Page 46 of His to Love
Stopping at the door, I leaned against the frame and watched her walk slowly away from me. My heart felt as if it melted inside my chest as emotions swirled inside of me. Love. Empathy. Sorrow.
It saddened me to think about Alexa losing her virginity to a man who didn’t love her. It was sad that she’d become pregnant by a man who didn’t love her. And it was sad that she wasn’t having a good pregnancy.
One good thing was that we’d finished the nursery and ordered everything we needed for the baby’s arrival online. It had all come in already, and I’d put everything where it needed to be. We were ready for Patty’s arrival, although no one wanted him to come too early.
Patiently, we waited, letting him grow where he’d grow best. But it was sad to see the pain Alexa was in. She was already having such a hard start to motherhood. Yet, she still had no complaints and looked forward to being a mom.
Going back to the kitchen, I got the rest of dinner ready then plated up our food. Putting it on a tray, I covered the plates with silver domes to keep the food warm. I’d bought a portable tray for Alexa, like the ones they have in hospitals. It made it easier for her to eat while keeping her feet up. I’d done everything I could to make things as pleasant for her as they could be.
I’d changed into my pajamas and gotten into bed already, waiting to eat dinner with her. When she emerged from the bathroom, she didn’t look a whole lot better than when she’d gone in. “I’ve got dinner ready for you. Come get into bed and I’ll take care of everything else.”
“It smells amazing.” She winced as she got into bed. “The shower helped some, but not much. I just want to eat then snuggle down in this bed with you at my back. The pressure your body puts on my back always makes it feel better.”
“Glad to be of service, my lady.” I loved sleeping with her. What was odd to me was that holding her all night long without getting aroused hadn’t been hard to do at all. I supposed it was because I knew she couldn’t have sex anyway, so there wasn’t any reason to work myself up over something that just couldn’t happen.
She wasted no time, eating the food then snuggling down, turning to lie on her side. “Thank you for dinner. As always, it was exceptional. Once I’ve got this baby on the outside of my body, I swear to you that I’ll return all of this kindness you’ve shown me. I’ll take over all the cooking and get to pamper you for once.”
“Sounds great to me. But you know what I think will work even better for us?” I didn’t want to put the chores all on her shoulders. “I think we should alternate. I’ll cook a couple of days of the week and you can too, and then we’ll order out a few days. That way we both get free nights.”
“Sounds good to me.” She grabbed my hand as soon as I got into bed. “Now wrap yourself around me and make this backache go away.”
“My pleasure.” Moving in close, I rested my hand on her stomach and in no time at all, we both fell asleep.
Sometime later, I woke to a soft moan. Coming to my sense, I felt something very strange going on underneath my hand, as her stomach felt hard as a rock. Alexa’s entire body went stiff as a board for about twenty seconds then it went soft again, as did her stomach. Her moaning stopped and was replaced by soft snores.
I’d been reading up on labor and felt sure that had been a contraction. But I didn’t want to wake her unless another one happened. Lying still, I waited for quite some time before the same thing happened.
It lasted twenty seconds again. So, I turned over and picked up my phone off the nightstand so I could see how far apart these things were coming—if she had another one.
Twenty minutes later, there came another one, and this time I knew I had to make the call to the doctor. Getting out of bed as quietly as I could, I left the bedroom to make the call.
“Patton?” the doctor answered, sounding sleepy.
“I know it’s the middle of the night, doc, but I’m fairly sure that Alexa’s having contractions in her sleep. Her stomach gets hard, her entire body tenses up, and she moans.” Closing my eyes, I tried to calm myself down as panic began rising up inside of me. “I know this is too early for the baby to come.”
“Do you know how long the contractions are and how much time is between them?”
“They are twenty minutes apart, and they last twenty seconds. She’s only had three that I’m aware of. There may have been more before I woke up though.” I knew this wasn’t good. “He’ll be like four weeks early if he’s born now.”
“Look, I don’t want you to worry. Keep her calm. That’s your job, Daddy. Keep her calm and wake her up gently then grab your hospital bag and take her to Saint David’s. I’ll let them know you’re coming. You’ll have to go in through the emergency room entrance. I’ll be there soon.” She paused. “You’ve got this, Patton. No worries.”
Holy shit, it’s happening. Being a father looks like it might be a lot harder than I thought it would be!
