Page 49 of A Ferry Merry Christmas
“That man’s wife is having a baby,” Olivia explained, coming to stand on the other side of Logan. He reached for his daughter’s hand and smiled down at her.
“The daddy can’t be with his wife because he’s stuck on the ferry like us,” Olivia added, as if this was news to Logan.
“That’s why we’re all helping him and his wife, too,” Beth explained.
“Daddy.” Olivia looked up at Logan, her beautiful brown eyes so like her father’s, and asked, “Was I born in a hospital?”
“Yup, you sure were.”
“Were you there with Mommy?”
“I was.”
“Did you count the seconds of the contraptions like everyone is doing here?”
“Contractions,” Beth corrected.
“Con-trac-tions,” Olivia repeated, struggling to pronounce the multisyllable word.
Logan nodded. “I did. I was right by your mommy’s side the whole time.”
“Was Mommy in pain, like the lady?”
Olivia had grown more inquisitive as she listened to the conversations taking place around them. “I was,” Beth said, “but it was the best pain in the world because when it was over I got to hold you in my arms.”
Olivia cocked her head to one side as if she found Beth’s answer hard to understand. “When I get hurt and you kiss my owie, it sometimes feels better and sometimes it still hurts.”
“A little attention and love make almost all the pain go away,” Beth said.
“Yup, it does.” Olivia’s attention waned and she asked, “Can I go sit with my new friend?”
“Okay,” Beth agreed.
Her daughter skipped happily to the table where Kevin sat coloring in a book. The boy glanced up and smiled when Olivia approached. Soon the two sat side by side, each coloring a page. Sharing crayons.
“I remember when you went into labor,” Logan said, as he glanced down at their clasped hands. “I was scared to death.”
“You were?” All she remembered was how calm he was, how caring and thoughtful. “You certainly didn’t show it.”
“I didn’t dare. I was afraid if you knew how frightened I was you would panic yourself.”
“I think I probably would have,” Beth agreed, remembering the hectic drive to the hospital after they realized the strange pain she was experiencing that emanated from her back was the first sign of labor. “It was too early, and I didn’t know what that would mean for the baby.”
A loud cheer went up. Because of the conversation with Logan, Beth hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on around them.
She touched Virginia’s shoulder, as she was standing in front of Beth.
“Did something just happen?”
The grandmother turned her head around. “Lilly has advanced to stage two—the baby is about to be born.”
“So soon?”
“A fast labor for sure, and it’s their first,” Virginia said and smiled. “I wasn’t that fortunate with either of my two children.”
“I wasn’t, either,” Beth said as the two women shared a smile. When she returned her attention to Logan, she noticed how intently he was staring at her.
“Is everything all right?” she asked, wondering at the change in him.
