Page 88 of Labor of Love

“It’s not yours.”

“Didn’t say it was.”

With that, Silas turned back around, put the car in gear, and pulled into traffic. Between the heavy rain and late afternoon rush hour, we barely moved. At one point, I wondered if it might be quicker to waddle on foot to the hospital than wait in traffic. It felt like my five-minute intervals were passing alarmingly fast. The pain, which had seemed awful before, now verged on unbearable.

I was having a baby.

“Hey, is the father meeting you there?” Concern shone through Silas’s voice. I expected him to demand an explanation or at least a stronger assurance that the kid wasn’t his, but instead, all I heard was that same gentleness I remembered from seven months ago.

“The father isn’t involved.”

“Well, he’s a fucking idiot.”

I pulled out my phone to properly time the contractions, and I’d been right about them being closer together. They weren’t five minutes apart. They were now two. There’d been no mention of skipping multiple minutes either.

My brain kept short-circuiting when I tried hard to remember the panting breaths they’d taught me. It was a lot easier to remember the proper pattern when the pain wasn’t overwhelming me in the backseat of an Uber while being watched by the sexiest alpha I’d ever met. His gaze cut to mine. I wanted to project confidence, but I knew I was failing.

What if I really couldn’t do this by myself?

“Hey, Rowan, do you think I can do those breathing exercises with you? I read somewhere that they’re fantastic for calming whether you’re pregnant or not. Would you mind walking me through them?”

It surprised me how quickly my name rolled off his tongue. Over the last few months, I’d swung from giddy excitement to abject terror, but the one thing I’d refused to do was think about what Silas was doing. Or, more accurately, who he might be doing. Memories of that one-night stand had kept me up at night.

With Silas’s encouragement, I showed him the standard breathing exercise, and he did thetee-hee-heewith mewhen the next contraction hit. The process was considerably easier to remember when Silas chanted with me. After the contraction passed, I lay back against the seat. The exertion had exhausted me. If this was supposed to be the easy part, how in the heck was I supposed to do the hard part? For not the first time, I had second thoughts about my plan to do this alone.

“The good news is we’re only about a mile away.”

“What’s the bad news?”

“Traffic isn’t moving too quick. How far apart are those contractions?”

“Still two minutes. I think we’ve got some time before they make their appearance. If things get messy, I’ll pay for the dry cleaning.”

“Meh, the company covers extraordinary circumstances, and babies count for that.” Silas paused before he added, “Do you know what you’re having?

“For some crazy reason, I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Hey, that’s impressive. I’m the worst with surprises.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yep, it used to drive my mom crazy because I was the kid who went looking for my Christmas presents.” Silas chuckled in the front seat. “Sadly, I’ve just moved on to ruining other surprises.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“I’ll tell you my shameful secret, but don’t judge me too harshly. Promise?” Silas glanced in the rearview mirror when he asked. Before I could answer, another contraction hit, and we panted through it together.

Once passed, I managed to answer, “No promises, but I’ll do my best.”

“I like reading…and I always read the last chapter first.” Silas looked at me again in time to see my shocked expression.

“Oh. My. Gods. You might be truly deranged. Please tell me you’re joking.” My contractions were forgotten while I digested the fact that I was in a car with a madman.

“I need to make sure I like the ending before I read the book.”

“I’m actually speechless. If you haven’t read the book, how does the ending tell you anything?”

“It’s more like a vibe,” Silas answered like it was the most logical thing in the world.

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