Page 14 of Over and Above (Mount Hope #4)

Chapter Fourteen

Magnus

I had no milk. This was hardly a surprise because I barely had furniture. The weekend had brought a downpour of Eric’s friends, so much so that I’d escaped to The Heist simply to avoid more offers of outdated dining sets, chairs, futons, knickknacks, and slow cookers. I’d been on my own with Diesel for so many years that having a swirling community was new, but I was grateful for the help. The previous mess of the carriage house’s interior had been replaced with bright bedding, a well-swept front room, a small black dining set, a sturdy loveseat, and other odds and ends that made it start to feel like a home.

A home.

Not my home, but perhaps that would come with time. And as I looked around the much neater main room, all I could see were memories of the messy sex with Eric on the floor. I’d endure any amount of dust and drink my coffee black for eternity if it meant a repeat of the sweaty orgasm fest.

But if I’d learned one thing the past week—and it had been a week— it was that wishes were rather pointless. I wished the insurance would hurry up with the claims process. I wished I could catch a moment alone with Eric. I wished the heatwave would break. None of those things had happened. The insurance process plodded along painfully slow, unable to even authorize a cleanup crew at the scene yet. Eric had been busy with friends and kids all weekend, then on call. Here it was, a week after the fire, still hot July temperatures, and me with a decided lack of forward momentum in many areas.

However, my lack of milk for the coffee I’d made in my second-hand French press was immediately fixable as the main house was mere feet away, and I’d watched the kids haul in what looked like four gallons of milk the day prior. Surely, they’d have a splash to spare for my coffee. Eric’s SUV wasn’t in the driveway, meaning he was likely on duty, so it wasn’t like I was looking for a pretense to run into the guy.

Both dogs decided to accompany me over to the house, undoubtedly because they sensed the possibility of air conditioning and treats. Indeed, they went right to the water Eric continued to keep for them in the kitchen, drinking like they didn’t have full bowls at the carriage house and snorting around for food like they hadn’t eaten in a month.

“Um. Hello?” I called out, feeling a little awkward about letting myself into an empty kitchen. “I was looking for milk.”

“In the fridge.” Diesel’s voice sounded from deeper in the house. “We’re in the living room. Come say hi.”

I added a healthy glug of milk to my travel mug of coffee, and not in a particular hurry to head to The Heist, I followed Diesel’s bidding. The living room was rather crowded. Wren was perched like a pelican on the recliner with a notebook out. Maren was stretched out on the couch, head in Diesel’s lap, while a familiar-looking woman with curly dark hair in her mid-to-late thirties sat at Maren’s feet, thumbing through a large three-ringed binder.

“Hi.” I extended the greeting even as I tried to make sense of the gathering. “Uh… What’s this?”

“I’m having a prenatal appointment.” Maren made an airy gesture. “This is Marissa, my midwife.”

“Wonderful. Nice to meet you.” I offered Marissa a hearty handshake before turning my attention to Maren. Her reluctance to pick which OB/GYN practice she wanted for her prenatal care had been the topic of multiple conversations around the house. But something told me Eric would hardly celebrate Maren and Diesel having chosen this particular path. “You’re doing a home birth? Your father may have a coronary before we ever get to the labor part.”

“We’ve got a birth plan for that.” The midwife had a merry laugh. “And he’s the paramedic, right?” She pointed at a silver cane with a metal penguin handle. “He and Jonas and the rest of the hospital staff saved my life back in the late winter.”

“I’m glad you survived.” I used my warmest possible tone, but former patient or not, Eric was going to hate her on the spot. I tried to catch Diesel’s gaze to warn him, but he had eyes only for Maren, stroking her hair as she turned toward me.

“Do you want to hear the coolest thing?” Maren asked, blue eyes sparkling.

“Sure.” Might as well delay the discussion of how to deal with Eric’s reaction.

“Can we show him?” She gestured at the bag near Marissa’s feet. “Please?”

“Of course.” Marissa fetched a white tube attached to a little box, the sort of fetal Doppler I’d seen on TV shows. Maren obediently lifted her Safe Harbor College T-shirt slightly to bare her lower belly. The whole room got silent, a sort of quiet anticipation filling the space. Hope lodged in my throat, stealing my next breath, slowing my own pulse as if that might help us hear.

Thump. Thump. Thumpa. Thumpa. Thump. The noise was not unlike loud butterfly wings, fast but steady, delicate, yet surprisingly strong.

“Wow.” I exhaled all the air I’d been holding, only to have a hand land on my shoulder.

“Oh my gosh.” Eric appeared to be using me to steady himself, as his expression was every bit as dazed and awed as I felt. He wore a newer version of the pancake breakfast T-shirt he’d loaned me. “Is that…?”

“Our baby.” Maren beamed at us both. “Isn’t it amazing, Dad?”

“Yeah.” Eric’s voice came out faint as his gaze swept around the room before finally settling on the midwife. “Marissa? What are you…?” He trailed off, understanding apparently dawning as his eyes went wide. “A home birth? No. Maren. Really?”

“I’ve done my research.” Maren pointed at a stack of books on the floor that included Diesel’s well-worn pregnancy guide. “We both have. Younger first-time moms have a super high rate of interventions in hospital births. And no offense, but I hate doctors and hospitals.”

“I know.” Eric’s voice took on a soothing pitch. “But home births bring their own set of risks.”

“We’re minutes from the hospital.” Maren waved a hand like this would convince the guy who could likely calculate the seconds to the ER from any point in town.

“Minutes isn’t the same as steps from the OR.” Eric matched Maren’s stubborn look.

“I was born in a home birth.” I finally had something worth contributing to this standoff. I’d been born during one of my parents’ commune phases, a place in central Oregon, and by my mother’s accounts, my birth was barely more noteworthy than a strenuous yoga practice. “Well, technically, it was outdoors, but close enough.”

“You were born outside?” Maren seized this detail eagerly, sitting up on the couch. “Too bad it’s going to be January or February. I’ve said for years we need a hot tub on the deck.”

“No one is having a baby on the deck.” Moving away from me, Eric turned his attention to Wren, who’d been scribbling notes the whole time. “Wren? Surely, science has some opinions to back me up on this.”

“Actually, in other countries like the UK, home birth is way more common, with a lot of research showing lower complication rates. Morbidity rates are lower. I can show you studies?—”

“Thank you, Wren.” Eric cut them off with a groan as he rubbed his temples.

“I have a handout for grandparents-to-be that answers a lot of questions about home birth.” Marissa offered copies to both Eric and me. I glanced at the colorful pamphlet while Eric muttered to himself. Leaning on her cane, Marissa gave him a stare every bit as stern as the ones he’d been handing out. “You did a transport on one of my births a year or so ago. You might not remember?—”

“I remember.” Eric exhaled hard, tone turning more conciliatory. “You’re a professional. We’ve worked together on a couple of transports, and I’m familiar with your mother as well. You both have impeccable reputations, but that doesn’t mean I’m in favor of this for Maren.”

“I won’t take chances with Maren’s safety,” Marissa said firmly. “You can have your opinions on home birth, but you know I’ll transfer at the first sign of issues.”

Eric nodded sharply before crossing the room to peer down at Maren. “This is seriously what you want?”

“Yes.” She gave a regal nod, and to my shock, all the fight seemed to leave Eric at that one simple word.

“Okay.” His face and shoulders slumped as he blinked several times against the mid-morning sun filtering through the blinds. “I…I need coffee.”

He escaped in the general direction of the kitchen, but the back door slammed a few seconds later.

“Should I go to him?” Maren seemed firmly rooted to the couch.

“Or I could?” Marissa offered, but I waved both of them off.

“No, you finish your prenatal appointment. I’ll go tame the bear.”

“You’re getting good at that.” Diesel offered a way-too-enthusiastic grin. He had no clue exactly what I was good at where Eric was concerned, and I had every intention of keeping it that way.

I wouldn’t say I was the love-them-and-leave-them type of player, but I also had a terrible track record with long-term relationships. I’d told Eric I wanted more than a single hookup, which was true, but I was having a hard time picturing anything about my life six months from now, what with the fire and the coming baby. I had zero clue where this thing with Eric was headed. Probably not to the picket-fence fairytale ending Diesel and Maren would jump at, which was why I wasn’t looking to broadcast our physical connection.

Friendship, however, we were both good at, and I found him exactly where I’d suspected, slumped in a deck chair, my dogs on either side of him.

“Did you lure them outside with treats?” I helped myself to the chair next to Eric.

“Nah. I think they’re in training to be emotional support dogs.” He petted each in turn, and I had a strong desire to offer up my own neck.

“Them in training for anything would be a sight to see.” I tried to give Ben a scratch, but he was more interested in Eric. “I went to the shelter while Diesel was in Europe and the quiet in my house was stifling. I wanted to foster something small and well-behaved on a trial basis.”

“But Ben and Jerry had other plans?” Eric stretched his legs out in front of him.

“They were best buddies and kennel mates who’d been waiting over six months for adoption. How could I say no?”

“You’re way more of a soft touch than you look.” Eric shot me a surprisingly fond smile before his expression darkened again. “Did you know Maren had settled on a home birth?”

“Nope.” I was actually glad he’d come home when he had, both so he could hear the baby’s heartbeat and so I didn’t have to keep more secrets. “Pretty cool, though, being able to have her appointments in the living room.”

“Not helping, Magnus.” Groaning, he laced his fingers behind his head.

“Hey, you backed down from the fight far faster than I anticipated. Progress?”

“I’m working on accepting that she and Diesel are adults who will make their own decisions.” Eric managed to look like each word cost him a lick of a lemon. “And Maren has a complicated past with medical care. Not my story to tell. But hospitals are a major anxiety point. She really struggled with visiting Montgomery when he got sick, and they were incredibly close. It was one of the reasons we settled on home hospice. So I suppose I shouldn’t be too shocked she wants to avoid a hospital birth.”

“But you’re worried.” I lightly tapped his foot with mine.

“You’re not?” He snorted. “Oh wait. You were born in the woods.”

“Cedar hot tub, but close enough.” We were friends now, and I could let him get away with some friendly ribbing. “And you’re a paramedic. You’ve seen the outlying cases—the births needing transport or the car births that didn’t make it to the hospital in time. Most of the time, home birth is fine. No big deal.”

“No big deal?” He met my gaze, and his eyes held the memory of every case he’d seen go wrong. I had no doubt he was amazing in an emergency, but good luck getting this by-the-book paramedic to see birth as anything other than an emergency.

“It’s a big deal because it’s our kids having a kid,” I countered. “Speaking of, how freaky was that heartbeat?”

There was a long pause where Eric was either thinking or praying for patience before he agreed. “Pretty freaky.”

“I wasn’t around much for this part of Flo’s pregnancy with Diesel. The paternity testing came later, so it was cool to see Marissa use the fetal Doppler. Maren’s really starting to show now too.”

“Yeah.” Eric’s voice was far off, and I wished I could offer more than platitudes.

“They’re going to be okay.”

“Wish I could say the same thing for my nerves.”

Oh. There was something I could offer. Stress relief. I could totally get on board with that idea. “I have a solution for your nerves.”

Eric made a strangled sound, cheeks going pink. “There’s a house full of people…”

“Not right this minute.” I winked at him, trying to silently promise all the stress relief we could both handle later. “And I’m closing at the restaurant tonight, so I’ll be back late.”

“Hmm.” Eric pursed his lips, speaking slower like he was trying to reason something out. “It’s another hot day. Too hot to leave the dogs outside or even in the carriage house without AC. Let them stay over here. I’m coming off a hell of a shift, and they can nap with me where it’s cool.”

“I’d nap with you too,” I teased before sobering. “You okay? Bad shift?”

“Just long. Not much sleep.” Eric’s expression said he likely wouldn’t unload even if it had been traumatic, and why I wished he would was a question I didn’t want to examine too hard. “Anyway. Come by after you close the restaurant. You can collect the dogs. The rest of the household will likely be asleep.”

“That an invitation?” I studied him so closely that he shifted in his chair.

“Maybe,” he whispered. “My shower is bigger.”

“That it is,” I agreed easily.

“You could cool off with one here before you take the dogs home.”

“I could do that.” I kept my tone neutral while my gaze went hot.

Eric blushed and shifted again. “Even if it’s late, we’ll have to be…discreet.”

“My lips are sealed.”