Page 75 of His Secret Virgin
“Yeah, usually. Not always,” he said as he went to the closet, retrieving the bag we’d packed for the hospital. “I’ll have this ready to go, just in case.”
I ran my hand over my leg. “I need to shave my legs, Christopher.”
He held up one finger, gesturing for me to wait as he went into the bathroom. Coming back out with a towel, shaving cream, and a razor, I saw he meant to shave my legs as I lay in bed. “Let me tend to your hairy legs, my lady.”
For some reason, I found that so sweet it rendered me speechless. All I could do was smile at him as he set to work, getting my legs all smooth. And just as he’d finished, I got another weird crampy thing. “Here comes another one.”
He took note of the time then looked at me with wide eyes. “They’re already fifteen minutes apart, it seems. How long were you asleep?”
Thinking back, I remembered watching the first part of a movie that had started at three. “Um, about three hours I think.”
“I bet you’ve been having contractions that whole time and slept right through them.” He looked excited as he ran the towel over my legs to get rid of what was left of the shaving cream. “We’re going to meet our son tonight, I’d bet money on it.”
Two hours later, the contractions were coming in ten-minute intervals, and he called the doctor to let her know we were about to leave for the hospital. I took his phone from him after he ended the call. “I’m calling your daughters to tell them about this.”
He looked at me with wide eyes. “I don’t want them to upset you, baby. I’ll call them when it’s all over.”
Shaking my head, I found Lauren’s number and swiped it. “No, I want to let them know about this. I won’t let them upset me, don’t worry.”
Lauren answered the phone, “Daddy?”
“No, it’s Emma, Lauren.” I took a deep breath to make sure my voice didn’t crack, as I was beginning to fill up with emotion. “Your father and I are about to go to the hospital. The baby’s coming. I just wanted you and your sister to know. You and your sister are welcome to come up there any time you want to. We’d love to have you there when your baby brother is born.”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “But thank you.”
I’d done what I wanted and handed the phone back to Christopher. “Okay, I guess I’ll let you call my father and tell him the same thing.”
He nodded, then made the call from my phone. Dad answered, “Emma?”
“No, it’s Christopher.” He put his hand on the small of my back, steering me to the door that led to the garage. “Emma and I are on the way to the hospital. The baby is coming. We wanted you and Celeste to know that you’re welcome to join us for the birth or to come whenever you want to.”
Dad didn’t say anything. He’d hung up the phone. I saw that as a sign that he didn’t want to know any details about the birth of his first grandchild. That hurt.
But on the ride to the hospital, Christopher had raised my spirits again, making me laugh as he made funny breathing noises while helping me through the contractions, which had quickly gone from ten minutes apart to five.
Not long after getting into the hospital bed and hooked up to all kinds of things, the contractions began to get stronger and closer together. And I started to get irritable with the pain. “When can I have the epidural?”
The nurse who’d just come on shift looked at me like I was crazy. “You wanted an epidural? No one told me that. We can get you one right away.”
“For the love of God!” I squeezed Christopher’s hand as another bolt of pain took my breath away.
She took off to get someone to do the epidural, and I moaned with the pain. “Breathe, baby. Come on,” Christopher coached.
I couldn’t do it though. It hurt to breathe. Thankfully a doctor arrived not much later and gave me the epidural, and in no time at all I was cool as a cucumber. The hour was midnight when my parents walked into the room.
To say I was surprised just didn’t cut it. “Mom! Dad!”
Christopher smiled and hurried to shake Dad’s hand then hug Mom. “I’m so happy you two came!”
Mom came to me, hugging me. “Of course we came. This is our grandchild. How’re you doing, baby girl?”
“Fine now.” I ran my hand through hair that Christopher had lovingly brushed for me. “Now that I’ve got the epidural. I gave them hell up until then.”
“That she did,” Christopher agreed.
Mom sat down on the long window seat as Dad came to me. He placed his hand on top of mine. “You look pretty good for a girl in labor.”
“Thanks,” I said, trying hard not to cry. Seeing them there meant the world to me, even though I’d tried to ignore my disappointment when I thought they wouldn’t be there.
