There was screaming in the background, screaming that sounded like someone was in pain. And it sounded like Annie.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Who is this?”
“This is Annie’s friend Gia,” she said. “And we’re coming over.”
“What?” I asked, standing up.
“What’s going on?” Andrew asked, obviously able to hear the screams through the phone.
Another scream pierced my ear.
“We’re coming to your place right now! And it’s a freaking emergency!”
“What kind of an emergency?”
“The pregnant kind!”
I almost dropped the phone.
Annie
The pain was unlike anything I’d ever known before. And on top of that, we were going to my ex’s place. But that didn’t matter. What did matter was that I was in labor, and a baby was about to come out of me at any freaking second.
“What did he say?” I asked, my chest rapidly expanding and contracting, my forehead sheened with sweat.
“I didn’t really give him a chance to respond,” Gia replied while in the process of carefully but quickly driving my car up the winding road to Duncan’s place.
I still couldn’t believe what was happening. It’d been months since I’d learned I was pregnant, months since I’d learned I was carrying Duncan’s child. What a hell of a shock it’d been. But I didn’t have time to think about any of that. I was giving birth, and the father of the baby was the only doctor around who could help.
Another wave of pain blasted through my body.
“Oh my God!” I shouted, digging my nails into the fabric of the car seat, trying my damnedest to fight through the pain.
“We’re almost there!” she shouted. “Just a few more minutes and you’ll be having your little baby delivered courtesy of the handsome Dr. Pitt!”
The fact that he was handsome, the fact that he was a man I used to date, the fact that he was the freaking father of the baby – they were all details I was doing my best to put out of my head. All that mattered was that he was the doctor who was going to deliver my child.
“Let me check something,” Gia mumbled, turning on the radio.
“Main thoroughfare out of White Pines is still blocked,” spoke the newsman. “Traffic is stretched for miles.”
She clicked off the radio, sighing. “The day you have your kid is the one day the highway’s packed full of traffic.”
It was another detail I didn’t want to think about.
“There!” Gia cried as she turned the corner to Duncan’s place.
Even through the insanity of the situation, seeing his house again, that giant mansion in the middle of the woods, was enough to bring the memories flooding back.
I was going to see him again.
“And there he is!” Gia announced. “Wait, is that…oh, no.”
“What?” I asked, struggling to get up.
“Just…sit back down. We’ve got more help. But don’t you stress yourself about it.”
“Gia!” I shouted. “Tell me what’s going on!”
She let out a groan as she pulled into a parking spot. “Duncan’s here. But he’s not alone.”
I was panicked, but I was cognizant enough to worry about what she was talking about. Was he there with…someone else? As in a special someone? What if he was happily married, having met a beautiful woman while he was overseas, and I was ready to wreck their happy home with a surprise baby.
And not just any surprise baby – his baby.
I was a sweaty mess, the contractions getting closer and closer. All I wanted was to be someplace safe, someplace where I could deliver my baby and be in good hands. But my choices had come down to delivery in traffic or delivery at my doctor ex’s. It was an easy decision.
The door opened, the cool fall air rushing into the car and providing a moment’s relief from the blood pumping through me.
“God,” spoke a familiar voice. “It really is her.”
It was Duncan. Out of the corner of my eye I could see his tall, powerful form rush over to me.
Everything after that happened like something out of a dream. His huge arms swept underneath me, helping me to my feet, then up and off them. He rushed me into the house, the fall colors of the trees around his home a blur. Someone else held the door open, another tall, well-built man who reminded me of Duncan.
Then another contraction hit, more pain blasting through my body.
“How soon have those been happening?” Duncan asked, his voice powerful and commanding. He was in full doctor mode. It made me feel safe and secure and like I had nothing to worry about.
“Sooner and sooner,” Gia informed him. “But I was driving – I was mostly focused on getting her here.”
“I’m Andrew, by the way.”
Andrew? I opened my eyes wide and summoned what little focus I had to look around. Sure enough, there he was. I watched as he extended his hand to Gia, who took it with a small smile on her face, a tiny blush to her cheeks.
“Gia,” she said. “We’ve kind of met before.”
“Right,” he said. “But good to be official about these kinds of things.”
Her hand lingered in his for a few beats, as if neither one of them wanted to let the other go. I frowned at them, but then another contraction hit, pain blowing away anything my attention might’ve been focused on.
“We set up an area in the living room,” Andrew said. “It’s not much, but the best we were able to do before you got here.”
Duncan positioned himself in front of me, taking in the sight of my pregnancy as if he couldn’t believe it.
I knew I had to tell him. But even through the pain I knew I didn’t need to give him one more thing to worry about. He was about to help his pregnant ex give birth in his home.
“Alright,” he said. “First of all, good to see you, Annie.”
I smiled, happy to hear him say the words. And not going to lie, I was more than a little relieved the other person ended up being Andrew and not some beautiful fiancé.
“Yeah,” I said as he wiped the sweat from my brow with a cloth. “Good to see you, too.”
He smiled, and I did the same. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
“Anyway,” he said, snapping back into professional mode. “A hospital would’ve been the best place for this, of course. But I’ve done more than a few childbirths in my time. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Good.”
“First thing is we’re going to need to get you ready.”
I knew what that meant – I needed to take off my clothes.
“Gia can help you, and I’ve got a hospital gown here. Hurry, and I’ll be right back with you.”
He stood up and nodded to Andrew, and they left. Andrew locked eyes with Gia again, the two of them sharing another small smile before they both left.”
“Come on,” Gia murmured, hurrying to my side and helping me up. “Let’s get you out of this stuff.”
“Gia, this baby’s coming,” I said as she pulled my shirt off over my head.