Page 336 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

GEORGIA

One of the experiences I didn’t expect to have in Montana was to watch a childbirth.

One second Dex was handing me a glass of wine and we were eating little gherkins from a charcuterie board, the next Lindy was in serious labor. Those laughable baby contractions she had for a few days changed in a second. Like a finger snap and she was in excruciating pain.

Before she made it to the front door, her water broke, soaking her leggings and the floor.

Her contractions were so powerful they seemed to be one on top of the other.

“Okay, momma,” Mac said, holding the front door open. He had his keys in hand. “Let’s get you to the hospital super-fast. They’re gonna take real good care of–”

“Hospital?” Lindy said, whipping her head up to glare at Mac. “This baby is coming NOW.” Her jaw was clenched and she looked fierce. A hand was on the underside of her belly as if keeping it in. “Oh God, I swear the head is coming out of my crotch.”

“Now?” Dex asked her, his eyes bugging out of his head. He knelt beside her and held her hand. “You’ve been in labor for sixty seconds. That’s not how the class went! The doctor said–”

“The doctor was WRONG!” Lindy snapped right in his face as if she’d been possessed by a demon. If her eyes could glow, they probably would. “THE CLASS WAS A WAY TO RIP US OFF.”

Dex winced. “Ow, sugar, my hand.”

“Don’t sugar me,” she snapped. “That’s how we got into this mess.”

Dex didn’t even understand that a baby didn’t follow any kind of rules.

He also didn’t know about the grip strength of a woman in labor.

But Dex himself was far from calm. He was looking around as if a doctor would magically appear.

He was also a touch irrational. I didn’t blame him.

If he went to birthing classes, he expected breathing techniques and an epidural and a focus point and other shit that definitely wasn’t going to happen now.

“We’ll get in the car and drive fast and the baby will come with all the doctors and nurses and–”

Lindy patted him on the face, but it was a little harder than a reassuring pat.

Maybe she was between contractions now and her face wasn’t etched in pain.

Her voice was calmer when she told him, “I think the baby’s head is coming out of my crotch.

I am not having this baby in an SUV while you drive down Main Street. ”

Dex nodded like a bobble doll. “Okay, okay. Then–”

She tried to push to standing and he helped her up. She made it a few steps, then bent over again, groaning and panting and shouting at Dex and the world.

I looked to Mac because he was the fireman and knew what to do in emergencies. But this wasn’t a house burning down or a heart attack. He seemed to be assessing the situation because he hadn’t approached the couple.

“Have you delivered a baby before?” I whispered when I moved closer, not wanting to add any more concerns to the mix. Dex might lose his mind if he discovered we were a group of people with no clue on how to deal with a speedy baby.

He shook his head, but then took charge. “Okay, Dex, looks like you’re having a home birth. Carry Lindy up to the master bathroom.” He pointed toward the stairs. “I assume after the tree remodel you’ve got a nice big bathtub.”

Dex looked relieved to have someone tell him what to do. “Yes.”

“That’s the best spot for you two to meet your new baby. Go.”

Dex scooped his wife up and did as Mac said.

Mac turned to me. “Call nine-one-one and tell them the address.”

I ran for my purse which was by the front door but spun around.

“I don’t know the address!”

“Shit,” Mac murmured, then yelled up the stairs. “Dex, what’s the address?”

His booming voice carried and Dex shouted it down to us.

“Tell the dispatcher it’s a precipitous birth.

That the baby could be here before anyone shows up.

” He pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to me.

“Then call Theo on here and tell him the same thing. He may get here before anyone else since he doesn’t live far away. Hopefully, he’s at home.”

Theo! Yes, a doctor! Good. A doctor would be really, really good.

I nodded, trying to get my fingers to hit the right numbers on my phone.

Mac ran upstairs, but he was calm. How could he be like that? It seemed Lindy was going to have a baby faster than the lasagna took to cook and he wasn’t panicking.

This was his job. Okay, maybe not babies, but emergencies.

And I was standing here freaking out. Get your shit together!

I talked to emergency services and they said a crew was on their way. Theo answered–thank the Lord in heaven above–and was coming as well. Both were calm and sounded completely competent, which was reassuring.

But they weren’t here now and I was not reassured.

Especially, just like in the movies, the deep groan of a woman in labor came from above.

Shit.

I ran up the stairs, ready to help in any way I could. The bathroom–thankfully–was spacious and well-lit and the tub was a huge whirlpool one big enough for two. If a baby wasn’t coming, I’d compliment them on the remodel.

“I’m not letting you see my wife’s pussy,” Dex snapped. Lindy was in the tub and Dex knelt beside her on the tile, glaring at Mac. “Get your own.”

I bit my lip and tried not to smile at Dex’s insanity.

Mac had his hands up as if warding off a robbery. Or an angry soon-to-be dad.

Lindy groaned, hooked her hand around Dex’s neck and tugged him close. Their eyes met, only inches apart. “Mac is a paramedic and he’s not looking at my pussy, he’s going to be looking at the baby that is coming out of my body RIGHT NOW.”

Dex stared at her and his mouth fell open. “Now? As in now?” he squeaked and shifted down the bath to look between her parted legs. “Holy shit. Mac, look. There’s, there’s–”

Dex pointed with a shaky finger.

I’d never seen Dex so freaked. I had to imagine a man who always looked at a woman’s pussy with the desire to put something in it was now going mental because something was coming out.

Lindy had gotten her leggings off and she was propped back as if she was taking a relaxing soak.

Mac moved Dex down to the foot of the tub and out of the way and patted his shoulders as if saying, STAY! “Yup, looks like your baby’s got blonde hair like her momma.”

The baby really was coming out?

Mac looked to me. “Find me towels. Lots of them.”

I yanked two off the towel bar beside the shower and passed them to him, then went into the hall and pulled all there was from the linen closet.

Lindy groaned again. Her hands that gripped the side of the tub turned white with her strain.

“Ohmygod, I have to push. Oh, I have to.”

“Okay,” Mac agreed. “As you know, you’re crowning, so whenever you want, just push. You’re doing great. So great. Your baby’s going to be here before you know it.”

He was calm and in control. I went to kneel beside Dex, set a hand on his arm. His eyes were wide like saucers as he watched his wife give birth in their bathtub.

Lindy reached down between her legs. “Oh God, the head.” She started to cry, to groan and then push all within one breath.

“Good job. That’s it,” Mac praised. He opened a towel and reached into the tub, letting nature work. “One more and–”

Lindy groaned. Dex gasped. I stared, wide eyed as the James baby slid into this world like a prize from a t-shirt cannon launch.

“It’s a girl!” Mac said, grinning. He rubbed the baby down with the towel, then wrapped her up in it.

Then she cried.

And then I exhaled.

Mac set the towel-swaddled baby on Lindy’s chest and grabbed another and set it between her legs.

Dex scurried around us and squatted by Lindy’s head. “Sugar, oh look. Holy shit, you did it. I’m so proud of you. She’s so beautiful.” They were crying and kissing and eyeing their new baby. It was a precious moment.

I heard noise downstairs and with Mac still tending to Lindy, I went out to meet the help.

The fire department came in first, carrying medical bags and leaving the door open behind them.

I recognized the two who came in and saw a few others waiting by the engine.

I directed them up the stairs and Theo ran in directly after them.

He looked to me expectantly.

“It’s a girl,” I said, then burst into tears.