Page 87 of This Love
“She’s had a baby before?” the female EMT asked.
“No,” I said. I didn’t even want to get started trying to explain the amnesia.
I held her waist as I turned her toward the door. Her pants were soaking wet. She’d never lost bladder control during a seizure. Her water had broken. It really was labor.
As soon as she moved away from me, the EMTs stepped forward to take her.
I hung on to her arm. “Don’t do anything sudden. She’s been through a lot.”
“Sir,” the man said. “You need to step aside.”
“She needs me,” I said. “Stop it.”
Rosie sensed the tension and lunged between us and the EMT with a fierce warning bark.
“Sir, get control of your dog!” the woman said.
Shit. I let go of Ava to grasp Rosie’s harness. “Rosie, sit,” I said. She preferred commands from Ava, but she would take them from me. Ava obviously didn’t know them anymore.
While I pulled Rosie back, the EMTs got Ava to lie on the stretcher, then strapped her down.
When Ava realized her arms were locked in place, she panicked. “What’s happening? What are you doing?” She writhed on the thin mattress. “Let me go!”
At her panic, Rosie tried to lunge forward. I had to fight her with all my strength to get her down the hall to a bedroom where I could shut her in.
“Rosie, sit,” I called through the door.
She was trained well enough not to dig at the floor. From the other room, Ava let out a long, angry scream.
I held back my own panic as I raced to the hall. The EMTs were taking her down the porch stairs.
I wasn’t sure what to do first. Get her bag? Lock the door?
Isadora stood where I’d left her, both hands covering her mouth as if she were suppressing a scream of her own.
“We’ll need our bag and things eventually,” I told her. “And Rosie will need handling. I’m going with Ava. It looks like she’s had a seizure and lost her memory.”
Isadora reached out with a hand and gripped my arm. “I’m here, Tucker. I’ll help. Anything you need.” Tears cut through her makeup in muddy rivers. “You go.”
I took off across the lawn to climb into the back of the ambulance.
Another contraction had taken over. Ava was no longer screaming, but she whimpered in pain.
I glanced back at Isadora standing on the porch of our blue house. From inside, I could hear Rosie barking.
This was a nightmare.
Chapter 34
Ava
I couldn’t breathe. The pain was too great.
I kept going in and out of knowing what was happening. My lungs felt pressed from the inside like I was being crushed. I gulped for air, and panic swept over my body as my vision narrowed to gray circles.
“Breathe like this,” someone said. I could only make out a form in the haze, but I could hear her fast, hard pants.
“She shouldn’t,” said a voice. It was the man from the house. The one who had gotten the dog away.
