“You’re an awful midwife,” Reese accused.
He didn’t even bother to respond. Bethany bore down, screaming and holding onto Reese and Sloan as if she were trying to withstand hurricane-level winds. Bethany was a tiny woman, but her grip rivaled the strength of ten men. Reese genuinely feared her hand might come off.
Rylan, however, was the picture of calm. He encouraged Bethany, telling her that she was doing a good job. That everything was going to be fine. That this was all normal. He alternated between rubbing her back and then her belly before returning to his knees again.
He didn’t let up, hour after hour, speaking until he was hoarse. It was a side of Rylan that Reese had never seen. A side that Jake had never possessed. And under Rylan’s steady eyes and calm voice, Reese finally found her footing.
A quick glance at Sloan revealed that he was responding to it too. Rylan was soothing all of them. The man with a ready smile and a propensity for snarky wisecracks was coaxing them into a calm that Reese would have sworn couldn’t exist in this room.
This Rylan was a revelation, and the fissure that Sloan had created inside of her earlier opened even wider.
*
Bethany was a wreck. A vein had burst in her right eye, turning the white of her eyeball completely red. Her hair was drenched in sweat and she was flushed like a lobster from head to foot.
She hadn’t ever looked more beautiful.
Both Rylan and Sloan stared at her with awe and a newly formed devotion.
Reese . . . well, she couldn’t take her eyes off the baby.
Rylan had caught the infant, as he’d promised he would, with his whiskey-cleaned hands. He’d tied off the umbilical cord, urged Bethany to make one last push to rid her body of the afterbirth, and then handed the baby to Reese so he and Sloan could clean up the bed and get Bethany situated. Sloan had cradled Bethany while Rylan stripped the bed of its sweat-stained sheets. Someone produced clean ones and then Bethany was placed back onto the mattress, exhausted and sleepy.
Reese knew she should give the baby to his mother, but she didn’t want to. She was in love with Bethany’s baby. She wanted to run off with Bethany’s baby. Wanted to climb into the helicopter and take off. She’d find one of those islands Tamara was always talking about and get lost with this newborn.
She stared into his blue eyes and ran a hand over the tuft of red hair that he’d obviously inherited from his father. A wrinkled hand clutched at her breast as his tiny mouth opened and closed, looking for something to latch on to. Reese lifted the baby to her nose and breathed in the scent of life.
She wanted this so badly and she’d never be able to have it.
“Reese . . .”
She looked up to see Rylan standing at her side. Her grip tightened and she turned her shoulder, shielding the baby from Rylan’s grasp.
“Reese, sweetheart.” This time it was Sloan calling her name.
The two men looked at her expectantly. So did Bethany.
Rylan held out his hands for the baby and Reese reluctantly handed him over. She forced herself not to snatch the bundle of love back.
Sloan bent over Bethany, stroking her forehead. “Your baby is so gorgeous, Bethy. Arch has gotta be wearing the biggest smile.”
The new mother tucked herself under Sloan’s big arm and laid her head against his chest, as Rylan stopped on the other side of the bed and placed the baby into her waiting arms. Bethany pulled open one side of her shirt, and the little one turned his perfect lips toward her breast. Sounds of suckling were mixed with Sloan and Rylan’s low-pitched voices praising Bethany and exclaiming over the perfection that was little Archer.
Reese burned with jealousy. She’d never be able to give Sloan that. Or Rylan, for that matter. She’d never be able to put that awe into their faces. She bit back a hundred bitter, stupid words and spun on her heel. She had to get out of there.
Downstairs, she found nearly a dozen people waiting for her. “She had a boy,” Reese announced. “Everyone’s doing well.”
Clapping and cheering broke out. People hugged each other. Some cried. None noticed that Reese had left.
She thought she’d be able to breathe once she was outside, but even the fresh air couldn’t drive away the choking fog of jealousy.