Page 31 of Crocodile Tears
Hannah groaned, leaning against the table and clenching her stomach. “Holy shit, that was strong.” She started panting. “This is nothing like those other ones.”
Hawk’s eyes flew wide. “What other ones?”
“I mean . . .” She grimaced. “I’ve been cramping on and off throughout the day, but it hasn’t been this intense yet.”
“What?!”
Finch’s hand landed on Hawk’s shoulder. “Bro, chill, you’re not helping.”
Hannah’s face twisted as another contraction came barreling in right after the first. “I wanted to meet Deacon and have a final family dinner together. I figured I’d tell you after we finished eating. They weren’t that intense—argh, okay, these ones are though.” Her face scrunched up again and then it passed fast as it came. She looked at Hawk. “I figured I’d be in labor for ages. I didn’t want to spend the whole time in a hospital bed and miss the chance to meet Deacon Harrow! Why are you looking at me like that? The book said contractions between three to fiveminutes apart. It hasn’t been that until now. I didn’t leave it too late, did I?”
Hawk held Hannah by the cheeks and kissed her to stall her normal spiraling out. “Everything's going to be fine,” he assured her, kissing her again and placing his forehead to hers. “Just breathe and think of our little bean.”
“Please tell me you didn’t name your son little bean,” Finch snarked.
Hawk ignored her, rocking with Hannah side to side. “Our son is going to be here soon.” His voice got thick as he spoke, overcome with emotion.
“Hopefully not too soon,” Heron quipped, and Mom shot them a death stare.Yeah, I definitely inherited that look from her.
“Right, okay,” Hannah said, taking a deep, calming breath. “Let's go get the hospital ba—” She doubled over with a groan, another contraction coming swiftly after the last.
That was definitely not three minutes . . . I wasn’t an expert on labor—well, not the human kind at least—but these contractions seemed worryingly close together for someone who still had a boatanda car ride to get to the hospital.
Finch darted a look to Mom. “You know what? Maybe we'll come in the boat with you.”
“A nice boat ride,” Mom agreed. “Lovely.” She sounded way too calm, the kind of calm like when a lion had almost escaped that one time. Fortunately, Hannah hadn’t learned that super calm equaled emergency yet, as Mom whispered, “Wren, go grab some towels.”
“I'll go get the hospital bag!” Crane volunteered, bolting out the door.
“I'll go get the truck,” Heron called as Hannah came crashing into another contraction and my heart leapt into my throat. All of my excitement morphed into sheer panic.
“Petey isn’t picking up his phone,” Frankie said, hurriedly texting. “I think his boat is still moored at the west docks just down the hill though.”
Hannah’s contractions were only a minute apart, coming thick and fast. Hawk held her hand, murmuring calm words in her ear, but when he looked up at me, I could see fear in his eyes.
We couldnotlet her have her baby on a rusty boat in the middle of the harbor covered in Petey’s snack wrappers.
“Dove, go tell Petey we're taking his boat,” Hawk said.
“Oh my god,” Hannah whined. “I can't have our baby in Petey's fucking boat.”
“Hey, Haze,” Hawk calmed her, pulling her into him again as they rocked side to side. “Everything's going to be fine. Finch and Mom are going to come with us just in case you need any support, but we've got plenty of time. We'll get to the hospital, okay?”
“Okay!” she said, a sheen of sweat breaking out on her brow.
I bolted to the door, dashing down the path toward the docks as my eyes pricked with panicked tears. All of my siblings were good in emergencies. It was par for the course when working with wild animals, but while the keeper side of me was calm, the sister, aunt, and best friend in me was completely freaking out.
I ran into the night, using only the light of the moon to navigate as I practically barreled over a broad-shouldered figure ambling away from the zoo.
“Dove?” Deacon called, but I couldn't deal with him or the way he’d said “never” or any of the other feelings exploding out my chest. All I could think about was getting to the boat.
Chapter Sixteen
Deacon
The stars sparkled brighter in the sky here than anywhere else in the world. I swore the constellations above Prickle Island were my favorite . . . not that I had any intention of ever seeing them again after we finished filming. The family dinner had confirmed it: Dove and I were never going to rekindle our friendship. She was determined to hate me forever, and I probably deserved it.
My watch started vibrating and I looked down to see Zeke was calling me. I fished my phone out of my pocket. Before I could even say hello, Zeke asked, “How quickly can you gain twenty pounds of muscle?”
