Page 111 of Before You Can Blink
“Come on,” she coaxed, her hands sliding up the sides of my neck to cradle my face. “You’re gonna take some deep breaths for me, and then we’re gonna talk this out. Just like we always do.”
How did she always stay so damn calm?
Her soft touch and soothing words finally got me to a place where my lungs could fill with air, and I sagged in the chair, the panic attack having zapped all my energy.
Brushing the hair back from my forehead, she placed a kiss right in the center of it. “I’m going to get you a glass of water. I’ll be right back.”
I let out a shuddering exhale, scrubbing both hands over my face. I was fifty-five years old. Shouldn’t I have outgrown this shit by now?
A cool glass was pressed into my palm, and when I didn’t move to drink from it, Daisy maneuvered my limbs like I was a child until the rim reached my lips before tilting it enough that water flowed into my mouth.
Swallowing greedily, I drained the contents quickly, and Daisy set the glass aside.
“That better?”
“Not gonna be better until that baby’s here and I know both she and Aspen have come out the other side of it safe,” I confessed.
“Ah.” Daisy nodded in understanding. “So, that’s what this is about.”
She took my hand in hers, stroking a thumb over my knuckles.
“It can’t happen again,” I whispered weakly.
“Honey, it’s going to be fine.”
I shot out of my seat, shouting, “You can’t know that!” Tugging on my hair, I paced the kitchen. “We thought that too when—when—” I couldn’t even finish that sentence; I was so worked up again.
“Okay, okay.” My wife approached me slowly. “You’re right. We don’t know what the future holds. But what we do know is that Mac’s a trained EMT. He’s equipped to handle emergency situations, and believe it or not, has delivered more babies than you.”
Grunting, I muttered, “One was one too many.”
Light laughter sounded as she closed the distance between us, looping her arms around my waist. “On that, we can agree.” Face pressed to my chest, she said, “I’m sorry you’re struggling with all of this. Especially when I can hardly remember what went down that day. There’s a gap in my memory between when my water broke and when Tripp was placed in my arms. It’s like my brain blocked out all the hard parts in the middle.”
My fingers tangled in her hair. “You’re better off for it.”
“Maybe,” she mused. “But the important thing to remember is that everything turned out just fine in the end.”
Before I could remark that we’d been insanely fortunate, her phone sounded from where it had been left discarded on the counter, and every muscle in my body tensed in unison.
Daisy stepped out of my arms. “I bet that’s Aspen now.”
Retrieving her phone, she returned to where I stood while scanning the message. A smile curved on her lips as she turned the screen around to show me the ultrasound picture attached to a message from our daughter saying our granddaughter was nice and snug and showing no signs of coming early, making sure to note that news was much to her annoyance.
Like everything else, I could recall with crystal clarity how miserable Daisy had been, heavily pregnant in the heat of the summer. While I felt sympathy for Aspen, she had the luxury of air conditioning—something we didn’t thirty years ago—so I sent up a silent prayer that that baby took after her mama, and they had to practically smoke her out.
July
“Where’s my baby girl?”
I pushed into the room—located inside a hospital, thank fucking God—shoving the privacy curtain aside, eyes searching.
Mac’s back was to us, but he spun around at the sound of my voice. A wide grin split his face as he dipped his chin toward the bundled infant held in his arms. “I’ve got her right here.”
Stepping forward, I gave his shoulder a squeeze on my way to where Aspen lay in the hospital bed.
Looking a little too pale for my liking, she gave me a tired smile. “Hi, Daddy.”
I bent at the waist to place a kiss on her forehead. Eyes sliding shut, I let the relief of seeing her safe wash over me before pulling back.
