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“Do you want to be there for the birth?” she asked.
“Of course,” he said. “I wouldn’t miss it. I’ll be your coach.”
Tears filled her eyes. She’d thought she might be alone for the birth of this baby, and yes, she was scared. Terrified that this human being was somehow going to come sliding out of her body.
“But what if I can’t do this? What if I’m screaming and begging and crying and…”
He lifted her hand to his mouth, kissing the back of it. “I’ll be there to calm you down. We can do this.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You won’t be the one pushing a seven-pound baby out through your vagina.”
A smile filled his face that went all the way to his eyes. The man was seriously excited about this child.
“No, but together we can do this. I’ll be there encouraging you, giving you ice chips, telling you to breathe. And I can’t wait to meet this sweet child we created.”
Why did he seem to calm her fears? He made her feel better. His touch and the sound of his voice were like a balm to her soul.
“Ryan, I know we were just a one-night stand,” she said.
“Hush,” he told her. “We could have been more if we had not been so stupid. I should have gotten your last name and phone number before we ever had sex. When I woke up and you were gone, I panicked.”
With a sigh, she gazed at him and wondered how their life would have been if they had exchanged numbers. Would they be together now? Would they have been dating these last nine months?
“Tell me about yourself,” she said softly. “I know so little other than you’re a paramedic.”
A grin spread across his face. “I’m the oldest with three brothers. Clint is a couple years younger than me and works at the hospital as a nurse. My two younger brothers are still in college. My parents are retired and live here in Missoula. I grew up here, and I like the fact that while we’re not huge, but we’re not a small town either. I’d like to stay here and raise a family of my own.”
“Sounds like a nice place to grow up,” she said. “Whitefish is rather small. I think we may have nine thousand people living there.”
He nodded. “Your place is more of a resort town.”
“Yes,” she said.
“I’d love to introduce you to my family, but we’re not getting out in this weather. All it would take is for you to slip and fall and that baby would be knocking on the door.”
She nodded and sighed. “I’d love to meet your family. See which parent you look like and meet your brothers. Are any of them married?”
“No,” he said. “It’s my mother’s greatest disappointment that we’re not married and giving her grandchildren. Guess she’ll be happy when she learns of the baby. Tell me about your family and growing up.”
Sometimes she felt so extremely blessed, and then this past year would remind her that not everything in her life had been perfect. The last twelve months had been herimperfect year,as she liked to call it, and yet she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I graduated as Valedictorian in high school. Top of my class. I was head cheerleader and loved cheering at the football games. My sisters hate me because they say I’m the golden child,” she said, thinking how much she hated that saying. “Not really, I’ve just been extremely blessed.”
And oh, how she hoped her labor and delivery would be easy with this child.
“When I finished law school, I finished at the top of my class and was so certain I would have a great career. And then I met you and got pregnant. How do you think it happened? I mean we used protection.”
For months, she’d questioned how this could have happened. They had been so careful and yet here they were with a baby on the way.
“Condoms are not one hundred percent foolproof,” he said. “Somehow one of my guys made it up the channel and danced with your egg. And now we’re having a baby.”
She took a big gulp from her coffee cup.
“Why didn’t you get an abortion?” he asked. “Most women would not have had the child.”
Was he trying to weasel out of being a father?
“Every woman has a choice and mine was to have this baby. I’ve called her my little accident for eight months and I love her with all my heart.”
