That Same Evening
“Giulia wants to see you.”
Frowning, I asked Parker, “Huh?”
“She’s in the kitchen.”
I tensed. “Is this about the baby shower?”
“You mean the one that isn’t happening?” Parker retorted, tongue-in-cheek.
Glowering at her, I got to my feet. I wanted to bitch about her still being here, but I kind of liked it so I kept my mouth shut. She shoved her nose into everything, and it made my office less quiet.
My place was full again and, surprisingly, I liked that too.
It was official—this baby had given me a personality transplant.
With Rain, Rex, Wynter, Harlow, and Parker under my roof, it should have felt cramped, but it didn’t.
It felt right.
I headed out of the office, down the hall, and walked toward the kitchen.
Half expecting she’d have dived face first into the cake Wynter had baked last night just because—who baked ‘just because?’ My daughter, that was who—instead, I found Giulia sitting at the head of the table, her hands clutching the sides, her face pale.
My brow furrowed as I walked over to her. “Nyx’ll be fine, Giulia,” I tried to assure her. It might have been a half-lie, but she looked as if she needed the affirmation.
A slow breath drifted from her. “I did as you said.”
“Huh? What about?”
“The piercing.”
“The piercing?” My brain didn’t want to work. I wasn’t thinking about body modification in the regular sense right now; not when I was well aware that, at this very moment, someone in my family was likely torturing a US Congressman. “What piercing?” was a safe question in comparison to that.
This time, a sharp breath was expelled from her lungs. “On Nyx’s cock.”
I blinked, then realizing what she was talking about, I burst out laughing. “You got him to get his dick pierced again?”
“Bet your left tit I did,” she said on a low mumble. Her hands clenched around the desk, and slowly, she turned to look at me.
Well, she was definitely being weirder than usual. Especially seeing as Parker had made it seem so all-fired important that I sought her out. Nyx’s cock piercings might be her priority, but they weren’t mine.
“I know you overshare, Giulia, but that seems pretty random to me. What’s going on?”
“They’re coming eighteen minutes apart.”
I frowned. “What are?”
Her gaze locked on mine. “Contractions.”
“Contractions?” I yelped. “What the fuck? You’re going into labor?”
Her face scrunched and it had nothing to do with my reaction.
“Holy shit, we need to get you to the hospital! PARKER! Oh my God, where the fuck are you?”
“You need to stop hollering at me. Especially when I’m down the hall—” Parker grumbled, her focus on her cellphone. That small smile died as she froze when she looked at me. “Rachel, what’s wrong? What is it?”
“I’m going into labor.”
“SHE’S GOING TO GIVE BIRTH!” I shrieked. “She can’t give birth in my kitchen. How will we clean that?”
Parker snorted, her regular expression of, ‘throw at me what you will, I can handle it’ settling back into place. “Plenty of Lysol and elbow grease.” She wandered over to Giulia and rested a hand on her shoulder. “I helped my mom a couple times—”
“A couple? How many kids did she have?” Giulia breathed, her head bowing as tension hit her.
Fuck, I remembered that. Hell—that was what giving birth had been.
Nurses and doctors touching me when I didn’t want them to, and it wasn’t like I could stop them. I wanted the baby out, and I didn’t want to be pregnant anymore, and they had to help me—
“Rachel, I need you to focus,” Parker told me calmly. “You’re not giving birth. This is Giulia. We need to concentrate on her.”
Rex hadn’t been with me when I had given birth. He’d been outside. The doctors at the facility hadn’t let him in.
God, he’d be with me when I gave birth this time, wouldn’t he?
I didn’t realize I’d said that out loud, but Giulia was the one who rasped, “Of course he will. Anyone who tries to stop him will probably get a busted nose for even attempting to keep you two apart.”
I gave a rough exhalation. “Right. You’re right. He’ll kill them.” I nodded quickly, swiftly, panickedly. Far more panicked about the labor than the idea of Rex having to cut down a hundred people to get to me.
“Rach, we need to focus on Giulia.”
“I know,” I said shakily. “I know. This isn’t about me. This is about her.” I staggered over to the kitchen table and stumbled into my seat. “Giulia, this is about you,” I informed her.
She shot me a smirk. “You don’t say. Parker, how many brothers and sisters do you have?”
“Nine.”
“Holy shit. Your mom gave birth ten times?”
“She did.” Parker blew out a breath. “I can help until you’re ready to go to the hospital.”
“You can’t come with me?”
“Parker doesn’t like leaving the house.”
Giulia frowned at me. “Me neither. People suck.”
I snorted, and her reaction made my heart stop racing so damn much.
“She means I have agoraphobia, Giulia.”
“You do? That’s inconvenient, huh?”
“You’ve no idea.”
Giulia’s hand let go of the table, and she pulsed the digits at me in a silent request. I studied that hand and slowly bridged our fingers together.
“I want you with me at the hospital.”
I could literally feel the color leaving my cheeks. “Okay,” I said weakly. Was it too soon to pass out? Trying to be brave, I whispered, “Not sure how much use I’ll be, but yes.”
Parker derided, “She’ll be as useful as a house made of toast, but she’ll scare all the doctors for you so that’ll be good.”
“I won’t scare the doctors,” I grumbled.
“You will.”
“I won’t.”
“You will.”
“I won’t!” I grated out, scowling at her.
She grinned. “There’s some of the regular Rachel. Come back to me, bitch.” Her phone buzzed, and I watched her fight the need to check her notifications.
On the brink of demanding who the hell was texting her all the damn time, I crinkled my nose then yelped in surprise when Giulia squeezed my hand. “Ouch!”
Giulia hissed through a breath. “Sorry not sorry.”
Parker patted her shoulder. “It’s all good. Okay, we need to get you to the hospital.”
“You’re coming?” I pleaded, though I knew the answer and hoped guilt-tripping her would make her change her mind.
“No. But I’ll get you ready.”
I shot her a desperate look and she shot me one back as our two phobias collided in a jump hug.
“Rachel, do you know where I put my tablet?”
Wynter’s voice was like a dash of cold water in my face.
I turned to her with wild eyes and answered, “Your what, honey?”
“My tablet?”
“Your tablet? Are we talking vitamins?”
“No.” She chuckled before, with a disinterest that even in my state I recognized was totally fake, queried, “Also, do you know where Harlow is?”
“I’ve no idea, sweetheart.”
Her brow puckered as she took in the scene. “What’s going on? Are you praying?”
Parker laughed. “No. It might look like a prayer circle but Giulia’s going into labor.”
Wynter scrunched her face. “Ew. At the table?”
“Like mother, like daughter,” Giulia muttered.
“We have our solution, ladies and gent… Well, ladies. Wynter can go with you to the hospital,” Parker said brightly.
“Uh, no, I don’t think so—”
Before she could back off, Parker had stormed over to her and was dragging her to the table. I didn’t blame the kid. I’d have run off as if the devil himself were at my back too.
“What about Nyx?” Parker asked. “We need to get him.”
“He’s—” Giulia ducked her head. “—busy.”
“You’re giving birth,” Wynter pointed out. “Shouldn’t he care?”
I swallowed. “It’s a really urgent project.”
Just a little thing called murder.
“More urgent than his kid coming into the world?” Wynter was definitely not impressed by that. “You’re breaking up with him, right?”
Her hand clenched around mine. “No, babe, I’m not.”
“If he can’t make time for labor, when can he make time—”
I grimaced at my kid, because she definitely wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t like Nyx could just waltz out from wherever in the city he was.
At least, I didn’t think O’Donnelly would be happy about his game coming to an abrupt halt thanks to Nyx’s Old Lady going into labor.
“Honey, I know it’s weird, but trust me, if Nyx could be there, he’d be there.”
“Did he get arrested?”
“Wynter, sweets, ya gotta shut your trap,” Parker butted in. “Let’s focus on the mom, not the dad, yeah?”
Wynter mumbled, “Maybe if he were here, then I wouldn’t need to be.”
I’d have laughed, but it was beyond me. My hand snapped out and I grabbed hers and held her in place.
“Now it really does look like a prayer circle,” Parker teased, making me realize Giulia was clutching her hand again.
“What do we do?” I rasped.
“We need to get Giulia into the car and on her way to the hospital,” Parker repeated kindly—kind for once because she was too hardcore to be kind.
I figured she knew I was about to lose my shit because the brain that could cope with the workload I had, suddenly couldn’t deal with the to-do list that had one item on it. Get Giulia to the hospital was apparently too much for it.
I swallowed. “I can drive her. Yeah, I can manage that.”
“Will you come into the labor room with me?”
My eyes about crossed. “You want me in there with you? Not Lily? She’s made for stuff like that. She’s so sweet—”
“No! You’re going to be my kid’s godmother. He should see you before anyone else.”
“Even Nyx?”
Even I lost my patience at that. “Wynter, drop it.” Was it hot in here? It felt hot in here. “I’ll, sure, yeah, okay, fine, right, I can do that.”
Parker snorted.
It took us ten minutes to get Giulia to the car, and when Wynter was in there with her, I said, “I’ll be two minutes.”
Before Wynter could grumble, I slammed the door behind her, well aware that the child lock in the backseat would stop her from running.
Parker, watching us from the front door, eyed me warily as I rushed toward her. I grabbed her hand, and she tensed, expecting, I thought, for me to drag her outside. I didn’t. I dragged her inside.
“You get that dickhead outta whatever pit he’s in and you get him to that hospital, do you hear me?”
Parker countered, “Thought he was away on business.”
She didn’t know the specifics.
I did, but I was past caring.
The labor room.
Jesus Christ, she wanted me in the labor room?!
Nyx would just have to handle O’Donnelly.
“I’m not going to be the one in that labor room with Giulia, Parker,” I screeched. “You get him there!”
She scowled at me. “How do I do that? I don’t even have his number!”
“Log into my computer and get the number from there. Call him. If he doesn’t answer, CALL AGAIN. Do. Not. Stop. Calling. Until. He. Answers. PARKER, do you understand me?”
She huffed. “I got it as well as a perforated ear drum. I’d ask if you need a Valium but I don’t think the baby’d appreciate it.”
“Not sure it’d appreciate me passing out either.” My mouth watered at the prospect of a Valium too. I grabbed her shoulders, squeezed and shook her. “What’s your job?”
Parker smirked. “My sworn duty is to get Nyx to the hospital.”
“Not just the hospital. The labor room, Parker. He has to take over for me—”
“Where’s Rex? Can’t he find his man?”
My mind almost caved in as I clutched at the love of my life who always had a solution. “That’s right. Call Rex. Tell him. He’ll make it happen.”
“Can’t you call him?” she complained.
No way could I drive and talk on the phone at the same time while Giulia was sitting beside me about to give birth.
“Wynter can.” My head bobbed. “Yeah, she can. Okay, you try Nyx, and we’ll speak with Rex and—”
“Rachel?” Parker murmured as I stood in place for a good twenty seconds, torn so many ways that I could only freeze.
“Yes?” I breathed.
Her tone was kind again—it was a testament to my panic that I wasn’t freaked out by it—as she said, “We need to work on a labor plan for when your time comes.” She patted me on the head, literally patted me on the head.
“Now, go, before she gives birth in your SUV and you’re the one pulling the baby—”
I didn’t let her finish that sentence.