Learning to Breathe Again (12 page)

The waitress approached and he sat back. He
scrawled his name across the credit card draft, slid his card back
in his wallet and pushed back from the table. “You ready to
go?”

She stood up and removed her wrap from the
chair beside her. Ever the gentleman, he took it from her and held
it open for her. Swallowing hard as he helped her with it, she
peered up at him through her lashes. His face was set in stone and
he didn’t say a word, wouldn’t even look her in the eye. He placed
a hand low on her back and guided her out of the restaurant.

The temperature had dropped dramatically
since they’d arrived, and it was starting to rain. Jack hurried her
across the parking lot. He settled her into her seat and slammed
her door. Tears filled her eyes. She should have kept her mouth
shut, waited until Monday.

She averted her head as he climbed into the
cab and closed his own door. “You’re jealous,” he commented.

“
No, I’m not!” she
denied.

“
Yeah, you are. Or are you
going to try and tell me you kiss every guy like you kissed me
today?” His hands clenched on the steering wheel.

Her face was flaming hot. He was right and
she knew it. Her jaw was clenched so tight, she was afraid her
teeth would shatter.

“
Nicole and I are best
friends. That is all we’ve ever been, all we’ll ever be.” She
chanced a look his way after he said that. He was staring out the
front window.

“
Nicole will probably cut
my…Nicole’s mother held Nicole up to some standard of perfection no
one could ever hope to attain. She had her convinced that every
problem in life was because a man held a woman back. Nicole was
petrified to ever falling in love.” He glanced at her. “When she
kicked your brother to the curb back when they were in college that
was why. Plain and simple, she got spooked. Mitch, Carly and I
spent years picking up the pieces and trying to find out what had
happened between them. Neither one of them would talk about it. But
never, not once, did I ever try anything with her, or on her, or
her on me for that matter. Christ, we were raised more like brother
and sister than anything,” he shuddered.

The rain and wind picked up, beating out its
harsh melody. She swallowed hard. She needed to fix this.

“
There’s something I…” she
stopped. How much did she want him to know? Talk about being
petrified. “Will and I broke up ages ago because he has a wandering
eye and I’m pretty sure he cheated on me. But I had nowhere else to
go, so I stayed with the band. Which meant he thought I was there
because of him…so we’d hook up every so often, try it again, but
he’d fall back into his old habits and we’d break up again. Last
fall, I decided I’d been stupid long enough, and I called things
off for good. But I couldn’t leave England yet, so I was stuck
there.” She allowed herself to look at him and found him facing
her. “I came back to Texas because I didn’t know where else to go.”
She’d had to raise her voice to be heard over the rain. She glanced
outside as a strong burst of wind caused the truck to
rock.

Jack reached over and put a hand on her arm.
“One thing I’ve learned in this life, the ‘why’ isn’t important.
What is important is that you learned from it.”

Nodding, Bayleigh blinked back the tears that
were filling her eyes. “Can we just go now?”

He removed his hand from her
arm and put the truck in gear. The pelting rain and the
swish-swish, swish-swish
of the wiper blades filled the silence between them. The
decibel level swelled and her pulse ramped up in answer. She looked
over, noticing Jack's face was grim.

“
Sleet?” She wasn’t sure he
could even hear her.

“
Yup. Is your seatbelt on?”
He didn’t take his eyes off the road.

“
Of course.” But she
double-checked to make sure. “How much farther?”

“
We’ll be fine.  Roads
aren’t bad yet.”  His cell phone rang, making her jump. He
slipped his Bluetooth on and answered it.  “Hello? Hey,
Sweetie. What’s up?” He listened for a minute. “Where’s Mitch?”
More listening. “Carly, calm down. We’re on our way. We’ll be there
in ten minutes. Just stay calm, and keep the phone nearby.” He
clicked his cell phone off.

“
Something wrong?” Bayleigh
asked as Jack checked his rearview mirror before pulling off onto
the shoulder. He checked in both directions and then pulled back
onto the road, headed in the direction they’d just come from. The
tires slid on the wet pavement. Her fingers dug into the armrest of
the door.

“
My cousin’s wife is having
contractions and she’s home alone. Mitch had to go up to Waco and
the storm that is dumping this crap on us” he motioned out the
window at the now-freezing rain, “has him stuck there. Ma and Pop
left for a weekend in San Antonio this morning. She’s home alone
and panicking because of the ice,” he turned off of the main road
and onto the dirt road leading to his cousin’s house.

“
How far along is
she?”

“
She’s not due for a couple
of more weeks, which isn’t helping the panicking any.” Jack replied
as they pulled up in front of his family’s home. He jumped out of
the cab.

She had her door open and was stepping down
when he reached her side. “Ground is already getting icy in places.
Be careful.” Taking hold of her arm to help her up the icy steps,
he led the way. Carly met them at the door.

“
I’m sorry, Jack. I didn’t
know who else to call. I called my doctor earlier and he said to
just monitor the contractions, I wasn’t in active labor. But now,
I’m scared,” Carly gave him a hug, noticing Bayleigh for the first
time. “You should have told me you were on a date.”

“
I wasn’t,” he gave Bayleigh
a wink as he turned to her to introduce the two women. “Carly, this
is Bayleigh Morrow, Jason’s sister,” he said as he tucked an arm
around Carly and started to lead her down the hallway to the living
room, shrugging out of his coat as he walked. “Now, tell me what’s
going on?”

“
I started having
contractions and—”Carly’s voice trailed off and she put both hands
on her protruding stomach. “Oh, God!” They all glanced down at the
sudden gush of water.

The look on Jack’s face almost had Bayleigh
in hysterics. “Ever done this before?” she moved to Carly’s other
side and put a hand on her lower back and gripped her elbow.

“
Horses, cows, yes…Humans,
never, not once,” Jack confirmed, his eyes wide at the weird
breathing techniques Carly was using, his face a little green as he
looked at the mess on the floor.

“
OK. Go get some towels,”
Bayleigh instructed her. “Is there a downstairs bedroom in this
place?”

Carly nodded and stood up as straight as she
could. “This way.” Carly accepted Bayleigh’s help and they headed
down the hallway to a bedroom. Bayleigh helped her onto the bed.
“How far apart are the contractions?”

“
About eight minutes now.”
Carly rubbed at her stomach. “What am I going to do?” Her eyes were
wide, a few tears present, and her hands shook. Jack’s footsteps
sounded down the hall and he paused at the doorway.

“
You’re going to stay calm
and do what we tell you. Okay?” Bayleigh placed pillows behind
Carly’s back to support her.

Carly released a ragged breath and nodded.
“Thank you.”

“
Now what?” Jack moved to
stand beside Bayleigh. He still looked a little green.

“
Well, you call 9-1-1 and
see how soon they can get a crew out here, and I’ll coach our
little momma through any more contractions.”

“
You’ve done this before?”
Jack dialed the phone and waited for the call to go
through.

“
Yeah. A friend of mine
asked me to be her coach a couple of years ago.” Bayleigh smiled at
Carly. “How long have you been feeling the
contractions?”

“
All day. But I thought they
were those Braxton-Hicks ones,” Carly’s breath hitched. “I tried to
call my mom in town, but it’s her bridge night. She’s pretty
notorious for forgetting to take her cell phone with her when she
leaves the house.” Tears filled her eyes. “Mitch is supposed to be
here for this.”

“
Carly, stay calm,” she laid
a hand on Carly’s stomach. “You’re having another contraction. You
need to breathe through it.” Together they breathed through the
contraction. “Did you do any kind of child birth class?” Carly
nodded and Bayleigh reached down and squeezed her hand.

“
Good. So, we’re just going
to do the breathing techniques, and stay focused and relaxed,” she
kept up the chatter, waiting for Jack to hang up the phone and tell
her that the paramedics were on the way. She glanced over at him,
catching the frown on his face.

“
Now what?” she pitched her
voice low.

“
The weather caused a huge
pile up on the interstate. All ambulances and paramedics are being
routed there. They’ll try to divert someone to us, but it could be
awhile. They said to call back if the birth was
imminent.”

“
How far is the hospital
from here?”

“
Maybe twenty minutes,” Jack
grimaced. “Think we have time?”

“
Unless you want to deliver
the baby here, I say we make a run for it,” Bayleigh told him with
a grin, her words causing his face to go pasty white.

“
What do you say, Carly? I
hear they have good pain meds at the hospital!”

“
You said the magic words,”
Carly moved to stand up. Jack was at her side to help in an
instant.

“
So, you’re Jason’s sister?”
she looked over at Bayleigh as they led her down the hallway. “Oh,
dear. I forgot about the floor,” she paused and looked over at
where Jack had thrown a couple of towels.

“
Don’t worry about it. We’ll
get you to the hospital and I’ll come back later and clean it all
up,” Jack promised her, glancing at his watch as he grabbed her
coat out of the closet.

“
Are you okay?” Carly stared
at him as he zipped his own coat up. “You don’t look so
great.”

“
I’m fine. Just don’t ask me
to look…don’t ask me to deliver the baby, okay?” Jack muttered as
he jerked open the door. “It’s a little slippery. Hold onto my arm
and I’ll get you down the steps.

“
I thought the weather was
supposed to start getting bad
tomorrow
.” Bayleigh muttered as he
helped her up into the cab.

“
Yeah, well, welcome back to
Texas,” he muttered back as he climbed in after her.

Jack drove as fast as he
could in the deteriorating weather conditions. His shoulders rose,
tensing every time Carly moaned with a contraction. If she was sure
of where she stood with him right now, Bayleigh would have laughed.
With the three of them crammed into the cab of his truck,
Bayleigh's leg was pressed against Jack's. Every time his foot
shifted, his muscles flexed until she was hyper-aware of him. Even
through her layers of clothes, his warmth soaked through. This
close the clean scent of his skin tempted her.

Carly gripped her hand
again and she refocused on the issues in front of her.

“
How much further?” Bayleigh
murmured to Jack.

“
Almost there,” Jack pointed
out the window. In the darkness around them, the lights from the
hospital were like a beacon. “Where should I go?”

“
ER. They can get her up to
Labor and delivery a lot faster than we can,” Bayleigh told him.
Jack nodded and pulled into the ambulance bay.

A security guard stepped out of the doorway
and approached the vehicle. Jack lowered the window. “I’ve got a
lady in labor!”

The guard nodded and grabbed a wheelchair. He
was yelling over his shoulder to the nurses’ station.

“
Don’t leave me!” Carly’
eyes were wide, her breathing fast and choppy. Bayleigh was pretty
sure most of the bones in her right hand were crushed.

“
I’ll stay with you. Jack
can go park the truck,” Bayleigh slid out of the truck as the
nurses helped Carly into the wheelchair. Carly smiled her relief as
they wheeled her into the ER, Bayleigh following. The truck roared
and drove out of the ambulance bay to park it somewhere
else.

Heck of a first date.
She followed the parade of nurses and
techs.

She paused in the hallway, the sounds and
smells of the hospital overwhelming. Frantic footsteps hurrying
down a hallway in those rubber-soled shoes everyone in a hospital
seemed to wear. Constant beeps and bells going off. Nurses,
doctors, techs, and everyone calling out instructions to each
other. And that smell that is unique to a hospital…the antiseptic,
medicine smell.

Her stomach dropped. What was she thinking?
She couldn’t do this. She needed to get out of here.

“
Ma’am, are you Bayleigh?
Mrs. Williams is asking for you,” a young girl in a set of maroon
scrubs came out of the room.

“
I’ll be there in a
minute.”
Control. Get it under
control
, she willed herself.

Brisk footsteps sounded
behind her and a hand touched her shoulder. “You ok?”

She looked up into Jack’s concerned face.
“No,” she whispered. “Hospital…I can’t.”

He turned her to face him.
“Yes, you can, Bay. I’m here with you. We need to help Carly.” He
looked down at his feet, his fingers were rubbing in small circles
along her collar bones. “And, uh, I don’t do well in these
situations.”