Page 30 of A Baby for the Billionaire Cowboy

His body was getting confusing signals from the feel of her skin and hair and the comfortable weight of her against his side. “I’ll get dressed too.”

Her palm pressed against his chest. “Not on my account.” She jerked her hand back and slapped it over her mouth. “Forget I said that. I’m a little crazy right now.”

“It’s fine.” He wasn’t sure why she’d worry about being polite anyway, but women in labor got to say anything they wanted. “If walking helps, do laps around the dining room table where you’ll have the chair backs to hang onto. I’ll be right back.”

He ran to his room, where he quickly got dressed and grabbed his phone. He hurried back to the living room. Daisy was slowly walking around the big table, shifting her left hand from chair to chair.

“Do you want the light on?” Xander asked.

“I don’t know. Whatever is easier.”

He compromised by turning on some lamps. They gave the room a soft glow and would provide enough light to avoid stubbed toes.

He pulled up the clock app on his phone and switched it to stopwatch. “Tell me when a contraction starts.”

“Oh, you’ll probably be able to figure it out.”

He joined her and offered his arm. She took it. Nothing wrong with her grip strength. They paced slowly through the room. After a minute or so, she stopped and said, “Now.”

Xander started the stopwatch. They both stared at it as the seconds ticked off. At fifty-two seconds, Daisy took a deep breath and straightened. “It’s done.”

Xander reset the stopwatch and got it going again. They resumed walking. “Do you want anything?” he asked. “Some tea? Anything to eat? You probably don’t feel like eating, but you need energy.”

“I need this to be over.”

And he needed to do something to ease her suffering. They were both out of luck.

“Once we know the time between contractions, I’ll wake Mama, if that’s okay.”

She hesitated. Finally she said, “I don’t want to be a bother. I doubt anything’s happening for a while.”

“I guarantee Mama will be more upset if she finds out you were in labor and didn’t wake her. If you don’t want her here, that’s one thing. But if you want her, or your auntie Rhonda, or anyone, please ask. We want to be here. We want to help you.”

She made a snuffling sound, choked out a few harsh gasps, and then she was huddled in his arms, crying. He dropped the phone on the sofa so he could hold her. He stroked her back and pressed his cheek down on her head as he murmured comforting nonsense. “It’s all right. It’s going to be okay. You’re perfect and the baby is perfect and it will all be over soon.”

Her breathing changed to deep, harsh breaths, which finally slowed. She straightened. “I’m sorry.”

He held her shoulders firmly and bent his head to look into her face. “This is all about you. You’re not inconveniencing or troubling anyone. You can cry or scream or swear. You can ask for anything you need or want. If we can make it happen, we will.”

She bit her lip and nodded. Then her face twisted, and her shoulders hunched. Xander snatched up the phone to check the timing. He kept one arm around Daisy until the contraction eased.

“Just over six minutes,” he said. “I’m going to wake Mama, and you’re going to call the doula. If she’s worried about the rain, we’ll send TC in his big truck.”

“Okay.” Daisy fished her phone out of the pocket of her robe. “Thanks. I might take you up on that swearing thing too.”

Xander tightened his arm around her in a quick hug. He pressed a kiss to her hair. He couldn’t help himself. “I’ll be right back, with reinforcements.”

Mama was of course happy to be woken up in these circumstances. The doula was worried about driving with all the mud, so they got TC up too.

Mama fussed over Daisy. “It’ll be about half an hour before they can get back here.”

Daisy groaned. “I guess I’ll survive. Women do, right?”

Mama looked at Xander. “Maybe we should show her the surprise now.”

It would be a distraction.

“We’ll have to go out in the rain,” he said.

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