Page 229 of Force Play
Ella grits her teeth and digs her fingers into Josh’s shoulder. Her contractions must be starting. “That doesn’t mean itdoesn’thappen.”
“Are you sure it isn’t champagne?” Josh asks her.
She levels him with a look. “Yes, Joshy. I’m certain the gush I feltbetween my legswasn’t champagne.”
“Do you need to go to the hospital?” Liv asks worriedly.
“Not yet,” Ella waves dismissively. “I just had a contraction, but it was only one. I have to wait until I get them every five minutes before I go in.”
“How long will that be?” Lo questions.
Ella shrugs. “Could be hours, could be a day or so.”
Josh looks right at her. “If you think your water broke, Ell, we need to make sure of that. You can’t wait forever for labor to start after your water breaks.”
“Right,” Ella says. “Pregnancy brain is so real. I guess I do actually need to go to the hospital to confirm. They’ll just send me home after, though.”
“You just better keep us up to date, Ella!” Lucia points at her. “We’re not missing the birth of your first child.”
Ella laughs gently. “I promise. We’ll go get checked out, and I’ll let you guys know what they say.”
Ella’s ‘it could be hours or days until labor starts’ turns into ‘holy shit, I’m in full-blown labor’ by the time they get to the hospital.
Josh texts all of us after they confirm her water did indeed break to let us know that they’re getting her room ready. This baby is coming now.
So, the eight of us—Sage goes to hang out with Skip—are celebrating our World Series win by hanging out in the maternity ward waiting room.
I’ve already seen multiple babies since we sat down, and fuck if it doesn’t make me want one even more.
Cole just smiles at his wife, though, celebrating the fact that this will be them in roughly six or seven months.
It was late when we all got here, and the girls could only stay awake for so long. Guys, too, really. I fall asleep with my backagainst a chair while Lucia leans on me. Everyone else falls asleep in similar positions.
We’re all asleep longer than we realize because we only wake up when Josh walks into the room around eight in the morning.
He gets our attention, and we all look at him and wait to hear what he has to say.
“Baby’s here,” is all he says, but it’s enough to have us all jump out of our seats and throw our arms around him.
“How’s Ella?” Lucia asks.
“She’s doing great,” he smiles. “She did absolutely amazing. Visiting hours are starting, though. I’d love for you guys to all follow me and meet our child.”
We’re all buzzing with excitement as we follow Josh through the winding halls of the maternity ward until we stop in front of a room with the nameGarroon the outside.
He leads us inside, and we see Ella on the bed, cradling an infant wrapped up in a blanket with the most loving smile I’ve ever seen.
“We’d like everyone to meet our son, Hudson Joshua Garro,” she says, looking down at the infant in her arms.
“A baby boy!” Harlow says excitedly.
“Congratulations!” Lucia wipes tears from her eyes, and I lean over to kiss the top of her head.
“You okay, Spitfire?”
She smiles. “I’m just really fucking happy right now.”
“Would anyone like to hold him?” Josh asks, and I swear Lucia runs over to him.
