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“You’re not driving me lights and sirens for a little bleeding. Take me to your damn truck.”
He looks down at me, his lips a compressed, white line, and changes course to the parking lot.
“Thank you.” I squeeze his neck and settle back down in his embrace. Using his scruffy chin, he brushes my hair back and delivers a chaste kiss to my temple.
“You’re going to be okay. Both of you are going to be okay.”
I’m not a religious person, but I pray to God he’s right.
For me. For our baby.
But also for Nathan.
Because I don’t know what it’d do to him to lose either one of us.
21
Kiersten
Our arrival to the hospital is a lot less dramatic than the movies make it out to be. Nobody rushes to our vehicle with a gurney. A team of doctors isn’t waiting to scoop me into the ER for immediate testing, though it doesn’t take long from the time we arrive at the hospital to be admitted to the OB floor. That scares me more than the bleeding does because it tells me they think this threat to my baby could be serious.
They have me changed into a gown and hooked up to the baby monitor with a blood pressure cuff on one arm and an IV in the other all within the first few minutes of getting settled. The sterile interior does nothing to ease my anxiety, and the scent of medicine heightens my stress.
A male doctor I haven’t met yet wanders in and checks the baby monitor first.
“Kiersten, I’m Dr. Grimm. I’ve been told you’ve had some bleeding?”
“Uh, sorry?” Still stuck on his name, I miss the question. Is this a cruel joke? It’s like a dentist being named Dr. Cavity. There should be a protocol for changing a name to be a doctor if it falls into the category of doom, gloom, or dying.
“Can you tell me about the bleeding? When did you first notice it?”
I relay my morning, earning a stern glower from Nathan and a stare from the doctor when I mention my mile-long walk. I never did get around to talking about it when I arrived at work. Nathan looks ready to take me over my knee, but thankfully, the doctor steals his attention.
“The good news is baby looks good. We’re going to keep you here for monitoring. I’d like to order an ultrasound to look at your placenta and cervix to make sure nothing else is going on. This just happens sometimes. We’ll know more after the scans.”
“Is it my fault?” The question comes out quietly. I need to know if I could have prevented this somehow.
The doctor’s smile is genuinely kind. “No. A walk like that shouldn’t cause this.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll check back later after your scan.”
The doctor leaves and closes the door behind him. Nathan uncrosses his arms and takes a seat in the chair beside my bed.
“I’m glad he didn’t have to perform an exam. Can you imagine—”
“Don’t even finish that sentence,” I growl and drop my head back onto the paper pillow.
“What? You know how pissed I’d be having to witness you come on another man’s hand after what we did last night?” His husky murmur does nothing except turn me on, as do the images sparking to life in my brain.
“Stop. I think it’s safe to say my sex life is over for the foreseeable future. Which means yours is too,” I tack on that last part even though I don’t have the right. Hey, I’m stuck in a hospital bed after a scary morning. I’ll use every advantage I can, knowing he won’t start an argument right now.
“In light of this morning, I’d like us to revisit our topic from last night.”
Crap. Seems he isn’t above using his own advantages either.
“Let’s just see what the doctor says after the scans, okay? I could be perfectly fine. Maybe we went at things a little too rough last night. Broke a blood vessel or something.”
