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I groan a sigh of relief when we step through the front door and I kick my shoes off. The shoes were digging into my skin from how large my feet had gotten throughout the day, and now that they are off I can finally breathe a little easier. Emmett stumbles through the door behind me, the bags rustling as he drops them to the floor, and I push aside to make room for him to carry everything into the nursery.
As if we didn’t already have everything we could ever need, the guests at the baby shower just had to get us more. At least Dominic still has a space available over his house, we could probably manage to get him to babysit every now and then. Emmett slides the last bag in the far corner of the room, then runs a hand through his hair as he backs away from everything. “Maybe a baby shower was a bad idea,” he says with a chuckle.
I roll my neck, then waddle down the hall toward our room. The bed is fixed just as it is every day by the housekeeper, and I flip the comforter over to slip beneath it. Emmett walks into the room, then disappears into the bathroom. My ears perk at the sound of a bath running, except my muscles are entirely too stiff to get back up and see what he’s doing.
While the water still runs, Emmett comes striding back into the bedroom and slides his arms under my weight. I latch myself around him, letting the warmth from his skin consume me, and glance at the bath in surprise. There’s bubbles starting to form, coming dangerously close to overflowing, and a few candles lit around it.
“I thought a bath would do you some good right now,” Emmett says. “Is this okay?”
“It’s perfect, keep me company?”
He tugs his shirt over his head with a smile and winks at me. “You never have to ask me twice, baby. I’ll be behind you, enjoy it on your own for a minute.” While I make my way over to the tub, bending over to give him a small show, I find his heated gaze lasered on my ass from behind.
There’s nothing quite like the rush I get when I know he’s desiring me.
I sink into the hot water, letting the bubbles cascade around me, and the tension in my shoulders immediately lifts into the air somewhere far away. My eyes fall closed, only popping open when Emmett sinks into the other end with me, his legs tangling with mine, and I give him a small smile before laying my head back against the tub.
All we need now is for our little girl to be out in the world, bringing all the love and joy that we are missing while she’s still safely cocooned inside of me. As if having the same thought, Emmett’s hand falls onto my stomach under the water and I bask in his touch.
Life couldn’t possibly get better than this.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Emmett
Caseycriesoutbesideme, making me jump up from the bed with wide eyes. There’s tears rolling down her cheek as she presses a hand to her stomach while taking deep breaths. “My water broke.” Another contraction must roll through her as I hurry through the room gathering all the things we packed the other day because she lets out another strangled cry.
“We’ll get there baby, can you walk?” I ask, clutching the bags in both hands.
She tries to turn herself off the bed, putting all her weight into standing up, but she falls back down in an instant. “N-no.”
Shit. I pull my phone from the nightstand, then run down the hall and out the front door toward the car. Dominic’s line rings a few times before he finally answers. “Emmett?” He asks, his voice raspy from sleep.
“It’s time, Dom. Meet us at the hospital.”
I send a quick text to Hannah as well, since Casey asked that Hannah be in the room with us, then run into the bedroom where my girlfriend is cradling her stomach and in pain. “I’m going to help you, okay?” She nods and lets me slip my arm around her waist, lifting her up gently so as not to make the pain worse. “Can you walk if you put all your weight onto me?”
Her breaths are ragged as she takes a small step and I sigh in relief when it doesn’t cause her to fall to the ground. “Y-yeah, I think so. But we need to go faster.” Halfway down the steps we have to take a break as she gets another contraction and I grunt at the force of her fingers around my hand.
Two contractions later and I’m finally helping her into the front seat.
I’ve been preparing myself for this moment for the last few weeks, knowing that once she hit thirty-six weeks she could go into labor at any time, and now it’s here. I’m excited to meet our baby girl, but there’s also a fresh wave of nerves that I won’t be the father she needs. What if I’m no good at this?
Casey’s cry of pain forces the thoughts away and I pull away from the house quickly. It only takes ten minutes to make it to the hospital, thanks to my driving, and I pull in front of the emergency room doors. A few nurses rush out to meet us, frowns on their faces, and I point inside the car. “My girlfriend is in labor. Her water broke about thirty minutes ago.”
They nod before one of them turns back the way she came and pushes a wheelchair out the doors, while the other nurse helps Casey out of the car. Casey squeezes her eyes shut and takes as many breaths as possible while sinking into the wheelchair. When I park the car, Dominic is walking up to me with a worried expression on his face. “How is she doing?”
I shrug, my strides quickening with each second I’m not with her. “I don’t know. We just got here and I had to park the car. They already took her up to a room.” The woman sitting behind the front desk glares at me, but I couldn’t care less about that right now. “Casey St. James, could you direct me to her room? She’s in labor and delivery.”
The woman’s attitude changes quickly as she glances at the screen in front of her, then she flashes a smile in my direction. “Fourth floor, let them know you’re there for her and they should beep you through the labor and delivery wing.”
Dominic and I rush through the halls, not bothering to worry about who might be paying attention, until we finally step into the labor and delivery. One of the nurses leads me to Casey’s room, where she’s sitting upright with a frown on her face. “Hey, beautiful.”
She glares at me. “Don’t lie to me,” she snaps, at the same moment another contraction rolls through her and curses fly from her mouth. I walk up to her, threading my fingers through hers, and try my best not to show how big of a mistake that is. Casey might look like she wouldn’t hurt a fly, but she’d give even the best wrestler a run for their money if they were in here.
Once the contraction comes to an end she loosens her hold on me and the feeling starts coming back to my hand. “What can I do, baby?”
