Page 66 of Devil in Disguise
Her mom hadn’t asked for Harlan for the past half hour, since the worst of it had started, but Dyma could feel her needing him, and that she wasn’t enough. Right now, Jennifer was starting to pant again, saying, “Another … one.”Dyma did her best to hold her up while Jennifer stiffened, wrapped her hands behind her knees, and bore down, her face screwed up with pain, the anguished sounds she made ripping right through Dyma’s body.
The doctor didn’t seem panicked, so this must be how it was. She’dheardthis was how it was. She just hadn’t quite realized. Kind of like college classes, only way worse. Probably more like SEAL training.
She did not want to know that her mom was suffering like this. You were only supposed to experience that when you were the baby involved, so you could forget it immediately and start being selfish.
The door opened and Harlan came in fast as a swirl of rain, in a blue paper gown and booties, a few blades of grass still sticking to his face. Dyma looked up and said, “Oh, thank God.” Jennifer didn’t say anything, because she was still pushing. Still crying out in anguish, too. Harlan got his hands on her shoulders and told Dyma, “I’ve got it,” and she got out of there like the room was on fire. And then she went into the bathroom and threw up. From nerves. From relief.
Hopefully not from dim sum.
* * *
It tookOwen nearly an hour to drive two miles through traffic from the stadium to the hospital, most of which he spent in the stadium parking lot. He’d come as soon as he’d heard, pulling on his clothes in one big hurry and getting out of there. He wondered why even as he sat in an endless line of cars and swore. It wasn’t like it was his baby, and it also wasn’t like babies didn’t take hours to arrive. Why did it feel like he needed to be there? What was he expecting to do?
Support his buddy, he guessed. Also, wouldn’t Annabelle be in the waiting room all alone? She might be quiet, and she sure didn’t share, but he could tell she had trouble expecting the best. Too much tragedy and loneliness in her young life to be sitting in a waiting room for hours, worrying that something was wrong.
When he got there, the room was full of people, but he only saw two. Annabelle, looking a little shaky, as he’d suspected. And somehow, huddled up in a chair with her arms wrapped around her knees and looking cold … Dyma.
He got over there fast. Annabelle looked up, but when Dyma saw him, she jumped up with a cry and threw her arms around him. “Do not kiss me,” she told him. “I threw up. I need a toothbrush.”
He said, “OK, then. I won’t.” His heart lifting even as it contracted, like both things were happening at once. Her jeans were clammy and cold, and he wanted to ask how she could possibly be here, but instead, he gave Annabelle a kiss on the cheek, then asked the more important question. “How’s Jennifer doing?”
Dyma sat down and heaved in a breath. “She had the baby. Nick. Harlan came out and told us a … a few minutes ago?”
Annabelle said quietly, “About twenty minutes ago.”
“Yeah,” Dyma said. “Lookingreallydistracted. He says everybody’s fine, but I don’t know yet, because I haven’t seen her, and Harlan looked …”
He sat down beside her and took her hand, but he also told Annabelle, “This sounds like a story. A pretty tough story, maybe. Were you the only one here?”
She nodded. “At the beginning, I was. I drove her. Well, her and Dyma, as soon as Dyma got there. I didn’t know, because I hadn’t been around anybody while they were having a baby, but it seemed like she was really uncomfortable really fast. I called my sister Alison—the one who has kids—and she said it would take hours, but it sure didn’t seem like it to me. I was just about to head for the hospital with her when Dyma got there. Boy, was I glad to see her.”
“Except that I didn’t know what to do either,” Dyma said. “Also, having a baby seriously sucks.”
Owen laughed and held her hand tighter. “How did you get down here, though? Somebody drive you?”
“There’s an exceptionally streamlined black Mercedes parked in front of Harlan’s house, with plenty of space around it. Call it a buffer zone. A tree had better not fall on it, because if it does, I feel my doom approaching.”
“That was your ride?”
“Yep. And I thoughtHarlanhad a fancy car. Everything in that car is wrapped in leather that feels like it came from baby calves, it’s so soft. Or maybe baby lambs. Either of which is gross. How do people eatbabies?With those adorable faces?Even if I weren’t a vegetarian, I still couldn’t eat babies.”
“No babies,” he said. “Big animals from northern latitudes. No bug bites to scar the leather, and the hide covers more of the seat. Your heart can rest easy.”
“You know the weirdest things,” she said. “Also, I stress-ate dim sum in that car, which was probably a bad idea. I’d say it would take me off the ‘potential daughter-in-law’ list, but before you get all worried about that, I wasn’t on it anyway. Insufficiently Chinese. Avery’s parents loaned it to me.”
“Avery,” he said.
“One of the friends. You met him. I didn’t crash coming down here, and I was awfully nervous, so hopefully I’ll manage to make it back without an accident, too.”
She was talking too much, and about something not important. That couldn’t be about the friend—Avery. Owen wasn’t going to believe it. He said, “Hey,” and waited until she looked up. Until Annabelle did, too. “If something was wrong, I think you’d know.”
“It was just …” Dyma swallowed and tucked her feet under her again. “It was really hard, you know? And Harlan looked stressed, so I’m wondering ….”
He took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. “Having a baby’s tough. Watching the woman you love have one is pretty tough, too. I’d say ‘tougher,’ but if I do, every woman in this place will come over and beat me with her purse. You been wet all this time?”
“Oh. Yes. I guess.” She tugged the jacket around her and gave a long shiver, then laid her head on his shoulder, so he wrapped his arm around her and told Annabelle, “Sounds like you both did well. Tough day, though. How about going and getting us all a cup of coffee? I think there’s a pot over there. While you’re doing that, I’ll go buy Dyma a toothbrush.”
They were all still sitting there when Harlan came in again, and, yeah, Owen could see what Dyma had meant. He looked ragged, no doubt about it. Still in his uniform, though he’d taken the shoulder pads off. Everybody in the waiting room stared, and a few phones came out, too. Thor, in the flesh.
