Page 69 of Love is a Drum Beat
Soon, she’d do the single mom thing, but she’d be okay. She always was. “Now that you guys have seen me, can we hang up?”
Protests came from all the faces on the screen. Jo waved and hung up.
Ben laughed. “You’re probably the only person who has ever hung up on Drew.”
Jo shrugged. “It’s good for the ego. Now, as for you…” She studied the ends of her hair. “I need your help.”
“With what?”
“First, with getting out of bed. We’re going to need to do this in the bathroom.”
“That’s not normal. You know that, right? What possible reason do we have for hanging in the bathroom?”
“I’ll show you.”
He pulled her up, keeping a hand on her until she was steady.
Inside the bathroom, Jo searched the drawers for what she needed. “Ben, can you go look in the kitchen for scissors?”
This time he didn’t protest. When he returned, he held up a pair of blue-handled scissors.
“Perfect. Okay, so, here’s the deal. I promise to get back in that bed for the rest of the day—Dax’s orders—if you help me with one thing.”
“You want me to cut your hair?”
She nodded. “I need a change, something that makes me feel human again.
“And you think I’m the right person to help.”
“Not really, no. I wish you were Melanie, but you’re here, and it hurts to move most of the time. So, we have to make lemonade.”
“How short?”
“As short as you can get it on the sides, but longer on top. I can have my stylist fix it after my alien is born.”
Jo watched Ben in the mirror, she watched him swallow and suck in a breath preparing himself.
“Are you sure about this?”
She nodded. “Just do it.”
The first sound of the scissors cutting through hair was so satisfying Jo shivered. Pink hair fell around her shoulders as she became someone else, a new version of herself.
It happened so suddenly, Jo froze. “Um, Ben. This is totally embarrassing, but I think I just peed myself.”
She hadn’t even felt like she needed to pee. Her gaze fell to the tile floor where a puddle of clear liquid now stood. Her eyes traveled back to the mirror where one side of her head sported uneven short hair while the other was still long.
The baby kicked, as if reminding her he was in there, and Jo’s eyes widened. “I…”
Ben put a hand on each of her shoulders and turned her to face him. “I don’t want you to panic, Jo, but I don’t think that’s pee.”
“Panic? Who’s panicking?” She’d practiced this in her mind a million times. “My water just broke.”
She was supposed to have another month, yet she’d known an early delivery was possible, maybe even safer with her condition.
But it didn’t make it any less real.
“I’m having a baby,” she whispered to herself before looking to Ben. “I’m having a baby.”
