Chapter Thirty-Two
Allegra
Brady whistled as we walked into the Bellissima anniversary party. With one of his hands resting on my lower back, he breathed close to my ear, and shivers ran down my spine. “This venue looks like it belongs in a goddamn movie. And all the gold decorations. . . this might be the nicest party my guys and I have ever bartended.”
I rested my palm on my stomach and groaned, wishing I were sitting so I could get off my feet, and the party hadn’t even begun yet. I’d had more pain today. More than I’d had throughout this entire pregnancy.
Unfortunately, I knew I wouldn’t enjoy any of it because I felt another intense squeeze (there was really no other way to describe it) across my abdomen. There was no way a girl could enjoy anything with pain like that. It was like a cramp I’d usually experienced on my period, but far worse. I held out a hand and searched for Brady’s arm, not wanting to take my eyes off the floor as I prayed the pain lifted.
In an instant, he was holding my arm, his grip strong, like he wasn’t planning on letting go anytime soon. “Allegra,” he said my name with a cautious tone in his voice. “What’s wrong?” His tone changed immediately, laced with concern now.
So maybe he hadn’t known just how bad the pain was. Maybe I’d hid that part of it. But in my defense, I knew he’d worry and I didn’t want that. Or he’d insist I stay home. Which wasn’t happening. I wanted to be here. To celebrate Bellissima’s anniversary and see all my hard work pay off. And to see my man bartending at the party I’d planned.
I puckered my lips and tried to breathe out, but it was like someone had their hand on my windpipe and it wasn’t easy to do so.
I picked my head up and turned to Brady, my eyes wide as they connected with his. “Oh, nothing.”
“Allegra,” he said my name seriously. More seriously than he’d ever said it before. What, did he have some sixth sense for what I was feeling?
I waved him off. “It’s nothing. Guests are about to start arriving, so let’s just get you to the bar.”
I tried to take a few steps but stopped short and bent over, my hand coming to my stomach again. “Shit!” I hissed. “It’s too early. It’s too soon. I’m not due yet!” I said in between panting through the pain.
“Okay,” Brady said, watching me closely. “Do you need to sit down? Do you want to go home?”
But I shook my head and looked at my beautiful black dress that one of the designers I knew had custom made just for me, specifically for this party. Too bad it was about to be ruined because just then I felt a gush of water run down my legs.
Shock and fear colored Brady’s expression. “What the hell is that?”
I raised a brow and turned to face him, still clutching my stomach. “What? It wasn’t in that damn book of yours?” Okay, so I knew now was not the time to bring up the book, but I couldn’t help myself. “My water broke!” I said, stating what I thought was pretty obvious.
“Now?” he asked. “You said it was too soon.”
I nodded, looking around. I knew my sisters and Dad were here lurking about, working, seeing to last-minute details and loose ends. But where the hell were they exactly?
His hands never leaving me, he swallowed. “Okay. It’s going to be okay,” he said, as though trying to convince himself. “We have to get you to the hospital. Let’s go. Come on.”
And there goes my idea of a water birth. And my doula. You know the woman I hadn’t even had a chance to hire yet because I THOUGHT I HAD TIME!
Just then another pain ripped through me. Shit! I nodded finally, acknowledging Brady’s instructions.
“Wait!” I screamed as he tried steering us to the door. “My family. We have to tell them. I don’t want to do this without them.”
“Of course not.” He shook his head. “I’ll text them all when we get in the car.”
I shook my head right back at him. “No! They’re here somewhere. What if they don’t see their phones in time?”
I must have screamed a little too loud because the few people who were entering the ballroom just then turned to stare at us. I offered them a weak smile and light laugh. “It’s okay. Just about to give birth here!” I tried to explain in between deep breaths.
Brady tried to usher us out again, but I dug my heels in. “No!” I shouted at him. Then I turned around and yelled, “My water broke! Morellis, Morellis!” as I cradled my belly, slouched over, wondering how long Baby was going to hold out for.
And that did it. My dad and sisters ran into sight from all different directions. My sisters looked stunning, each more elegant than the last in their party gowns. Even Dad looked good in his all-black suit.
“Now?” Dad asked, his voice taking in a panicked tone. “I’m going to be a grandfather. Again.”
Not the time to get sentimental, Dad.
Brady and I nodded.
“Then go! We’ll be right behind you.”
“But the party?” I asked, sad that we’d miss it.
Perla stepped up. “Frankie and Knox will handle everything.” She already had her phone out, probably texting Frankie to update him. “The party will go on, and the guys will leave when they can. Let’s go!”
I breathed through another wave of pain. With every noise I made, Brady grew more tense at my side, trying to steer me toward the exit. “That’s it. You can all meet us there. We’re going to the hospital.”
I swallowed, my voice coming out unsteady as I insisted, “Jade!”
Brady looked to my family, and a look passed between them.
She was supposed to be at the party. She’d be here any minute. I wanted her with us.
But Maria stepped forward and put her arm around my and Brady’s shoulders. “Just go. I’ll call her.”
“I want her there,” I stated, in case anyone had any other ideas.
Nodding, Maria smiled and winked at me. “I know. I’ll redirect her to the hospital. Come on, we’re right behind you.”
As Brady and I hit the door, we almost ran right into her.
Just in the nick of time. Just like Mom—early to everything.
“Jade!” Brady and I shouted at the same time, and I looked up at him, thanking him with my eyes that he knew how much this meant to me.
Jade came up to us, her brows furrowed. “What’s going on? Allie, are you okay?”
“Oh, not much. It’s just. . . I’m in labor,” I answered, acting nonchalant, when in reality I wanted to die from the pain I was in.
Jade’s eyes widened, and I thought they might roll out of her head. That level of shock was unmatched. “Well, what are you waiting for? You have to go to the hospital!”
“Not—” More pain ripped through me. “Without—” I tried to ignore the pain as best as I could to get out the rest. “ All my sisters.”
“Are you sure?” Jade asked.
I darted her an intense are-you-seriously-asking-me-that-right-now look. “Yes!” I assured her.
Jade was my sister, and she deserved to be right by my side along with the rest of our family as I gave birth to this baby (read: impatient little demon child causing me the worst pain of my life).
Jade nodded and helped Brady lead me out. “I’ll drive so you can stay with Allegra,” she said, her keys already in her hand. “I parked in the lot.”
“You can follow me,” Maria said, going into take-charge mode as she lifted her dress from the floor and ran ahead of us to get to the valet attendant. “Dad, you’ll come with me. Bibi and Perla, meet us there.”
Brady helped me into Jade’s car while Jade exchanged niceties and an introduction with him.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but wonder if they realized just how much pain I was in. Because now did not feel like the time for that, but oh, what did I know?
Then, as Jade was pulling around to the side of the valet line to follow Maria, Brady turned toward me. His hands clasped mine as beads of sweat appeared on my forehead. How was it possible that I was breaking a sweat already?
“Remember, you want to do those breathing techniques I read about,” Brady insisted, moving his lips in a way that told me he was going to show me how to do them.
If looks could kill, he would have been dead.
Dead!
Because if I had to hear about that book—that godforsaken fucking pregnancy book—one more time, I was going to lose my shit. “If you don’t stop mentioning that boooook!” I cried out the last word as another contraction ripped through me.
Clearly ignoring me, he tried instructing, “Hee-hee-hoo.”
Hee. I would have liked to see Brady try to do this.
Hee. I hated him and what he’d done to me.
Hoo. I wanted the drugs. And I wanted them NOW.
When the contraction was over, I pulled on the collar of his shirt and pulled him very, very close to me, so close he could probably see my pores. “I want drugs. Do you hear me, Brady? When we get to that hospital, you better make sure they give me all the drugs. Because if you think I’m doing this unmedicated, then you have another thing coming.”
Whoever thought that was a good idea (we’ll pretend that was not me!) wasn’t thinking clearly.
Meanwhile, the corners of his mouth turned upward. Yes, they actually turned upward. What the hell was he smiling about? None of this was smile-worthy. This was punch-a-wall-and-try-to-wrestle-a-kangaroo aggravating. It was stressful and painful and emotional, and why, oh why, did I have to go to his pub that night? I was a horny, glutton-for-punishment, moron that was why.
That was it.
I was never sleeping with this man again.
Yep, for all I cared, we could be celibate for the rest of our lives.
Him and his stupid, beautiful, thick, lengthy cock had gotten me into this mess.
I turned to him and glowered. “I hate you,” I said simply.
* * *
Brady
Allegra hated me? Hell, I hated me. Seeing her in this much pain was torture. It would’ve hurt less if someone dug my eye out with a plastic spoon.
Once we got to the hospital, things happened fairly quickly. They placed her in a wheelchair and brought us to a room. A semi-private room, since we hadn’t booked one. Not that it would’ve mattered since she was delivering early. And the on-call doctor (not Dr. Invasive) had been in to check on her twice already.
This time, she informed Allegra she was five centimeters dilated.
“Five centimeters!” she parroted the doctor, her voice taking on a raspy quality. Probably from all the groaning and shouting she’d done from the contractions. And, of course, yelling at me about. . . well, everything.
I nodded, touching Allegra’s arm. “That’s halfway. That’s good, right?” It was always good to point out the bright side, wasn’t it?
But Allegra’s eyes looked like they had fires burning in them, and if she was provoked anymore, she’d burn the whole damn place down.
So I guess I was wrong. So very wrong. Don’t point out the bright side to a woman in labor.
I grinned, trying to see if my calm would make her feel calm. If she knew how okay I thought everything would be, maybe that would make her feel better. That made logical sense. I knew it did.
But it didn’t work. In fact, it seemed to agitate her even more.
Allegra gripped the side of the bed railing and turned away from me, pleading with the doctor—“You have to help me. How can I dilate faster? I want this baby out !”
All right, maybe don’t yell at the doctor who has to help deliver our baby.
The doctor cleared her throat and clutched Allegra’s chart to her chest. “Once your water breaks, sometimes it can take eight hours for you to be fully dilated. It’s completely normal. You’re doing well, though. Right on track.”
Allegra heaved a sigh and tried blowing her hair away from her face, but it was caught in the sweat on her forehead, so I assisted, brushing it back and out of her face. “Fine,” Allegra said. “I get it. You’re not going to help me.” She rolled her eyes.
When the doctor finally left the room, her eyes flickered over to me. Could I be invisible? Now would be as good of a time as any to try, right?
I was telling you, my sweet Allegra was gone, and in her place was this. . . this. . . monster.
“I want a new doctor,” she told me, in such a put-together manner that it made me even more unnerved. “Get me a new one. Get me my doctor. I don’t like this one.” Oh, is that all?
I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s how that—”
“I’m in labor because of you .” She pinched her brows together. “You could’ve denied me sex that night, or better yet, learned how to use a condom.”
“I don’t think it had anything to do with—”
Her eyes widened.
Never mind. Don’t mind me, I was just going to be eating my words now. “I’ll go see what I can do.” About hiding from you.
They hadn’t mentioned anything about this kind of rage in that pregnancy book. Along with the foot eulogy should have been one for the man.
I raked a hand through my hair as I left the room and nearly collided with Dom, who came to a screeching halt to avoid bumping chests with me.
“Woah. Where are you going in such a hurry? Isn’t Allie in there?” he asked.
Is Allegra in there? No. She looked like Allegra, sounded like Allegra, but that woman in there was not Allegra.
That was what I’d wanted to say, but I decided not to broach the topic of my sincere fear of entering that room again. And without a new doctor, to boot. So instead, I sighed. “Yeah, man. She’s in there. I just need a minute. You got here fast.”
He shrugged as if it was nothing. “She’s like a sister to me. Besides, Isabella wants to be here to meet her cousin. How far along is she?” Dom asked, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms like he had all day.
Well, I wished I had all day, but at the rate I was going, Allegra was going to strangle me with her bare hands before the baby was born. Kidding.
I think.
I hope.
I followed suit, allowing myself to relax for the first time all night and leaned against the wall, my collared shirt suddenly choking me. I unbuttoned the top button and rolled my sleeves up. “Not far enough, if you ask me,” I answered, thinking about how many centimeters she was dilated again. Five. It might as well have been one for how pissed she was about the number.
Dom chuckled. “It’s the stress and the hormones.”
“I get that. I mean, if I were her. . . I can only imagine how nervous she is, but I’m trying to be there for her. Why can’t she see that?” Or at least stop looking at me like I was a villain. I’d been with her the entire time, and I wanted to be by her side now, too. She wasn’t necessarily making it easy, though.
“She sees it. Or she will,” Dom said, sounding sure.
I pulled on the back of my neck. “It sounds like you’re speaking from experience. Knock any women up that I haven’t heard about?”
Dom chuckled. “Do you forget I’ve been friends with Maria for a long time? I was there when she gave birth to Isabella, and she wasn’t exactly calm, cool, and collected.”
“I can’t imagine her being anything but her usual organized and put-together self. Now Bianca, on the other hand, I could see going ape shit.” I’d pray for Knox when the time came.
Dom combed a hand through his hair and shuddered. “Yeah, well, I made runs for ice chips when Maria didn’t need them. We both knew she didn’t need them. But I had to get the hell out of there.”
“I’m supposed to be finding Allegra a new doctor.”
He snickered. “Wouldn’t want to be you when you break the news to her.”
“Thanks, man.” I cracked my neck, trying to relieve the tension. “So where’s Isabella? Weren’t you staying with her tonight while we were at the party?”
Nodding, he explained, “She’s with Maria now.” He shook his head and smiled. “You should’ve seen Peanut’s face when I told her that her cousin was coming. It was so much better for her than getting to see Maria all dressed up when she left for the party.”
Just then Maria strolled up to us, and she must have caught the tail end of our conversation, because she told us, “Isabella is so excited. Dad took her to the gift shop so she could pick out a few things for her new cousin.” She smiled. “How are you doing, Brady?”
“Eh.”
Dom pushed off the wall and stood next to Maria, placing a hand on the small of her back and whispering something in her ear.
Maria nodded, and then Dom was telling me he’d see me in a bit and wished me luck.
Yeah, thanks, Dom, I’ll need all the luck I can get.
It being the two of us now, I confessed, “Maybe I’m not what she needs. Maybe Allegra needs you in there instead of me.” I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s like I can’t do anything right.”
Maria gave me a sympathetic look. “May I give you some advice?”
I nodded.
“Don’t listen to her.”
My eyes widened and I did a double take. “What?” That didn’t sound like something she’d ever say.
But she laughed. “You heard me. Don’t listen to my sister right now. She’s tired, in pain, and just wants this to end. Trust me. It’s not you, it’s just. . . there’s a lot going on, obviously, and she doesn’t know how to handle it.”
“Yeah, Dom was telling me you had a tough time, too.”
Her eyebrows shot up.
Fuck.
“Did he, now?” Then she laughed as I realized it was probably best to remove my foot from my mouth. The corners of her lips tugged upward, and she looked down, shaking her head before looking back up at me. “I like to think I was receptive to everyone’s help and the beautiful things they were doing and saying around me. It’s a lot, but I tried to really be present.”
At least she’d said she liked to think that.
“Still, maybe you can go in and check on her for a minute? I should call Jack and Quinn and see what the hold up is, if he was able to leave the pub and get to Tipsy yet. She needs a walk and to be settled in for the night.” Or maybe I could do just about anything else but go back in there with Allegra.
“All right. Well, there’s plenty of time. They’ll make it, I’m sure. Labor takes hours.” Maria said, turning to the room.
It was the way she’d said that last part, though, that had shivers running down my spine. That was what I was concerned about—this taking hours.
* * *
Allegra
“Stop fluffing my pillow, damn it!” I yelled at Perla and tried leaning back there to swat her hand away.
She backed away, holding her hands up. “You’re crabby.”
“I’m in labor.”
Bianca angled her head to the couple sharing the room with me. “What’s with those two?” she whispered so only we could hear her.
I rolled my eyes. “They arrived somewhere between Maria and you two coming in. They’re fine. Just really handsy.”
Perla arched a brow. “Handsy?”
Bianca’s eyes darted their way again. It was like driving past a car accident, you couldn’t not look.
They’d had the curtain closed when they had to check her cervix, but then the man pulled it back, claiming to be claustrophobic.
The woman sat up straighter, her hands roaming over the man’s upper arms and creeping down before gliding across his chest. Geez, what were they going to have sex right here, right now while she was in labor? What woman could even think about that at a time like this?
Maria walked in again and her gaze followed ours. “What are you all looking at?”
“Shhh!” Perla tried to silence her, never pulling her gaze away from the other couple.
Maria looked over at them, too, her eyebrows pinching. “Why are his hands all over her, and why does it look like she wants to eat him?”
Bianca chuckled. “That’s called raw sexual attraction.”
Maria rolled her eyes. “They’re in a hospital, sharing a room with someone else who is in labor. It’s totally inappropriate.”
“‘Totally inappropriate’?” Perla arched a brow.
I didn’t get to respond because the man walked over and put one hand on the curtain. Did his hands have to be on everything? “You can close the curtain, if you’d like,” I said, hoping he’d take the hint.
“Never. We’re in this experience together. Our lives will forever be connected because of tonight. Don’t you think it’s nice to share?” he asked, and I honestly had no answer for him.
I didn’t know when Brady had returned, but his hand was on my shoulder suddenly. “What’s going on?” he asked.
The woman spoke up now—“My husband and I are very fond of this experience and we’re so fortunate we get to have it with you. Are you two married?”
I laughed. Boy, did I have an answer for them. “Nope. We are roommates. I asked him to fuck me. He did. Really hard. And now we’re here. We like it rough.” When I saw their faces drop, I growled, really trying to scare them.
Brady kissed my temple. “Don’t forget to tell them how we almost broke the bed the last time. That was fun.”
They were mortified.
Shocked.
But mortified.
I, on the other hand, was smiling from ear to ear. I could do that now, by the way, because the drugs had finally kicked in.
“Um.” The man seemed to be trying to find the right words. No need, because the only right words were that he was going to leave me—us—alone. “I think you deserve some privacy, after all. You should enjoy this time together. I’m just going to close this curtain.” He tugged it closed so fast, and it was the first time I’d felt good all day.
My sisters chuckled, Maria placing a hand over her mouth to hold back from full-on laughing, I was sure.
I threw my head back and closed my eyes. “Why am I not almost fully dilated? I don’t understand.”
Laughter filled the space as the door opened and Jade’s body appeared (her head was turned and craning in another direction). With one final wave, she fully appeared in the doorway and stepped in. “I just met the nicest man.”
Bianca looked to Jade and then me. “Here?” She gasped. “In a hospital?”
Perla snickered. “Looks like she’s taking over your role of picking up men everywhere, Bibi.”
Bianca swatted her arm, and Perla rubbed the spot. “Okay, you seriously need to stop doing that. Your fingers are like tiny weapons, and they hurt.”
She rolled her eyes. “Dad did tell me I should be a piano player with these fingers, but Knox says I should—”
I grunted. “Hello! Pregnant woman trying to get a baby out.”
Jade shrugged. “Maybe she’s comfortable and doesn’t want to leave.”
“That’s sweet, but a crock.” Brady wiped my forehead while Jade looked surprised at how blunt I was. Oh well, she’d have to get used to it. “I used to be comfortable when she wasn’t in here. I gave her a home for a while, and now it’s time for her to get the hell out.”
Brady laughed and offered me an ice chip, which I brushed off. I didn’t want ice. I wanted to deliver this baby.
“She’ll come out, don’t worry,” he said, trying to placate me.
“When?” I whined.
Just then the doctor came in and asked for everyone but Brady to leave so she could check my cervix. As far as I was concerned, she could do whatever she wanted as long as the next words that came out of her mouth were that I was ready to go to the delivery room.