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“Shit!” I cursed. “Somebody needs to call an ambulance to get here from Billings as soon as possible.”

“I’m on it,” Ralph said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

I arrived at the booth to see a woman that was obviously in hard labor. She was on a pile of blankets behind that booth so that she was out of sight of onlookers.

Anna and Hannah were kneeling beside Gloria with what had to be her husband on the other side of the pregnant woman.

Millie was standing close by with a worried expression on her face.

“Ambulance is on the way,” Ralph yelled from the other side of the booth. “What else can I do?”

I looked up at him from the kneeling position between Gloria’s legs that I’d dropped into seconds ago.

I locked eyes with the Chief of Police and said, “I’m going to have to tell her.”

He nodded grimly.

“Can you get everyone out of the area right now,” I asked him abruptly.

I rattled off several things that I needed, and Ralph took off on a scavenger hunt to see what he could find.

“Gloria,” I called softly as I took her hand. “My name is Reese. I’m a women’s health nurse practitioner. Before that, I was a labor and delivery nurse. Can I take a look to see how you’re progressing?”

The woman looked relieved as she panted and nodded her head between contractions.

“Are you her husband?” I asked the man beside her.

“Yes, I’m Tim. I didn’t know this would happen. She’s only thirty-seven weeks. We were going to head to Billings to stay with family right after the fundraiser just to be safe. I barely got her to the hospital with our first child. She’s been having those false contractions on and off for a while now. The doctor said it was nothing to worry about. She didn’t even know she was in labor until her water broke. The contractions started coming hard and fast right after that. I was afraid we wouldn’t make it to the hospital before she delivered. I didn’t know what to do.”

Okay, now I understood why they weren’t immediately in a panic when she started having a few contractions. Braxton Hicks contractions weren’t that unusual. Gloria obviously hadn’t known that she was in labor when her contractions were first starting.

A woman who had experienced precipitous labor with a first child was more likely to have it happen a second time.

A precipitous labor was lightning fast and possibly life-threatening for both the mother and child if they didn’t have proper medical intervention.

The couple was smart to take precautions to stay in Billings for the last few weeks of her pregnancy.

Unfortunately, this little peanut obviously had a mind of their own.

“It’s not your fault,” I said soothingly as I lifted Gloria’s sundress to take a look at her progress. “Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl?”

“Girl,” he answered, his eyes wide with fear.

I needed to calm this expectant father down.

Since her labor had gone so fast last time, he’d never really had a chance to be a delivery coach.

He was also probably worried because he’d been through a precipitous birth with his wife before.

Luckily, Gloria seemed calmer than he did right now.

I wished I had a bright light right now, but I didn’t need a spotlight to see what was happening.

Crap! She’s already fully dilated.

At the rate that she was progressing, this baby was going to be born right here in the park before the ambulance arrived.

We certainly couldn’t shove her in a car or even one of the Remington helicopters at this point.