Chapter 32
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
Trace’s ringtone shrilled into the night, startling him out of a sound sleep. He sat up and quickly started pawing at the nightstand, where he kept his phone. He finally found it and lifted it to see who would be calling him at two-blasted-fifteen in the morning.
He squinted at the brightness as it shrilled out another ring. Beside him in the bed, Ev groaned as he finally got his eyes to work.
“It’s your brother,” he said.
“Which one?” Ev asked groggily as Trace said, “Hey, Reg, what’s up?” He tapped to put the man on speaker, so Ev could hear.
“I think Kassie’s water broke,” Reggie said, and he’d always been a cool cat, slow to show emotion or get excited—but right now, his voice held plenty of panic.
“Well, then you gotta get her to the hospital,” Trace said without missing a beat.
That got Ev to sit right up and snap on her lamp. “They’re on the way to the hospital?” she asked.
This was Kassie and Reggie’s first baby, and Trace was pretty sure his wife was more excited about it than they were.
“I’m getting dressed right now,” she said. “Tell them I’ll meet them there.”
“It’s snowing,” Reggie said. “And I didn’t have time to plow the driveway or road last night. I don’t even know if we’ll be able to get out.”
That brought Ev to a complete stop, and she met Trace’s eyes. “Call Bryce,” she said. She lunged back around the bed. “I’ll call Bryce right now; maybe see if he can come plow you out.”
In the background, Trace heard Kassie say something, but he couldn’t make out what.
“Her water definitely broke,” Reggie said, and Trace remembered this place inside his mind where nothing really seemed to work. Reggie was a smart guy and pro baseball player. He should have no problem getting his wife to the hospital.
“It’s forty-five minutes on a good day,” Reggie said, and he’d clearly gone into panic mode. “She’ll kill me if we have this baby at home.”
Trace almost smiled, but he knew what it was like to be in the position Reggie found himself in, and he would not have wanted to have his baby at home either.
“I’m sure the plows have been out,” he said. “If you can make it to the highway, you can get down to the hospital.”
“I’m calling Luke,” Ev said. “Bryce is on his way.
“Call Morris too,” Trace said. “He’ll have an ATV with a plow on it.” Ev nodded, and Trace turned his attention back to Reggie.
“We’re sending people to help you get out, okay?” he said.
“I’m gonna go start the car and get Kassie in it.”
“All right,” Trace said. “Do you want to stay on the line with me?”
Reggie panted through the line, said something to Kassie that sounded like, “I’m going to go start the car. Wait right here.” Then he said, “Yeah. Could I? Just in case I have any questions?”
“Sure thing,” he said. “Have you guys been timing her contractions?”
“She just woke up in the middle of the night,” Reggie said. “She said she went to the bathroom, and it felt weird. I asked her if her water had broken, and she said she wasn’t sure.”
More panting, and then the roar of a truck engine filled the line. “But the moment she laid down, she had a contraction, and we’re pretty sure it broke. I called you, but I had to call three times before you picked up.”
“Yeah, my phone’s on midnight notice,” Trace said. “Sorry about that. I should have turned it off.”
“Ev said she wouldn’t hear a phone call, and to call you.”
“It’s fine,” Trace said. Reggie and Kassie weren’t due for another week, and Trace was a little surprised that her water had broken already. First babies usually tended to take longer, not come sooner.
“She’s had another contraction,” Reggie said. “But I don’t know how far apart they were.”
“All right, Reg,” Trace said. “I need you to take a deep breath for me.”
“I’m going to get Kassie now.”
“Stop right there,” Trace said. “Wherever you are, you got to listen to me for one minute, okay? Nothing bad’s going to happen to her in one minute.”
“Okay,” Reg said, his voice on the edge of panic.
“She is counting on you to be the rock,” Trace said. “She’s scared and in a lot of pain. You can’t be scared too.”
Reggie blew out his breath. “Well….”
“I know you’re scared,” Trace said. “Of course you are, but she can’t know that. You want her to think that you know exactly what to do, and that you’re in charge, and that you are going to take care of her. I mean, isn’t that what you told her in Seattle when you guys first started dating?”
“Yes,” Reggie said, and he sounded calmer already.
“All right,” Trace said. “So take ten seconds; take a breath; calm yourself down. You know what to do. You’re going to take your wife to the hospital.
The plows have surely been out. It started snowing last night, and they didn’t even call a road closure.
Bryce will be there to plow you out, and you’ll go. ”
“Okay,” Reggie said. “You’re right. Okay.”
Ev came out of the master bathroom fully dressed, and she raised her eyebrows at Trace. “Ev’s called everyone,” he said. “They’re on their way. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Okay,” Reggie said. “Thank you, Trace.”
“She’s going to wait until she hears from Bryce that you’re leaving, and she’ll meet you at the hospital.”
“Okay,” Reggie said. “Thank you.” Scuffling came through the line, and then he said, “All right, Kass, come on. We’re gonna get to the car. Let me take the bag.”
Trace stayed on the line as Reggie lovingly and kindly encouraged his wife into the car.
“Oh, Bryce is here,” Reggie said, his voice filled with relief. A car door slammed, and then he said, “He’s plowing the driveway right now. Hey, Bryce,” he called. “Thank you so much for coming.”
“Luke’s working on the section closer to the road,” Bryce yelled, and Trace closed his eyes and thanked God for the best family in the world.
Everly Young paced in the labor and delivery room waiting room. Her brother and his wife had been there for seven hours now, and Ev was really ready to see her new niece. Reggie had texted a half-hour ago that the baby had been born—finally—with no complications.
They’d named her Savannah Susannah Avery, and Ev turned back to the big double doors that her brother would bring the baby through…any moment now.
When he didn’t appear, she huffed out a frustrated sigh and turned around to go back the way she’d come.
Her husband had gotten the kids to school and then come to join her at the hospital, bringing breakfast and her favorite energy drink.
Now, the caffeine ran through her like a rabid animal, while Trace sat in the chair and looked at something on his phone.
“Come sit down, sweetheart,” he told her, and Ev managed to drop into the seat beside him.
“I just don’t get what’s taking so long,” she said.
“Well, they’ve got to give ‘er a bath,” Trace said. “Take her blood. Maybe Kassie is trying to feed her.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Ev’s leg bounced as she watched the door.
“Gabe and Morris went over this morning and made sure everything’s clear—the road all the way back to the house, the driveway, the sidewalk up to the steps, the front porch.” Trace smiled at her. “They’ll be good to go home when it’s time.”
“It’ll probably snow again,” Ev said.
“Well, then they’ll go out again,” Trace said, as if nothing bad ever happened in the world.
Ev did appreciate his steadiness and the way he loved unconditionally and served endlessly and could call on anyone to come do something—even in the middle of the night.
“There’s the baby,” Trace said, and Ev whipped her head over to the door. She jumped to her feet. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t been watching.
Reggie came out, and her beautiful, easygoing brother had been crying. He grinned as he walked toward Ev, the perfect little pink bundle in his arms, and Everly wrapped them both in a tight hug.
“Oh, congratulations, Daddy,” she whispered, and Reggie sniffled as he stepped back, tears streaming down his face as he settled the precious newborn into Ev’s arms.
Then he wiped his face and said, “She’s a little bruised on the one cheek right there. I guess she wasn’t turned all the way, and that’s why it took a little longer in delivery.”
“Not too bad, though,” Ev said, gently running the back of her knuckle over the tiny bruise on the baby’s face. “How’s Kassie doing?”
“She’s really tired,” Reggie said. “I said I’d bring the baby out for as long as I could, so that she could sleep.”
“That’s good.” Ev turned and moved back to the chair where Trace sat. “Come sit down and rest too,” she said.
Trace stood up and grabbed on to her brother and held him tight. Neither one of them said anything, but Trace had been almost a father figure for Reggie. Her brother adored Trace and asked him for advice, and listened to him, and the fact that he’d called her husband instead of her spoke volumes.
“What do you want for lunch?” Trace asked.
“It’s nine-thirty in the morning,” Ev said.
“All right, breakfast.”
Trace tapped on his phone and looked over to Reggie as he sat down. “They’ll deliver right here to the waiting room. Ask me how I know.”
Reggie laughed, and the baby in Ev’s arms gurgled as she snuggled in close.
Ev always felt closer to Heaven whenever she held a baby, more so than any other time.
And she leaned down and pressed her lips to little Savannah’s forehead.
“I love you,” she whispered, feeling that same love for the baby, for her, for Trace, for Kassie and Reggie, and for everyone from God above—and oh, what a blessing that was.