Page 43 of Going for Three

Your schedule is still hanging up on the fridge

My King ?:

Damn right! Exactly where it belongs!

I got ready to text him back when I felt a sharp pain shoot through my side.

“Oww,” I whined.

Before I could take a breath, another one ripped through me.

“Owww,” I cried out with a backward stumble.

My hand slapped against the wall, and I lost the grip I had on my phone. I hissed as it fell into the bucket of mop water. I couldn’t even react because the pain kept coming. I tried to regulate my breathing, but it was no use. I lifted from the wall only to feel a trickle of liquid rush down my leg.

“Nooooo. It’s not time yet.”

I instantly began to cry, thinking the worst. I wasn’t due for another two months. My last appointment was a week ago, and everything was perfect. Despite the little turbulence with Kianis, my stress levels were down. He treated me like royalty giving me massages any time he was around and waiting on me handand foot without complaint. He always seemed genuinely happy when he was doing it, too.

I swallowed the warmth thinking of him caused to focus on the here and now. I had a second phone in my Jeep, so I braced myself for a walk down to the garage. Since my water broke the pain subsided a little. That worried me more than anything.

“Lord, please cover my baby. Please… I can’t lose him.”

Too afraid of wasting time, I waddled to the front of my condo, snatched my purse off the island, then bolted for the door. All the birthing plans I’d created were completely forgotten on the elevator ride down. Just as I was about to step off, the pain returned. I held on to the wall damn near foaming at the mouth like a pit bull because of the gut-wrenching agony.

When it subsided again, I knew what time it was. I walked as quickly to my truck as I could. Using the key fob, I started it up before I made it all the way there. Somehow, I was able to pull myself up. Reaching into the middle console, I pulled out my second phone to see that it was completely dead. The charger was nowhere in sight because I’d let Vari borrow it the last time he was over.

Tears swelled in my eyes. I gripped the steering wheel tightly and released a shaky breath.

“You can do this, Charmony.” I put the car in gear and pulled off. “Everything is going to be okay,” I coached myself.

I’d only barely made it down the block when I felt another contraction. The good thing about living in the city is that I was only ten minutes from the hospital. I prayed without ceasing the entire way there, begging for my son to be okay. When I arrived at Mercy, I parked out front then waddled inside.

“I think I’m going into labor!” I yelled at the woman at the receptionist desk. She jumped up from her seat and raced around the counter while calling out to someone. Everything became a blur as a wheelchair was brought out.

I grabbed the woman’s wrist before they could push me away. “I need someone to call my husband.”

“Okay. I’ll make sure I tell the nurse. For now, just relax.”

I didn’t know how she expected me to relax when I had no clue what was going on, and I was all alone. I was placed in a private room where the nurses and the doctor on call raced around to get me checked out. My fear materialized when it was confirmed that I was in labor. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Did someone call my husband? I need someone to call Kianis. Please, please, please call him,” I begged the nurse closest to me.

She took down his number and promised to call him. My eyes went to the ceiling as the sound of our son’s heartbeat echoed throughout the room. I felt like I was going to be sick, and my contractions wouldn’t stop coming.

“Okay, Ms. Hart you are almost ten centimeters dilated. It’s almost time for you to push.”

“Push?” I shook my head. “No, no, I can’t. I need Kianis!”

Pure terror was threatening to pull me under forceful and pitch-black waves. In that moment, I realized it wasn’t that I couldn’t do this without him, but I didn’t want to.

“I know you want him to be here, but this baby isn’t waiting.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, praying for a miracle. When they fluttered open a minute later, he was there. He materialized out of thin air like God had zapped him through time and space just to be here. His chest was heaving up and down, a thin layer of sweat was glistening on his forehead, and tears were melting in his beautiful brown eyes.

“Kianis,” I whispered his name.

He raced beside me and took my hand. “I’m here, baby. I told you I would be here.”

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