always putting his foot in his mouth. “What did I say wrong now?”
“Can’t you tell what’s going on here?” Andie indicated the whole porch with a wave of the hand holding one of Jax’s sketches.
“What?” Luke asked, truly perplexed. “You mean she’s drawing?”
“Oh my God, you plebian. Kiki is an artist. And what you are seeing right now is an artist in her zone. We’re not disrupting this, no way. Come on. Let’s go through the back door. On the way, you and I can pick some apples. I wanna try this baked apple recipe I saw online. It looks super easy. I bet even I can do it.”
Though she’d taken Luke by the arm and led him away as she spoke, she could be heard clearly, so Jax called after her, “I’ll take that bet.”
He and Kiki shared a smile as they listened to her laughter drift back to them on the sultry autumn breeze.
* * *
“Stop,”Luke snapped, sounding exasperated.
“Stop what?” Andie giggled, unperturbed at his surly tone. “I’m not climbing Mt. Everest, for crying out loud. I’m just trying to pick some apples.” In truth, she loved that he wanted to baby her. It felt very much like being cared for, and she rubbed a loving hand over the swell of her belly.
“Just stop moving so much, all right? For my sake?” Luke motioned as if he were trying to place a force field around her. “Just hold still, and I’ll get the apples. Just point to the ones you want, and I’ll pick ‘em. Okay?” At his adorably pleading tone, Andie relented, cupped one hand under her belly, and pointed at the apple she had been about to pick. When Luke walked to where she was pointing, he stood directly in front of her and, with is eyes locked to hers, plucked the apple that swayed at her temple. Then his lips were on hers, and Andie felt her giggles melt like sugar on her tongue. Sunlight dripped through the full trees and warmed her upturned face while his kiss warmed her from the inside.
Without warning, the heat he kindled became uncomfortable. Andie’s brow furrowed, and her hand slipped automatically to the side of her belly, where she felt a strange sort of pressure. Confused, Andie pulled back and looked into Luke’s eyes questioningly. Before a single word escaped, Andie felt a tightening across her midriff that made her gasp in surprise.
“What?” Luke’s hand covered hers on a belly that had gone hard as stone. “What’s the matter? Are you okay?”
“I-I don’t know.” Andie felt that band loosen, and as it did, she felt a rush of relief with it. “I think so. That was weird. Everything got really tight, like I was flexing my muscles, only I wasn’t and couldn’t relax it.” She wasn’t prepared for the way the color drained from his face.
“We’re going to hospital. Now.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and apples tumbled to the ground unnoticed.
“What? Luke, no,” Andie protested, trying to laugh off the icy fear his stricken expression caused in the pit of her stomach. “Don’t be silly. It was probably just gas. I’ve heard some stories about pregnant women and gas pain, let me tell you.” But he didn’t appear to hear her objections, or rather give a damn about them.
“I’ve been through this before, remember?” If he had sounded his old bossy and sarcastic self, she could have argued with him and kept her worries at bay. But Luke’s voice was exceedingly gentle. “We’re going to go in and have the doc take a look at you, and if it was all for nothing, then at least we’ll know. That sound all right? Let’s just go see. Just to be safe.” He led her gently but insistently back the way they’d come.
“What’s going on?” Kiki’s voice was sharp with worry when she caught sight of them heading back toward Luke’s truck. “Are you okay, Andie?”
Andie opened her mouth to tell her friend she was fine, but then she felt a horrible rush of liquid. Shock had her gaping down as fluid, so much fluid, splashed to the ground between her feet. That tightening was back, stronger than before, and it turned her belly to stone. Everyone froze. Shock, she guessed, this must be what shock looks like. The moment lasted forever, and Andie felt like she was caught in some kind ofTwilight Zonetype nightmare as they all just stood there gaping while that puddle she was making got bigger and bigger.
“Oh, God. Fuck, no, shit!” Kiki was the first to break the spell, her panicked croak ricocheting around them like machinegun fire.
With an anguished, half-muffled sound, Luke scooped her on one side when Jax bounded off the porch and swooped in to pick her up from the other side. The two men who could hardly stand to be in the same room together grasped hands to form a sort of cradle and carried her the rest of the way to the truck.
Not knowing what to feel or even really understanding what was happening, Andie was nonetheless humbled. These men were practically comic book nemesis, and yet here they were, literally bonding together to help her. She was so touched by the moment tears stung her eyes, and she loved them both so much right then she didn’t know if she’d be able to contain the breadth of emotion that swelled. The emotion felt too big to hold in, like she would explode if she tried.
“Guys?” Andie said, choking on the effort to hold herself together. “I think I just peed. I think I’m okay. It’s just gas. And pee. I’m fine. We’re fine. You can put me down. I’m fine.” But they didn’t put her down or even slow down. Because it wasn’t pee, and she didn’t have gas, and Andie felt that emotion she tried to contain shift and morph within her, changing from joy and gratitude to something dark and sinister. An emotion that had teeth.
Kiki beat them to the truck and had the door open when they got there. Andie reached out to her as soon as the guys got her eased into the cab.
“Don’t leave me.” Andie’s voice sounded like a squeak to her own ears, but Kiki didn’t hesitate. She gave the backs of Andie’s fingers a quick kiss then clamored up and over until she was crouched in the back of Luke’s cluttered king cab. Then Luke leaned over to buckle her seatbelt and their baby kicked. They both felt it and froze momentarily while their eyes met. She was in labor, and it was way too early, and to Andie, that kick convinced her they weren’t the only ones frightened. Their baby was too. Andie’s control snapped, and that monstrous emotion she’d been trying to rein in broke loose. It used teeth and claws to rip her insides to shreds. Tears, choking, and heart-stopping sobs of fear ruled her now, and as her arms cradled the life she felt struggling within her, Luke bolted around the hood to his side then raced them to the hospital with a white-knuckled grip on the wheel and fear etched in every line of his body.
