3. Rowan
3
ROWAN
T he birthing class I’d taken a few months ago had promised that the early signs of labor weren’t overly painful.
I’d expected twinges and pulls rather than anything that truly hurt.
Those liars quite obviously had never given birth because these cramps had hurt from the moment they started hours ago.
Each contraction forced the air out of my lungs while I attempted to pant through the pain that seized my body.
The doctor had said I should head to the hospital when my contractions were seven minutes apart, but mine had skipped from eight to six, which meant I was already late.
If the classes had mentioned the consequences of skipping minutes, I missed it.
I’d typed up the notes after each session and had kept them on my desk for review.
So I was certain it had never come up.
The baby in my belly was surprisingly active for someone who was supposed to be evicted soon.
The facilitator warned us that babies would settle as they prepared to be evicted, but someone had forgotten to give this little one the message.
They bounced, rolled, and kicked like it was home for the long haul and were redecorating.
I grabbed my rolling overnight bag, double-checked everything was locked up tight, and headed outside to wait for my Uber.
The rain pelted against my umbrella, and I tried my best to avoid the puddles on the sidewalk as I waited for my ride.
In hindsight, perhaps I should’ve paid more attention to my surroundings.
But I was in the middle of labor, which had to count for something.
The driver jumped out with his ball cap pulled down low and collar turned up high.
He grabbed my suitcase and tossed it into the trunk.
While he did that, I climbed in the backseat.
The car looked familiar, but I was too preoccupied to place it.
“Good Sam downtown, please.”
“Whoa, you’ve been a busy man,” the oversized alpha with the mismatched eyes I’d met months ago said from the front seat.
Oh.
Holy.
Gods.
Silas turned around and looked at the oversized belly that forced me to waddle more than walk.
I could see the questions in his eyes, but I was in no condition to answer any of them.
Mystery solved about the car recognition though.
“It’s not yours.”
“Didn’t say it was.”
With that, Silas turned back around, put the car in gear, and pulled into traffic.
Between the heavy rain and late afternoon rush hour, we barely moved.
At one point, I wondered if it might be quicker to waddle on foot to the hospital than wait in traffic.
It felt like my five-minute intervals were passing alarmingly fast.
The pain, which had seemed awful before, now verged on unbearable.
I was having a baby.
“Hey, is the father meeting you there?” Concern shone through Silas’s voice.
I expected him to demand an explanation or at least a stronger assurance that the kid wasn’t his, but instead, all I heard was that same gentleness I remembered from seven months ago.
“The father isn’t involved.”
“Well, he’s a fucking idiot.”
I pulled out my phone to properly time the contractions, and I’d been right about them being closer together.
They weren’t five minutes apart.
They were now two.
There’d been no mention of skipping multiple minutes either.
My brain kept short-circuiting when I tried hard to remember the panting breaths they’d taught me.
It was a lot easier to remember the proper pattern when the pain wasn’t overwhelming me in the backseat of an Uber while being watched by the sexiest alpha I’d ever met.
His gaze cut to mine.
I wanted to project confidence, but I knew I was failing.
What if I really couldn’t do this by myself?
“Hey, Rowan, do you think I can do those breathing exercises with you? I read somewhere that they’re fantastic for calming whether you’re pregnant or not. Would you mind walking me through them?”
It surprised me how quickly my name rolled off his tongue.
Over the last few months, I’d swung from giddy excitement to abject terror, but the one thing I’d refused to do was think about what Silas was doing.
Or, more accurately, who he might be doing.
Memories of that one-night stand had kept me up at night.
With Silas’s encouragement, I showed him the standard breathing exercise, and he did the tee-hee-hee with me when the next contraction hit.
The process was considerably easier to remember when Silas chanted with me.
After the contraction passed, I lay back against the seat.
The exertion had exhausted me.
If this was supposed to be the easy part, how in the heck was I supposed to do the hard part?
For not the first time, I had second thoughts about my plan to do this alone.
“The good news is we’re only about a mile away.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“Traffic isn’t moving too quick. How far apart are those contractions?”
“Still two minutes. I think we’ve got some time before they make their appearance. If things get messy, I’ll pay for the dry cleaning.”
“Meh, the company covers extraordinary circumstances, and babies count for that.” Silas paused before he added, “Do you know what you’re having?
“For some crazy reason, I wanted it to be a surprise.
”
“Hey, that’s impressive. I’m the worst with surprises.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yep, it used to drive my mom crazy because I was the kid who went looking for my Christmas presents.” Silas chuckled in the front seat.
“Sadly, I’ve just moved on to ruining other surprises.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
“I’ll tell you my shameful secret, but don’t judge me too harshly. Promise?” Silas glanced in the rearview mirror when he asked.
Before I could answer, another contraction hit, and we panted through it together.
Once passed, I managed to answer, “No promises, but I’ll do my best.”
“I like reading…and I always read the last chapter first.” Silas looked at me again in time to see my shocked expression.
“Oh. My. Gods. You might be truly deranged. Please tell me you’re joking.” My contractions were forgotten while I digested the fact that I was in a car with a madman.
“I need to make sure I like the ending before I read the book.”
“I’m actually speechless. If you haven’t read the book, how does the ending tell you anything?”
“It’s more like a vibe,” Silas answered like it was the most logical thing in the world.
“A vibe? Goddess help us all.”
“Now that I’ve ruined you with my wicked ways, do you have names picked out?”
“Yeah, I have a short list of favorites. I figure when I see them, I’ll know what their name is supposed to be.
“Kind of like they name themselves?
”
“Yeah, like that,” I answered.
This pregnancy isolated me more than I’d already been, so it was nice to talk about the baby with someone.
Picking Silas for it wasn’t likely the wisest, but he seemed so earnest that I was lulled into it.
If I was smart—which was debatable after the last seven months—I wouldn’t have gotten in the car once I realized he was my driver.
But he was here, and I would take it because I hadn’t been prepared for how damn scared I was.
“I like that. I’m named after my uncle.”
“Are your parents close to your uncle?” I asked through gritted teeth as another contraction washed over me.
It felt like they were even less than two minutes now.
I didn’t know what I would do if I had to give birth to this child in the back of an Uber.
Would my body just give out and say never mind?
That didn’t seem like the greatest plan either.
Please let us get to the hospital.
“I don’t think they were really close, but my dad lost a bet to him when they were in high school, and he said their third kid had to be named after him.”
“What a weird forfeit.”
“Exactly what I said when I found out.”
Just as another cramp built, Silas pulled into the hospital parking lot.
I’d been so busy chatting that I hadn’t realized we were moving through traffic.
We pulled into the parking lot near the obstetrics entrance.
“Do you think you can walk, or do you need me to get a chair?”
“I think I can walk,” I answered but then ruined it with a muffled scream as the pain hit again.
“No, you can’t. I’ll pull up to the curb and get a chair from inside.” The pressure was so strong that all I managed to do was croak out a weak yes .
Silas stopped, looked me straight in the eye, and firmly said, “Rowan, I need you to wait here while I get you a wheelchair.”
I nodded but didn’t answer.
“Promise me. If you try to get out on your own, you might get hurt.” The urgency in his voice made me weak with relief.
I wasn’t alone.
“Yeah, I won’t move. Promise. Even if I did try, you could catch up with my waddling. I walk like a penguin these days.”
“I don’t know how fast…no, godsdamnit, I am not Googling that right now. Don’t go anywhere.”