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“You’re offering me nothing, Damien!” I reached inside the Styrofoam cup, grabbed a few ice chips, and threw them at him.
The doctor walked in. “Thank God, you’re here,” Damien said.
“Everyone is having fun, I see.” Dr. Cassidy smiled.
“She just threw ice chips at me,” Damien said.
“She’s in labor, Mr. Blackwood. She could throw a chair that’s on fire and still be legally allowed to yell at you.” She smirked.
“Tell him again, but louder!” I shouted through another contraction.
“Let me examine you and see where we are,” Dr. Cassidy said. “You’re dilated to nine centimeters already, which is too late for an epidural. But, we’re almost there.” She grinned beneath her mask.
“Nine centimeters? I read where ten centimeters is when the baby comes out,” Damien said.
I gripped his hand and squeezed it as tightly as I could. “Yes, Professor of Biology! Ten is when our little tax deduction rips through my body like a wrecking ball!”
“Okay. Tell me what to do,” Damien said. “This whole thing is giving me anxiety.”
I knew he just didn’t say that.
“Dr. Cassidy, if he passes out, do we leave him on the floor or have the nurse dump his body in the hall?” I asked.
“That depends.” She smiled. “Do you want him in the first family photo?”
Damien went to say something, and I squeezed his hand again. He was wise and closed his mouth.
“Here we go, Willa. It’s time.” Dr. Cassidy smiled. “Push, Willa.”
“I am pushing!” I screamed.
Damien stood holding my hand and a cold compress in the other. I had no idea why he wasn’t putting it on my forehead.
“You’re doing amazing, sweetheart,” he said in what he thought was a soothing voice because I once told him that his voice sounded like a meditation and was comforting and relaxing.
“Don’t you dare use your meditation voice on me right now!”
“Right. Sorry, sweetheart.” He placed the cold compress on my forehead. “You’re so strong. Brave, beautiful, powerful. Just breathe with me. Inhale the?—”
“I swear to God. If you say inhale the love, exhale the fear, I will murder you and deliver this baby alone.”
The nurse snorted, and the doctor coughed. But I knew that cough was to hide a laugh.
“Got it. No love inhaling,” he said.
“Push, Willa. Come on,” Dr. Cassidy said.
“You did this to me!” I screamed and gripped his hand with a strength I never knew I had. It was like I had superpowers.
“I know! I was there!” he voiced loudly.
“One more push, Willa. I see the baby’s head.”
ChapterThirty-One
Damien
I bent down, my forehead to hers. “You’ve got this. You can do anything. You took heartbreak and turned it into something beautiful, sweetheart. If you can do that, you can deliver our daughter.”