Page 69 of Best Friend Burden

I paused for a second. Were they going to kick me out of here if I said the truth — that we were friends from high school who'd hooked up years later, fell in love and then broke up, but now realized that we were meant to be? But then the answer clicked in my head. “I'm the father of the baby.”

The nurse looked at me quickly and I tried to judge what was going on in her head, but she scribbled something down and moved on with a series of other questions, most of which I could only guess at the answer and felt like a bad friend as a result. What was her medical history? Nothing, so far as I knew. Did she have any allergies? Not that I was aware of. What was her weight? How would I even know that? Especially now in the extremely advanced stages of her pregnancy.

If nothing else, the nurse with the clipboard distracted me so I could stay out of the other nurse's way. She led me into the room where Melody would be, where another nurse took me aside.

“What's going on?” I asked.

“Her pulse is through the roof,” he told me, “we had to give her a propranolol injection, which...”

“How will that affect the baby?” I interrupted him.

“...is perfectly safe for both her and the baby,” he said, clearly anticipating my question. “She's in labor, and the baby's coming out. It's too late for an epidural, but we'll do everything in our power to make this as comfortable as we can for her.”

“Sir?” another nurse said, pulling a chair up beside Melody. “You're the father?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Sit here, take her hand, and talk to her.”

I ran over to her and took her hand. She turned her head to me and smiled through the pain.

“I probably look so ugly right now,” she said.

She always did that, using terrible comedy to make light of a difficult situation. The thing was, she didn't look ugly at all; she looked absolutely radiant through the beads of sweat on her forehead and lines of exhaustion on her face, which was pale and yet so full of life.

“I've never seen you more beautiful,” I told her.

“Liar,” she said with a laugh that became a pain-filled moan.

Of course, I wasn't lying. But I didn't want to argue with her.

What I was truly thinking at the moment, though, I didn't dare say. With the concerned medical staff and all the color drained out of her face, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she didn't make it.

After all, I'd been here before. Maybe not this exact same situation, but close enough, where I fell face first into love only to lose it forever. I couldn't bear to have that happen again.

But if it did, I would not allow them to take that baby away from me. I'd raise her as well as I could, ensuring that Melody would be looking down from the stars above, proud of both of us.

Stop it, I thought to myself.She's going to live.

“I'm sorry I yelled at you,” I said.

“It’s okay,” she said back.

“No,” I said, “let me do this. You worry about having the baby. I'm sorry that I raised my voice, and I'm sorry I lost my temper. I have my demons, but I can deal with them. I’m not going to let them keep me from you. If you let me back into your life, I'll make sure those demons never show their faces to you or especially to baby...”

I paused.

“Olivia,” she told me. “Baby Olivia Cruz.”

“Not Olivia Ekland? You don’t want us all to have the same last name?” I asked, only realizing what I'd asked after I'd said it.

“Really?” she asked with a smile. “You're choosing now as the time to propose to me?”

“Well, I wasn't thinking...” I trailed off. “Yes,” I said. “I'm proposing to you. I could give you a big old, planned engagement with a ring, but it would be meaningless.”

“Oh?” she said, her voice strained as she felt another contraction coming.

“Because that's not who you are. You're a spontaneous, exciting person who likes to jump into things not knowing exactly how you'll land. And I want to be that person with you. Now is the moment that I decided I wanted to marry you, and so now is the time I'm asking you if you want to marry me, too.”

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